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For a more prosperous, equitable, sustainable and inclusive Ohio |
Business First of Columbus
A large percentage of Ohio seniors need Social Security to remain as it is because they depend heavily on it as retirement income, says Policy Matters Ohio, a liberal think tank based in Cleveland.
Gongwer News Service
Social Security Changes: Separately, Rep. Tim Cassell (D-Madison) said he would introduce a resolution urging federal officials to reject any Social Security reform package that establishes “carve-out” of contributions for private management.
While acknowledging that the system is facing a financial shortfall, he said the private accounts could end up losing money, which would likely force the state to expand its safety net for Social Security recipients.
“The foundations of Social Security are to provide a basic standard of income,” Mr. Cassell said. “People must realize that the risk involved with private accounts is very real.”
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Columbus), a supporter of the resolution, said there is bi-partisan opposition at the federal level to the carve-out plan, noting that the resolution should also be adopted on a bi-partisan basis. “We are in the right position to slow this down,” she said.
Sen. Dann is expected to offer a companion resolution in the Senate.
Separately Thursday, Policy Matters Ohio released a report noting that Ohio social security recipients age 65 and older rely on the program for 68% of their income. Reducing those benefits, the group’s Pam Rosado said, would hurt older Ohioans.
The report, co-authored by the Economic Policy Institute, notes that unmarried women overage 65 receive 83% of their income from social security. African-Americans and Hispanics in the age group receive 79% and 83%, respectively, of their income from the program.
Additionally, the study shows that 1.9 million, or 17%, of Ohioans receive social security benefits, nearly half of whom would have incomes below the poverty line without those incomes.
The Hannah Report
Rep. Tim Cassell (D-Madison) announced a proposed resolution Thursday that would put the General Assembly on record as opposed to President Bush’s social security privatization plan.
Social Security is the main source of income for about two-thirds of Ohio recipients age 65 or over. It makes up almost all of the income (90% or more) for nearly a third of recipients age 65 and over, and for more than a third of recipients age 75 and older. Without the program, nearly half of Ohio recipients would have incomes that placed them below the poverty line.
Policy Matters has done several activities to help Ohioans understand the importance of this program and the current proposals to convert this program into private accounts.
Click here for a link to a paper released March 24, 2005 that describes the degree to which older Ohioans depend on Social Security and provides other information about the importance of the program to Ohio.
Click here for a press release and here for an executive summary of that paper.
Policy Matters also brought national Social Security expert Dean Baker to Ohio to discuss his research on the issue at a public event at a Cleveland church, and at the Columbus Metropolitan Club. Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic Policy Research, and co-author, with Mark Weisbrot, of Social Security: The Phony Crisis (University of Chicago Press, 1999)
Much of Baker’s work can be found on his website.
Another excellent resource for accurate data on Social Security can be found on the site of the Economic Policy Institute.
Cool Cleveland
Cool Cleveland: What does the word Regionalism mean to you?
Jim Rokakis: Regionalism to me is a belief that we have to take the region s dwindling resources and
put them to work collectively for the betterment of all Northeast Ohio. In 1970, 40% of the county total
came from the City of Cleveland; in the last collection, it was 17% which means there is not much left.
So, in order to support the school system on a rapidly declining tax base…when you pass a mill in
Cleveland, you collect $6 million, and a mill in the County collects $33 million. Not only do tax values
decline, but 36% of the property in Cleveland doesn t pay taxes. Religious, non-profit, civic, educational,
and hospitals – they don t pay taxes. And over $2 billion is not collected because of the
tax abatement program, out of a total of $5 billion. …
The tightest state budget in decades has unleashed more than the usual flood of testimony at the Statehouse. A few, among them advocates for mental health programs, have been pleased by Bob Taft’s proposal. Overwhelmingly, the thrust has been negative.
Mayors and other local government officials have organized furious opposition to cutting a 70-year-old program that shares state revenues. Educators have rallied to protest continued underfunding, especially for colleges and universities.
Housing advocates fear the loss of their ability to tap unclaimed state funds for loans. Those battling cuts in a program that provides financial help for severely ill children have an ally in House Speaker Jon Husted, but the budget wars are far from over.
Considered issue by issue, such protests may lose some of their punch, budget hearings turning into parades of hard-luck stories. Yet taken as a whole, and balanced against the tax cuts in the governor’s two-year plan, they are far more difficult to dismiss.
The overall impact of the Taft budget would make life more difficult for middle- and lower-income taxpayers, eroding the state’s quality of life. The poor would be hit hardest. Notably, the governor’s proposed 21 percent cut in personal income tax rates would heavily favor wealthier taxpayers.
When fully implemented in 2010, the personal income tax cuts Taft has in mind would cost $2 billion a year. An analysis prepared for Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland-based research organization, established a critical threshold. When the various fee hikes proposed by the governor are put into the equation, the total package would result in a net tax decrease for those making more than $43,000 a year and a
net tax increase for those making $43,000 or less. The majority of Ohioans fall below the threshold.
Republican leaders insist that the current tax rates for upper-income brackets discourage economic growth. Still, questions are rightly raised about the strength of the link between tax cuts and the creation of jobs, especially in the knowledge economy.
Policy Matters Ohio noted recently that between 2001 and 2004, the top 1 percent of Ohio taxpayers received federal income-tax cuts amounting to $90,000 each. Yet during that time, the state lost more than 240,000 jobs. States such as California and North Carolina, meanwhile, maintain high rates for top incomes, and invest heavily and successfully in high-technology enterprises.
Ohioans, their lawmakers, in particular, would do well to weigh the collective damage that would result from the governor’s budget plan.
Listen to the entire chorus of complaints, factor the loss of $2 billion, and the worry deepens about weakening the state, its social fabric and its ability to produce skilled workers.
Full Article (PDF version)
Dayton Daily News
Ohio should change how it taxes businesses. The rules unquestionably have discouraged companies from making certain investments, and they’re a relic from a bygone time. …
Ohio job picture remains bleary
Ohio’s job picture remains bleary, as the state has lost jobs during five out the last six months. According to the latest seasonally adjusted payroll numbers issued March 18 by the Ohio Department of Job & Family Services, the state lost more than 4,000 non-agricultural jobs in the last month, leaving it with 188,000 or 3.4 percent fewer jobs than it had when the recession officially began in March 2001. At this point after the early 1990s recession started, 166,000 jobs had been created in Ohio, an increase of 3.4 percent.
Loopholes, credits qualify businesses for minimum corporate franchise levy
by Mark Niquette
Although their sales topped $1.5 billion apiece, only four of Ohio s 10 largest
companies paid more than the state s $1,000 minimum corporate franchise tax last
year.
Full Article
Accompanying Graphic
Advertiser-Tribune.com
By Kendall S. Cable
Tax cuts proposed by Gov. Bob Taft are harmful to Ohio citizens, an
activist told a group of local officials Thursday.
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