(The following appeared at www.OhioBudgetWatch.com on March 8, 2011.)
The House Finance Committee passed a substitute version of HB114, the transportation budget bill, on Monday. Included among the many amendments was a provision “clarifying” that when the Commercial Activity Tax was created in HB66 back in 2005, it had not been the intent of the General Assembly to apply the tax to exchanges of motor fuel between petroleum companies. In other words, the state has been collecting revenue on this activity for four years, but with this amendment, that will now cease. The benefit to the industry is estimated at up to $10 million per year.
By way of comparison, the bill reduces funding for public transit by $30 million per year compared to what the Strickland administration proposed. Everyone understands that funds are limited, but in this case, it was determined that a tax break for the petroleum industry was more important than limiting the magnitude of cuts to public transit.
The full story appears on the Ohio Budget Watch website.