State Budget Items OI Interestst

Excerpted from the Columbus Dispatch

 Although it [state budget] stretches only two years, three-year state projections show a quartet of tax cuts total about $5.3 billion, while a dozen tax increases add up to about$2.6 billion, for a net decrease of$2.7 billion.

The budget affects you, ifyou ...

• Pay income tax: Rates are cut 8.5 percent this year, 9 percent next year and 10 percent in 2015.

Like to buy stuff: Increases the state sales tax from 5.5 percent to 5.75 percent, starting in September.

Own property: The state no longer will pay 12.5 percent of property taxes on new or replacement levies; existing levies will still get the rollback when they are renewed for the same amount.

• Pay your cable bill late: Permits a cable company to shut you off in 14 days, instead of the current 45, and allows disconnection if only part of a bill is paid.

• See the glass half-full: Spends about $720 million more in operating money over two years on K-12 education, an 11 percent increase that is the biggest in a decade. Also increases local-government funds by $28 million over two years.

• See the glass half-empty: School-funding levels in 2014 will exceed 2009 funding levels by only 1 percent. Total two-year funding for local governments is $200 million less than in the last budget.

• Are unlucky at the casinos: Eliminates the state income-tax deduction for gambling losses.

• Own a business: Creates a new 50 percent tax deduction on up to $250,000 of business income. Also increases commercial-activities-tax payments for businesses with more than $1 million in sales.

• Want outside-the-box thinking: Creates a $250 million fund to provide grants to school districts that come up with new ways to improve student achievement, reduce spending or put more spending in the classroom.

• Prefer online education: Limits the enrollment growth of charter e-schools, including three new ones that will open next year.

• Want more kids to choose private school: Expands taxpayer-funded vouchers to 2,000 low-income kindergartners who want to attend private schools. Expands to 2,000 first-graders the second year.

• Have a home-schooled or private-school student: Permits students at private schools or home-schooled to participate in an extracurricular activity at the student’s home district.