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 Gov. Ted Strickland recently announced he was going to delay the last of five 4.2 percent income tax cuts to fill an $851 million hole in the state’s education budget for FY10-11. He said that the step is necessary because the Ohio Supreme Court’s ruling that his proposal to place video lottery terminals (VLTs) at Ohio’s seven racetracks is subject to a vote of the people, made it a practical impossibility to utilize video lottery revenue in the current budget and reopened an $851 million hole, placing our schools at risk of funding cuts and our budget at risk of imbalance.

Calling it the best of the three options available to him, Strickland said that Ohioans would be paying the same income tax rate that was in effect in 2008 and a rate that is still 16.8 percent less than the rate that was in place when the 20 percent tax cut was passed as part of 126-HB66 in 2005. He stressed that this is just a postponement – not a permanent change.

Otherwise the state would have to cut between 11 and 26 percent from the state budget for education.  Cuts of this size would adversely affect education in the state.