Gov. Mike DeWine pushes for targeted tax relief, education spending in budget

Gov. Mike DeWine says his budget is all about funneling Ohio's available dollars toward specific goals like retaining our brightest students, cutting costs for new parents, increasing home ownership and growing businesses outside central Ohio.

"This is a real focus on investing in our people," DeWine said during an editorial board meeting Wednesday with members from USA TODAY Network Ohio sites including The Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and The Canton Repository.

Here's what DeWine's proposals mean for families, students and businesses:

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$5,000 for the top 5% of high school students

DeWine wants to give any Ohio student who graduates in the top 5% of their high school class $5,000 per year for college if they attend one of the state's colleges or universities.

"The intent of the scholarship is, for the first time, to have a scholarship that is focused on our top students," DeWine said. "And the goal is to keep them frankly in Ohio."

Ohio's population is aging and labor force participation (how many people are working or looking for work) is a concern.

"We're losing a number of our top students to other states," DeWine said. And he hopes these scholarships will help keep some of them here.

Child tax credit vs deduction

The governor proposed giving Ohioans a $2,500 tax deduction for every child they have. That's very different from the pandemic child tax credits given out by the federal government.

A deduction means that a family earning $100,000 with two children would save about $180. A credit would give that same family $5,000 off its state tax bill.

DeWine told the USA TODAY Network Ohio sites that he chose the deduction because his goal was tax relief.

"A credit, as you know, would help everybody," DeWine said. But they go beyond the scope of tax relief. "Many times it is people who are not paying taxes at all."

"What we've done gives tax relief. The other is a subsidy to families," he continued. "There's nothing wrong with that. And I'm not necessarily at all against that, but they're just different things. They're just different animals."

Shovel-ready sites to create jobs

When Intel announced its major investment in Ohio, one of the few complaints came from people outside central Ohio who questioned why their parts of the state are consistently overlooked.

“We simply don’t have enough shovel-ready, development-ready sites for the kind of calls we are getting from companies all over the world,” DeWine said when he unveiled his budget in January.

He proposed using $2.5 billion in one-time federal COVID relief dollars to “prepare the infrastructure of large economic development sites located in every single part of Ohio.”

"We think it's very important to make sure this is spread out all over the state," DeWine said. "It's not just Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati."

He also thinks investing in both K-12 and college will convince more businesses to move here. "I have found by talking to CEOs and working through to get these companies to come in and discussions, it always comes down to...this question: Can we find the workers?"

Expanding school choice

The governor's budget would invest more state dollars in charter schools and private schools.

DeWine proposes increasing facilities funding for charter schools, from $500 to $1,000 per student. And raising the amount given on top of that for each economically disadvantaged student in "high-performing charter schools" to $3,000 from the current $1,750.

"High-performing charter schools that have demonstrated in other states that they can really get the results, but we can't do that with the money that the state is offering at this point," DeWine said.

He also wants to increase the income limits for Ohio's school voucher program known as EdChoice.

Currently, students whose families earn up to 250% of federal poverty guidelines can get a scholarship to help cover the cost of a private school. The governor's budget would increase that to 400% or about $111,000 per year for a family of four.

Across-the-board tax cuts?

Ohio's recent budgets have all flattened the state's income tax, resulting in overall cuts for most people.

"Well, look, I think everybody wants to cut income tax and everybody wants to cut every tax," DeWine said. "I mean, no one wants to pay taxes."

But his budget doesn't propose another across-the-board cut. Instead, it has deductions for families with children, people looking to buy their first home and credits for building affordable housing.

"A budget that will be finally signed by me will be a compromise budget," DeWine said.

Both Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, and Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, have expressed interest in possibly moving Ohio to a flat or single tax state income tax rate.

The General Assembly will debate DeWine's proposals on the state budget in the coming months. A final budget must be approved by June 30.

Anna Staver is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Gov pushes for targeted tax relief, education spending in budget