Richard Cordray is running for the governorship of Ohio with an expensive platform that would require a 50% state income tax increase to pay for it.
His plan includes:
- Implement universal preschool
- Make direct payments to charter schools
- Replenish the local government fund
- Pay down a debt from infrastructure projects
- Offer financial aid to community college students
- The cost of implementing the plan would be 4 billion dollars a year, or 16 billion over his four-year term if elected. That cost would remain the same in perpetuity plus inflation.
A spokeswoman for the Cordray campaign pushed back on the GOP’s cost estimates, saying that Republicans are offering no proof and that Cordray “has continually said that anyone who understands Ohio’s budget knows we are running big surpluses.”
Cordray said he believes his initiatives can be funded within current tax revenues and by utilizing additional sales taxes collected on internet purchases, as well as the state’s rainy day fund.
Regardless of whether Cordray or GOP candidate Attorney General Mike DeWine is the state’s next governor, Republicans will likely maintain control of the state legislature, which would make it difficult or impossible for Cordray to raise taxes if he decided he needed to.
“Richard Cordray, unlike Santa Claus, doesn’t have a magic bag that he can reach into and grab a billion dollars here or four billion dollars there,” Senate President Larry Obhof said.
He claims he has no plans to raise taxes but offers no explanation on how he could pay for it without the increase.
According to Free Beacon:
The study estimates that a 46.28 percent income tax increase would be necessary to pay for the proposals.
“We’re not saying we disagree with all of these programs,” Smith said. “What we’re saying is that these proposals don’t fit within the state’s current revenue stream, so it’s important to explain how they’d be funded. There’s just no way to generate these dollars within our current resources, even if you added revenue from the areas Cordray has identified.”
And people are actually going to vote for this guy?