Nine months after lawmakers created a committee to examine state tax breaks and loopholes to see which ones should be abolished or closed off, that committee finally has some members.
House and Senate leadership have appointed four Republicans and two Democrats to the new Tax Expenditure Review Committee, which will look over $9 billion in exemptions, credits, deductions and other breaks in the budget. Zach Schiller from the progressive think tank Policy Matters Ohio has been waiting for this group to start working. “We never have had a permanent committee whose charge was specifically to do this, and meanwhile we have 129 exemptions, credits, deductions in the state tax code every year without any review," Schiller said.
By July 1, the panel is to have a report on expenditures such as the number of people affected by them, the impact they have at the state and local level, and whether the objectives they meet could be achieved with less cost to the state.
