Ramaswamy is selling Ohio the same old tax-cut fantasy

Recall the 1990s. Ohio pols, Republicans and Democrats, still recognized the value in leaving something on the table. Take redistricting, for example. Why pursue an extreme outcome when your party controlled the line drawing? After all, in this purple state, the other guys eventually would command the pencil. And they would relish returning the favor. Such restraint has long gone the way of the VHS player. As the state has turned redder and redder, Republicans have pressed their advantage. For three decades, they have ruled at the Statehouse, minus a brief Democratic moment. They hold big majorities in the legislature and all but one statewide elected office, a seat on the seven-member Ohio Supreme Court. Thus, the opposition party hardly provides an ample check. That job falls increasingly to voters, as evident in recent statewide signature petition drives. In this election year, the stakes are especially high. Polls consistently indicate Ohioans are unhappy with the state of their state. Part of that goes to the carelessness, cruelty, corruption and incompetence of the Trump White House. Yet Ohio Republicans must be held to account, too. They've been in charge, right? The party's candidate for governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, has been cudgeled, and appropriately so, for ads attacking his Democratic opponent. Among other things, the spots have falsely suggested that Amy Acton doesn't measure up as a physician and even abuses drugs and alcohol. The smears forget that Mike DeWine — the Republican governor — tapped her to head the state Department of Health and relied on her leadership during the COVID pandemic. Yet there is something else revealing about the Ramaswamy candidacy: the stale policies the candidate promotes. A biotech tycoon, Ramaswamy presents himself as the smartest guy in every room. So, you would expect to hear about fresh ideas and approaches, not to mention details about their implementation. What is the centerpiece of the Ramaswamy candidacy? Tax cuts. He wants to eliminate the state income tax and the capital gains tax, plus rollback property taxes to pre-COVID levels. He argues these steps will unleash growth and elevate the state. Ohio Republicans have been making the same pitch for years. Yet the state still lags behind the nation in economic performance. The reduction in state income tax rates largely has benefited wealthier Ohioans. The result has aggravated the prolonged and corrosive impact of income inequality, expressed most recently in the concern about 'affordability.' In a study released last year, the Rand Corp. highlighted a defining fact: If the share of national income going to the bottom 90% had remained steady since 1975, those households would have enjoyed an additional $3.9 trillion in 2023. Or an accumulated $80 trillion. No less than DeWine recently advised Republican legislative leaders: Enough with cutting income tax rates, the state now with a flat rate of 2.5%. Actually, the governor has made the point for the past eight years, and the legislature has ignored him. What if the state income tax disappeared? Ohio would face a massive shortfall of roughly $10 billion, nearly one-quarter of the state operating budget. Any responsible candidate for governor should be expected to offer precise ideas about compensating for such a dramatic leap. Ramaswamy? He rounds up the usual slogans about erasing 'unnecessary expenditures' and 'cutting red tape.' At one turn, in a show of telling political naivete, Ramaswamy touted the notion of consolidating state universities. Good luck with that. Recall that DeWine began his tenure as governor pledging to address 'unfinished business.' He had in mind investing in such things as child care and the needs of the disadvantaged students. He made some progress. Yet what is striking is how the Republican majorities at the Statehouse have neglected to fully fund public schools, pushing aside a bipartisan agreement to do so. Instead, in the last state budget, they routed more than $2 billion to the voucher program. That is a scandalous sum, in view of most recipients having long sent their children to private or religious schools, anyway. Count data centers and the local property tax revolt, too, as part of state tax cuts run amok. The thinking isn't that somehow the state must reverse all the tax reductions of the past two decades. Rather, Ohio would benefit from a change in the conversation, with an emphasis on investing at least part of the $18 billion in foregone revenue in people, in talent, a task the state can take up effectively. Ramaswamy missed the point when he argued that Medicaid and Medicare were 'mistakes.' Both involve putting people in better position to succeed and thus enhance the whole. How, then, to change the conversation? Hold Vivek Ramaswamy and his Republican allies to account for where their party has led Ohio. Douglas is a retired Beacon Journal editorial page editor. He can be reached at mddouglasmm@gmail.com. This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Ramaswamy is selling Ohio the same old tax-cut fantasy | Opinion