With a potential eye on a presidential race next year, Ohio Gov. John Kasich praised his state's economic recovery while vowing to cut income taxes even further to help create more jobs.
In his State of the State address, the Republican governor said the Buckeye State has made vast improvements since he took office in 2011, but he wants to bring in even more businesses with the aid of tax cuts,
according to Cleveland.com.
"We're on the move, we're rising," Kasich said. "It all starts with a strong economy. Low taxes signal to job creators that Ohio is a safe place to invest.
"I want to send a message that if you want to start a small business, if you want to be an entrepreneur ... do it in Ohio."
The governor is hoping his speech will push the GOP-controlled House and Senate to back his plans to reduce state income taxes by 23 percent overall over two years, and do away with income tax entirely on small business.
Kasich, who is said to be a possible White House contender in 2016, also plans to increase personal exemptions for Ohioans with incomes of up to $80,000 a year, according to the report.
"A certain level of taxes is inevitable," Kasich said. "Those taxes must be generated in the least harmful way. I think we should lean less on income taxes, which punish the economic growth that we all seek, and lean more on consumption taxes."
To make up for the cuts in taxes, Kasich wants to increases the state's sales tax, the cigarette tax, the commercial activities tax paid by businesses, and the so-called severance tax on oil and gas, the report said.
Kasich added: "I believe the most important thing we can do to plan ahead and strengthen Ohio's economy is to further cut taxes, and that means we must restrain spending."
But even before Kasich took the stage for his speech in Wilmington, Ohio, the Democratic National Committee slammed the governor for favoring the wealthy with his "trickle-down economic policies."
"The Kasich experiment is not working in Ohio," the national party said in an email,
according to Cleveland.com. "And it's certainly not working for its middle class families."
A former congressman, Kasich defeated Democrat incumbent Ted Strickland in 2010, and was re-elected in a landslide in November over Democrat Ed FitzGerald.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.