Kasich Flogged "Fracking Tax" As Ohio Budget Solution - It's Now DOA In The State Legislature
When Ohio Gov. John Kasich pitched his budget a few months ago, he made a big deal about a “fracking tax” that would bring billions of dollars to the state in the coming years.
It was only fair, he said, for Ohioans to share in the bounty of the shale oil boom going on in their own backyard. Almost 60 percent of Ohioans agreed, telling pollsters they favored higher taxes on oil and gas drillers. Despite that support, the tax never had a chance. It was dead on arrival at Ohio’s House of Representatives a few weeks later.
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(Ed. - Ohio State House Speaker Bill) Batchelder’s connections to the industry and opposition to the tax are so strong that Kasich joked about it last month when asked when he might try again to push a fracking tax through the House. “Well, I think we wait for Batchelder to retire,” he said.
Batchelder laughed at the joke, but his spokesman later rejected any suggestion that the speaker is too close to the oil and gas industry. “Campaign contributions do not, in any way, affect legislative outcomes in the House of Representatives,” said his spokesman, Mike Dittoe.
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http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130717/NEWS01/307170022/Oil-gas-lobby-shell-out-big-money-defeat-Ohio-tax?nclick_check=1
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