While Ohio voters may be softening on Gov. John Kasich himself, they don’t show that same affinity to his tax plan in the introduced version of HB59 (Amstutz), the biennium budget, a new poll finds.
Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, which released a poll on Thursday showing Kasich above 50 percent in job approval rating and giving him better marks on how he handles the state budget, saw voters from that same interview mixed on various proposals in his latest budget.
By equal amounts, 48 percent to 42 percent, voters don’t like the idea of reducing the state income tax while increasing revenues from the sales tax.
Kasich has proposed a 20 percent overall income tax reduction using a mixture of new revenues from severance and sales taxes, but has also proposed reducing the state sales tax rate from 5.5 percent to 5 percent while expanding the sales/service tax to most services including architectural services. Nearly two-thirds of Republican respondents (64 percent) said the idea of decreasing the income tax and expanding the sales tax is a good idea, while 71 percent of Democrats say it is a bad idea. Independent voters split 44 percent to 43 percent.
Republicans are slightly less favorable about reducing the sales tax while expanding it, but still favor it by 55 percent majority, while 67 percent of Democrats and 49 percent of independents oppose it. Overall, 51 percent of respondents oppose the idea, while 41 percent said it is a good idea.