The top priority piece of legislation for House Speaker Jason Stephens will cost the state of Ohio billions of dollars every year, according to a fiscal analysis from the researchers who do those reports for state lawmakers.
House Bill 1 would create a flat tax and make changes in property taxes
The analysis from the Legislative Service Commission found the cost to the state of converting to a 2.75% flat tax would be $2.5 billion in the first year of the budget, nearly $1.8 million in the second and more than $1.8 billion every year after that, escalating each time.
In an interview last month, Stephens said he wants to explore the idea.
“I'm sure there'll be a lot of tax attorneys and folks looking at these numbers and there'll be spreadsheets all over the place and local governments. But that's part of making these a priority.”
The analysis also found because of one change, residential and agricultural property taxpayers would see a tax increase of nearly a billion dollars.
The report found schools and local governments would lose $538 million in local tax revenues to pay for the changes.