COLUMBUS - Gov. Ted Strickland yesterday fired back at a Wall Street Journal editorial blaming Ohio's tax and labor climate for its failure to imitate the economic success of Texas.
The Journal used the backdrop of last week's Democratic primary elections in Ohio and Texas to make the case that Ohio has faltered economically while Texas has thrived because of their differing tax structures and labor pictures rather than the oft-blamed or praised North American Free Trade Agreement.
"A common joke is that Ohio lays out the red carpet for companies - when they leave the state," opined the Journal on March 3. "By contrast, Texas has no income tax, a huge competitive advantage."
Yesterday, ironically the same day that the governor attended a press conference announcing an 810-job expansion of NetJets Inc. in Columbus, a response from Mr. Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, the state's development director, appeared in the Journal.
The letter noted that the newspaper partially based its opinion on numbers that are two years out of date, and cited Ohio's top ranking for the second-consecutive year in Site Selection magazine that focuses on new business facilities and expansions.
"These executives are seeing a fundamentally improved Ohio business climate," Mr. Strickland wrote. "In 2005, Ohio enacted the most sweeping tax reform in 75 years that made Ohio's new capital investment tax rates the lowest in the Midwest. These reforms are designed to make Ohio companies even more competi-tive in the global economy."Ohio is more than halfway through a five-year, phase-out of two business taxes - the loophole-laden corporate franchise tax on profits and the unpopular tangible property tax on business investments in machinery, equipment, fixtures, and inventory. They are being replaced with a broad new Commercial Activities Tax on business gross sales.
When fully implemented in 2010, Ohio will be one of just four states without a corporate profits tax and one of just 10 without a tangible business tax.
"In sum, Ohio's tax structure is much more business friendly than the editorial suggests," wrote Mr. Strickland and Mr. Fisher.
The letter does not mention that the reforms, along with a large personal income tax cut, were enacted under Republican Gov. Bob Taft over the protests of nearly all Democrats in the Ge
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