Once again, an increase in the state's $0.20 a barrel tax on oil and natural gas drillers will not be a part of the budget. Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler reports.
The so-called severance or fracking tax increase proposed by Gov. John Kasich wasn't in either the House or Senate budgets.
And Senate President Keith Faber says the idea won't come back at least until a newly created bipartisan task force of lawmakers delivers a report on it by October 1.
Faber said the task force will finally bring lawmakers, the Kasich administration and the industry all into the same talks.
"Putting everybody in the same room together, I think, will lead to fruitful negotiations," said Faber. "All of us have now spent enough time on this issue to have at least knowledge as to where to go."
Both the Ohio Oil and Gas Association and the American Petroleum Institute issued statements praising lawmakers for taking the tax hike on oil and gas drillers out of the budget and for creating this task force to talk about it, but they also made it clear that the industry remains opposed to the idea.