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Panel Begins Review of Tax Loopholes

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Ten months ago, state lawmakers created a bipartisan panel with the power to review the state budget and make recommendations for ending billions in tax loopholes. Now that group has met for the first time. 

The six lawmakers will review the more than 120 credits, exemptions and other tax breaks in the budget, which amount to around $9 billion a year.  Tax Commissioner Joe Testa was the first witness before the panel, which he says is a great idea.

“I think anything should be up for review. We’re spending taxpayers’ money, somehow or other, right? And I think taxpayers have a right to have that examined.”

Conservative and liberal groups have made recommendations for eliminations, such as film-making tax credits and a tax cut that allows small businesses to pay nothing on up to a quarter of a million dollars in income. The panel is expected to deliver a report by July 1.

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.