Proposed Ohio Budget Bad For Poor, Middle Class

Hey, we are getting a tax break. The proposed budget passed by the Ohio House contains a 21% income tax cut. That's great, I wonder how I'll spend mine. I guess I'll start by kicking in extra 75¢ per pack of cigarettes I smoke. That's about $375 a year. OK, so I'm still good. I've got money left over. Oh, they are going to tax my electricity. There goes another $25. Wait a second, what's this commercial Activity Tax? They're going to tax my food! While .026% is pretty small it still comes up to an estimated $135 dollars a year. Oh fuck, a beer tax. There goes another $250. Well let's see, that is $785 a year for me in regressive taxes. That is $785 I've got to pay regardless of my income. Ok, let me pull out my handy dandy Ohio tax table to find out the break even point. It's $27,600. The math gets a little fuzzy here. That break even point is without any deductions. That's true, but I could write the $785 of Ohio income taxes off against my federal income taxes. I can't write these new taxes off. That would be another roughly $259 in new taxes and push the pre-deduction break even point to $33,400. I'm pretty sure some of the people I saw last night at the bar are going to get screwed by this. I will still come out ahead, but I'm a single, childless guy who can afford the burden.