COLUMBUS, Ohio. --- The president of the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, David Hansen, has these observations about the Tax Foundation's finding that Ohio's state and local tax burden is ranked third highest in the nation for 2006:

[see: http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxfreedomday for general information;
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/336.html for the state and local tax burden; or,
http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org for Buckeye Institute research on Ohio taxes and spending.]

"Today's Tax Foundation report placing Ohio third in the nation for state and local tax burden confirms what every Ohioan not employed by government or by a spending interest lobby already knows:  Once a low-tax, high-growth state, Ohio is a now a very high tax state from which jobs, growth and prosperity are exiting at an alarming rate.

"The Tax Foundation data show how Ohio taxpayers face not just a state tax burden problem.  Our local governments are well-armed with taxing authorities they seldom hesitate to use.  State and local government are like Bonnie and Clyde: neither is as big a problem alone as they are together.  Ohio's state and local politicians are modern day Bonnie-and-Clyde's ganging up to take more taxes from Ohioans than all but two other states in the nation.

Hansen warned taxpayers and legislators to expect attacks of the Tax Foundation's work. "Taxpayers and legislators should beware spending interestsand state agency officials trying to refute the Tax Foundation's state and local tax burden ranking by citing rankings of state-only taxes. If state officials have any concern about the growth and prosperity of Ohio, which our research shows is harmed by today's levels of government taxation regardless of the taxing entity, they have to acknowledge the burden of local government taxation on Ohio's economy.

"The same applies to local government politicians so apoplectic about the proposal to subject them to the Tax and Expenditure Limitation (TEL) amendment.  The Ohioans who have to pay the taxes have the constitutional right and the economic need to restrain spending and taxes of all of government in Ohio regardless of whether it is local or state."

Curtis Dubay, a Tax Foundation economist noted, "Ohio continues its march on Maine as it aims to become the state with the highest state and local burden. Ohio's pursuit of the top spot has seen its state and local burden move from 47th highest in just 1970 to 3rd this year. This is an astonishing movement in a relatively short period of time."

"To the policymakers who have claimed that Ohio's tax increases over the past generation were because justified because Ohio government has been a low-tax state, the Tax Foundation report says it is time for them to raise a banner proclaiming 'Mission Accomplished,'" added Hansen.

"The Tax Foundation data show how right these politicians were in 1970, when the state had a very low tax burden ranking of 47th nationally.  Since then, no other state's citizens have experienced a greater growth in state and local tax burden and movement up the rungs of the national the tax burden ladder than what Ohioans have experienced over the past 36 years.  With only Maine and New York now ahead of us in tax burden, two states with long traditions of high taxes and the economies and amenities that can pay for them, the Buckeye Institute's research indicates Ohio desperately needs to back down the tax burden ladder and more than just a few rungs."