Estate tax repeal moves to Ohio Senate in House-passed budget bill

Wrapped up in the budget bill approved by the Ohio House was a provision to eliminate Ohio"s estate tax.

The tax was a favorite target for Gov. John Kasich, who promised during his campaign to eliminate it.

He labeled it as a "death tax" that was driving successful people from the state to preserve their assets. On the campaign trail he frequently would tell the crowd that if they wanted to find a successful Ohio entrepreneur they should look in Naples, Fla.

"Kill the death tax. You know the death tax, all these people who are successful, they're moving to Florida," he told WSYX Channel 6 in Columbus after announcing his candidacy. "Florida doesn't have a death tax. So we've got to get rid of that so the entrepreneurs, the job creators, stay."

The tax, which hits the 7 percent of estates in Ohio that are valued over $338,333, funnels about $250 million a year to local governments and $60 million to state coffers.

On May 5 the House approved a state budget for the next two years by a 59-to-40 vote. Provisions in the bill abolish the estate tax starting in 2013.

The budget bill now is pending in the Senate, which has opened hearings on the legislation.

We previously had rated Kasich"s progress on this promise as In the Works. That was because legislation was introduced in the House in January specifically to repeal the tax.

That legislation hasn"t been enacted, and likely won"t be now that repeal of the tax is woven into the budget bill.

So we"ll leave the Kasich-O-Meter pointed at In the Works, based on passage of the budget bill.