Ohio offers more than $6 billion in sales tax breaks

College textbooks. Tampons. Diapers. Seasonal-watercraft storage.

Ohio lawmakers don’t want you to pay sales taxes on any of them.

This year, legislators have proposed a slew of sales tax breaks, such as for gym memberships offered by nonprofit groups and, during three days each year, for certain energy-efficient appliances.

In November, Gov. Mike DeWine signed legislation to exempt tampons, feminine products and Medicaid-covered incontinence pads from the state sales tax. Rep. Brigid Kelly, D-Cincinnati, and Rep. Niraj Antani, R-Miamisburg, spearheaded the effort to end the so-called “pink tax.”

Each break has its backers. Kelly pitched the tax break for period products by arguing that they are medically necessary items used by women and girls. It was an equality issue for half of Ohio’s population.

College textbooks should be tax-free because “the absurd rise of college costs must be combated,” Antani said.

But these tax exemptions also add up. As of March, Ohio offered 134 tax breaks totaling between $9.5 billion and $9.8 billion a year, according to the most-recent state tax-expenditure report. Sales tax breaks are responsible for more than $6 billion of that total.

Aware of that growing number, lawmakers created a group to review all the tax breaks and suggest ones to eliminate or change. But the Tax Expenditure Review Committee hasn’t convened in months and has no meetings on the horizon.

While that committee lies idle, new tax breaks have been proposed, said Zach Schiller, research director for Policy Matters Ohio, a liberal research group.

His group and others have another suggestion: focus on providing tax breaks to low- and middle-income residents instead of all Ohioans. For example, seven states offer sales tax credits that allow lower-income residents to deduct a certain dollar amount from their income taxes to offset the sales taxes they have paid.

“Giving an exemption to everyone, in many instances, means you’re giving a sales tax break to people who don’t really need it,” Schiller said.

The Buckeye Institute, a free-market, conservative research group, also opposes tax breaks, but for a different reason: They want lower taxes for everyone.

“What’s best for Ohio is that all Ohioans pay less taxes,” said Greg Lawson, a research fellow with the Buckeye Institute.

If Republican and Democratic groups oppose many of these tax breaks, why do they keep coming? Each cause has its supporters and, often, its lobbyists. Efforts to eliminate the motion-picture tax credit and another break for fractionally owned private aircraft were thwarted during state budget negotiations. Legislators did ax a sales tax exemption for rare coins and bullion.

Not all tax breaks are bad policy, Lawson said. One keeps the prices of goods down by exempting companies from paying a sales tax on items that are to be incorporated into a final product that is sold to a customer, the point where the sales tax is imposed; a vehicle is an example.