Policy Matters Ohio: Testimony of Hannah Halbert, Policy Liaison, Policy Matters Ohio before the House Ways & Means Committee on HB 98, March 30, 2011
ITEP Work in ActionWe asked the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington, D.C., research group, to examine House Bill 98. ITEP has a computer model of the tax system of all 50 states. Its analysis of HB 98 covered Ohio residents age 71 and over, a slightly smaller group than those at least 70½.
ITEP found that half the gain would go to the less than 1 percent of older taxpayers with annual income of $321,000 or higher. Altogether, those taxpayers would each average a gain of more than $3,000 a year. Nearly two-thirds of Ohio residents 71 and over would get no benefit from this bill, and among those who did, they would be heavily concentrated among the most affluent. Even those seniors with incomes between $75,000 and $136,000 would receive on average just an $83 cut in annual income taxes.