SB75 would create Joint Economic Development Districts (JEDD) comprised of multiple local governments with the power to extend and levy an income tax to promote “economic development or redevelopment,” “create or preserve jobs,” and “improve the economic welfare.”
The Senate passed SB75 on October 11, 2023, by a vote of 29 to 1. We have assigned minuses to the yeas because “economic development” is simply a cliché or code word used to coerce taxpayers into subsidizing various types of crony, corporate-sponsored projects conceived outside the limited purpose and scope of government. Unsurprisingly, this bill is wholly dependent upon the income tax, which itself is an immoral, anti-constitutional act of government-imposed theft that takes from citizens the wages they have rightfully earned. Ohio ought not to disparage its citizens of their property rights or income. The U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights and 14th Amendment condemn undue deprivations of a person’s “property.”