Former trooper chief to take on Rep. Phillips in November

Mike Hunter, former commander of the Ohio Highway State Patrol's Athens Post, officially announced his candidacy to challenge incumbent state Rep. Debbie Phillips, D-Athens, at The Market on State rotunda Monday morning.

(Phillips responded to Hunter's statements Tuesday; her remarks appear later in this story.)

Hunter, a Republican, focused his remarks on the issue of taxes, claiming that Ohio is a high-tax state.

"Just ten years ago, we were in a moderately taxed state, and 40 years ago we were in a low tax state "“ the fifth lowest in the nation," he said. "Here we are now, the seventh highest in the nation."

Jobs are leaving the state rapidly, Hunter argued.

"What's driving them away?" he asked. "It appears to be our high tax structure, our unreasonable regulations, and things like that. Those are the things that affect all of us."

Hunter pointed to the $851 million state budget shortfall. This was filled by delaying the final year of a five-year tax cut passed by the Ohio General Assembly in 2005.

"This makes it just that much harder for seniors and people with lower incomes to meet their day-to-day expenses," Hunter said.

For the next two-year budget, he said, the state is looking at a $2 billion to $7 billion shortfall.

"We can't print money in the state, so we only have two alternatives, and that is to lower our spending or raise our taxes," he said. "I'm not in favor of raising taxes, so you can understand that what I want to do is lower spending."

If Ohio were to return to its budget of 10 years ago, Hunter said, and keep that spending level, adjusted for inflation, Ohio would have a surplus of several billion dollars right now and the tax cut would be coming through.

"The reason that I've decided to get involved here is that I want to be a voice that brings leadership that says that we have to hold our costs down and bring things back to a level that's sane "“ get rid of the unsustainable spending," he said.

When asked in which areas of the state budget he sees room for more spending cuts, Hunter reiterated his point that the state should go back to its budget of a decade ago, adjusted for inflation, and work from there to determine what is necessary and what is superfluous spending.

When asked about his view of the Republican Tea Party movement over the past year, Hunter said that it grew out of the desire of the people for government to restrain itself.

"The people in the Tea Parties do not want us spending money hand over fist; they want us to restrain ourselves so that it keeps us on an even keel, doesn't put us into debt, doesn't put our children into debt," he said.

The special U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, Hunter said, is an indication of a polarized political climate.

"I thought it was a call out from the people that the people want the legislators and the Congress to work together," he said. "There was a populist appeal about [winner Scott Brown, a Republican]. Mary Coakley (the Democratic candidate) came off as a little elitist. Whether she is or not, I don't know. But that's the way she came off, and perception is a part of reality."

FOR HER PART, PHILLIPS announced her bid for re-election at the Athens County Board of Elections last week.

With regard to gloomy predictions about the next state budget, Phillips said that nobody expects economic recovery to happen quickly.

"Ohio tends to recover fairly slowly from recessions, in large part because we have such a significant manufacturing economy," Phillips said. "I think that one positive sign is that the state revenues are coming in within projections. For a big chunk of this previous year, there had to be adjustments downward... because they were coming in below projections. So far, for this fiscal year, the revenue is meeting those projections. So it appears as if things are stabilizing."

She said the Legislature has formed a bipartisan group of House and Senate members to start thinking ahead about how to cope with the next budget.

"We know that there were one-time monies that were used in this budget, and we know that we have to really take a holistic approach and figure out how we're going to deal with it so we're not in a situation where there have to be rounds of cuts, as has happened in the previous budget," she said.

When told of Hunter's assertion that Ohio is a high-tax state, Phillips said she's curious to know what he's basing that statement on. She said that, as Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland mentioned in his State of the State, Ohio is fourth in the nation and first in the Midwest as far as a business-friendly climate, according to Site Selection magazine.

She said some organizations that claim Ohio has a bad business tax climate are looking at outdated or selective information.

"Ohio made significant changes to both the personal income taxes and the business taxes back in 2005, and actually eliminated the corporate franchise tax, made reductions in the personal income tax and increased the speed of the phase-out of the personal tangible property tax, which is a tax on inventory and equipment," Phillips said. "That was something that businesses really viewed as an unfriendly policy. And those business taxes have been shifted over to the corporate activity tax, which is a low-level tax on business activity in the state."

She said the Legislature has made some major overhauls of the state's business tax code, which is reflected in the new rankings. As far as cutting state spending, Phillips said that during Strickland's time in office, there has been a reduction of more than 5,000 state employees.

"In this budget that we passed this last year, the size of the budget was reduced by $4 billion," she said. "Some of those cuts were very painful. And I would challenge Mr. Hunter to identify what he would cut. These are services that are provided to vulnerable populations, to children, to senior citizens, to individuals suffering from mental-health challenges."

As far as returning to the budget levels of 10 years ago, adjusted for inflation, as Hunter has suggested, Phillips said this would return the budget to before recent tax cuts, to a time when personal income tax rates were 21 percent higher.

With regard to the Massachusetts election, Phillips said people are frustrated and unhappy about the current economic climate in the country.

"Public servants can't take anything for granted, and need to listen to their constituents, and work hard to solve problems, which is what I'm trying to do," she said.