Cleveland Heights Mayor Speaks Out Against Governor's Idea to Take Over Tax Collection

Cleveland Heights City Council publicly opposed the possibility of the state centralizing municipal income taxes at Monday night's regular meeting.

Mayor Ed Kelley said the state should not be “sticking its nose” into local income tax collections.

“First off we just . (Regional Income Tax Agency), as you know, and we’re very happy with the progress they’re making,” Kelley said before the meeting. The move is expected to save the city $500,000. “We don’t feel the state is qualified to do this job, and it’s more of a tax grab consistent to what they’ve been doing with the death tax and .”

Kelley said council will send a copy of the resolution opposing the idea to state and local government representatives.

“There’s something special about local income taxes that needs to be local and not in the state's purview. I don’t feel comfortable with it,” he said. “They’ll try to squeeze everything out of it they can to try to balance their budget on the backs of our people.”

Mayors in other cities across Ohio, including Mentor and , have also spoken out against the plan.

So far, Gov. John Kasich’s plan is just an idea — it hasn’t officially been proposed. Part of the idea is that small businesses with operations in different cities would only have to file taxes once with the state.

“We’re still in the investigating stage,” Tax Commissioner Joseph Testa told the Columbus Dispatch. “But this administration wants to move Ohio in a tax-friendly, business-friendly direction, and we feel this fits into that general theme.”

City Council also passed a resolution opposing .

Lakewood Patch Editor Colin McEwen contributed to this article.