The Opinion column of The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, July 25, 2012, (click here for the source of the original article; in order to read the full text of the Wall Street Journal article you must be a Wall Street Journal subscriber)  contains a favorable assessment of Governor Kasich’s severance tax proposal, which it describes as a “tax swap.”
“Mr. Kasich wants to modernize the tax structure now that Ohio is becoming an energy producer, but without enlarging government.” Ohio has 3,300 taxing jurisdictions.
“This system led to a combined state-local tax burden that for most of the 2000’s was among the country’s highest, according to the Tax Foundation.
The article goes on to summarize a study by Ernst & Young for the Ohio Business Roundtable comparing the proposed severance tax with those in seven other states. Ohio’s would be lower for both oil and gas. “Another virtue of the Kasich plan is to increase public confidence in energy exploration by giving voters a stake in, and a direct share of, its economic benefits.”