Innovation Ohio has released a new policy analysis examining Vivek Ramaswamy’s proposal to eliminate Ohio’s personal income tax. This report evaluates the fiscal impact of the proposal using state budget data and historical comparisons to other states.

Key Findings

• Ohio’s income tax generates roughly $10 billion annually, a central pillar of the state budget. Eliminating it would create a gap equal to nearly one-quarter of the state’s operating revenue.

• Replacing $10 billion through growth alone would require roughly a 34% increase in total state tax collections. Replacing the revenue through other taxes would require substantial increases in property or sales taxes, fundamentally shifting how Ohio finances public services

• Cutting a proportional amount from schools would reduce K–12 state aid by roughly $2.4 billion, or nearly 10% of total school funding.

• Medicaid serves approximately 3 million Ohioans; the proposed revenue loss exceeds the entire state-funded share of Medicaid.

• Similar efforts in Kansas resulted in revenue shortfalls, school funding reductions, higher sales taxes, credit downgrades, and eventual repeal of the policy.

Eliminating the income tax would require either historically unprecedented revenue growth, deep spending reductions, or significant tax shifts onto property owners and consumers.

Read the full analysis.