Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted recently responded to criticism of reduction in the capital gains tax by saying that "any study that says tax cuts kill private sector jobs is ludicrous. In the history of the world, the only job lost through a tax cut is a government job." A recent Ohio Department of Job and Family Services press release (July 25, 2006), suggests that the Speaker might want to be cautious about rejecting such “government” jobs since 4 out of every 10 jobs created over the past year in Ohio came in the health care, education, and government sectors. Employment in these sectors is very dependent on federal, state, and local government funding. Of course people employed in these sectors help support employment throughout the economy in both the private and public sector as they purchase goods and services with the wages they earn.

The capital gains tax cut, once fully implemented, will cost the state an estimated $250 million a year, and most of that will go to the wealthiest Ohioans and will cost the state jobs. An alternative would be to hire 8,713 new teachers (based on an average starting salary in Ohio of $28,692 according to the American Federation of Teachers annual teacher salary figures). This would do more for the economy both in the long and short term than the proposed capital gains give away to Ohio's millionaires.