Supporting Ohio manufacturers and lowering costs for Ohio families

By U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown
D-Ohio

Two of my top priorities are supporting Ohio manufacturers and lowering costs for Ohio families. 

This week, we announced a bipartisan tax cut deal that does both – it would cut taxes for many Ohio parents and for Ohio manufacturers, and would also protect residents of East Palestine from surprise tax bills.

This deal has four key parts:

First, it expands the Child Tax Credit. The Child Tax Credit is one of the best tools we have to make parents’ hard work pay off and help Ohio working families keep up with rising costs, including all the extra expenses that come with raising kids. 575,000 children in Ohio would benefit from this expansion.

Second, it would cut taxes for American companies that invest in research and innovation. This is key for Ohio manufacturers – research and development is expensive, and it’s vital for keeping up with global competitors. Fixing these business tax provisions would allow Ohio companies to compete.

Third, this protects residents of East Palestine from getting hit with a surprise tax bill for payments they received from Norfolk Southern after last year’s derailment.

Ohioans in East Palestine have endured enough. That money from Norfolk Southern is supposed to go to support residents – they shouldn’t be hit with a huge tax bill for it.

Finally, this would also help make housing more affordable by expanding the Low Income Housing Tax Credit. That would mean more developers building homes that Ohioans can actually afford.

All of these provisions are wins for Ohioans. And this deal won’t add to the deficit – it’s all paid for by cracking down on a program that’s had too much fraud.

As recently as a few months ago, no one thought we could work together to deliver a deal that cuts taxes for working families, helps grow the middle class, and supports Ohio’s manufacturers.

We put politics aside, we kept at it, and we got this deal. Now, I’m calling on my colleagues to get this passed into law right away, before tax season, so that Ohio parents and Ohio manufacturers can start saving money.

I’ll do everything in my power to get this passed into law as soon as possible.