Republican leaders in the Ohio House and Senate leaders say they’re planning to override another of Gov. Mike DeWine’s 67 vetoes in the budget last year. They’re targeting his veto of their elimination of a sales tax break on construction materials for data centers—so, keeping the tax break in place—after overriding a property tax-related veto last summer.
"I think that we should override the governor's veto on sales tax," House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) told reporters last week. "That's one of those things I think happened during the Kasich administration. Data centers were a new thing. We'd like for them to be built in Ohio. But I don't think that the companies who are building those should get special treatment when buying materials to build their buildings. And so I think that that may be coming."
Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) said his chamber hasn't been happy about the veto either.
"It was the Senate proposal when it got into the budget,' McColley said this week. "We said, look, with a lot of the different advantages that data centers would have in Ohio, especially given the fact that we recently gave them the ability to build power behind their own meter and not take it off grid, we didn't think that there was any need for the sales tax exemption anymore.
An override needs 60 votes in the House and 20 votes in the Senate. The budget passed 23-10 in the Senate, and Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) said while all Democrats voted against the budget, a few may support the override.
"I expect that some will. We'll definitely take a look at it, consider it," Antonio said. "And we have at least a couple folks who have bills that talk about those tax credits. So I anticipate some Democrats would vote for it."
The budget was approved 59-38 in the House, which is not a veto-proof majority. While all House Democrats also voted against the budget, Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati) said he supports the tax break and will vote against the veto override.
"We cannot have the giveaways just go to billionaires," Isaacsohn said. "House Democrats, and I hope Democrats in general, stand with any opportunity or support, any opportunity to grow private sector labor jobs that help people provide for their families. That is who we are as Democrats. We are in office to fight for people to get jobs they can actually provide for their families."
Because the budget was House Bill 96, the veto override must start in the House. Lawmakers have till the end of the two-year session to override any veto. The House and then the Senate overrode a veto on restricting the use of some kinds of tax levies, and then approved bills that were similar to provisions he vetoed.
