COLUMBUS, Ohio -- If you live or work in Columbus, you will notice your next paycheck is a little smaller.
The city income tax that voters approved in August is now in effect, with a half-percent increase in the tax rate, which now stands at 2.5 percent.
The income tax hike does not affect state lawmakers or their staff.
A 1967 law exempts General Assembly members and employees from paying income taxes outside of their city of residence.
If a legislator or a legislator's aide lives in Newark or Cleveland, they pay local income taxes in their respective hometown.
This allows them to keep the money in their district rather than have it collected in Columbus.
But for a Columbus worker who lives outside the city, the same option is not available.
The Columbus Dispatch looked into the matter and estimated the law will cost the city of Columbus roughly half a million dollars a year in income-tax revenue.
"If they work here, they ought to have to pay their taxes here," said Columbus resident Steve Fisher.
Whitehall resident Jeanette Mayo agreed, saying that it is unfair for lawmakers to avoid the tax that other workers who live outside of Columbus face.
"I have to pay Columbus taxes and Whitehall taxes. So they should have to pay taxes wherever they work just like we do," Mayo said. "You shouldn't be privileged just because you work in the Statehouse."
Most lawmakers left Columbus to return to their districts Thursday. One lawmaker who remained, Senator Capri Cafaro, a Hubbard Democrat, said she did not know enough about the law to speak on it. Cafaro did note that she lives in a township and because of that, she does not believe she pays local income taxes.
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