Taxes: sales tax on prescription eyewear
What they say
His campaign says he repealed the sales tax on prescription eyewear, saving taxpayers forty-five million dollars a year.
“Merrin successfully repealed the sales tax on prescription eyewear saving taxpayers $45 million annually (HB116)”
What the record shows ·
His own bill did not do it. H.B. 116 of the 132nd General Assembly, "Exempt optical aids from sales tax", passed the House, was referred to a Senate committee and stopped there, with no signature and no effective date. The exemption exists all the same: Revised Code section 5739.02 was amended by House Bill 166 of the 133rd General Assembly, the state budget, effective July 18, 2019.
Limit: He introduced and passed through one chamber a bill for this exemption, and the exemption became law. Whether the budget's provision came from his bill is not something the record settles, and the forty-five million dollar figure is the campaign's, not the state's.