Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease is one of the largest law firms in Ohio. They are well known in the statehouse and are also known to skew a bit to the left in their politics. That being said, they are well respected.
On February 15th, they published a “tax alert”, which analyzed the effects of one part of Governor Kasich’s proposed budget, namely the expansion of sales taxes to include many services not currently covered. Their analysis did not mention at all the 50% income tax cut that small businesses would benefit from. Nor did it mention that the proposed budget lowers the overall tax burden for all of Ohio. It was simply focused on the impact of an expanded application of the new lower sales tax rate.
The very next day, the leading liberal Ohio blog Plunderbund wrote a post about the article, using it to bash the governor.
Shortly thereafter, in response, Vorys added this update to their alert.
Editors’ Note: Since Vorys posted the following tax alert, at least one blog has referred to it. That blog mischaracterizes the context of the alert and the terms and phrases quoted. The alert is a technical review of tax legislation and an attempt to simplify complex tax concepts. It is not a commentary on how that legislation fits into the overall Ohio tax reform being proposed.
While they don’t mention Plunderbund by name, it is unmistakable who they were referring to. You know, these guys:
When you base a post on someone’s article, and then the authors publicly respond to it by calling it a mischaracterization, that’s called having a bad day.