Report: Did the Oil and Gas Industry Buy Off Ohio Politicians to Head Off Increased Severance Tax?

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Does following the money explain
the fate of Kasich's severance tax?
From Cincinnati.com:
An Enquirer analysis has found that 10 of the largest oil and natural gas companies and their main political action committee have pumped more than $660,000 into Ohio legislators’ campaign coffers since 2010. 
They’ve given mostly to Republicans, who got 91.5 percent of oil and gas contributions, and most often to Republicans in Ohio’s House, who would later decide the fate of the fracking tax. 
House Speaker Bill Batchelder, R-Medina, alone got more than $227,000 – about $1 of every $10 he raised – from oil and gas companies, PACs and individual donors with ties to the industry. 
Batchelder’s connections to the industry and opposition to the tax are so strong that Kasich joked about it last month when asked when he might try again to push a fracking tax through the House. 
“Well, I think we wait for Batchelder to retire,” he said.
Read the whole article here.

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