Gov. Kasich introduces tax and energy reform in biennial address - 21 News Now, More Local News for Youngstown, Ohio -

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Governor John Kasich wants Ohio to have an energy policy that the rest of the country can emulate.

He discussed energy, jobs and in an increase to gas and oil taxes in his biennial address Wednesday.

Governor Kasich says jobs are on the way up in the Buckeye State.

"We received numbers yesterday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics," he said at a press conference in Columbus. "Ohio remains the number job creator in the midwest."

He and his team are working on a several-thousand page bill to reduce the budget in the state's off-year.

"There'll be about $90 million worth of additional savings in this bill," Kasich said. "But the depth of this bill involves everything from energy policy to loophole closings to education reform."

It also means cutting income taxes, raising the severance tax on gas and oil and creating a environmental and job-friendly energy policy.

"I think Ohio can have regulations in place that really creates a model for the rest of the country in terms of how to create jobs," he said. "Yet at the same time be able to maintain a very good environment."

Kasich's cabinet acknowledges that a lot of those jobs will come from gas and oil.

"We've only captured about 3-5% of the oil in this state," said Director of the Governor's Office on Policy Wayne Struble. "So if we can use new technology including carbon sequestration to do that, we have the possibility at least of recovering a lot of oil from a lot of old fields."

A key to capitalizing on those jobs is re-training Ohio workers, including a program to hire those currently receiving unemployment.

"It would allow someone who's currently receiving unemployment compensation to take on-the-job training at an employer for six weeks," explained Rich Frederick of the Governor's Office of Workforce Transformation. "At the end of the six weeks the employer can decide whether or not to hire that person. The whole time they're still receiving their benefits so there's no loss in the living wage."

The Ohio Oil and Gas Association released a statement opposing Kasich's plan to increase the oil and gas severance tax saying, "Crude oil and natural gas exploration in this state is still in its infancy and increasing the severance tax at this critical juncture will negatively impact the economic future of Ohio and its residents."

The statement continued, "Though we would generally support an income-tax decrease, we do not support asking one industry to disproportionately fund it."

Kasich plans to present his reforms to lawmakers soon.