Trump says Acton would double Ohio's income tax; fact-checkers rate the claim false

President Donald Trump spoke at an Oct. 12 rally in Youngstown, Ohio, and told the crowd that Dr. Amy Acton is trying to double Ohio's income tax ¹. Acton is the Democratic candidate for governor. On Oct. 27, the fact-checking site PolitiFact rated his claim False ¹.

Amy Acton is trying to double your state income tax.

The race is between Acton and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy. Voting ends Tuesday, Nov. 3. The tax fight is about more than one line at a rally. Ohio's state income tax pays for schools, Medicaid and prisons ³. Each candidate's plan would change who pays and what that money can still buy.

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Then: a March press release

The claim did not start with Trump. On March 30, two Republican state lawmakers put out a statement through Ramaswamy's campaign: Ohio House Finance Chairman Brian Stewart and Ohio Senate Finance Chairman Jerry Cirino ⁴. It said Acton's proposals could add at least $21 billion in new state spending in their first year. It argued she would have to roughly double the state income tax, which was projected to bring in about $9.8 billion in fiscal year 2027 ⁴.

Ohio taxpayers do not want to be on the hook for her unaffordable spending spree.

Most of that $21 billion came from two numbers. The campaign said wiping out Ohioans' medical debt would cost $15.1 billion. It put the cost of expanding child care subsidies at $5.6 billion a year, based on Republicans' interpretation of her comments ¹⁴. The claim later turned up on a campaign website called "Can't Afford Amy Acton," in pro-Ramaswamy ads and in a state Republican Party press release ¹. PolitiFact asked the White House for evidence. The White House sent it to the Republican National Committee, and the committee pointed to the Ramaswamy campaign website ¹.

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Now: the numbers don't hold up

PolitiFact found no evidence that Acton supports doubling a tax that brought in about $11 billion in fiscal 2025 ¹. The campaign got its medical debt figure by multiplying about 810,000 Ohioans with medical debt by a national average debt amount ¹. Daniel Skinner, a health policy expert at Ohio University, said the estimate "assumes every person with medical debt would be eligible." He also said paying off debt is mostly a one-time cost, not a yearly one ¹.

The child care number has a similar problem. Acton has called for wider access to child care, but PolitiFact found she has not called for universal, government-paid care ¹. An analyst at Policy Matters Ohio added that the co-pays families pay would lower the state's cost ¹.

Here is what Acton has actually proposed. She wants a "working families' tax cut": a bigger earned income tax credit, which is a tax break for low- and moderate-income workers, and child tax credits of up to $1,000 for people earning up to $85,000 a year ¹². The Statehouse News Bureau put the cost at about $1 billion a year ². Her campaign says she would not raise the state income tax to pay for her plans. It has not released a detailed funding plan ¹.

These two types of tax credits effectively add up to us having a tax cut, a break.

She has named some possible ways to pay. They include ending tax breaks for people who make more than $1 million a year, possibly cutting funding for private school vouchers, and expanding regulated gambling ². She has also proposed cutting tax breaks for data centers ¹.

The other side of the ledger

Republicans have spent months asking how Acton would pay for her plans. Ramaswamy's own plan raises a bigger version of the same question. He wants to eliminate the state income tax and the capital gains tax on investment sales ². Together those two taxes brought in nearly $10.5 billion last fiscal year ². He says he would phase them out over eight to 10 years, starting with his first budget ³.

His first step would end the tax on capital gains, meaning profits from selling stocks, bonds and property. A state legislative analysis estimated that step alone could cost up to $680 million a year ³. His campaign puts the cost at $300 million to $400 million and expects new investment to make back about 70% of it within two years ³. He has also promised to roll property taxes back to 2021 levels, which he says would return $4 billion to homeowners ².

The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that he has not said which programs or services he would cut ³. Instead, he says population growth will bring in new money ².

We're going to be 15 million people and growing by the time I'm done as governor.

Innovation Ohio is a policy group that opposes Ramaswamy ⁵. It estimated what would happen if the $10 billion were cut evenly across the budget: K-12 schools would lose $2.4 billion and Medicaid would lose $1.68 billion ³. Rea Hederman of the conservative Buckeye Institute told the Enquirer the state would need spending cuts over several budgets, and that would mean hard choices for the governor and lawmakers ³. In fairness, the Statehouse News Bureau reported that neither campaign has given a firm answer on how it would pay for its plans ².

The pattern is worth noticing. The scariest number in this race, a doubled income tax, came from a rival campaign's own math, and PolitiFact rated it False ¹⁴. The plan that would actually remove the most money from Ohio's budget belongs to the candidate Trump came to Youngstown to support ²³.

The Record

1. Mar 30, 2026Ohio GOP finance chairs Brian Stewart and Jerry Cirino claim Acton's plans would cost $21 billion and require roughly doubling the income tax ⁴
2. May 19, 2026Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Ramaswamy plans to phase out Ohio's income tax over eight to 10 years without saying what he would cut ³
3. Oct 12, 2026Trump tells a Youngstown rally that Acton is trying to double Ohio's income tax ¹
4. Oct 21, 2026Statehouse News Bureau reports that neither campaign has given a firm answer on how it would pay for its plans ²
5. Oct 27, 2026PolitiFact rates Trump's claim about Acton and the income tax False ¹

Sources

1. PolitiFact, “Trump falsely says Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton wants to double Ohio income taxes” (2026-10-27). politifact.com/factchecks/2026/oct/27/donald-trump/ramaswamy
2. Statehouse News Bureau (Ohio public radio), “2026 race for Ohio governor: the candidates on tax policies they'd put in place” (2026-10-21). statenews.org/government-politics/2026-10-21/2026-race-for-o
3. Cincinnati Enquirer (via Yahoo News), “Vivek Ramaswamy plans to phase out Ohio income taxes” (2026-05-19). yahoo.com/news/articles/vivek-ramaswamy-plans-phase-ohio-082
4. Vivek for Ohio campaign, “Cirino, Stewart Blast Amy Acton's Billions in New Spending” (2026-03-30). vivekforohio.com/cirino-stewart-blast-amy-actons-billions-in
5. Hoodline, “Ohio Income Tax Repeal Could Cost Cuyahoga Schools $111M” (2026-10-27). hoodline.com/2026/10/cuyahoga-schools-could-lose-111m-if-ram

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