Youngstown Daily Legal News

Lt. gov. a career-long ally to business

KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: August 29, 2017

She could be the state's next governor, already having won three statewide elections - one as state auditor during former Gov. Ted Strickland's administration and two as Gov. John Kasich's lieutenant governor.

Mary Taylor, 51, the one-time accountant-turned-public-servant, is one of the highest ranking woman in state government today (second only to Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor) and she's not ready to abandon her ascent - a 2018 bid for governor is evidence of this point.

Taylor wasted no time getting to work once she was sworn in as the state's 65th lieutenant governor in 2011.

She was tapped to lead Kasich's Common Sense Initiative, or CSI Ohio, to reform state regulatory policies and named director of the Ohio Department of Insurance.

The assignments complemented one another and provided the perfect starting point to making the state more job- and business-friendly.

CSI Ohio was devised to eliminate excessive and duplicative rules though to stifle job creation and the state's insurance department was ripe for the task.

Taylor remained in her role as insurance director through the first quarter of this year.

She has the distinction of being the first certified public accountant to serve as state auditor and is credited for transforming the office into a nationally recognized, 21st-century government auditing office.

The National White Collar Crime Center praised Taylor for fighting and preventing fraud and for recovering millions in misspent tax dollars, while the Ohio Society of CPAs called Taylor one of their "most influential" members.

Previous to her term as the sole Republican in Strickland's Democrat administration, Taylor served two terms as a lawmaker in the Ohio House of Representatives.

She was instrumental in passing the state's 2005 tax reform package that reduced personal income taxes by 21 percent, eliminated the tangible personal property tax, the corporate franchise tax and the inventory tax imposed on businesses.

She served on House Finance, Ways and Means, and Education committees and was recognized by the United Conservatives of Ohio as a Watchdog of the Treasury.

The National Federation of Independent Business recognized her efforts, naming her Guardian of Small Business.

A northeast Ohio native, Taylor earned a bachelor's degree in accounting and a master's degree in taxation from the University of Akron.

She began her professional career in 1990 with Deloitte and Touche and subsequently joined the Akron firm of Bober, Markey, Fedorovich & Company in 1994, where she served as director of the firm's tax department and senior manager of the employee benefits practice.

Taylor lives with her husband Don and their sons, Michael and Joe, in Uniontown.

Taylor's biography posted on the governor's official website supplemented this story.

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