Twenty cents a day: That's all that fueled last week's cheap theatrics by Ohio Senate Republicans, who are rapidly losing whatever respect anyone is still dumb enough to give them.

First, Senate Republicans refused to act on a House-passed plan to close an $851 million hole in Ohio's budget. Evident Senate Republican theory: That will embarrass Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland. Then, Senate Republicans proposed a mathematically laughable "alternative."

But it takes 17 votes for the Ohio Senate to pass a bill. There are 21 Republicans in the Senate. Obviously, if at least 17 Senate Republicans backed their own Republican budget "alternative," Senate Republicans would have passed the "plan" last week. They didn't, because they couldn't. That is, Senate Republicans won't even pass their very own brainstorm.

The Senate GOP's legislative antics have nothing to do with taxes or the budget. Do the math. Strickland and the House want to close the $851 million budget hole by delaying till 2011 a scheduled income-tax cut. And $851 million divided by 11,485,910 Ohioans (latest estimate) divided by 365 days is . . . 20 cents a day. That is, this "debate" is no more real than a Communist show-trial, all the more so because the Republican "plan" would still postpone some of the scheduled tax cut.

Senate Republicans' real "issues" are (a) macho-man jockeying over the succession to Senate President Bill Harris, who will retire to Ashland in 13 months; (b) boosting the 2010 prospects of GOP gubernatorial candidate John R. Kasich; and (c) taking potshots at Strickland. The Senate sideshow over taxes is like a magician's distracting gesture: It aims to hide more than it reveals.

Meanwhile, there's something about who pays what taxes General Assembly members might not want voters to know: Legislators may not be paying much federal or state income tax, in some cases perhaps none, on their Ohio legislative pay.

That's because Internal Revenue Code Section 162 (h) offers state legislators, including Ohio's, a lush per-legislative-day tax break so long as a legislator's legal residence is more than 50 miles from his or her capitol building. A legislator can claim the tax break even if he or she isn't in Columbus on a given day, even for days when the General Assembly isn't meeting.

As a gesture to taxpayers, Ohio legislators say they'll cut their pay -- but not till 2011; they say the Ohio Constitution won't let them cut pay before then. Today, an Ohio legislator's base pay is $60,584; many get more. Median Ohio household income in 2007 -- latest year available -- was $46,645.

But there's a way to cut net legislative pay now -- deeply: If members of Ohio's House and Senate really want to cut their pay, rather than lollygag till 2011, they'd refuse the IRS write-off.

For instance, it appears 29 of Ohio's 33 state senators (all but the four elected in the Columbus area) are eligible for a Section 162 (h) write-off. Attention, primary challengers, tea-partyers and talk-show shouters: Among those 29, ask the bigger Senate mouths if they claim a 162 (h) write-off -- and how much, if any, they actually pay in Ohio income tax. That question might put some Capitol Square hypocrites where they try to put everyone else: On the spot.

Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University.

tsuddes@gmail.com