Ohio Gov. John Kasich has already decided what big agenda items he wants to tackle in 2013 — tax policy, school funding and the 2014-15 state budget.

In February, Kasich will introduce the state’s two-year operating budget, which is expected to include a school funding formula and tax policy revisions in addition to operating costs for education, health and human services and other government services. The 2012-13 operating budget topped $55 billion.

Kasich told reporters his next budget will tackle state tax policy and a formula for funding the state’s schools. He also hasn’t lost hope for his plan to lower state income taxes with revenues from higher taxes oil and gas extracted from Ohio soil.

Kasich said Ohio’s income tax is too high at 5.9 percent and his proposal aims to lower that tax for small business owners, who often file business taxes as individuals. In 2005, lawmakers passed a 21 percent income tax cut phased in over five years.

Kasich has said lower income tax rates would generate more jobs.

“This income tax is too darn high, and people say we’ve already lowered it and did it do any good? Yeah, it’s done good,” Kasich said at a news conference touting his administration’s 2012 accomplishments. “We’re at about 127,000 jobs, including a more business-friendly climate. But this tax, at 5.9 percent, is too high.”

Kasich will again push his plan to tie an income tax cut to revenues from higher taxes on oil and gas production as part of several measures aimed at reducing taxes for Ohioans. Kasich introduced the plan in 2012, but House Republicans removed it from the Kasich-sponsored bills they revised and later passed. The oil and gas industry has staunchly opposed the plan, claiming companies would be discouraged from exploring the largely undiscovered Marcellus Shale in eastern Ohio.

“Modernizing the severance tax keeps us as the lowest severance-tax state in the country,” Kasich said.

Incoming Ohio Senate President Keith Faber, R-Celina, says senators have yet to form an opinion on the plan but said they are open to ways to reduce taxes.

Faber, represents Darke, Shelby, Champaign, Logan, Mercer and Auglaize counties.

Anticipating the heavy lifting expected by Kasich, the Senate has created new committees to work exclusively on school funding, Medicaid reform and tax reform. Faber said the new structure will help the Senate study these big issues in depth.

“We’ve got a great, experience Senate and most of us have served together for some time,” Faber said.

Both Faber and his Democratic counterpart Sen. Eric Kearney of Cincinnati said jobs will be the No. 1 focus of the Senate in the next session. Kearney said Democrats plan to reintroduce their jobs bill, which could create up to 16,000 jobs through tax credits and grants.

Kearney hopes Ohio’s Republican lawmakers and Kasich see merit in Democrats’ ideas and suggestions. However, in the incoming legislature, Republicans will have supermajorities in both the House and Senate.

Democrats have been pushing to add back some support to education, law enforcement and local government budgets that were cut in Kasich’s last budget.

“I get the feeling the budget is being used as a precursor to an election campaign for the governor and I hope (Kasich) doesn’t play politics with the budget in process, that he tries to do what is best for Ohio and that process includes accepting and implementing ideas from the Democratic members of the Senate,” Kearney said.

The Ohio Supreme Court first ruled in 1997 that the state’s school funding formula failed to “provide for a thorough and efficient system of common schools” as required by the Ohio Constitution. Since then, several attempts have been made to rectify the inequality created by schools’ reliance on local tax levies.

Kasich rejected the school funding formula proposed in 2009 by former Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, which would have cost $5 billion a year. Kasich has kept his long-awaited solution under wraps but said it will push more money to classrooms instead of administrative costs and emphasize equality statewide.

“I want the child — no matter where they live, no matter what the wealth is in their district — to be able to compete effectively with a child in every other district,” Kasich said.

Kasich has also proposed increasing the amount of higher education funding tied to graduation rates, job placement and other outcomes instead of the number of students entering. He said the higher education funding formula would reward colleges and universities that graduate students and help them find jobs in Ohio.

In addition to Kasich’s priorities, lawmakers left several issues on the table in 2012. The House passed a bill to effectively ban Internet cafe “sweepstakes” parlors, but the Senate failed to act, saying the industry needed to be studied more. The statewide moratorium on new sweepstakes cafes expires June 30, pushing lawmakers to enact legislation in the first half of the year.

The Senate, in its final days, overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill to reform how state legislative and congressional districts are drawn. The bill would have required bipartisan approval of any new district maps. Time ran out before the House could discuss it.

“We’re at the point in redistricting reform where we’ve had the debate,” Faber said. “I believe the bill the senate passed is a good starting point. It is an item we believe should be front and center.”