Richard A. Levin was appointed as Ohio’s Tax Commissioner by Gov. Ted Strickland effective January 8. 2007. He becomes the 17th commissioner in the department’s history.

Mr. Levin has more than 35 years experience in the tax arena in both the public and private sectors. Prior to being named Tax Commissioner, he was a partner in Levin, Driscoll and Fleeter, a consulting firm specializing in providing public policy analysis and technical assistance to state and local governments, school districts, and businesses regarding tax, revenue, budgeting, and legislative issues.

He served from 1971 to 1991 in the Ohio Department of Taxation (ODT) beginning as a researcher in what became the Tax Analysis Division. He was promoted to research director in 1975, and promoted again in 1983 to deputy tax commissioner for policy, a position he held until 1991.

In his capacity as a deputy tax commissioner, Mr. Levin was responsible for the development and management of policy for all taxes administered by ODT. He coordinated the department’s contact with the business community, labor and education groups, and the media. During his time as a deputy tax commissioner, Mr. Levin was a member of a management team which facilitated a doubling of audit production, expanded taxpayer service, and improved communications. He was also then-Tax Commissioner Roger Tracy’s liaison to the Governor’s Operations Improvement Task Force, the Ohio Department of Development, the Internal Revenue Service, the Federation of Tax Commissioners, and to the revenue departments of other states.

He also owns the distinction of having ODT's library dedicated in his honor. The dedication took place a few months after he left the department in 1991. The library, housed in the Tax Analysis Division, is officially known as the Richard A. Levin Research Library. A plaque on one of the bookshelves contains his picture and an inscription recognizing his significant contributions to Ohio’s system of taxation and his development of the research capacity of the department, and also recognizes what was then his 20 years of service to ODT.

Mr. Levin was elected city auditor of Bexley, Ohio, and served in that position from 1998 through 2001. Mr. Levin also has extensive teaching experience. He has taught graduate seminars in federal, state, and local budget policy and fiscal administration at The Ohio State University School of Public Policy and Management and introductory economics at the Franklin University College of Business. He has also taught a seminar in state and local tax policy at the Capital University School of Law.

Mr. Levin earned a master of arts degree in Economics at The Ohio State University in 1970. He also did his undergraduate work at OSU, earning a bachelor of science degree in the university’s College of Business in 1967. Mr. Levin and his wife, Ann, have three grown children. The couple resides in Bexley.