Former Ohio Gov. John J. Gilligan dies

Former Ohio Gov. and U.S. Rep. John J. Gilligan, a liberal Democrat whose creation of the state income tax was his most lasting accomplishment and also the undoing of his political career, died Monday. He was 92.

Gilligan's death was confirmed by his caregiver, Frank Kennedy, who did not provide a cause of death.

Gilligan's daughter Kathleen Sebelius, a former Kansas governor, became Health and Human Services secretary under President Barack Obama.

"Jack Gilligan lived his life in service to his fellow Americans," Obama said in a statement.

Gilligan, a teacher, became the state's 62nd governor in 1970, a year in which Republicans suffered from a loan scandal in the state treasurer's office.

Gilligan persuaded legislators to enact the state's first corporate and personal income tax in 1971.

But the income tax issue continued to dog him. An offhand remark at the Ohio State Fair was one of Gilligan's most memorable.

When a reporter asked if the arriving Gilligan was going to shear a sheep on the fairgrounds, the governor said: "I shear taxpayers, not sheep."

In the 1974 race, former two-term Republican Gov. James A. Rhodes hammered at Gilligan for raising taxes and scored an upset.