Toledo area taxpayers frustrated with fiscal cliff - 13abc.com Toledo (OH) News, Weather and Sports

The fiscal cliff face-off is frustrating for taxpayers all over the region.

They're worried about their paychecks, their household budgets, and their kids' futures.

Monday is open skate night at Tam-o-Shanter in Sylvania.

Charlene Turner, a mother of two from Toledo, says she's worried about her family budget if lawmakers don't pass legislation averting the fiscal cliff.

"I don't know," says Turner as she laces up skates. "It's one of those things you wait to see what happens with your bottom line. I'm on a budget like I'm sure everybody is, so everybody is wondering what's going to happen with their taxes and that's the biggest concern."

Turner's son Micah is an eighth grader.

"I don't do taxes yet, so I let my parents do that. It's definitely something interesting," says Micah.

Inside the Village Idiot in Maumee, this New Year's Eve Joe Hojnacki is having a beer with friends. He says if the country goes off the fiscal cliff, he most likely won't buy a guitar next year or a new truck. Hojnacki says he's also worried about his son who just graduated from college.

"You entrust these people and you vote for them and we're paying their salaries and yet they're not coming to the table and agreeing so now we're all going to have to pay the price," says Hojnacki.

"They need to go sit at a family table, not with the families who are making huge, enormous amounts of money, but the average person walking up and down the street trying to make a living, trying to make a mortgage payment," says Maryann Sandusky-Gibson, the owner of the Flower Basket in Bowling Green.

"Anybody that pays taxes at all is going to see some kind of increase in the rate that they pay," says Donald Roork, a Certified Financial Planner from Toledo.

Financial experts say if no action is taken in DC, most Americans would take home at least two percent less every paycheck. According to a study by the Tax Policy Center, overall taxes would jump $2,400 on average next year for families with incomes from $50-75,000.