Wealthier residents of Oakwood who could benefit from repeal of Ohio’s estate tax would likely see the city raise taxes and cut services, said Oakwood City Manager Norbert Klopsch.

“It would dramatically change the manner in which we pay for city-provided public services in Oakwood,” said Klopsch, whose city averaged $2.6 million a year in estate tax revenue over 10 years. Kettering received more than $3.2 million, the most of any government in the Dayton area, from the tax in 2010.

New Ohio House Speaker William Batchelder’s pledge to abolish the tax has sounded alarms among officials statewide. Cities, villages and townships receive 80 percent of the $285.8 million the tax generated in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010.

Communities receiving more than $500,000 last year include Centerville, Clayton, Fairborn, Beavercreek and Washington and Harrison townships.

Repeal supporters say the tax penalizes small business owners and farmers and encourages job-producing residents to leave Ohio. Matt Mayer, president of the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, a conservative research group, favors abolishing the tax, but said it must be done in a way “that doesn’t crush local governments.” If governments raise taxes to make up the difference, “we’ve just moved around the chairs on the Titanic,” he said.