COLUMBUS Spending and education funding to be main topics in budget debate

Six Republicans joined three Democrats in voting against the Senate bill.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- Differences on education funding and the overall amount of proposed spending will take center stage next week when representatives of both chambers of the Legislature begin to hammer out the next state budget, legislative leaders said.
"Those are the big things, and there'll be a lot of little items," said Senate President Doug White, R-Manchester.
On a bipartisan 24-9 vote, the Senate approved its version of the new two-year state budget Thursday. The $49.3 billion spending plan increases the state's sales tax 1 percent from July 1 through July 1, 2005.
The vote breakdown
Eight Democrats joined 16 Republicans to approve the budget bill. Six Republicans joined three Democrats in voting "no." Householder informed White before the Senate's vote the House would not agree with the Senate's plan, meaning that a committee of three lawmakers from each chamber will now have to iron out the differences.
Legislative leaders said a conference committee could begin as soon as Wednesday. House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, agreed that education and overall spending levels would likely be issues for the committee, but said there would be others as well.
"I think we're going to have a discussion about the sales tax, and we just want to make sure that there are assurances that that's going to be a very temporary sales tax, not a permanent sales tax," the speaker said.
In the two-year $48.7 billion version of the budget the House passed in April, the proposed penny increase in the sales tax would have ended after the budget's first year if voters approved a November ballot issue that would authorize video slot machines at Ohio's seven horse racing tracks.
The Senate, as part of its version, dropped the video-slots provision and instead kept the proposed sales tax increase in both budget years.
Video slots
A separate proposed constitutional amendment that would authorize video slot machines remains pending in the Senate.
The proposed sales tax boost would generate about $13 billion a year during the next two-year budget period, which begins July 1, estimates show. Video slots would generate about $500 million per year.
There are other differences as well between the House and Senate versions of the budget.
The Senate's version would spend about $288 million more on public schools than the House version. The Senate's version would also spend about $226 million more on colleges and universities than the House-passed plan.
On the Senate floor, GOP leaders said that amid a faltering national and state economy, the Senate's two-year spending plan was the best available.
Democrats were able to get several provisions into the budget bill, including funding increases in subsidized child care, health insurance for low-income adults and a state program that helps senior citizens remain in their homes longer instead of going to a nursing home.
But not all senators were pleased.
Opposes tax
State Sen. Lynn R. Wachtmann, R-Napoleon, said the proposed sales tax would hurt Ohio counties that border other states such as those in his northwest Ohio district.
"Raising taxes kills jobs. That's really not what you want to be about," said Wachtmann, who voted "no."
The three Democrats who voted "no" said they believed there should have been more tax-reform provisions in the budget bill.
They said the proposed sales tax boost would have the most impact on individuals rather than businesses.
"I'm not anti-tax," said state Sen. Robert F. Hagan, a Youngstown Democrat. "I'm for a fair tax system."
"It's time now to do tax reform," said state Sen. Leigh E. Herington, a Ravenna Democrat.
"Individuals are paying a much greater share of the state taxation burden," said state Sen. Marc Dann, a Trumbull County Democrat.
Amendments shot down
The Senate shot down eleventh-hour Democratic amendments including one from Hagan that would have inserted his proposed prescription-drug discount bill into the state budget.
Hagan's bill, which is pending in a Senate committee, would have the state negotiate reduced prescription-drug prices for the uninsured or underinsured.
GOP Senate leaders have promised hearings on the bill.
Republican Gov. Bob Taft doesn't have a seat on the conference committee, but his spokesman, Orest Holubec, said the governor would continue to argue for more tax reform and the Senate's funding levels of education and higher education, which were closer to Taft's proposed levels.
Once conferees reach an agreement, it will be presented to both chambers for their approval and sent to the governor for consideration. The current two-year $44 billion state budget runs through June 30.
Without spending reduction or new revenues, state officials have said the state could face a deficit of as much as $4 billion during the next two years.