Budget wars: The governor strikes back

COLUMBUS — Gov. Ted Strickland is mad as heck, and he’s not going to take it anymore. Or something like that.

The state’s top Democrat, weary of continued assaults from Republicans about the future sustainability of his spending plans, called an early evening press conference one day last week to make known his disgust with the other side of the political aisle.

The Cabinet Room session with the Fourth Estate came hours after yet another elected official — this time, Republican Auditor Mary Taylor — questioned how the state was going to pay for essential services once one-time federal stimulus dollars are gone.

Taylor, the lone Republican holding statewide office, has projected a $7.9 billion deficit by 2013 if Strickland’s budget for the next two fiscal years stands as is.

The governor’s response: Been there, done that. Late last year, after making spending cuts to the current year’s budget, the administration announced a $7 billion-plus deficit for the next biennium.

Strickland said his budget proposal, making its way through the Democrat-heavy Ohio House, keeps spending in check while maintaining essential services for Ohioans in need. Further, state employees will be taking 10 unpaid furlough days and the state’s work force has been reduced by 3,000. And the governor has maintained his refusal to raise taxes (though there are ample “fee” increases included in his budget proposal).

So, late last week, facing yet another Republican volley about his efforts, Strickland fired back.

“What taxes would you increase, or what services would you cut rather than utilize the federal stimulus resources that rightfully are coming to the state of Ohio?” he asked, adding later, “It appears that Auditor Taylor and legislative Republicans are on the sidelines lobbing criticisms about future budgets because they offer no real ideas to address the current challenges before us.”

Ouch.

House action

To be fair, Strickland’s budget is tied up in the Democrat-controlled Ohio House. A floor vote is expected before the end of the month.

But Senate Republicans already are at work on their version of the legislation. That chamber’s education and finance committees have held informal hearings in recent weeks, accepting testimony from the Strickland administration and other agency heads about their spending plans.

Their questions to the governor’s budget director last week provide a preview of the themes their budget proposal will include:

Why weren’t more state jobs and spending cut? How will the state pay for ongoing expenses in two years once the federal stimulus pool dries up? Won’t the state have to raise taxes in the next biennium to maintain the level of spending the governor is pushing in the next one?

Those seem like good questions, and they’ll likely lead to some late nights come June when the House and Senate appoint conference committee members to haggle over the differences between their versions of the budget.

In the meantime, Republicans are probably going to keep pushing the issue, and Strickland and the Democrats will probably stick to their new script.

“I am not hearing a lot of positive messages about what should be done,” Strickland said. “I’m hearing a lot of criticisms about what I’m doing. I don’t know that that’s helpful to the state, and I think it’s reasonable for me to expect those who are criticizing what I do to express what they would do.”

X Marc Kovac is The Vindicator’s Statehouse correspondent. E-mail him at mkovac@dixcom.com.