Strickland signs budget

July 18, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland (D-Lisbon)

COLUMBUS (AP) — Gov. Ted Strickland has signed Ohio’s next operating budget, which was held up for nearly two weeks over a contentious battle over racetrack slot machines.

The $50.5 billion spending blueprint for the next two years includes a new formula for funding traditional public and charter schools and more money than expected for libraries and food banks.

It also contains a host of cuts to social programs and increased fees for hospitals and nursing homes.

“This budget process has been long and difficult,” Strickland’s statement said. “However, we have come to an agreement on those things that matter most to Ohio families and businesses who are struggling through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.”

Strickland made 55 line-item vetoes, ranging from rejecting a requirement that Ohio apply for federal abstinence-education dollars to recapturing business taxes for state coffers that lawmakers had proposed directing to local governments.

In his veto statement, Strickland said the budget he and lawmakers passed makes education a priority and tries to protect children, the elderly, and the disabled at a time when many state programs have sustained deep cuts.

The final bill, which missed its June 30 deadline for the first time in 18 years, ultimately cut state aid to public education slightly, from $8 billion this year to $7.5 billion next year and $7.2 billion in fiscal year 2011. Authors of the new school-funding formula say it will eventually allow the state to take on a bigger share of school costs, leaving less to be paid by local levies.