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Legislature fails to pass budget
‘Raising taxes is the last thing we want to look at,’ an Ohio House member says.
Members of the Mahoning Valley’s delegation to the state Legislature say they aren’t happy about many of the governor’s recommendations to cut spending by $2.43 billion, but see no alternatives.
The Valley Democrats also blame the Republican majority in the Senate for rejecting Gov. Ted Strickland’s recommendation to place electronic slot machines at the state’s seven race-tracks without coming up with their own plan to increase state revenue. The slot-machine proposal, Strickland said, would raise $933 million during the first two years of the state’s two-year budget.
“We’re in an unfortunate situation,” said Senate Minority Leader Capri Cafaro of Liberty, D-32nd. The state is facing a deficit of at least $3.2 billion.
The legalized-gambling proposal held up approval Monday of the state’s budget.
Instead, the Senate approved an interim budget until July 7 with the Democratic-controlled House expected to give its approval to the interim budget today. This is the first time since 1991 that the state has failed to pass a budget.
The slot machines “are far superior to even more severe cuts or increased taxes,” Cafaro said. “I’d be open to [slot machines] in bowling alleys and bars, but I don’t know if there’s support in the Senate.”
State Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Canfield, D-33rd, said Strickland’s slot-machine proposal results in smaller funding cuts.
“The cuts aren’t easy ones,” he said. “But with the [slot machines] the cuts aren’t any deeper.”
Senate Republicans want Strickland to legalize slot machines at the racetracks through an executive order. But Democrats and the Ohio Horse Racing Industry want it approved by the Legislature.
The concerns of an executive order are many, but of particular importance is the machines would be subject “to the whims of future administrations,” the racing industry members wrote in a letter to state officials.
State Rep. Linda Bolon of Columbiana, D-1st, vice chairwoman of the House Finance Committee, said Strickland struggled to make up the $3.2 billion through cuts and slots.
“He knows we’re going to hurt people with these cuts,” she said. “Not one of these decisions has been taken lightly. ... There isn’t one thing we’re happy to cut in this budget. We’re very concerned about every cut we have to make.”
As for suggestions by some legislators to increase taxes, Bolon said, “The Mahoning Valley cannot afford tax increases. Raising taxes is the last thing we want to look at.”
Bolon has no problem with legalized gambling in Ohio.
“Living in Columbiana County, it’s hard to get out on the major roads because people are on their way to the slot machines in West Virginia,” only a short distance away, she said. “This is almost an additional $1 billion we’d have to come up with through cuts.”
State Rep. Ronald V. Gerberry of Austintown, D-59th, said Senate Republicans need to compromise to get a budget passed.
“If they don’t like his proposal, come up with another idea,” he said. “Video lottery terminals are a way to generate some new revenue for us and to not make the cuts any deeper. ... None of us are excited about the proposed cuts. But we have to make cuts.”
Gerberry said he wants to expand slot machines to bowling alleys, but acknowledges there isn’t the support in the Legislature to approve that.
skolnick@vindy.com