Saturday, May 30, 2009
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS — The Republican-controlled Ohio Senate has sliced upward of $1 billion from the House-passed version of the state budget.
Primary and secondary education will receive increases of about $280 million over the next two fiscal years, and Medicaid funding to provide health-care services to the needy and elderly were solidified in the substitute version of the legislation unveiled Friday afternoon.
But all other general revenue fund-backed agencies were flat-funded or face budget cuts in fiscal 2010 and ’11.
Plus, 139 earmarks for specific projects and 34 proposed fee increases were eliminated from the budget passed by the Democrat-controlled House and backed by Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland.
“It’s balanced, it’s fiscally responsible, it’s sustainable, and it provides clear direction that we don’t need to raise taxes,” Senate President Bill Harris, a Republican from Ashland, told Statehouse reporters.
The substitute bill was offered by Senate Republicans during Friday’s finance-committee meeting.
Committee members were set to hear public testimony on the changes today, then offer final amendments and report the legislation for a floor vote early next week.
Harris said he expected the latter to take place Wednesday or Thursday, leaving the rest of June for a conference committee of Senate and House members to hash out the differences between their versions of the legislation.
The budget must be in place by the end of June to authorize spending for the new fiscal year, which starts July 1.
“We want to work with the governor, we want to work with the House ... and the Democrats in the Senate to do what’s right,” Harris said.
“And this budget is a part of that. ... Spending more money is not the answer. What the answer is is getting more Ohioans back to work and helping the companies and businesses and industry that we have in Ohio to be successful.”
The Senate cut about $1 billion from the House-passed version, including $417 million in targeted cuts from state agencies, $42 million in mandated Medicaid cost containment and $200 million in other cuts already planed via executive orders from Strickland.
Senate Republicans, concerned about the use of one-time federal stimulus funds for continuing state costs, also made it clear that such money would not be available in the next biennium.
And they prohibited the one-time funds from being used to leverage additional state debt.
Republicans also quashed Strickland’s so-called evidence-based model for education and school-funding reform, which sought to base funding on the number of superintendents, principals, teachers, tutors, aides and other personnel required to provide an adequate education for students.
Republicans, instead, have shifted to a per-pupil approach for funding and provided increases of a quarter to one-half percent for all schools over the biennium, with fast-growing districts receiving more.
They also ensured funding for charter and e-school students.