Panel on Ohio budget has yet to meet

March 15, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

A legislative commission formed seven months ago to tackle Ohio’s pending budget hole has not yet held any meetings.

The six-member Budget Planning and Management Commission has been handed the task of recommending solutions for the 2012-13 budget by Nov. 30. The panel was established after lawmakers agreed to fill an $850 million gap in the 2010-11 budget by delaying a scheduled income tax cut. Much of the spending plan was balanced using a portion of the state’s one-time $8.2 billion stimulus funds.

Democratic House Speaker Armond Budish says the Legislature was busy into December fixing the current budget and that preliminary talks have started with Republican Senate President Bill Harris of Ashland toward getting the commission rolling. He said they have agreed to keep politics out of the equation.

“If this budget commission is going to help the state and legislators, it needs to keep politics out of it,” said Budish, of Beechwood. “If this serves as a forum for people to grandstand, it’s going to be a dismal failure. We need this commission to do real work and find solutions to problems that exist.”

Harris spokeswoman Maggie Ostrowski said the group hopes to get a public meeting scheduled in the near future.

The commission includes two House Democrats and a House Republican appointed by Budish and two Senate Republicans and a Senate Democrat appointed by Harris.