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House panel hears testimony on Ohio budget plan
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Vinton County Auditor Cindy Owings painted a dire picture of the future if lawmakers move ahead with local-government funding cuts proposed in Gov. John Kasich’s $55.5 billion biennial budget.
Most of the county’s two dozen employees, Owings said, earn a little more than minimum wage.
The proposed state reduction “would force the county to eliminate these positions,” said Owings, a Republican. “We are not talking about extra employees but all employees in all offices. ... As county auditor, the chief financial officer for the county, I am here to tell you that the very existence of Vinton County could be in jeopardy.”
Owings was among those giving testimony Friday before the Ohio House’s Finance Committee, which relaunched hearings a day after offering an amended version of Kasich’s executive budget proposal.
Additional hearings are scheduled in coming days in advance of a potential floor vote in the House on Thursday.
Once the chamber acts on its version, the Senate will take up the budget bill, with weeks of additional committee hearings and behind-the-scenes negotiations.
Final lawmaker action is required by the end of June, before the new state fiscal year begins July 1.
Kasich offered his original proposal in mid-March, outlining a series of policy changes, spending cuts and agency reforms to deal with an $8 billion budget hole.
The executive budget cut local-government funding in half over the next two fiscal years and reduced overall support for school districts — increasing basic state aid but doing without federal stimulus and other one-time funds that no longer are available.
The governor also wants to sell five state prison facilities, privatize state liquor operations to fund economic-development efforts and change the state’s criminal-sentencing laws.
House Republicans tweaked Kasich’s overall plan after considering about 1,000 amendments submitted by lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle.
In the substitute bill unveiled late Thursday, the GOP increased school formula funding by $80 million over the biennium and capped cuts in state aid at 20 percent.
The amended budget also would eliminate Ohio’s estate tax as of January 2013, retain a 3.5 percent cap on college-tuition increases and increase the number of vouchers available for students to attend private schools.
Though many of the reforms Kasich proposed remain, the House removed language from the bill related to criminal sentencing and state-pension systems. Both of those issues are being handled in separate legislation moving through the House and Senate.