State budget is top priority

COLUMBUS

Lawmakers are returning to Columbus following a two-week spring break with a full schedule and a ticking clock.

The most pressing issue they’ll tackle over the next eight weeks is the biennial budget, the oft-mentioned $55.5 billion spending plan that will control how public funds are expended during the next two fiscal years.

That’s the most pressing issue, with lawmakers facing a June 30 deadline, establishing spending authority in advance of the new state fiscal year a day later.

To that end, the Ohio House’s Finance Committee came back from spring break a few days early last week to offer up a substitute version of the budget, making a number of changes to the blueprint provided earlier this year by Gov. John Kasich.

As you would expect, Republicans are praising the substitute bill.

“The budget version that was introduced today is the product of hours upon hours of discussion, more than 1,000 amendments from members on both sides of the aisle, and a thorough examination of every area of state government,” Finance Chairman Ron Amstutz, a Republican from Wooster, said in a released statement. “We considered every option and pursued a route to make state government more effective, reconfiguring the allocation of scarce resources rather than raising taxes. Tax increases would have been a quick answer without a real solution, hurting middle-class and lower-income families the most.”

Unhappy Democrats

And also as you would expect, Democrats are not happy with the changes.

“Today’s proposed changes to the state budget continue the trend of increased spending while further devastating Ohio’s schools and local communities,” Minority Leader Armond Budish, a Democrat from the Cleveland area, said in a released statement. “It’s clear that the Republican agenda for Ohio is to give tax breaks to their friends while balancing this budget on the backs of middle class families, our oldest and most disabled citizens and our children. Not one change made today helps to create jobs. In fact, more jobs will be lost as a result of changes in the Commercial Activity Tax. And this Republican budget continues their attack on worker’s rights to collectively bargain.”

The chamber is expected to act on the budget bill in coming days, with weeks of hearings yet to come in the Ohio Senate.

But the budget isn’t the only matter on the Republican-controlled General Assembly’s agenda. A number of other bills likely will receive attention during the next two months, including:

Prison reform: House Republicans stripped sentencing reform provisions out of the two-year budget, leaving those issues in a separate bill that is moving through the Legislature.

Proponents, including Gov. Kasich, say reform is needed to release certain nonviolent offenders from prison and place them into community-based programming, lowering the number of people in state institutions while providing a better avenue to ensure those convicted of crimes change their ways.

Pensions: Lawmakers also are moving on separate legislation to reform public employee pension systems. Provisions related to public employers contribution rates into the five pension systems were pulled from substitute budget bill unveiled in the House last week.

JobsOhio: The new nonprofit has been created, but lawmakers have to offer additional changes to state law to transition economic development programs currently housed in the Ohio Department of Development into JobsOhio.

Abortion: You would expect the GOP-controlled House and Senate to do something with a handful of abortion-related bills, including one banning the procedure within weeks of conception.

One of those bills was slated for a floor vote but pulled prior to lawmakers’ spring break, with House leadership saying they needed time to work out potential legal issues.

Marc Kovac is The Vindicator’s Statehouse correspondent. Email him at mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at OhioCapitalBlog.