Ohio Senate passes $55.7B state budget

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

The Ohio Senate passed a state budget Wednesday night that would spend more money on high-performing schools and in-home care for the elderly, while making sweeping policy changes such as banning abortions in publicly funded hospitals.

The Republican-controlled chamber voted 23-10 on the $55.7 billion spending blueprint after about six hours of debate. It would set aside $115 mil- lion more for schools, $100 million more for local governments, and $15 million more for home-based nursing care. That’s the result of more optimistic state revenue estimates.

Later Wednesday, the House voted 97-0 to reject the Senate changes to the budget. The procedural move is customary. It allows a group of state lawmakers from both Republican-led chambers to hash out the differences between the two plans in what’s called a conference committee.

Senate President Tom Niehaus said he anticipated legislators would start the compromise talks next week.

Sticking points are likely to include whether legislators’ base salaries should be cut by 5 percent and what a merit-based pay system for teachers should look like.

The deadline for lawmakers to pass the budget is June 30. A new fiscal year begins July 1.

Niehaus, R-New Richmond, said he expected the Legislature will meet that deadline.

The Senate’s school funding increases still don’t fully restore proposed cuts to current funding levels that will occur with the expiration of nearly $1 billion in federal stimulus money. But high-performing school districts could receive even more state money — $17 per student — through a new reward program for schools that are rated excellent or higher.

Lawmakers have said the state faces an estimated $8 billion budget shortfall, which has forced them to make deep cuts in spending. The liberal think-tank Innovation Ohio has put the deficit at closer to $5 billion.

Disputes over the figure came up multiple times in the Senate’s debate over the bill.

Senate Finance Chairman Chris Widener defended the $8 billion estimate, saying that’s the number state experts have told him. He said the cuts in state aid to local governments and state programs in the spending plan were difficult but necessary because of the hole.

“We’re starting to do what your family has to do and what our small businesses have to do, what every Ohioan has to do when there’s less revenue — you have to make priorities,” said Widener, R-Springfield. “You have to begin to turn your family, your small business — or in our case the state — in a different direction.”