Budget plan cuts air-quality agency funding by 95%

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s two-year budget proposal would cut most funding for a decades-old agency that was created to help businesses follow Clean Air Act requirements but has been criticized by environmentalists who question why state money is used to help support new coal plants and other projects.

Kasich’s plan would slash money for the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority by 95 percent to about $924,000 in the first year and keep it at the reduced level in the second year. The authority also would stop getting money from general revenue under the proposal released last week.

Most of the authority’s funding is for the Ohio Coal Development Office, which would move to the state’s Department of Development and take some of that funding with it. Department spokeswoman Katie Sabatino said the office fits better in the agency’s energy-resources division, though it’s not clear how much coal office money it would spend.

Authority Director Mark Shanahan told The Columbus Dispatch his office won’t disappear but he’s not sure what the changes would mean for the role of the authority, which helps fund “clean coal” research and aids power companies in getting money for air-pollution filters.

It was created 40 years ago to help businesses comply with the 1970 Clean Air Act. Similar agencies were started in up to a dozen other states back then but have been dissolved or merged as the federal tax code restricted the breaks they could offer for pollution control equipment, but Ohio has used a broader definition for pollution controls and kept the agency going, Shanahan said.

The authority has helped businesses such as power companies issue billions of dollars in bond to reduce the cost of buying equipment such as air-pollution filters and scrubbers. It also took over the coal-focused office in 2003 and has devoted $46 million to research about coal use and pollution reduction, along with leading an effort to lure a coal- burning power plant.

That drew criticisms from environmentalists and others who oppose such projects.

“I don’t think it makes sense to use state or federal resources to subsidize these new projects,” said Sandy Buchanan, director of Ohio Citizen Action.