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Kasich defends Medicaid expansion, still wants to expand tax reform
Last of a three-part series
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Gov. John Kasich is set to take the oath of office for his second term during a midnight swearing-in ceremony at the Statehouse on Jan. 12, followed by a public event the next day and a gala ball.
The latter will coincide with college football’s national championship game, which could take on an added significance if Ohio State is involved.
Asked about that potential conflict, the governor told an audience of business people in Columbus that the Buckeyes’ potential appearance won’t change his plans.
“No,” he answered. “We’ll have some big-screen TVs for you, but we’re not going to change how the state works.”
The football question was one of the lighter queries during Kasich’s year-end speech to chamber of commerce groups, where he also addressed a variety of topics, from Medicaid expansion to tax reform.
The governor continues to defend his expansion of Medicaid eligibility in the state, saying the move “saved lives,” led to better care for needy residents and freed resources for services for the mentally ill and addicted.
But Kasich said Medicaid and other welfare programs should not be considered “a way of life.”
“There are going to be some people who are never going to get off this,” he said. “And it’s frankly because they have problems that are so severe that [no one] in this room would deny them the ability to keep getting care because they just can’t make it any other way. But the biggest chunk of people, in fact, can get off.”
The state is pursuing a new model for providing government assistance to those in need, combining welfare offices with job training and related services to help those who can move off the public rolls.
Kasich and Republican legislative leaders said they will continue their focus on tax cuts, particularly for small businesses. That likely will include proposals to change the state’s commercial activity tax.
The governor said he would like to see more money stashed into the state’s rainy-day fund.
“One minute oil prices are up, the next minute oil prices are down, the market gets killed, the prices go up, the market goes up, China burps, the market goes down, the economy is slowed down,” he said. “Then you look at Russia, the ruble this and that. Everything is unpredictable. I don’t ever want Ohio to be in a position, barring some cataclysmic event, to not handle effectively the winds that come our way.”
Kasich has said repeatedly that he’ll push a higher tax on oil and gas produced via horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. He also said new regulations on the industry could come in the new year.
The governor also wants to find ways to reduce the cost of earning college degrees.
“Higher education in the course of my lifetime is going to dramatically change, because people are going to stop paying all of this money to these schools,” he said. “The cost of higher education is the fast-rising cost in America today. And you know why that is? Lack of leadership, an unwillingness to confront the cost challenges that we have in our schools. ... They’re going to have to change if they’re going to survive, in my opinion.”
On Energy Mandates
Earlier this year, Kasich signed into law SB 310, which freezes renewable energy and efficiency benchmarks for the next two years and creates a study committee that will have to offer recommendations for future energy-related law changes by September 2015.
Absent subsequent legislative action, the renewable energy and efficiency mandates in current law would restart in 2017.
The legislation stemmed from law changes enacted about six years ago requiring power companies to generate a certain percentage of their energy from renewable sources and to institute efficiency initiatives. Utilities are allowed to pass the costs of meeting the mandates onto their customers.