43
Lawmakers and mayors decry opioid budget proposal
STRUTHERS
State representatives and mayors from the Mahoning Valley decried a provision in the state budget bill being considered this week that would extract $34 million over two years from communities with a municipal income tax and redirect that money to opioid addiction programming.
“The [state] Legislature doesn’t want to raise taxes for its priorities, but it wants local communities to sustain a cut, and then find the resources for your essential services from local residents,” said state Rep. John Boccieri of Poland, D-59th.
“I find that highly objectionable, especially with the fact that we have seen local government funds cut in half over the last five to six years in state budgets,” he said in a Monday news conference.
Boccieri suggested the money could come instead from the state’s $2.1 billion rainy-day fund.
The opioid addiction epidemic is “a crisis that is creating mass casualties across so many communities,” he said.
“If it’s not raining now, I don’t know when it would be,” he added.
“The local government [fund] really needs to be restored to what it was before it was cut in half,” said state Rep. Michele Lepore-Hagan of Youngstown, D-58th.
“Taking these revenues directly from cities that have local income taxes that are already involved in fighting the opioid addiction problem is counterproductive and will make our efforts even more challenging,” said Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally.
The proposed extraction would cost Youngstown about $100,000 per year over the next two years.
Youngstown has an annual general fund budget of about $40 million; and its 2.75 percent municipal income tax raises about $35 million a year.
Even though the proposed state extraction is small in the context of Youngstown’s budget, McNally noted that the city is already chipping in to fight the opioid crisis through the efforts of its police department.
Although the governor’s office typically doesn’t comment on specific legislative proposals, Emmalee Kalmbach, press secretary to Gov. John Kasich, said: “Ohio has put together the nation’s most comprehensive approach to fighting drug abuse and addiction.”
Kalmbach concluded: “Today, we’re spending $1 billion a year, and we have consistently looked to provide new tools to those on the front lines in our communities.”