Toledo
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GOP to follow Kasich
blueprint for budget talks
By Jim Provance
COLUMBUS — House Republicans are under pressure from local schools and
governments to ease their pain in the next two-year budget, but
proposed revisions that are expected Thursday will have to work within
the financial constraints already outlined by Gov. John Kasich.
There will be no revised revenue projections that might add more money
to the pot, and the chairman of the House Finance and Appropriations
Committee on Monday repeated there will be no tax increases or loophole
closings to raise more money.
“I’m somewhat surprised that the administration’s proposal worked us
out of the mess we’re in more quickly [than anticipated],” Rep. Ron
Amstutz (R., Wooster) said. “I anticipated probably a three-year or
maybe four-year workout …. Now there’s pain associated with this.”
The committee is expected to unveil changes to Mr. Kasich’s proposed
$55.5 billion, two-year budget on Thursday and then begin public
hearings with final votes planned in committee and on the House floor
next week. That would shift debate to the Senate.
A final spending plan must reach Mr. Kasich’s desk by the end of the
current fiscal year on June 30.
The budget must close a revenue shortfall calculated at $7.7 billion by
Mr. Kasich’s budget director, in part because of the current budget’s
heavy reliance on one-time monies like federal stimulus and tobacco
settlement dollars.
The plan proposes to sell off five state prisons, overhaul sentencing
guidelines to reduce prison population, refinance debt, allow drilling
for oil and gas in state parks and forests, turn over the state liquor
system to a new private economic development organization, and make
significant cuts to schools, local governments, libraries, nursing
homes, and a variety of state programs.
The committee is considering a proposal that would cap the deepest cuts
to individual schools at no more than 20 percent, a level seen most
often in suburban districts, such as Sylvania locally, that are
typically represented by Republicans in the General Assembly.
But that cap is expected to mean a redistribution of the amount of
school aid available, not a net increase in overall school subsidies.
A coalition of education organizations, including the Ohio School
Boards Association, has estimated that the net impact of the state cuts
to schools totals $3.1 billion. That counts the loss of federal
stimulus dollars as well as the accelerated impact of the loss of
revenue from a pair of business and utility taxes from the 2005
overhaul of Ohio’s tax structure.
Officials with education and social service organizations, however,
have called for a mix of tax increases and spending cuts to close the
gap.
Democrats have specifically called for another two-year delay in the
final 4.2 percent increment of a total 21 percent income tax cut
initiated in 2005.
“I think that additional revenue through slots, [video lottery
terminals] at racetracks, should be a priority,” said Rep. Matt
Szollosi (D., Oregon), the number-two House Democrat. “That would
realize over $800 million.
“A freeze of the fifth and final [income tax] cut would get you close
to $800 million,” Mr. Szollosi said. “That’s $1.6 billion toward the
budget deficit without raising income, business, or property taxes.
“I think the budget proposal is lopsided, and is being balanced on the
backs of working-class folks in the state who can least afford to
shoulder a greater percentage of the burden,” he said.
The committee is also re-examining Mr. Kasich’s proposal to require
teachers, police, firefighters, clerks, and all other state and local
public employees to increase the portion of their salaries that goes
toward paying for their pensions by 2 percentage points while
decreasing government’s share by the same amount. The goal is for both
to pay a matching 12 percent.
The administration has held this up as a major cost savings for schools
and local governments, but the pension funds have countered that this
would endanger the funds’ ability to meet their long-term pension and
health care obligations.
Several of the state’s five public pension funds have already proposed
increasing workers’ share of pension contributions as part of a reform
package moving separately through the General Assembly.
Read it at the Toledo Blade
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