Conservatives pleased, others not, with Ohio’s budget

By J.D. Davidson
The Center Square

Conservative tax and policy groups continue to applaud an Ohio budget that moves the state to a flat tax and reduces social spending, but some health care and children’s advocates say it ignores typical Ohio families.

Both the Senate and House debated throughout Wednesday afternoon and into the evening before Republicans eventually passed the budget for the next two years.

Now it’s in the hands of Gov. Mike DeWine, who can either sign it, veto it or use a line-item veto to remove specific areas.

Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, said the move to a flat tax reduces tax burdens by $1 billion across the state. 

"The first thing moms and dads see on payday is the often disappointing amount of taxes taken out of their hard work," McColley said. "I'm proud of the progress we have been able to make over the last decade by reducing the overall number of income tax brackets from nine down to one."

The budget also tries to deal with rising property tax rates by abolishing any new emergency or new replacement levies from appearing on ballots and requiring any ballot issue to be more transparent for voters.

Also, any school district with more than 40% carryover in revenue from year to year would have to return that money to taxpayers. Republicans said the state’s 611 public school districts had a combined $10.5 billion in cash carryover in the last fiscal year.

“The budget that passed both chambers of the Ohio General Assembly contains a lot of good, pro-growth policies – a flat income tax, closing tax loopholes, reining in Medicaid, and smart property tax reforms,” said Greg Lawson, a research fellow at The Buckeye Institute. “There is always more to do, including bolder student-focused education reforms as well as local government reforms, but this budget keeps Ohio moving forward.”

But others are concerned about what is not in the budget, like less funding for the state’s program to reduce tobacco use, which the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network says will lead to 500 more children becoming addicted to smoking.

“It is unthinkable that the Legislature slashed funding for the Ohio Department of Health’s Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation Program,” said Leo Almeida, the Government Relations director of the organization. “The governor proposed an increase in funding to $10 million per year, but the House and Senate chose to cut funding to $6 million annually. The legislative funding cuts are in addition to recent federal cuts to the program.”

Groundwork Ohio President and CEO Lynanne Gutierrez said the budget focused on wealthy Ohioans rather than babies and children.

“Despite overwhelming evidence, bipartisan support, and the voices of families across the state, Ohio policymakers turned their backs on babies, young children, and working families – rejecting the Governor’s budget and instead delivering tax breaks to the wealthy,” Gutierrez said. “This budget is a failure to meet the moment and a clear net loss for Ohio’s future. Our children deserved better, and we won’t stop fighting for them.”

The budget also included provisions that recognizes only two sexes in state law and forces libraries to keep any materials related to sexual orientation or gender identity separate from other materials.

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