Ohio’s roughly $100 billion-per-fiscal-year budget, which must pass before a July 1 state constitutional deadline, is expected to be released publicly Tuesday and approved by lawmakers the following day.
Almost all details beyond that are known only by a select few appointees of the state House and Senate, who have been waging what sources have described as marathon negotiation sessions that remained incomplete as of Monday afternoon.
The House and Senate budget bills – the primary legislative vehicles that fund schools, colleges, prisons, health care for 3 million Medicaid clients and more – share some provisions but split elsewhere. The House version (5,048 pages) calls for an extra $1.4 billion over two years in spending beyond the bill the Senate passed (5,648 pages).
Signal Ohio spoke to lawmakers, lobbyists, advocates and others involved in the process. Few can speak with certainty about what will be in the budget, and fewer still are willing to discuss what they do know publicly. Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, is in “no comment mode” at this phase of budget talks, he said Monday in response to a question about a Senate proposal to cut Ohio’s top income tax bracket.
“You know, we continue to make our position on different issues, many different issues, clear to the Senate and to the House,” DeWine said. “We appreciate them listening. I think it would be not particularly helpful for me to comment, because I don’t know exactly what they’re going to come out with, particularly in regard to the [income tax].”
How the Ohio budget works
Republicans control 24 of 33 Senate seats and 65 of 99 House seats, meaning they wield total control of the legislative process. DeWine can veto any piece of the bill, but those vetoes can be overridden with a three-fifths vote in both chambers.
Lawmakers have recently overridden the governor’s vetoes on issues including blocking local flavored tobacco bans, access to gender affirming care for transgender children, and the state health department’s authority to issue emergency orders during a pandemic.
Legislative leaders have said they plan to vote out the budget Wednesday, though they scheduled an “as needed” session Thursday just in case.
‘The differences are black and white’
Several sources described income tax cuts proposed by the Senate as a major sticking point. The Senate’s proposal reduces income taxes for the roughly 1 in 5 Ohioans who earn more than $100,000 per year. This would mean almost all earners in Ohio pay the same 2.75% rate, as opposed to a progressive system where higher earners pay higher rates.
The reduction is estimated to cost $1.15 billion per year in lost revenue to the state and deliver a tax cut of at least $750 to individual taxpayers.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Jerry Cirino, a Lake County Republican and key negotiator for Senate Republicans, said in an interview Friday that “the differences are black and white.”
Cirino declined to discuss ongoing deliberations between the two chambers. His counterpart, House Finance Committee Chair Brian Stewart, a central Ohio Republican, didn’t return a phone call.
House Speaker Matt Huffman, a Republican from Allen County, has voted for several income tax cuts over the past two decades he has spent in office. However, he has cautioned against the Senate’s plan, stating that homeowners who are facing unusually steep property tax increases need the relief more than the financially comfortable.
Rep. Adam Bird, a Clermont County Republican who serves on Huffman’s leadership team, said that while he supports the income tax cut in principle, “timing is an issue for policy that always needs to be considered.”
But will it be in the budget? The conference committee between the two chambers meets at 3 p.m. Tuesday, and he’s “hopeful House members will have access to [a final version] maybe a couple of hours in advance.”
Browns stadium?
Between the House, Senate and DeWine, all proposed budgets provide about $600 million to the owners of the Cleveland Browns to build a new, domed stadium in Brook Park, a suburb of Cleveland.
The three differ over how to fund it. In general, DeWine wants to raise a tax on sports betting operators to pay for it; the House wants Ohio to issue bonds to finance the project; and the Senate wants to take money from a pot of $4.8 billion in Ohioans’ unclaimed funds managed by the state.
Sources, on and off the record, said they didn’t have any certainty about which idea would win out.
“The biggest thing in the House is the Browns thing, the biggest in the Senate is the tax cut,” said Rep. Ron Ferguson, a Jefferson County Republican who was one of only a few in his party to publicly oppose the proposal. “I’m expecting both of those to be in there, in some capacity.”
Sen. Kent Smith, a Euclid Democrat, said Monday morning he didn’t know what made the final cut of the budget. He was looking forward to an afternoon meeting with Senate Democratic staff. But his hopes were dashed.
“No updates of substance,” he said Monday afternoon.
Medicaid? Affordable housing?
Like lawmakers, lobbyists and advocates said they’re in the dark as deadlines near.
Amy Reigel, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, is tracking three small pieces of the budget. One would scramble the formula used to distribute the Ohio Housing Trust Fund, which is dedicated to bringing more affordable housing to Ohio. Another would create grant and loan programs for rural pockets of the state, and a third decreases a lead abatement effort within the state health department.
While she called herself optimistic, she said she doesn’t know what to expect Tuesday.
Both budgets agree on cuts to the state’s Medicaid program, which provides health insurance funded jointly by the state and federal government to lower income earners. Along with overall funding cuts compared to what the department requested, they give state officials more ability to deem applicants ineligible for coverage. For instance, both budgets end the state’s current policy of assuming that when a baby is deemed eligible, he or she remains insured by Medicaid until their fourth birthday.
Groundwork Ohio, a nonprofit organization focused on pro-child policy, lobbied against making this change and others.
“We have not heard anything about what to expect from the conference committee tomorrow,” said Groundwork spokeswoman Sara Loken.
Andrew Tobias contributed reporting.