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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2009 > November > 18 > Entry
Senate GOP offers own budget-balancing plan; Dems say no
Senate Republicans have offered their own plan to fill a $851 million hole in the state budget but Senate Democrats rejected it and their votes are needed.
Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, said on Wednesday, Nov. 18, that the plan is aimed at winning approval not just in the GOP-controlled Senate but from Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and in the Democratic-controlled House.
Senate Minority Leader Capri Cafaro, D-Hubbard, categorically rejected it in a prepared statement:
“We respect the work the majority caucus has done so far. But, it is in conflict with our core values and counts on money that can’t be relied on.
“The Senate Democratic Caucus is unified in opposition to the substitute budget plan offered today by Senate Republicans. We remain united in support of HB 318 as passed by the Ohio House of Representatives.”
Senate Republicans appeared to have given up on trying to pass their plan on Wednesday. The full Senate, which met earlier, won’t meet Wednesday night, Maggie Ostrowski, spokeswoman for Harris, announced in an e-mail about 5:45 p.m. However, the Senate Finance Committee was scheduled to meet Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. to continue discussing efforts to fill the budget hole.
The House earlier passed the plan offered by Strickland, House Bill 318.
That plan called for delaying for two years a 4.2 percent cut in state income taxes, the last in a five-year series of income tax cuts. That would solve the current budget hole. The GOP plan goes beyond that to provide long-term help to the budget problems, said Harris.
The Senate GOP plan would come up with about $560 million by allowing one-third of the scheduled income tax reduction to go into effect but freezing two-thirds of it.
It also would take money from other sources, including $200 million in casino licensing fees.
The constitutional amendment approved by voters on Nov. 3 to permit four Ohio casinos calls for using the $200 million from licensing fees for job training and workforce development. The GOP plan says that the $200 million would be transferred into the state’s general fund “to offset current regional job program expenditures.”
The GOP plan also projects getting $10 million from oil and gas drilling at Salt Fork State Park in eastern Ohio. “
Other sources of funds in the GOP plan include:
*$50 million in savings at state prisons from sentencing reforms.
*$30 million from the Housing Trust Fund
*$30 million from liquor profits
Republicans hold 21 of 33 Senate seats but only about five GOP votes are expected for the plan so all 12 Senate Democrats would have to go along for it to pass.
Sen. Fred Strahorn, D-Dayton, was one of the Senate Democrats who was opposed.
“We still have a lot to talk about,” Strahorn said.
Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, said the GOP plan is better than what Strickland and the House supported because it leaves intact some of the tax cut. It’s important that Ohio send out the message that it’s friendly to business.
Also, Husted said the Senate GOP plan has two parts that have been priorities for Strickland- sentencing reform to save money at prisons and construction reform to save money on state building projects.
Both those proposals get at “long-term (budget) structural problems” while the tax cut freeze alone only solves a temporary problem, said Husted.
Bill Faith, executive director of the Coalition for Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, blasted the plan to take $30 million from the Housing Trust Fund. He called it “outrageous” and said the money is needed to help the homeless.
“It’s the wrong thing to do at the wrong time,” said Faith.
According to Faith’s office, the Ohio Housing Trust Fund, established in 1990, is a state funding source for services related to affordable housing and homelessness.
In 2004-2005, the Ohio legislature created a permanent, dedicated funding stream for the OHTF through an increase in county recordation fees.
For the last several years, the HTF was capped at $53 million/year, the remainder of which went to the state’s General Fund. Currently, only $35 million in revenue has been generated because of lost fees due to the housing crisis.
Harris, the Senate president, said Republicans are holding in reserve a “plan B,” which is believed to include much less of what Strickland wanted, but declined to provide details.
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