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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2009 > December > 10 > Entry
Senate President Harris fires back in budget dispute
Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, on Thursday, Dec. 10, through his spokeswoman, responded to charges that the Senate GOP plan to fill an $851 million state budget hole is “absurd” and “outrageous.”
House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, made the charges in a meeting with the Dayton Daily News editorial board.
“The fact is that there aren’t the votes in the Senate to pass the Governor’s and Speaker’s tax increase,” Maggie Ostrowski, Harris’ spokeswoman said in an e-mail.
Senate Republicans consider the plan by Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, approved by the House, to delay state income tax cuts for two years a tax increase, which Budish and Strickland deny. Senate Republicans want to add provisions such as an overhaul of state construction projects.
Also, the state wouldn’t be in the current situation if Strickland and Budish “had been willing to take the VLT (video lottery terminal) issue to the ballot as Sen. Harris suggested, not to mention that the two of them pushed for a school funding plan which has already cut schools and placed new unfunded mandates on districts.
“So what they are advocating so ardently for is a temporary patch on a mediocre school funding plan,” Ostrowski added.
Harris has said he would provide Republican votes to pass the “tax increase” if Democrats in the Senate “will also do the right thing and pass reforms that will provide long term savings for the state - construction reform and sentencing reform. This will help to avoid a tax increase in the future and will save school districts, higher education and any other entity that sponsors public construction projects significant dollars,” Ostrowski said.
She said it was much easier “to blame Republicans,rally teachers’ unions and ultimately stick the taxpayers with the entire bill, rather than sit down to work in bipartisan fashion with the Senate to do something for the long-term fiscal health of our state and taxpayers.”
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By drunken orangetree
December 12, 2009 1:43 PM | Link to this
Cut taxes, lose jobs. What else do the cons have to offer?