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General Assembly gets back to work
Legislators will consider $1.7 billion bond issue to add 80,000 jobs, energy bill and capital budget.
Monday, March 31, 2008
COLUMBUS — Thanks to certain senators from New York, Illinois and Arizona, the legislature from Ohio hasn't made many headlines this year.
But that could start to change this week. Legislators return from their spring break on Tuesday, April 1, ready to consider a capital improvements budget and hoping to finish up work on a plan to re-regulate Ohio's electricity market and promote the use of alternative fuels.
Extras
House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, and Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, aren't ready to go along with Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland's plan to put a $1.7 billion bond issue on the November ballot. That could force Strickland to authorize the gathering of the more than 400,000 signatures needed to put the proposal before voters. Negotiations continue between the governor and legislative leaders.
Meanwhile, lawmakers probably will have to wait until at least late April before the capital budget is ready to consider, said Keith Dailey, Strickland's spokesman.
That budget generally is a plan for building and remodeling schools, colleges and universities, prisons, other public buildings and includes money for Miami Valley projects.
This year it also will include changes in the current $52.3 billion two-year operating budget that Strickland seeks to plug a projected $733 million hole in that budget.
Strickland proposed his energy plan last August and it whizzed through the Senate on Oct. 31. It's been stuck in the House since. Husted said he hopes to have it passed before the term ends in June.
Strickland's $1.7 billion "Building Ohio Jobs" plan calls for the state to borrow the money for projects that Strickland says would create 80,000 jobs. The money would be used in areas including advanced and renewable energy projects, roads, the biomedical industry and downtown development.
Husted and Harris said they support creating jobs but not borrowing $1.7 billion to do it. "The governor would be willing to not only listen to the Speaker and others but to work closely with them," said Dailey.
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