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2008 MTV VMA show
$52.3B measure ready, waiting for Strickland's pen
Legislature's cooperation shows in near-unanimous vote for budget designed to help Ohio families.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
COLUMBUS — — The House and Senate on Wednesday approved and sent to Gov. Ted Strickland a $52.3 billion, two-year state budget, capping 31/2 months of unusual bipartisan cooperation.
The House vote was 96-1, with state Rep. Diana Fessler, R-New Carlisle, casting the "no" vote. The Senate vote was 33-0.
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Strickland must sign the budget, crafted by a House-Senate conference committee, before Sunday, the start of the fiscal year. He has the authority to line-item veto provisions to which he objects.
The Democratic governor praised the Republican-controlled legislature.
"I am proud to say we have a budget that delivers for Ohio families by focusing on issues that really matter to them," Strickland said.
Today, the governor begins a two-day statewide tour to discuss the budget, including a 5:30 p.m. Friday public meeting at the Sinclair Community College library. House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, will accompany him.
The budget includes Strickland's plan to provide property tax relief to all Ohio senior and disabled homeowners, major spending increases for higher education and expanded health care for children.
It also emphasizes STEM — science, education, technology and math — education, which rankled Fessler. She was absent when the House voted unanimously for its version of the budget. The Senate also approved its version unanimously.
The budget would establish five STEM schools for grades six through 12 and set up a $100 million college scholarship program for students in STEM subjects.
Fessler said the STEM emphasis amounted to a "redefinition of education and the loss of meaningful local control." Local school boards will be reduced to responding to how students are meeting "state approved expectations of business and industry," she said.
Husted, a leading STEM advocate, cited New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's book, "The World is Flat," outlining a competitive, global economy.
"This is a world is flat issue," Husted told reporters. "It's those who actually believe the world is flat versus those who understand it's metaphorically flat due to technology."
Other budget highlights:
• Two-year tuition freeze at public colleges and universities.
• Pilot program of vouchers of up to $20,000 for as many as 8,000 special education students to use at private schools.
• Expanding Medicaid health insurance eligibility so children in families making up to 300 percent of federal poverty level — $62,000 for a family of four — would qualify and letting higher income families buy into Medicaid if their children have health conditions that make them uninsurable.
• $11 million to help create jobs in and around Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
