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Ohio House OKs $1.57B stimulus plan
The measure, which aims to create jobs and keep young people in Ohio, includes a change in financing that Strickland doesn't like.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
COLUMBUS — A $1.57 billion, bipartisan economic stimulus plan aimed at creating thousands of jobs, building roads and bridges and keeping more talented young people in Ohio cleared the Ohio House with ease on Wednesday, May 21.
The plan — crafted jointly by Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, and Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland — now goes to the Senate, where approval is expected next week.
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"This is the right plan at the right time," said Rep. Jay Hottinger, R-Newark, finance committee chairman.
Part of the money requires voter approval. The House voted 88-9 for House Bill 554 that details the plan, and 95-2 for House Joint Resolution 5 that puts a bond issue on the November ballot. The bond issue would raise $400 million for the Clean Ohio program — $200 million to preserve farmland and green space and $200 million to clean up polluted brownfields and prepare them for redevelopment.
A change the House made in a second part of the financing — using excess revenue from the Ohio Turnpike to back $200 million in highway bonds — met with disapproval from Strickland.
The House change is aimed at limiting the amount of turnpike revenue to $100 million and requiring that turnpike money be used for projects in northern Ohio near the toll road.
Additional money for this part of the financing would come from fees businesses pay for advertising on blue signs near highway exits.
"He's against diverting public works money to one part of the state to the exclusion of the rest of Ohio," said Keith Dailey, Strickland's spokesman. Strickland will work to change this in the Senate, Dailey said.
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