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$2.4B in cuts to budget hit colleges, Ohio workers, libraries and the poor

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By Laura A. Bischoff and William Hershey, Staff Writers Updated 7:51 AM Tuesday, July 14, 2009

COLUMBUS — Ohio leaders agreed to $2.4 billion in state budget cuts that spread the pain to college students, low-income families, state workers, library patrons and others.

The House and Senate both voted in favor of the $50.5 billion, two-year operating budget, but by small margins. Just one Republican in the House and five in the Senate voted with the majority.

House Finance Committee Chairman Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, said he estimates between 2,000 and 3,000 of the state’s 60,000 workers would lose their jobs.

The budget cuts would have been more devastating had the state not agreed to put video lottery terminals at Ohio’s seven horse racetracks to generate $933 million over two years for the state, Sykes said.

Human service providers issued dire warnings about how the cuts will shred Ohio’s safety net for the poor and disabled.

“We’re balancing the budget on the backs of the people who have the least to give,” said Joel Potts, executive director of Ohio Job and Family Services Directors Association.

There is less money for Ohioans on food stamps and Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor and disabled, and for disability assistance, Potts said.

Lisa Hamler-Fugitt of Ohio Association of Second Harvest Food Banks said, “We know these cuts will directly impact us, and more people will be in the food lines.”

The plan to extend a college tuition freeze for another two years got sacrificed. College students at community colleges as well as four-year institutions may see a 3.5 percent tuition hike in each of the next two years.

Library patrons flooded lawmakers’ offices with calls and e-mails protesting a proposed $227 million funding cut, which would be on top of the steep revenue decline libraries have already endured. As a result, legislative leaders lessened the blow to libraries, reducing the funding cut to $84.3 million over the two-year budget.

Lynda Murray of the Ohio Library Council called it an improvement but added, “Nobody can be happy about this budget.”