Governor, lawmakers face budget backlash

Strickland, and the Republicans seem to be pointing fingers as cuts loom.

State budget plan stalls

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By William Hershey, Staff Writer 11:35 PM Sunday, June 28, 2009

Writing an interim state budget is simple.

Calculating the political fallout is tougher.

Dennis Morgan, the state’s legislative budget officer when the state’s last interim budget was in effect in 1991, said the first thing to do is put aside money for debt service to assure lenders that the state will keep up on the payments on money it has borrowed through issuing bonds.

Next, lawmakers must figure out how long they want the budget to last. If it’s a month, they can appropriate one-twelfth of what Ohio’s spending this year, Morgan said.

If they don’t think Ohio will have as much money in the new year, they can appropriate 85 or 90 percent of that one-twelfth, Morgan said.

The state’s new fiscal year begins Wednesday, July 1. It’s unlikely Gov. Ted Strickland will be able to sign a new permanent budget by then.

The governor and lawmakers now appear likely to adopt an interim budget of no more than seven days, said Keary McCarthy, spokesman for House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood.

If they reach agreement on a permanent two-year budget that quickly, political fallout probably would be limited, said political scientist John Green.

“If it goes on much longer, that could be a problem for everybody,” said Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. The fallout would come if Ohioans begin to notice things like cutbacks at state parks or longer waits at state agencies, he said.

Because the state budget Strickland and lawmakers are likely to finally agree on is expected to include cuts in areas such as parks, mental health and children’s services, that fallout could come anyway.

Strickland’s plan to close a $3.2 billion budget hole includes bringing in $933 million from video slots at racetracks in addition to $2.4 billion in cuts.

In anticipation of fallout from the cuts and budget delays, Democrat Strickland and his Republican adversaries appeared to be setting the table for the blame game Sunday, June 28.

“Senate Republicans refuse to support my balanced budget framework that invests in our schools while avoiding a tax increase on Ohio families and businesses,” Strickland said in a prepared statement. “We have heard the objections, but no solutions.”

In an e-mail, Ohio Republican Chairman Kevin DeWine said Strickland has only himself to blame. Strickland last February proposed a “reckless, unsustainable budget” that wasn’t brought under control until the Republican-controlled Senate passed its version, DeWine said.

“The Democrats can try to spin their tired talking points about Republicans lacking leadership and ideas, but the record shows it’s Republicans who are the ones leading Ohio right now,” DeWine added.

Contact this reporter  at (614) 224-1608 or  

whershey@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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This is typical...The Govenor proposed a budget that was debt ridden and emptied the rainy day fund as well as spent the Fed's Stimulus monies. By law he is required to propose a "balanced" budget. The House then passed a debt ridden budget, again against law. Now they want to blame GOP for their shortfalls. Wake up Ohio..Dem's are breaking bank and adding debt for our grandkids.

L Berry
9:47 AM, 6/29/2009

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I never did hear the gov....say a word about cutting his budget or salary to help the crises? He shouldn't pick on people that can read at Libarys if he is going to worry about backlash.

Jim

James Newman
6:11 AM, 6/29/2009

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Come on Senate Republican's we need this bill on the budget passed. For some reason you do not care about saving our job's and creating new onr's. The $$$$$ millon's of dollars to build new casino's need to be voted on so the investor's know their money invested is safe. Nationally all the stat's with racino's brought in more tax money than projected. We need this to get done. Thank's Gov. Strickland and no thank's Senate Republican's

John
2:54 AM, 6/29/2009

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