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Ohio budget crisis forces food banks to scramble

The new fiscal year begins today with a temporary budget that hurts funding.

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By William Hershey, Staff Writer 11:16 PM Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Today, July 1, is the first day of Ohio’s new fiscal year, but Lisa Hamler-Fugitt isn’t popping any corks to celebrate.

Instead, she’s worried about how the state budget crisis will hamper her ability to fill 12 food banks around the state with apples, tomatoes, eggs and everything else hungry, low-income families need to make it through tough times.

“I don’t know whether at this point to scream or cry,” said Hamler-Fugitt, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks. Her group relies on state funding.

Lost in the political hammering going on between Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and Republican Senate President Bill Harris over video slot machines at Ohio racetracks is that some Ohio agencies will start feeling the sting from the state’s budget woes today.

On Tuesday, Strickland signed a seven-day state budget while negotiations continue on a permanent two-year spending plan. The budget expires July 7 and legislation for a second seven-day budget has been prepared.

The seven-day budget funds most state agencies at 70 percent of current spending levels, but there are no cuts to debt service and big-ticket budget items including K-12 education, higher education and Medicaid that make up from two-thirds to three-fourths of spending.

Directors of programs that don’t fit into one of those exempt categories are forced to scramble.

Hamler-Fugitt’s contracts for food all expired at the end of the fiscal year Tuesday. She’s hustling to put food on tables around the state today. The Foodbank in Dayton and the Second Harvest Food Bank of Clark, Champaign and Logan Counties in Springfield are part of the statewide operation.

Hamler-Fugitt’s bigger worry was how the food program will fare if the conference committee trying to put together a permanent two-year state budget goes along with Strickland’s proposal to cut the $7 million the House and Senate versions of the budget added to food bank programs.

That would amount to 35 million lost meals, she said. And Regina Estep, spokesman for Catholic Social Services in Dayton, said that cut comes at a time when demand is up. “We are seeing between 150 and 200 new families that have never visited a food pantry (and) are now asking for food assistance,” said Estep.

Harris and Strickland are battling over whether the Legislature must authorize expanded gambling at racetracks, which Strickland says will raise an additional $933 million over two years. However, the slots proposal would fill only part of the $3.2 budget hole. The rest would come from $2.4 billion in cuts, including those to the food banks and other programs affecting thousands of Ohioans.

For example, $18 million would be chopped from treatment to alcohol and drug addicts, affecting more than 11,000 people, according to Stacey Frohnapfel-Hasson, spokeswoman for the Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities.

The governor also has proposed cutting $11.5 million for public preschool programs, which would affect about 2,373 students.

Unless Harris and Strickland reach agreement on slots, more cuts may be necessary.

“I am praying on behalf of hungry Ohioans that we will have food for them,” said Hamler-Fugitt. “In a time of unprecedented demand, we’re going to have less food to distribute.”

Dayton Daily News Staff Writer Lynn Hulsey and Springfield News-Sun staff writer Robert Pierce contributed to this report

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