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No. 12                                                                    May 7, 1999

House Passes Separate Operating and Education Budgets

For the first time in history, the Ohio House passed separate budgets for education and general state operating expenses (HB 282 and HB 283). This change to separate budgets was called for by action of the last General Assembly. The change to separate budgets resulted in the House adding a bit here and there to some education programs in excess of Governor Taft's proposed budget and an slight increase to the Governor's called-for per pupil expenditure. In other words, the separate budget resulted in the House doing what it has historically done to the education budget.

The House did depart from the Governor's proposal in that it capped additional funds for capital projects for schools at $415 million of any budget surplus, leaving surpluses over that amount remaining in the Income Tax Reduction Fund. Governor Taft asked that such a capital earmark go as high as the surplus would allow.

The vote on the final education budget was 87-11, with eight Democrats and three Republicans voting against the measure.

The House also sent to the Senate for its consideration a two-year state operating budget, which includes funding for all other state general revenue and special revenue funded agency budgets. Though the measure was subject to disagreements, initiated by conservative GOP members, over whether the state should continue with possible temporary tax cuts or make such tax cuts, at some level, permanent, the final measure passed by a surprisingly large margin. The final vote was 92-6, with six GOP members dissenting.

Why the surprise? In the past, common wisdom held that the education portion of the budget engendered support for any budget that appeared on the floor of either chamber. To vote against the budget was to vote against education, a vote that was bound to be damaging politically. Thus, a separate budget, without the education lure, was thought to be a budget that lacked a lot of the traditional glue that pulled together "YES" votes for the measure. Thus, through the talent of House and Finance Committee leadership, the strange political math of a term-limited age, the budget flexibility of good economic times, the overblown estimate of that common wisdom, or some combination of all four, another eternal political truism of the Ohio General Assembly was officially put to rest on Thursday of this week.

But, take heart. Not all House traditions are dead. Representative Bob Netzley (R- Laura), in his last House budget vote due to term-limits, once again proudly voted "NO" on both HB 282 and HB 283. Bob, a beacon of consistency for almost all of the last nineteen budgets, has now set the unbreakable record for the most "NO" budget votes in history. Since 1961, when he first arrived at the Statehouse, Bob has voted "NO" on virtually all budgets, through Republican and Democratic administrations alike.

SENATE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, TECHNOLOGY & AEROSPACE, 11 a.m., South Hearing Rm.

SB 116 Y2K FUNDS (Armbruster) Creates a $20 million state grant program that will provide funding to local governments to cope with Year 2000 computer problems and makes an appropriation. (4th Hearing)

SENATE HIGHWAYS & TRANSPORTATION, After Session, North Hearing Rm.

SB 137 PORT AUTHORITIES (Oelslager) Comprehensively revises the powers and duties of port authorities. (2nd Hearing)

HOUSE HEALTH, RETIREMENT & AGING, 9:30 a.m., Rm. 017

HB 199 ALTERNATIVE PUBLIC PENSION (Cates) Creates an alternative retirement program for public employees covered by Ohio's state retirement systems. (7th Hearing)

HOUSE PUBLIC UTILITIES, 3 p.m., Rm. 017

HB 177 UTILITY SERVICES (Goodman) Prohibits any person from switching a consumer's provider of natural gas or public telecommunications service without first obtaining the consumer's verified consent in accordance with rules of the Public Utilities Commission. (2nd Hearing)

HB 310 9-1-1 SERVICE (Mead) Provides for enhanced wireless 9-1-1 and makes other changes. (1st Hearing)

HOUSE LOCAL GOVERNMENT & TOWNSHIPS, 4 p.m., Rm. 121

HB 267 FARMLAND PRESERVATION (Krebs) Requires the Director of Agriculture to be notified when land in an agricultural security area is to be appropriated by eminent domain and makes other changes. (3rd Hearing)

HB 298 SMOKING RULES (Schuler) Requires that any orders or rules enacted by a board of health related to smoking be adopted by the legislative authority of a municipal corporation or township before those orders or rules are effective within the boundaries of that political subdivision. (1st Hearing)

HB 303 UNFUNDED MANDATES (Buchy) Creates the Local Government Mandates Commission and makes other changes. (1st Hearing)

SB 31 PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEES (Latta) Requires the appointing authorities that appoint members of district public works integrating committees to appoint alternates for those members to act in their absence. (4th Hearing - Possible vote)

SENATE STATE & LOCAL GOVT. & VETERAN'S AFFAIRS, 5 p.m., South Hearing Rm.

HB 40 CONTRACT PREFERENCE (Jolivette) Requires certain political subdivisions to provide a preference, under specified circumstances, when comparing bids for the awarding of public improvement contracts. (1st Hearing)

HB 187 TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT (Olman) Refers to townships that have adopted the limited self-government form of township government as "limited home rule government" townships and makes other changes. (3rd Hearing)

SENATE WAYS & MEANS, 9 a.m., South Hearing Rm.