Published: 2009-08-04 23:00:16
Author: Aaron Marshall, Reginald Fields and Edith Starzyk | Plain Dealer | July 13, 2009
COLUMBUS -- Closing ranks behind Gov. Ted Strickland, Democratic lawmakers provided the muscle in both legislative chambers Monday to pass a $51 billion state budget for the next two years.
A 10-day budget standoff that had threatened to shut down state government was cleared up at lightning speed Monday. The compromise was announced around noontime and by nightfall the agreement had passed both the House and Senate.
The deal, negotiated during the state's worst economic climate in decades, allows racetrack slots, makes tiny cuts in primary and secondary education, and lifts a college tuition freeze while cutting billions in state spending for fiscal 2010 and 2011. The vote in the Democratically controlled House was 54-44, with only one Republican -- Canton Rep. Scott Oelslager -- crossing the aisle.
In
the Senate, dominated by Republicans, the vote was 17-15, with five
Republicans voting in favor: Senate President Bill Harris and the rest
of his leadership team, as well as Finance Committee Chairman John
Carey.
That means that just six of the 67 Republican lawmakers in both chambers voted for the compromise that their leaders had negotiated. Many Republicans said they couldn't support a plan that expanded gambling with slot machines at Ohio's seven horse racetracks.
The budget now moves to the Democratic governor's desk for his signature, most likely Wednesday. As a backup, lawmakers passed a third temporary budget to keep state government operating until the deal becomes final.
While higher education took a $170 million cut, public libraries, food banks, mental health services, kinship care programs and state-supported child care avoided more severe cuts Strickland proposed last month.
It was impossible to find anyone who was excited about the Faustian bargains that had to be struck to pass the document.
"I told my caucus this budget was more like a shotgun wedding, where we had responsibilities to meet," said Carey, a southern Ohio Republican.
Sen. Dale Miller, a Cleveland Democrat, said: "This budget is what we can achieve with this group of players, this set of decisions and this set of economic circumstances."
State Rep. Ron Amstutz, a Wooster Republican, said "transparency has been compromised" because lawmakers only had hours to look over the two-year plan before voting.
He said the budget is balanced with more than $7 billion in one-time money including federal stimulus dollars and slots revenue that he called "a long odds gamble."
Rep. Todd Book, a southern Ohio Democrat, said the slots revenue numbers were "solid" and will create jobs and keep Ohio gamblers inside the state's borders.
Gayle Channing Tenenbaum, a leader in a coalition called the Campaign to Protect Ohio's Future, which had called on lawmakers to raise taxes to fund services, said the budget was a terrible deal that shredded the state's safety net for its most vulnerable citizens.
"I think it's a sad day for Ohioans," she said. "The ramifications of these decisions will impact the lives of children and seniors for years to come. People will be hurt and people will go without basic treatment."
Miller said he was concerned about a change in how nursing homes are funded. The industry, which has one of the most powerful lobbying groups, will see a cut of $184 million from 2009 levels, but will see a jump in the per diem rates paid by the state.
Instead of billing the government for services such as oxygen and physical and occupational therapy, medical equipment such as custom wheelchairs, over-the-counter medication and transportation, nursing homes will pay for the services out of the per diem increase. The change, intended to draw more federal matching dollars, could create a "perverse incentive" for nursing home operators not to offer the services, Miller said.
"I think it's going to be a very serious problem," Miller said. "My understanding is that the increase amounts to only about half of what's needed and whatever services they don't provide just falls to their bottom line."
The budget agreement has come none too soon for the people running local universities.