By SAMANTHA HENDRICKSON Associated Press/Report For America, and staff
COLUMBUS – The Republican-dominated Ohio Senate has passed its version of a two-year $85.8 billion budget plan, adding tax cuts and making changes that prove funding for a universal school voucher program and place the state’s
K-12 schools under the control of the governor instead of an elected board.
Spending cuts to childcare, public education, food banks and affordable housing are prompting Democrats and advocates in those fields to deem the budget “heartless.”
“This budget is a heaping pile of manure!” said Sen. Bill DeMora (D-Columbus). “By ramming these bills into a budget that is required to pass, we have done a grave disservice to the people of Ohio.
The bill transfers many of the powers of the state Board of Education, comprised primarily of elected members, to a restructured Department of Education answerable to a director appointed by the governor.
The budget would ban nearly all diversity and inclusion training requirements at public colleges and universities, prohibit faculty strikes and bar public universities from taking stances on “controversial” topics, such as abortion and climate policies.
The spending plan adds an additional $600 million in tax cuts to the House’s $2.5 billion.
“This plan puts $3.1 billion back in the hands of families and small businesses,” said Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima).
The budget reduces the number of tax brackets to only two over the biennium. Marginal tax rates will be 2.75% for Ohioans earning between $26,050 and $92,150 a year and 3.5% over that amount.
Ohioans making $26,050 or less pay no income taxes.
The bill’s critics say the tax cuts favor the wealthy at the expense of poor Ohioans and social programs.
“Ohio lawmakers have cut the income tax 12 times in the past 23 years. In that same time, Ohio’s economy has lagged the national average on any number of metrics, and our public services have been continually eroded,” said Guillermo Bervejillo, PhD, of Policy Matters Ohio.
The state’s annual sales tax holiday during the busy back-to-school shopping season will be expanded from one week to two.
Through the state’s Ed Choice voucher program a family of four earning $135,000 a year would be eligible for full scholarship — $6,165 for kindergarteners through eighth graders and $8,407 for high school students — while those earning more will receive amounts adjusted based on income, Huffman said.
The bill now heads back to the House.
If the House does not concur with the Senate’s changes, the bill will go to a conference committee.