Budget Fails Ohioans, Recklessly Underfunds Children, Public Education, Medicaid, Property Tax Relief

COLUMBUS – State Rep. Sean Patrick Brennan (D-Parma) this week voted “NO” on the state operating budget, House Bill (HB) 96, because it arbitrarily and recklessly slashes critical state funding areas while failing to benefit hard-working Ohioans. Rather than provide real and meaningful support to Ohio’s citizens, this budget dismantles the constitutional and bipartisan fair school funding formula and authorizes a $600 million handout to billionaires to build a new Browns stadium outside of Cleveland amidst opposition by local leaders.

“As someone who is always seeking bipartisan solutions to the issues we are dealing with at the statehouse, I am disappointed at this point in the budgeting process that this goal has not been achieved. Prioritizing an unvetted billion-dollar loan to subsidize one of the wealthiest professional sports leagues on earth over Ohio’s children, hard-working middle class, and senior citizens is heartbreaking, but I remain hopeful that as the budget moves through the process, that we can find common ground that meets the needs of Ohio’s nearly 12 million residents,” said Rep. Brennan.

Supporters of the spending plan are promoting a fiscally irresponsible $60 billion-plus (General Revenue Fund) state operating budget that will cost Ohioans more and fail to meet Ohio’s most pressing needs. HB 96 cuts key investments from what Governor Mike DeWine proposed in childcare, public schools, public libraries and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, Medicaid,  affordable housing, clean drinking water, pediatric cancer research,  lead abatement funding, food assistance, free eye glasses to poor children, and programs that save the lives of mothers and their babies. It also fails to provide substantive and sustained property tax relief; makes future school levies more likely and the collective bargaining rights of workers; and ignores the will of voters by reducing the amount of marijuana sales tax revenue returned to local host communities and removes Ohioan’s ability to elect their state school board representatives.

Some of the most damaging provisions found in HB 96 include: 

• Foregoing Fair School Funding: Dismantling the bipartisan, constitutional, fair school funding formula that was created by education experts and passed by this legislature to fund our children’s public school education. Around 90% of Ohio’s school age children attend their local public school.
   
• Forcing Schools to Put More Property Tax Levies on the Ballot: Inexplicably limiting public school districts from carrying over more than 30% of reserve funds from the previous fiscal year in their operating budget, an arbitrary and unvetted cap, and stripping funds from the district if reserves exceed the cap. This will force local districts to recklessly spend down cash reserves or lose the funding, which will result in public districts needing to rely more heavily on local levies more often at a time when Ohio is the most levied state in the nation. 
• No Real Property Tax Relief: Failing to provide real property tax relief for the thousands of Ohioans who have reached out to their lawmakers asking them to act. Instead, the proposal is a fake and unvetted scheme that will actually raise Ohioans property tax bills and punish public schools for responsible financial planning, forcing more levies at a time when homeowners’ tax bills are already too high.
• Fewer Childcare Slots to Support Working Ohioans: Slashes the Governor’s proposed expansion of childcare eligibility to Ohio’s hardest working families, which means more families and children will leave the state and many that stay will not be able to enter the workforce due to childcare needs. The governor proposed addressing the childcare crisis that Ohio families are facing by increasing access to childcare for 30,000 kids, helping tens of thousands of parents pursue better jobs and stabilize their families, and this House budget contains funding for 20,000 fewer children. The Ohio Chamber of Commerce estimates that more than $5 billion in economic growth is being lost each year due to Ohio’s lack of adequate childcare.
   
• Risking Medicaid Expansion for nearly 800,000 Ohioans: Makes it easier to kick 770,000 Ohioans off Medicaid by implementing a mandatory trigger to withdraw from the Medicaid expansion if there is even a $1 decrease in federal share reimbursement to the program, including individuals living with disabilities and residents receiving treatment for mental health crises and drug addiction among many others. If the trigger occurs, many hospitals will be at risk for immediate closure, especially in rural communities, because Medicaid expansion covers a large portion of patients served. Ohioans will be less likely to seek preventative care without insurance coverage, ultimately increasing emergency room visits and uncompensated care costs to our healthcare system overall. This affects all of us.
   
• Cuts to Public Libraries: Reduces public library funding from what libraries currently receive in State funding by $40M in FY '26 when compared to projected FY '25. The budget cuts also amount to a nearly $100 million funding cut compared to the Governor’s proposal. The Public Library Fund was eliminated, which has funded Ohio’s libraries for nearly one-hundred years, and was replaced with a funding method that will only lead to a cut in funding in future years.
   
• Rolls Back Will of the Voters on Marijuana Funding: Voters overwhelmingly passed Issue 2 to allocate substantial tax revenue from cannabis sales to the local host communities. The budget cuts that funding by 44% and ends it after 5 years, sending the remainder of the money to the state budget instead of supporting our local governments.
• Cuts to Clean Water Programs: Cuts $120 million (nearly 45% of funding) from H2Ohio which is a successful program to clean up our waterways, address algal blooms and protect our drinking water. H2Ohio also supports local communities to make critical water infrastructure upgrades to protect against lead and forever chemicals contamination. Recent polling shows that 75% of Ohioans support programs funded by H2Ohio, yet this budget cuts popular and widely supported programs that protect the health and wellbeing of our people and our water sources. 
   
• Attacks on Collective Bargaining and Organized Labor: Attacks unions and collective bargaining rights which will negatively affect their working conditions.  
   
• Putting the State’s Credit on the Line for $600 million to Billionaire Browns’ Owners but Doing Nothing for Food Banks: The budget still includes the state fronting $600 million to secure bonds to build a new Cleveland Browns stadium in a suburb of Cleveland, which would move the stadium from its downtown location, which is opposed by local leaders and ultimately yields a price tag of $1.3 billion once interest is accrued. 
   

HB 96 passed the Ohio House of Representatives by a vote of 60-39 Wednesday. It now heads to the Ohio Senate for further consideration.