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Tuesday, June 12, 2007
State budget shortfall looms
Associated Press
Port Clinton News Herald
COLUMBUS — A looming revenue shortfall that could top $240
million threatened today to cloud state budget negotiations thus far so
genial that one lawmaker suggested a chorus of “Kumbaya.”
The $53.4 billion spending blueprint cleared the Senate Finance Committee
unanimously after garnering support from both parties for its priority
items. Among its highlights are: a two-year tuition freeze at state colleges
and universities, property tax breaks for disabled Ohioans and those over
65, expanded health coverage for children and more money for pre-school and
after-school care.
Though the lag between tax revenue projections and collections has not yet
been finalized, lawmakers and Gov. Ted Strickland agreed that figuring out
what spending to cut to fill the gap will be a key challenge heading into
talks on the final budget compromise.
The Senate’s version of the budget, a bill that will fund state operations
for the two years beginning July 1, calls for spending $1.3 billion more
than the House version.
“I almost feel like we should hold hands, sing ‘Kumbaya,’ and kiss one
another,” said Sen. Ray Miller, a Columbus Democrat, during today’s hearing
on final budget changes in the Senate.
After a vote by the full Senate on Wednesday — expected to be unanimous, as
it was in the House — Republican lawmakers who control the House and Senate
have until the end of the month to mesh their spending plans and conform the
final product to the adjusted bottom line.
Senate Minority Leader Teresa Fedor, a Toledo Democrat, had an early
suggestion for making ends meet, though: Rein in state-funded charter
schools and send the money spent on them back to public schools. A former
public school teacher, Fedor vowed that her caucus would make the issue a
focal point of the final talks.
Another money-generating option that was being discussed heading into the
last 18 days of budget negotiations was to limit Strickland’s proposed
across-the-board property tax exemption for senior citizens and the disabled
to only low- and middle-income people.
Such a change would save the state at least $118 million a year, according
to a recent Policy Matters Ohio study put together by the Institute on
Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank in
Washington, D.C.
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