By staff and wire reports
COLUMBUS – The COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 1,200 Ohioans and sickened more than 21,000.
It has shuttered businesses, thrown hundreds of thousands of people out of work and has robbed the state of millions of tax dollars, creating a projected budget shortfall, forcing Gov. Mike DeWine to take dramatic steps to meet the constitutional requirement that Ohio maintain a balanced budget.
DeWine is ordering $775 million in cuts over the final two months of the 2020 fiscal year, which ends June 30, saying the cuts are necessary now to avoid worse cuts down the road.
Decisions like this are extremely difficult, but are part of my responsibility, as your governor, to make. While we do not know what the coming months will hold, we do know that COVID-19 is here with us and will be here for quite some time.
— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) May 5, 2020
“We felt that these deeper cuts now would enable us to have a better chance of having the stability as we go through this next year,” DeWine said during his daily televised coronavirus briefing Tuesday.
The Republican governor says he isn’t tapping Ohio’s $2.7 billion rainy day fund until the new fiscal year begins in July because he believes the budget for May and June can be balanced with the cuts and the rainy day money will be needed later this year and next.
“I know that I have said that ‘it’s raining,’ but we do not want to tap into the rainy-day fund yet,” DeWine said.
“The ‘rain’ is not a passing spring shower. It could be a long, cold, lingering storm, and we should not use the fund until it is necessary,” he said.
Office of Budget and Management director Kim Murnieks predicts that revenues will continue to be below estimates in the coming months as Ohio moves through the coronavirus crisis, DeWine said.
Prior to the onset of the pandemic, DeWine says state revenues for the fiscal year were ahead of estimates by over $200 million but, as of the end of April, revenues dropped below estimates by $776.9 million, leaving a nearly $1 billion hole in the state’s $69.8 billion budget, which must be balanced under the Ohio constitution.
Ohio budget cuts (May-June 2020)
Medicaid: $210 million
K12 Foundation Payment Reduction: $300 million
Other Education Budget Line Items: $55 million
Higher Education: $110 million
All Other Agencies: $100 million
Source: Ofc. of Gov. Mike DeWine
A large part of the burden of the cuts falls on education, an area that received a great deal of attention in the current budget.
“We have an obligation to our schools to give them as much predictability as we can, but if we don’t make these cuts now, future cuts would be more dramatic,” DeWine said.
Ohio’s schools, where classroom instruction ended for the current school year in March, face a great deal of uncertainty in the fall, when restrictions on classroom size may impact local districts which saw many local levy requests fail in the election that concluded on April 28.
“My recommendation to schools is, look at different options, come up with what is unique to you and where you need to have unique flexibility” and work with the state Department of Education to make plans for the coming academic year, DeWine said.
One option that has been suggested is what DeWine referred to as a “two-day/two-day” system where some of a district’s students attend class part of the time while learning remotely during other days of the week.
“Public schools have become lifelines to communities throughout the pandemic. Our public schools are already being asked to do more with less and announcing these drastic cuts…was a devastating blow to the professionals who are heroes to Ohio’s students,” said Sen Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo).
The budget reductions are in addition to freezes on hiring, pay raises, promotions and new contracts at all state agencies, boards, and commissions, in effect since March 23.
All agencies are receiving a cut except for the Ohio prisons agency, not do the new budget reductions apply to critical services or pandemic-related services.
UPDATE: The state Department of Health reported 507 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, bringing the total number of confirmed and probable cases to 21,576 with 1,225 fatalities.
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In honor of National Nurses Day, Schmidt’s Sausage Restaurant Und Sausage Haus will provide its famous cream puffs free to any nurse with a nurse’s ID who comes to the restaurant at 240 E. Kossuth Street in German Village between 11:00 am and 8:00 p.m. Wednesday or to any of their three Schmidt’s Sausage Truck locations. Orders at the restaurant must be placed in advance by calling 614.444.6808;
The sausage trucks will be at these locations:
HomeTown Market in Centerburg at 3895 Columbus Rd from 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
ACE Hardware in Marysville at 1299 W. 5th St. from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
US Bank in Hilliard at 2511 Hilliard Rome Rd from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
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Franklin County Auditor Michael Stinziano has written a letter to the Ohio Tax Commissioner requesting a one-year delay in the triennial property value update because of the crisis.
Ohio law requires county auditors to appraise all county properties every six years, with a market update in between at every third year. Currently that update is scheduled for 2020.
There are signs that the Franklin County real estate market, one of the strongest in the nation before the coronavirus out break, is in decline since the crisis began, Stinziano said.
He says postponing the update will ensure his office can accurately determine property values and account for the impacts of the pandemic.