COLUMBUS – The Ohio House has approved a nearly $64 billion, two-year operating budget that would impose new controls on Medicaid expansion money and invest $170 million in tackling the state’s No. 1 ranking in opioid deaths.
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“The budget plan approved today is not only balanced, but it appropriates funding to the areas that matter most to Ohioans, such as the opioid epidemic and funding for our schools,” Speaker Cliff Rosenberger (R-Clarksville) said.
The bill including more than $170 million in funding towards combating Ohio’s opioid epidemic and providing more funds for education than called for in Gov. John Kasich’s budget proposal.
The bill cleared the Republican-controlled chamber, 58-36, on Tuesday after more than two and half hours of debate and now heads to the Ohio Senate.
There is a dispute between Republicans, who say the budget meets Ohio’s balanced-budget constitutional requirement, and Democrats who say it doesn’t
In response to lower-than-expected revenue estimates, the House plan calls for about $2.5 billion less in spending than Kasich’s proposal over the two-year budget period.
But Democrats claim Kasich and GOP legislative leaders announced they would need to cut close to $1 billion from the bill to balance the budget and fell about $400 million short.
“This budget violates the oath we took to uphold the Ohio Constitution – and because it’s not balanced – all budget items are at risk. It is a fantasy budget,” Rep. David Leland (D-Columbus) said.
House Finance Chairman Ryan Smith (left) called it a responsible spending blueprint that does the best with the state’s limited resources.
The bill address Ohio’s opioid epidemic by earmarking $80 million toward transitional housing, ADAMHS boards, and other treatment programs; $50 million toward supporting children affected by drug abuse, $19.4 million toward mental health programs, $12.2 million toward prevention and $9 million toward funding short-term work certificates and workforce and training for food stamp recipients.
Opponents say the House bill curtails Medicaid expansion by reviving a proposed waiver the state filed last year, which would have charged Medicaid enrollees premiums and locked enrollees out of the program for non-payment or missing paperwork deadlines.
The liberal-leaning policy group Policy Maters Ohio says that would have cut enrollment by 125,000 and was denied by the federal government last year. The group claims other changes make it more difficult for Ohioans seeking jobs to get health care coverage, according to spokeswoman Wendy Patton.
Among dozens of other changes, the House removed a package of tax changes Kasich proposed.
The House bill reduces from nine to seven the number of tax brackets in Ohio and removes taxes on sales, severance, tobacco and vapor, and commercial activity taxes.
House Democratic Leader Fred Strahorn raised his party’s objections to investment priorities that he said would leave the middle class behind.
“Republicans promised that tax cuts for the wealthy would deliver a thriving economy and vibrant communities, and yet Ohio has trailed the nation in job growth for fifty-one consecutive months, families bring home less income than the national average, and Ohio leads the nation in opioid overdose deaths,” he said. “Just hitting the brakes on tax-shifting in this budget is not enough to stop Ohio from falling over the fiscal cliff.”
The bill also restores the Bureau for Children with Medical Handicaps and funds the program at $3 million per year, and addresses the state’s growing population by expanding options for local communities to divert some low-level offenders from the state prison system to community-based facilities.
Among the hundreds of amendments added to the bill, Republicans also increased oversight power of the seven-member Controlling Board, including the ability to block funding for Medicaid expansion, which currently covers about 715,000 low-income adults.