COLUMBUS – Governor Mike DeWine signed a 17-day interim operating interim budget Sunday night after a House-Senate conference committee failed to meet a midnight deadline for passing a compromise version the $69 billion two-year spending plan.
UPDATE 7/1/19: This article has been edited from an earlier version to reflect the House’s vote and the signing of the bill.
“While I am disappointed that the budget process has extended beyond July 1st, I want assure all Ohioans that state services will not be interrupted in any way,” DeWine wrote in his signing statement. “I urge the legislative conference committee to continue negotiations and pass a full budget promptly.”
The House followed the Senate in passing the stop-gap budget Sunday.
Lawmakers also approved a Bureau of Workers’ Compensation interim budget
The Ohio Senate voted unanimously late Saturday night to approve the interim budget funding state government at current levels until the conference committee works out differences between the House and Senate versions of the spending bill or until July 17, whichever comes first.
This is the third time in 28 years that the General Assembly failed to produce a budget on time.
The House and Senate are required by state law to present Gov. Mike DeWine with the two-year budget that pays for schools, health care for the poor, prisons and dozens of other priorities in time for him to sign it by the start of the fiscal year July 1.
The joint House-Senate committee working through differences between the competing plans approved by the two chambers, both dominated by Republican majorities, was unable to produce a compromise on the $69 billion spending bill.
“In a state with one party rule, passing a budget should be easy, but for this Republican majority, petty politics always seems to get in the way of working together,” House Democratic Leader Emilia Strong Sykes (D-Akron) said.
A likely sticking point is between the Senate’s proposed 8% personal income tax cut and the House’s proposed cut of 6.6%.