COLUMBUS, Ohio – A tuition freeze, school funding changes, a cigarette tax hike and an income tax cut are among the highlights of a version of the new two-year state budget unveiled by Ohio Senate Republicans on Monday.
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“The Senate put a particular emphasis on fiscal responsibility, stability and sustainability,” said Finance Committee Chairman Scott Oelslager (R-North Canton) whose panel is scheduled to begin hearings on the $71.3 billion spending blueprint Tuesday morning.
“We’re continuing to build on our commitment to fund what matters and return what isn’t essential,” Senate President Keith Faber (R-Celina) said.
The Republicans want to freeze tuition at Ohio universities for two years and are looking to reward school districts with higher graduation rates and reading scores as part of their widespread changes.
Like the House, the Senate school-funding plan ensures that no school district would get less state money over the next two years. Only Gov. John Kasich’s initial proposal allowed more than half of districts to get funding cuts.
The House and Senate proposals also share other similarities. The base per-pupil funding amounts go from $5,800 this year to $6,000 in 2017. Both cap maximum formula increases at 7.5 percent, and both phase out tangible personal property tax reimbursements in the same way, ensuring those losses do not mean a net loss of funding.
Sen. Chris Widener, R-Springfield, who worked closely on the new formula, said the Senate formula changes the way income is accounted for, using the process in current law, though capping it. The Senate also did away with a House provision that treated heavy agricultural districts differently.
The Senate reduced House-created “capacity aid” designed to drive money to lower-wealth districts, and that funding does not count toward the 7.5 percent cap.
The Senate also added supplements for rural districts to help them pay for transportation and technology, addressing a pair of key issues in low-density districts, Widener said. The $42 million in transportation funds and $154 million in technology supplements would go to an average of about 350 districts per year, and also would not count toward the funding cap.
Senate Republicans also are proposing $60 million in bonus money distributed based on graduation rates, and $68 million based on third-grade reading proficiency rates.
The Senate’s version also includes a 40-cent tax increase on a pack of cigarettes and tax relief for small businesses.
GOP leaders say the proposal would eliminate all income taxes for a portion of small business income and restore Medicaid health coverage for certain pregnant women and women with breast and cervical cancer.
The measure also would maintain a 6.3 percent cut to the state income tax that the House passed in April, which GOP lawmakers say will save taxpayers $1.26 billion over the next two years, and removes a proposed $264 million tax on senior citizens receiving Social Security benefits.
The spending plan also addresses the issue of police-community relations, following recommendations for upgrading police training and standards that emerged from committees convened by Attorney General Mike DeWine and Gov. John Kasich in the wake of protests over fatal police shootings.
The bill establishes revolving loan programs to help businesses affected by lakes in economic distress, such as Buckeye Lake, which has been partially drained in advance of repairs to its critically-weakened dam.
The Senate proposal also sets aside nearly $13 million for a state-local partnership to provide new digital electronic pollbook technology to support Ohio’s voting process, aimed at eliminating the need for cumbersome paper voting records at polling places.