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Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Child care programs take hits in Ohio Senate budget, even a Republican-supported one
Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, speaks at the Ohio Senate Republican Budget Press Conference. Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, stands in the background. (Photo by Morgan Trau, WEWS.) The Ohio Senate-approved budget keeps eligibility for state-supported child care at levels that state leaders and advocates say is one of the worst in the country, and eliminates a cost-sharing model for child care that was supported by Republicans in both chambers. Eligibility for Publicly Funded Child Care wasn't increased in the Ohio Senate proposal as advocates had urged, maintaining the state eligibility of 145% of the federal poverty level. That level leaves Ohio at what Ohio Department of Children and Youth Director Kara Wente, along with advocates like Policy Matters Ohio, said was one of the lowest eligibility levels in the country. To even get to the middle of rankings on child care eligibility, Heather Smith, a researcher with Policy Matters Ohio, said the state would need to jump their eligibility level to 225%, far above what advocates requested, which was an increase to 160%. One thing that made it to the Senate proposal at the urging of advocates was a provision that calculates payments for Publicly Funded Child Care based on enrollment numbers rather than attendance. Child care workers and leaders said the method would create more consistency in payments and would be 'critical' for parents and providers. The budget eliminates a Republican-supported measure added in the House version called the Child Care Cred Program, which would create a cost-sharing model for child care, in which employers, eligible employees, and the state all pay a portion of the cost of child care. In the most recent discussions on the model, the state would pay 20%, and employers and employees would put in 40% each. The measure came from bills in both chambers of the Ohio legislature, the GOP sponsors of which pushed the model as a way to address a state child care sector that has long been considered inaccessible, unaffordable, and without the adequate (and adequately paid) workforce to stand up to the demand. Policy Matters actually supported taking the model out of the budget, citing 'lackluster results' from comparable programs in other states. Smith said the funding 'would have a greater impact' if it was directed toward Ohio Senate Bill 177, a GOP-led bill that would create a pilot program to allow child care staff members to have Publicly Funded Child Care for free. 'This program would stabilize the sector while creating an additional 6,000 to 18,000 spots in child care facilities,' according to Smith. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The Child Care Choice Voucher program, which Republican Gov. Mike DeWine praised as an important part of the state's support for parents and the child care sector, stayed in the Senate-passed budget with eligibility at 200% of the federal poverty line to receive subsidies for child care services. But the budget took out language regarding Step Up to Quality, a set of state standards for licensed child care providers, and Smith said the payment rates for the voucher program 'are not sufficient for providers.' The voucher program would receive $25 million less over the next two years than was proposed in DeWine's executive budget. While he asked for $75 million in 2026 and $150 million in 2027, the Senate kept the House's amounts, at $100 million in each fiscal year. Early childhood education advocacy group Groundwork Ohio said the Senate proposal 'fails to meet the moment.' 'Ohio families are doing everything right,' said Lynanne Gutierrez, president and CEO of Groundwork Ohio, in testimony to the Senate Finance Committee before the proposal was passed. 'They're working hard, raising kids and keeping our economy moving. They deserve a budget that recognizes their contribution and meets them with the support they need.' Gutierrez and Groundwork pushed for restoration of the Child Tax Credit as well, which would have provided up to $1,000 per child ages 0 to 6. The credit had the support of state organizations and individuals, along with economic experts who said the credit would boost the state's financial health. Republican legislative leaders pushed back on the tax credit, partly because the money for the credit would have come from tobacco taxes, which legislative leaders said was a fading source of revenue. A Child Care Recruitment and Mentorship Grant Program was kept from the House provision, to 'help increase the number of licensed child care providers in Ohio and to assist recited entities and individuals.' The budget proposal includes $1.75 million in fiscal year 2026 and $1 million in 2027 for the program. Another grant program that survived to the Senate budget was the Early Childhood Education Grant Program, to 'support and invest in Ohio's early learning and development programs,' including licensed child care centers, licensed family child care homes and licensed preschools. The Ohio House and Ohio Senate are now working in closed-door discussions to combine their two versions into a final budget draft, set to be sent to the governor for signature, and possible line-item vetoes, by July 1. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ohio Senate, House each passed their ideal budget; What's next?
Jun. 11—An Ohio Senate vote this week finalized its two-year state spending plan that would, among many other things, create a flat 2.75% income tax; push funds to higher performing school districts; and use Ohioans' unclaimed funds to partially fund a new Cleveland Browns stadium. The 23-to-10 Senate vote Wednesday and the subsequent 84-to-1 House vote not to concur with the Senate's changes set up a so-called conference committee — a negotiation between hand-picked members of each chamber that caps off nearly every operating budget process. "This is tradition with budgets with limited exceptions," Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, told this outlet. "It's usually just the standard process of getting together, working out the differences and figuring out where we're going to end up for the final version." Whatever compromise the GOP-dominated House and Senate chambers agree on then has to be sent to Ohio's Republican governor, who wields line-item veto power and can cross out provisions he doesn't like. Most of the negotiation happens behind closed doors and out of public view, but the major points of contention heading into this conference committee are fairly obvious. Highlights from the Senate's now-confirmed plan compared to the House's plan include: — Creating a flat, 2.75% income tax rate for all Ohioans who earn more than $26,050 annually. The proposal eliminates Ohio's highest tax bracket for earners pulling over $100,000 per year, eliminating over a billion dollars in state tax revenue over a two-year period. — Expanding access to Ohio's "homestead exemption" property tax relief program by increasing the income threshold from $40,000 to $42,000 and allowing slightly more of a qualifying participants' home value to be tax exempt. — Granting county budget commissions the authority to reduce property tax millage "if the commission finds it reasonably necessary or prudent to avoid unnecessary, excessive, or unneeded property tax collections." — Eliminating replacement and substitute property tax levies. — Capping a school district's financial reserves at 50% of the prior year's operating expenses, as opposed to the House-proposed 30% carryover cap. General funds in excess of that 50% cap would then be portioned back out to the property taxpayers of that district. — Directing $600 million of the state's $3.7 billion in unclaimed funds to the Cleveland Browns' new stadium project instead of issuing public bonds as the House proposed. — Requiring school boards to obtain a 2/3 vote from members before putting a property tax levy on the ballot. — Adding $633.9 million more to the state's K-12 public schools than the current biennium, phased in largely through new "performance-based" incentives that will reward high-performing and improving districts with more cash. — Establishing a $100 million set-aside to potentially withhold from state universities that do not come under compliance of the newly-passed Senate Bill 1, which eliminates university-sanctioned diversity, equity and inclusion programs on public campuses. Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, told reporters Wednesday that the Senate's school funding plan and flat tax rate will likely be central points of internal discussion as his caucus prepares for negotiations. "We'll have the next two-plus weeks to deal with it," Huffman said. "Our staff and some of the leadership and other folks are set to spend the weekend reviewing these items, so I think there's already discussions going on among a variety of people in different areas about what we may do." But, Huffman said he overall believes that the House and the Senate aren't too far apart on the big stuff — he likes the idea of a flat tax, he's framed the Senate's idea on using unclaimed funds to help the Browns as clever — but pointed to "a lot of very basic policy differences" within the disparate proposals. When asked about his non-negotiables, McColley said he didn't want to reveal too much. "But we're firm believers in some of the big items. The flat tax is something that we feel pretty strongly about," McColley said. "That would be something we're pretty committed to, hopefully we don't get a lot of push back. But other than that, we'll let the process play out." Asked about his non-negotiables, Huffman told reporters, "I'd like to tell you that there is nothing that's non-negotiable, even if somebody says it's non-negotiable."
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ohio Senate passes budget giving Browns $600 million, tax cut to wealthy, more public school money
Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon. (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original article.) The Ohio Senate has passed a $60 billion state biennial operating budget, which includes a tax cut for the wealthy, some increased public education funding, and $600 million in funding to the Cleveland Browns for their new stadium. The total budget is expected to be around $200 billion once federal dollars come in. Ohio House Bill 96 was voted on mainly along party lines, 23-10. State Sen. Bill Blessing, R-Colerain Township, joined the Democrats to vote no. The senators increased the amount of money going to public schools from the Ohio House's proposal. The Senate budget gives public schools about $100 million more than the House. Although they follow most of the Ohio House's proposed budget, which only gives schools about $226 million of an increase for school funding, the Senate changed the funding 'guarantee' amount. Right now, some districts have guarantees that a portion of their funding will not be reduced, even if their enrollment goes down This $100 million added back would only go to high-performing or 'improving' districts. However, to be fully funded based on statistics from the Fair School Funding Plan (FSFP) from 2021, schools would need an additional $666-800 million, compared to the $226 million given by the House. Still, the Senate's version is closer to the FSFP than the House's. 'We're following the funding scheme that was put together in the first place,' Senate Finance Chair Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, said. 'Our bill is the closest way to get there.' They also raised the House proposal's cap on districts' rainy day funds to 50%, instead of 30%. This would mean that the schools would have to refund anything above that back to the taxpayer to provide property tax relief. 'The priority is not, obviously, in fully funding education, investing in our children and our future,' Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, said. The Senate's budget proposal still includes $600 million for a new Cleveland Browns stadium in Brook Park. However, the funding structure differs from what the Browns proposed and what the House approved earlier this year. The House proposed borrowing $600 million by issuing bonds and repaying the debt, with interest, over 25 years, at a cost of about $1 billion. The Senate is proposing a $600 million grant for the stadium using unclaimed funds. That's other people's money that the state is holding, from things like forgotten bank accounts, rent, or utility deposits or uncashed insurance policies. The Ohio Department of Commerce's website states the state is sitting on $4.8 billion in unclaimed funds. Asked about the possibility of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine vetoing that provision, Cirino noted that DeWine said publicly he did not like the debt arrangement of the House for the $600 million. DeWine himself had proposed raising gambling taxes. 'I'm pretty confident and feel good that the governor and the House will look at our approach to it,' Cirino said. Ohio Democratic lawmakers remain staunchly opposed to the project. 'If they could find that money for the Browns and their stadium's move to Brook Park, why didn't they decide to use those funds for the schools?' Antonio asked. The budget also includes a 2.75% flat income tax. There are three income tax brackets in Ohio. Those making up to $26,000 do not need to pay state income tax. Ohioans earning between $26,000 and $100,000 pay a tax of 2.75%. Those making more than $100,000 have to pay 3.5%. State data reveals that this flat tax could result in a loss of about $1.1 billion in the General Revenue Fund. 'The dollars that we're foregoing in the flat tax are already incorporated into our overall spending,' Cirino said. Funding for schools, Medicaid, libraries, lead abatement, food banks, and child care face funding decreases from the current status or from the governor's budget. Asked about these cuts these cuts to social services for lower-income people while giving a tax cut to the state's highest earners, Cirino said Republicans think it's going to be good for the economy. 'It's going to be good for attracting people,' Cirino responded. Antonio disagreed. 'It's a gift to the wealthiest among us on the backs of the poorest and lowest-income and middle-class folks in the state of Ohio,' she said. Senate Republicans propose giving $20,000 to top high school students to encourage them to stay in the state for their higher education. The Governor's Merit Scholarship was passed in the House budget. Already existing, the House language would extend the proposal that gives the top 5% of each graduating high school class $5,000 a year to attend a public or private school in Ohio. But the Senate version reduces the scholarship to the top 2% of students. The money would also have strings attached. The scholarship recipients would be required to reside in Ohio for three years after graduation. There would be an 'expectation' that the money would be returned if they leave within the three years. Now, the Senate and House leaders will enter a conference committee, a closed-door negotiation period to create a final budget. Once a decision is made, both chambers must pass the combined bill. If it passes through both sides, it will be sent to Gov. Mike DeWine for review. In the past, he issued dozens of line-item vetoes on operating budgets. Line-item vetoing is the ability for the governor to pick and choose which policies within a larger piece of legislation get to stay or must go. The deadline for the budget to be passed is July 1. Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on X and Facebook. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Business
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Ohio Senate added $100 million worth of housing provisions in the state's two-year budget
New Home Construction The Ohio Senate's version of the state's two-year budget fully restores the Ohio Housing Trust Fund, a big source of funding for local homelessness and affordable housing programs. Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, and Ohio Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, introduced the Senate's version of the budget Tuesday and it took out language the Ohio House added that would have changed the Housing Trust Fund, created in 1991 and administered by the Ohio Department of Development. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The Housing Trust Fund is funded by a portion of the fees collected by county recorders, with half of the fees staying with the county and the other half going back to the fund — which requires at least 50% of the funds be spent in non-urban areas. The House budget would have removed the requirement for county recorders to send the state Department of Development money to reallocate the funds, making it less effective across the state. 'We are incredibly thankful to our champions in the Senate who understand that the Ohio Housing Trust Fund is the state's most powerful tool for fighting homelessness and expanding affordable housing,' Amy Riegel, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, said in a statement. The Housing Trust Fund provided emergency shelter for more than 27,000 Ohioans last year, she said. The Senate added $100 million worth of housing provisions in the budget that will create two programs — the Residential Economic Development District grants and Residential Development Revolving Loan Program. The Residential Economic Development District is a $10 million program. '(This program) is aimed at going to areas where there is an awful lot of anticipated housing growth, particularly areas around major economic development projects, and incentivizing local governments around those areas to streamline their zoning codes, to put zoning codes in place, in some cases, that will allow for these housing projects to move forward more efficiently,' McColley said. The Residential Development Revolving Loan Program would support building new, single-family residential homes in rural parts of the state. The Senate's budget would direct $90 million into a revolving loan fund for local governments to finance the program. 'What we're seeing in many rural parts of the state are areas where it is simply uneconomical for home developers to come in and build in many of our rural communities because of the fact that the cost of infrastructure is so onerous in those areas that the amount of homes they would need to build just to break even is simply way more than that local market can absorb,' McColley said. The Senate's version of the budget would also move the Ohio Housing Finance Agency to under the Department of Development. The budget now goes to a conference committee, where Senate and House leaders have closed-door negotiations to come up with a final budget. Both chambers have to pass the bill and it will then be sent to Gov. Mike DeWine, who must sign the budget by the end of the month. Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
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Ohio Senate budget eyes flat income tax, $600M toward Cleveland Browns
Jun. 3—The Ohio Senate unveiled a plan this week that makes hundreds of tweaks to the state's proposed two-year spending plan, including measures to set a flat income tax rate and tweak how the state would help finance the Cleveland Browns' new stadium. The Senate-amended House Bill 96, released Tuesday, is the Senate's first swing at shaping the state's behemoth operating budget — a gargantuan piece of legislation that sets spending, taxes, and a wide range of other policy. "What we're unveiling today is a bold, transformative and balanced budget," Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, told reporters. "It's something we've spent an awful lot of time on in the last several weeks, something that we entered into knowing that it had to be a pro-growth, positive budget for the state of Ohio." The budget process starts with a draft from the governor (which is the office's biggest opportunity to create a legislative wish-list). That draft is then sent to the Ohio House, which amends the governor's draft and passes it along to the Senate. What the Senate received this year from the Ohio House contained some substantial proposals: A plan to sell $600 million in public bonds to help fund the Cleveland Browns' proposed stadium in Brook Park; a plan to refund property taxes by cutting down on many Ohio schools' financial reserves; a much-contested change to how Ohio funds its public libraries; a late switch from a multi-year funding formula for Ohio's K-12 public schools that has raised alarms for local school districts and much more. Some of the Senate changes would: — Create a flat, 2.75% income tax rate for all Ohioans who earn more than $26,050 annually. The proposal eliminates Ohio's highest tax bracket for earners pulling over $100,000 per year, eliminating over a billion in state tax revenue over a two-year period. — Expand access to Ohio's "homestead exemption" property tax relief program by increasing income threshold from $40,000 to $42,000 and allowing slightly more of a qualifying participants' home value to be tax exempt. — Grant county budget commissions the authority to reduce property tax millage "if the commission finds it reasonably necessary or prudent to avoid unnecessary, excessive, or unneeded property tax collections." — Eliminate replacement and substitute property tax levies. — Cap a school district's financial reserves at 50% of the prior year's operating expenses, as opposed to the House-proposed 30% carryover cap. General funds in excess of that 50% cap would then be portioned back out to the property taxpayers of that district. — Direct $600 million of the state's $3.7 billion in unclaimed funds to the Cleveland Browns new stadium project, instead of issuing public bonds. — Require school boards to obtain a 2/3 vote from members before putting a property tax levy on the ballot. — Add $633.9 million more to the state's K-12 public schools than the current biennium, phased in largely through new "performance-based" incentives that will reward high-performing and improving districts with more cash. — Establish a $100 million set-aside to potentially withhold from state universities that do not come under compliance of the newly-passed Senate Bill 1, which eliminates university-sanctioned diversity, equity and inclusion programs on public campuses. The bill now awaits further hearings before the Senate Finance Committee, which is expected to approve a slate of amendments to the bill in the coming weeks. Senate Democrats said the bill was unveiled to them only shortly before it was unveiled to the public, but that they already took issue with much of it. That includes the Senate's flat tax proposal, which Democrats framed as policy that puts an outsized tax burden on lower earners. "We talk about this every time we have a flat tax discussion," Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, said Tuesday. "They're inequitable in that they fall short of a 'flat' tax — actually what ends up happening is that they pay off the folks at the top of the income brackets and the folks at the lower end are the losers." Local testimony A variety of Dayton-area organizations and residents testified to senators in recent weeks about what they'd like to see in the state budget, particularly regarding education funding. For example, Dayton Early College Academy asked the Senate to maintain the House's provisions that would increase community school funding from $1,000 today to $1,500 per pupil over the biennium. The Senate's proposal lowered the proposed rate to $1,100 in 2026 and $1,200 in 2027. Meanwhile, the Clark Shawnee School District testified merely as an interested party, saying the district wanted the state to enact the third and final round of its so-called fair school funding plan, which would have pumped an additional $1.8 billion into public schools over 2026 and 2027 compared to the previous biennium. Springfield City School District, meanwhile, testified in opposition to the House's budget on the basis of the House's provision that would cap districts from carrying financial reserves greater than 30% of the district's operating cost in the previous year. Superintendent Bob Hill argued that the provision takes away schools' safety net and creates a system "penalizing fiscal responsibility rather than curbing waste." The Senate's proposed change from a 30% cap to a 50% cap would address much of Hill's concerns, but his district today is clocked with carrying a 66.6% year-over-year reserve and could therefore still be docked under the Senate's plan. Miami University encouraged the Senate to maintain House provisions that would route $14 million for the university to create the Ohio Institute for Quantum Computing Research, Talent, and Commercialization in partnership with the Cleveland Clinic. The two institutions will invest $70 million in the program over the next 10 years with the goal of making Ohio the "global epicenter of quantum computing medical research." The Senate eliminated the earmark entirely. ------ For more stories like this, sign up for our Ohio Politics newsletter. It's free, curated, and delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday evening. Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
