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Budgets are about more
than budgets
Cleveland Plain Dealer...
Ohio Senate tucks
policy changes into massive state budget
By Aaron Marshall, The Plain Dealer
Monday, June 13, 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- State budgets are nothing more than vehicles for
spending money. At least that’s how they draw it up in government class.
In reality, the proposed spending plan for 2012-13 passed by the Ohio
Senate on Wednesday does much more than direct about $112 billion worth
of spending over the next two years. Policy changes galore are tucked
into every nook and cranny in the sprawling 5,000-or-so-page document.
Anti-abortion activists will be pleased with a pair of provisions
designed to help curb public funding of abortions. Union members will
cheer another amendment that only slightly raises the prevailing wage
project exemption threshold.
There’s a change that could reward out-of-shape Ohioans who want to get
more healthy, and another that stops local communities like Cleveland
from telling fast food restaurants what ingredients they can put in
their food.
Human services programs for foster kids get a boost. The bill also
addresses concerns about a new way to get high -- abusing bath salts.
Many other changes in the budget affect nearly every facet of life in
Ohio -- even the cold beer you might enjoy after a hard day at work,. A
budget provision makes it possible for Ohio breweries to sell beer with
18 percent alcohol instead of the current alcohol limit of 12 percent.
That’s some fine legislative work right there, wouldn’t you say?
Changes made by the Senate may not stick as the budget moves to the
let’s-make-a-deal conference committee phase designed to unify the
different versions passed by the House and Senate.
Nonetheless, here’s a look at some of the changes made by the 33-member
body before it voted to approve the budget Wednesday.
Education
Delivers a $17-a-student subsidy to school districts and community
schools rated “excellent” and “excellent with distinction.”
Requires school districts to offer right of first refusal to charter
schools to lease unused school buildings and other district property
for $1 if the charter school is rated in the top 50 percent of the
performance index score. All other charter schools would get first
right of refusal at fair market value.
Removes several charter school proposals in the House budget proposal,
including: allowing charter schools to start up and operate without a
school sponsor; allowing more than one charter school to operate within
the same facility; considering charter school students automatically
re-enrolled at their school each year for funding purposes until the
student’s enrollment is otherwise formally terminated; and barring
charter school employees from collective bargaining.
Removes governor’s and House proposals for a merit pay system for
teachers. The merit pay proposal mirrored language in Senate Bill 5,
the controversial new collective bargaining law that opponents hope to
overturn on the ballot.
Removes House provision that would give $1 million a year to charter
schools for a program for school dropouts aged 22 to 29.
Higher education
Sets a tuition cap for community colleges and technical colleges at
$200 more than the institution charged in the preceding academic year,
instead of the 3.5 percent cap imposed on other colleges.
Allows state colleges and universities to privatize construction and
operation of dormitories.
Defers out-of-state tuition surcharge for nonresident students who
agree to live and work in Ohio for at least five years immediately
after graduation and forgives the surcharges altogether after students
honor the five-year obligation.
Prohibits granting residency status, for purposes of in-state college
tuition, to any illegal immigrant unless the immigrant has been granted
the right to live without restrictions in the United States.
Local government
Removes House provision that set aside $50 million a year for grants to
local governments that share services. Instead, the money will be
distributed among local governments.
Bars local governments from regulating fast-food restaurants.
Authorizes contiguous townships and municipal corporations to create
joint police districts, which could levy property taxes for police
protection and issue bonds for buying police equipment.
Raises the minimum population for a village to qualify for a mayor’s
court -- with certain exceptions -- to 150, up from 100. The change
would effectively eliminate mayor’s courts in Put-In-Bay, Brice,
Bairdstown, Summitville and Mifflin, but not Linndale, according to
mayor’s court population statistics kept by the Ohio Supreme Court.
Taxes and fees
Expands the use of public safety property taxes to include salaries for
emergency medical service personnel, part-time police personnel and
employer contributions to pension funds for those employees.
Authorizes school districts to ask voters in a single ballot issue to
levy both a property tax and an income tax.
Extends a 25-cent-per-ton fee on disposal of solid waste to the Soil
and Water Conservation District Assistance Fund for one year. The fee
-- which the House also included in its budget proposal -- would be
paid by those hauling the solid wastes to landfills.
Prisons and criminal
reforms
Aims to outlaw bath salts by declaring six ingredients to be Schedule I
controlled substances. Classifies formaldehyde as a Schedule II
controlled substance. Enacts the offense of trafficking in formaldehyde
and sets the penalties for violations.
Removes a House provision that would exempt the private companies
taking over state prisons from sales and use taxes, the commercial
activity tax, and state and local income taxes.
Gives state the right of first refusal to repurchase any prison and
surrounding property sold to a contractor, at the same price or less.
Health and Human Services
Requires Ohio Department of Health director to investigate complaints
against nursing homes as a desk audit. If the director determines
sufficient cause exists, officials must continue the investigation with
an on-site visit.
Allows health insurance and life insurers -- including plans for public
employees -- to offer wellness or health improvement plans that include
rewards and incentives to people who participate.
Expands funding for human services programs, including $1.2 million a
year to help extended family members who gain custody of children who
otherwise may be placed in foster care. Also, adds $2 million each year
for foster children who have turned 18 to transition to living alone.
Puts in $1 million each year for the Ohio Commission on Fatherhood.
Environment
Removes language that would allow oil and gas drilling on state-owned
lands such as state parks and nature preserves. A separate bill
allowing drilling on most state-owned lands has passed the House and is
expected to pass the Senate.
Provides $4 million for toxic algae mitigation at Grand Lake St. Marys.
Liquor
Allows state budget director, with assistance from the commerce
director, to negotiate transferring the state’s liquor operation to
JobsOhio, the administration’s newly created quasi-private economic
development arm.. The administration intends to lease state-controlled
liquor sales to JobsOhio.
Raises the maximum legally permitted alcohol content of beer from 12
percent to 18 percent.
Allows state liquor stores to sell tasting samples.
Gambling
Requires the director of budget and management to recommend to the
General Assembly by Dec. 15, 2011, an option for privatizing the
day-to-day operations of the Ohio Lottery and a process for selecting a
gaming company to run the agency.
Utilities and consumers
Eliminates a House provision that removed contact information for the
Ohio Consumers’ Counsel from customer bills and notices.
Removes a House provision that would require public utilities to do
their best to include minority and bilingual consumer outreach.
Miscellaneous
Requires prevailing wages be used for public construction and
reconstruction projects that exceed $125,000 in the first year of the
budget, $200,000 in the second year, and $250,000 after that. Current
law sets the threshold at $78,258. The governor’s budget calls for
raising the threshold to $5 million, while the House proposes a $3.5
million threshold.
Prohibits political subdivisions without home rule charters from paying
for health care coverage that provides abortion services other than
those performed in cases of rape or incest or when the life of the
mother is endangered.
Prohibits public facilities, except for those controlled by municipal
corporations and counties with home rule charters, from performing or
inducing an abortion in cases of rape or incest or when the life of the
mother is endangered.
Removes a requirement for the governor to serve as board member and
chairperson of the JobsOhio board of directors. Instead, the governor
would appoint all nine members of the board and pick its chairperson.
Cuts by 5 percent the salary of future members of the General Assembly.
If current members volunteer to take the pay cut, the savings would be
directed to the Second Harvest FoodBanks.
Removes House language that would allow majority party members of the
state legislature to meet privately during committee meetings.
Abolishes the Workers’ Compensation Council, a little-known legislative
advisory agency funded by assessments on Ohio employers who pay
workers’ compensation premiums.
Revises the definition of “mobility impaired person” to include a
person who is diagnosed with autism for purposes of the statutes on
assistance dogs.
Read it at the Cleveland Plain Dealer
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