From the article:

 

Sluggish non-auto sales tax and income tax collections are driving the reduced estimates, Keen said.

 

As tax revenue collections, particularly from the income tax, continued to fall short of month estimates, Senate President Larry Obhof, R-Medina, said weeks ago that his chamber would pass a budget accounting for a $1 billion shortfall.

 

 

People have jobs, but many of them are so low-paying that they don't lead to much in the way of state income tax revenue. Ohio state income tax is actually very progressive, and exemptions (a lot of people with kids are Exemption 3, 4, 5 or higher) on low-income workers really eat into the revenue.

Are tax cuts really to blame?:

 

Ummmm yes. 

 

Very thought provoking comment as always, thanks for your insight.

 

The state was making nearly $600 million a tear on that medicaid tax. Unless there's a replacement for it in the budget that appears to be the biggest cause.

 

In the end, though, the legislature seems to have a pretty good handle on what funding to cut, so it's really a win-win. We get to pay fewer taxes, and the government gets to trim the fat. I don't see why anyone would be upset about this.

^ ^^ we went from a 2 B surplus to 1 B in the hole? In 1 month.

 

 

 

Sens. Joe Schiavoni of Boardman and Kenny Yuko of Richmond Heights, both Democrats, introduced legislation recently that would take $200 million from the state's $2 billion surplus. The money would be spent over two years and also require insurance companies to cover medications used to treat drug addiction.

 

http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/index.ssf/2017/05/talk_it_out_should_ohio_tap_it.html

http://www.dispatch.com/news/20170622/new-analysis-says-much-of-ohios-business-tax-cut-goes-to-rich

 

But a new analysis by the Ohio Legislative Service Commission indicates that as much as $450 million a year of those business tax cuts are benefiting a wealthy slice of wage earners who represent only 0.5 percent of the state workforce and just 5 percent of those claiming the deduction.

 

Of the $1.1 billion a year the business tax cuts are costing the state, between 34 and 41 percent of the benefit is going to people who are making more than $250,000 a year, according to the analysis.

 

Originally billed as a “small business” deduction, the cut was created in a lesser version 2013 and then escalated to its current form in 2015. Owners of pass-through entities — limited liability corporations, partnerships and the like — pay no state income tax on the first $250,000 of income, and get a 40-percent cut on income over $250,000 by paying 3 percent instead of 5 percent.

the government gets to trim the fat.

 

Please name the "fat" that should be trimmed and why it's not worthwhile to spend the money there.

We already trimmed fat. Everyone talks about European austerity, but those were largely central governments (non-federal). Our austerity happened at the state level. But sure lets go follow Kansas off a cliff.

Why is Ohio cutting needed programs when the rainy day fund has $2.7 billion in it? We saved money for a rainy day. It's a rainy day. Use government to get us through.

 

And don't cut programs that can help be an economic stimulus. Why does that even have to be said? Programs like this....

 

 

Maybe if the Republicans hadn't trashed Strickland so hard for using the rainy day fund because of the 2008 crash during the 2010 election they wouldn't be so scared to touch it now.

They're cutting wildly now so they and restore funding to their favorites in exchange for players to be named later.  

I'm wondering if the education cuts end up not hurting that badly since the utility, sports, hourly worker, food, diesel, school trip and supply bills have dropped.

So what taxes or user charges will be increased to compensate, or are we getting rid of public schools, infrastructure, state programs, etc? If user charges are increased, it puts the first rungs on the ladder of success out of reach of the poor and increase income inequality and create chronic and hyper poverty.

 

Ohio’s state income tax would be abolished completely in 10 years under new GOP bill

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2022/04/ohios-state-income-tax-would-be-abolished-completely-in-10-years-under-new-gop-bill.html

Income taxes are one of the most fair forms of taxation. It’s so frustrating how R politicians obsess over cutting income taxes. People need to understand that if income taxes go down, other taxes will go up to cover at least some of the difference in government revenue - property taxes, sales taxes, user fees (e.g. car registration, etc). I pay quite a bit more in property tax than I do in state income tax already, so this would almost certainly increase my total tax burden. 

36 minutes ago, KJP said:

So what taxes or user charges will be increased to compensate, or are we getting rid of public schools, infrastructure, state programs, etc? If user charges are increased, it puts the first rungs on the ladder of success out of reach of the poor and increase income inequality and create chronic and hyper poverty.

 

More miles of roads and gifts to corporations who might someday bring jobs -- don't be greedy asking for more.

Rich guys hate income taxes, like sales taxes since they're regressive and don't even notice things like user fees.

Hunger Assistance Programs to be Cut in New Ohio Budget

 

Food assistance programs in the state would see large cuts and changes under the Ohio House’s budget plan. Meanwhile, a bipartisan pair of lawmakers are trying to prevent electronic benefit card fraud by equipping them with chip technology.

 

As the House released its proposed spending priorities for the next two years, its Agriculture Committee heard about plans to help Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants, and a rundown of the Ohioans who could be impacted by those changes.

 

“As a health care provider, I am acutely aware that food security is a fundamental social determinant of health,” said state Rep. Kellie Deeter, R-Norwalk.

 

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/hunger-assistance-programs-to-be-cut-in-new-ohio-budget-ocj1/

Over $100 Million in Library Funding Could be Slashed in New Ohio Budget

 

The main source of state funding for Ohio’s public libraries was eliminated in the House draft of the state operating budget for the next two years.

 

Library advocates say the changes are not in the best interest of Ohioans and could cut services from an area that is still reeling from $27 million in cuts to state funding last year.

 

The cuts from 2024 put them at the same funding level as they received 25 years ago, despite vastly different technology needs, social service roles, and demand for services.

 

The Ohio House’s budget draft rejects Gov. Mike DeWine’s executive proposal that would have increased the Public Library Fund from 1.7% to 1.75% of the tax revenue collected in the state’s General Revenue Fund.

 

Instead, the House version of the budget “establishes a new method of funding public libraries through a direct GRF appropriation,” according to documents.

 

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/over-100-million-in-library-funding-could-be-slashed-in-new-ohio-budget-ocj1/

 

Affordable Housing Program Could See Big Changes Under New State Budget

 

A major source of Ohio’s funding for local homelessness and affordable housing programs was altered in the Ohio House’s proposal for the state’s next two-year operating budget due before July 1.

 

The Ohio Housing Trust Fund was created in 1991 and is administered by the Ohio Department of Development. It 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 Ohio Housing Trust Fund — which requires at least 50% of the funds be spent in non-urban areas.

 

“Through the Trust Fund, it funds homeless services, home modifications and repairs for homeowners, usually individuals who are aging,” said Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio’s Executive Director Amy Riegel. “It also provides gap financing for housing development and affordable housing development across the state.” 

 

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/affordable-housing-program-could-see-big-changes-under-new-state-budget-ocj1/

 

Early version of Ohio budget includes Greater Cincinnati lawmakers’ proposal to build more homes

 

The Ohio House passed a budget Wednesday, April 9, that includes a proposal by two Greater Cincinnati lawmakers to boost housing production in the state.

 

The legislation incentivizes local governments to adopt housing-friendly policies and zoning changes. If they do, they can tap into a new, statewide fund that will help local governments build more houses, whether they be single-family or multifamily.

 

State Reps. Adam Mathews, R-Lebanon, and Dani Isaacsohn, D-Over-the-Rhine, first proposed the legislation in 2024 and discussed it on a University of Cincinnati Portman Center panel March 31. When the first version of the House budget was released earlier this month, it was not included, but the bill that passed April 9 has a $5 million version.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2025/04/10/ohio-house-budget-more-housing-mathews-isaacsohn.html

Ohio House's budget restores $100M tax credits for transformational mixed-use projects

 

The Ohio House of Representatives passed a state operating budget on Wednesday that continues in perpetuity the state's $100 million in annual Transformational Mixed-Use Development tax credits.

 

The $61 billion two-year budget heads next to the Senate. A balanced budget must be in place by June 30.

 

The program had been set to expire after the awards made in late January.

 

More below:

https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2025/04/10/ohio-house-budget-mixed-use-tax-credits.html

Infant Mortality Programs Could be Impacted by Ohio GOP Budget Cuts

Ripple effects of potential federal funding cuts have been spotlighted by advocates in essentially every sector, from the overall economy to school lunches and infectious diseases. But one such potential cut, and a proposal in the Ohio House’s version of the state budget, could directly impact an issue the state has been struggling to improve for decades: infant and maternal mortality.

Ohio has been near the bottom of rankings for infant mortality rates in the country, and has seen significant maternal mortality rates as well. With children making up one-third of national Medicaid enrollment and 40% of all births in the country covered by Medicaid, cuts to that program could mean even more struggles for the state’s children and mothers.

Part of the problem that already exists within the Medicaid system, specifically in Ohio, is a low reimbursement rate that results in some physicians refusing to accept Medicaid patients, and other facilities, like Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, relying on donor support to compensate for the low reimbursement rates.

“Even when we talk about infant mortality, this Medicaid reimbursement rate is a huge factor in why the infant mortality rate is so abysmal,” said Erica Wilson-Domer, president and CEO of the greater Ohio arm of Planned Parenthood.

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/infant-mortality-programs-could-be-impacted-by-ohio-gop-budget-cuts-ocj1/

Ohio GOP Leadership Cuts Food Bank Budgets Despite Growing Demand

Ohio’s food banks are set to receive $7.5 million less in the state budget than they did last year. Some lawmakers quibble with calling that a cut, and there’s a logic to their argument. The additional funding was a one-time supplement, approved in 2023, while the state was flush with federal COVID relief dollars. Now, some argue, the economy is back on its feet, there are plenty of job openings, and it’s time for the state to dial back assistance programs.

But the people maintaining that safety net say the need is greater than it’s ever been.

There’s an echo of the 2024 presidential election in that disconnect. The economy might look good on paper, but many are still struggling to make ends meet. Housing costs are rising. Wages aren’t keeping up. Inflation rates have come down. Grocery bills haven’t.

People who work in the food assistance system regularly point out that when money is tight, food is the first place families cut back. You can’t reduce your rent or electric bills, but you might be able to save some money leaning on canned goods or mac and cheese.

The state budget maintains food banks’ core appropriation of about $24.5 million year. But Mike Hochron from the Mid-Ohio Food Collective explained that’s the same funding they received in 2019. Back then his organization fed about 50,000 families in Franklin County each month. Now it’s 100,000.

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/ohio-gop-leadership-cuts-food-bank-budgets-despite-growing-demand-ocj1/

Advocates: Fix Affordable Housing Funding in State Budget

Housing advocates are urging Ohio senators to remove an amendment from the state’s two-year operating budget that would significantly affect a source of funding for local homelessness and affordable housing programs.  

The Ohio House added language to their version of the budget that would change the Ohio Housing Trust Fund. The Ohio Senate is currently working on the budget and will send it back to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who must sign it into law by June 30. 

“The Ohio Housing Trust Fund is the primary source of state funding for local homelessness, emergency home repair and affordable housing development,” the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio’s executive director Amy Riegel said during a press conference Thursday. “We see that making any type of change and overhauling it would be drastic and would make huge ripple impacts across the state.”

The trust fund was created in 1991 and is administered by the Ohio Department of Development. It 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 proposal would remove the requirement for county recorders to send the state Department of Development money to reallocate the funds, making it less effective across the state.

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/advocates-fix-affordable-housing-funding-in-state-budget-ocj1/

Ohioans Will Suffer Under Federal Cuts to Medicaid & Food Programs

The U.S. House Republican budget bill could spell significant losses for low-income families in Ohio, specifically those in need of food assistance and those on Medicaid.

Advocates for Medicaid and anti-hunger leaders have said reductions and eliminations connected to the two programs would negatively affect Ohioans as a whole, as well as the state’s economy and spending power.

Only one Republican U.S. representative from Ohio voted against the congressional budget bill, passed early Thursday with a vote of 215-214. U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson, posted on X, formerly Twitter, Thursday morning that he supported “many things in the bill,” but that “deficits do matter and this bill grows them now.”

“The only Congress we can control is the one we’re in,” he wrote, alongside a bar graph showing the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the bill’s deficit effect. “Consequently, I cannot support this big deficit plan.”

U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, stood with all other Democrats in voting against the bill, saying in a statement after the vote that the bill is “a cruel and catastrophic budget that rips health care, food and opportunity from Ohioans and millions of other Americans just to bankroll bigger and better tax breaks for billionaires.”

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/ohioans-will-suffer-under-federal-cuts-to-medicaid-amp-food-programs-ocj1/

Ohio Dems Want State Budget to be More about Education and Less About Corporate Handouts

Ohio Senate Democrats have submitted 423 amendments to the two-year state operating budget — including one removing the $600 million bond package for a new Cleveland Browns stadium in Brook Park, and one to fully fund public schools. 

The Ohio House passed their version of the budget last month and the Senate is currently working on the budget, which Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine must sign into law by June 30.

“This budget steals from our children by defunding public schools, transfers money for health care and libraries to rich benefactors, all the while failing to address the needs of hard working everyday Ohioans,” Senate Minority Leader Nickie J. Antonio, D-Lakewood, said Tuesday during a press conference.

“This Republican budget prioritizes partisan agendas and handouts to the wealthy and well-connected, also through vouchers, tax breaks, and a stadium giveaway to the tune of more than half a billion dollars, all paid for by the working class,” she said. 

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/ohio-dems-want-state-budget-to-be-more-about-education-and-less-about-corporate-handouts-ocj1/

Experts Predict More Ohioans Will Go Hungry Under GOP State Budget

The executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks is trying to get the word out: If the budget passed by the U.S. House of Representatives becomes reality, it could trash the state budget and make many, many Ohioans go hungry.

The matter goes next to the U.S. Senate. But the members of the Ohio delegation aren’t talking.

The House-passed Republican reconciliation budget — President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” — would hand out $4.6 trillion in tax cuts over 10 years. In an analysis, Trump’s alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, estimated that 70% of the benefit would go to the “top 10% of the income distribution.” 

Meanwhile, the “Department of Government Efficiency” — led by the world’s richest man — has been looking to cut services for average Americans. One place the Republican House budget seeks to achieve some of those cuts is to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Also known as food stamps, the program provides debit cards for food. To qualify, Ohio recipients generally have to have net income at or below federal poverty guidelines —  $32,150 a year for a family of four.

Benefits awarded under the program are pretty modest, $6.28 per person, per day on average last year. And, as a reflection of the high level of poverty in the state, one in nine Ohioans — or 1.4 million — received them last year. 

Whether Ohio’s poorest will get those food benefits in future years is an open question in light of the One Big Beautiful Bill.

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/experts-predict-more-ohioans-will-go-hungry-under-gop-state-budget-ocj1/

Republican Budget Proposal Would Sunset Historic Tax Credits

The new two-year budget proposal unveiled this week by Ohio Senate Republicans would put an end to the almost universally popular Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credits program. The bill calls for sunsetting the program after the 2027 fiscal year unless a future General Assembly elects to keep it.

The program, which has enjoyed bipartisan support since its inception in 2007, has been praised by developers, housing advocates, economic development experts and historic preservationists for its ability to spur the renovation and redevelopment of historic structures that without it would likely be demolished or allowed to fall into disrepair.

A partial list of recent Columbus projects awarded the credits includes; the renovation of the Pythian Temple theater on the Near East Side, the Ohio National Bank building on South High Street, the continued renovation of the industrial center known as Steelton Village and The Fort on the South Side, the redevelopment of the former Kroger Bakery complex, the conversion of the former Starling Middle School in Franklinton into affordable housing, and the office-to-residential conversion of the 26-story Continental Centre tower on Gay Street.

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/republican-budget-proposal-would-sunset-historic-tax-credits-bw1/

Ohio Housing Trust Fund Restored in State Budget Update

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.

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.

More below:

https://columbusunderground.com/ohio-housing-trust-fund-restored-in-state-budget-update-ocj1/