State lawmakers approved the state’s biennial operating budget including tax cuts for individuals and businesses, higher income limits for school vouchers, and 1.8 billion for public schools.
A temporary budget is currently in effect until Ohio Governor Mike DeWine can review and sign the permanent one.
State House and Senate lawmakers agreed to a nearly $191 billion biennial budget after weeks of deliberating over 800 differences between their separate passed versions.
Both the House and the Senate proposed tax cuts, but the final legislation favored the Senate’s $3 billion, considerably greater income tax cut, which would lower rates across the board and remove all but two tax brackets, especially for richer Ohioans.
In accordance with the Senate’s proposal, the final budget would significantly cut the number of Ohio businesses that are required to pay the state’s commercial activity tax, or CAT.
The budget also proposes a two-week “tax holiday” in the first two weeks of August 2024, when consumers would not have to pay state or local sales taxes on any purchases costing $500 or less, with the exception of motor cars, watercraft, alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, and vapor goods.
Universal eligibility for publicly funded K–12 vouchers for private schools is provided by the legislative budget plan. However, only partial voucher scholarships of at least $650 would be available to students from households earning more than 450 percent of the federal poverty level; the exact amount they get will depend on their family’s income.
The final budget includes Senate Bill (SB) 1, removing the majority of the power from the state board of and superintendent and instead creating a new administrative division under the governor’s office, and reducing the duties of the State Board of Education.
The compromise budget proposed by the legislature would add an additional $1.8 billion to the Cupp-Patterson school financing plan over the following two years for K–12 education.
The final plan also eliminates Ohio’s third-grade reading guarantee which required students to repeat third grade if they don’t pass a reading proficiency test.
DeWine’s proposal to support the “science of reading” instructional approach in schools, which requires kids to break words down into bits, sound them out, and combine phonics and vocabulary lessons, is also funded in the final budget plan.
Other parts of the budget agreement include approving $11.3 million to pay for the August 8th special election, requiring parents to sign off on social media accounts for children under age 16, banning local governments from passing any tobacco laws that are stricter than state rules and allowing police departments around the state to lower their minimum age to become officers from 21 to 18.
According to Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) this budget makes sure that Ohioans get to keep more of their hard-working dollars.
“Ohioans work hard for every dollar they make. Our job is to make sure they keep more of it, and spend only what is absolutely necessary, and that is exactly what this budget does,” Huffman said.
According to State Representative Josh Williams (R-Sylvania) “Ohio’s budget gets results for all Ohioans including tax relief, universal school choice, investments in public schools, mental health, and support for law enforcement and victims of crimes.”
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose applauded the passage of the compromised budget.
“Thank you to President Matt Huffman and Speaker Jason Stephens for helping deliver some major wins for Ohio election administration in this state budget,” LaRose said.
Think tank the Buckeye Institute research fellow Greg Lawson also thanked those who helped pass the budget saying that “The final Ohio budget voted on by the General Assembly is the best school choice budget in state history.”
The budget spends $95 billion in state and federal funds in the fiscal year that began July 1st and $95.7 billion in the following fiscal year.
DeWine now has to decide whether to sign the package as-is or use his line-item veto authority to strike out sections of the budget.
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Ohio State Capitol” by formulanone. CC BY-SA 2.0.
