In an Oct. 30 statement overshadowed by Nov. 5′s then-looming election, Fitch Ratings, which evaluates the creditworthiness of states’ bonds, affirmed the high ratings of Ohio’s bonded debt. Fitch said the AAA rating given the state’s general obligation bonds and Ohio’s issuer-default rating “reflect [Ohio’s] high level of financial resilience and superior budget management .... Ohio also has a low long-term liability burden and associated carrying costs.” As budget-writers gear up for 2025′s General Assembly debate on Ohio’s next operating budget, Fitch’s affirmation is excellent news.
Clouds on the horizon? Maybe. President-elect Trump’s transition team, to finance tax cuts, may seek to slash federal Medicaid “expansion” money flowing to the 40 states, including Ohio, which expanded Medicaid coverage – in Ohio’s case, with then-Gov. John R. Kasich’s ardent support. Result: Single Ohio adults with annual income up to $20,780 are eligible for Ohio Medicaid coverage. In October, that was about 784,000 Ohioans. The federal government pays 90% of the expansion group funding.
If cut, Ohio would have to make up the difference; cut services; or slash enrollment. The knee-jerk General Assembly might well think Medicaid expansion covers too many Ohioans, so no big deal. But that ignores the virtual certainty that pruning or ending Medicaid expansion would force some Ohio community hospitals to close. That’s why, when Kasich was governor, they lobbied so energetically to expand Ohio Medicaid coverage.
Safe prediction: When a county seat hospital closes in small-town Ohio thanks to Medicaid rollbacks, that’ll imperil its General Assembly member. If legislators don’t realize that now, they eventually will.
Ka-ching! Ohio’s 100-year-old-plus Controlling Board, which includes six General Assembly members (four Republicans, two Democrats, and a president representing Republican DeWine, tweaks the state budget.
The board’s legislators get paid $150 a meeting-day, plus expenses, whether a meeting’s for five minutes or five hours. How that squares with the Ohio Constitution is a good question: It says “members and officers of the General Assembly shall receive a fixed compensation, to be prescribed by law, and no other allowance or perquisites ...” (This year, base pay for a rank-and-file Ohio House or state Senate member is $71,099.)
The Controlling Board’s legislative members periodically embarrass themselves – or would, if they were self-aware. Last week, for example, the often unanimous board, in a 4-3 vote, accepted from Washington an additional $17 million for services offered refugees living in Ohio, cleveland.com’s Jake Zuckerman reported.
Most critics of both parties blame Washington, not Columbus, for the Ohio’s growing number of refugees, so it seems paradoxical for three Controlling Board Republicans to try to reject the federal money.
But vote “no” the three Republicans did: State Rep. Jean Schmidt, of suburban Cincinnati’s Loveland, sometimes ungallantly called “Mean Jean”: As a U.S. House member, for example, Schmidt had questioned the bravery of a House Democrat, then-U.S. Rep. John Murtha, of Pennsylvania, a Marine Corps veteran.
Also voting to reject refugee aid was Sen. Shane Wilkin, a Hillsboro Republican, who, as a House member, was prime co-sponsor of 2019′s scandal-laden House Bill 6, the proposed FirstEnergy Corp. bailout. The third “no”: Lame-duck GOP Rep. Jay Edwards, of Athens County’s Nelsonville, who may run statewide in 2026.
Heartening, isn’t it, to see the Christmas spirit pervade the Statehouse? Attention Messrs. Currier and Ives: Meet Mr. Scrooge’s trio.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. You can reach him at tsuddes@gmail.com.
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