That’ll a budget conference committee, that’ll spring anonymous, multi-page budget amendments on the Ohioans who’ll have to pay the tab.
That’s why it’s there, in late June, that Ohioans will learn what new loads they’ll have to carry -- maybe, hundreds of millions of tax dollars for a new Cleveland Browns stadium.
In case an Ohio voter wonders why the General Assembly won’t pass a general pro-sports-facilities construction law – as Republican Gov. Mike DeWine wishes – rather than a team-specific bill, like the Browns plan?
But why pass a template for state-handouts to, or wish-lists from, all pro teams if, instead, the General Assembly’s party caucus leaders can repeatedly rack up juicy campaign donations on a bill-by-bill (team-by-team) basis? Ka-CHING!
June’s crafted-in-the-dark budget will tell Ohio taxpayers which of their state’s quality-of- life plusses (example: America’s best-in-the-nation public libraries) they may lose because, hey, everyone can get books via Amazon, and, besides, in our New Enterprise State, public libraries are no-profit frills.
But fairly fund public schools, which – the Legislative Service Commission reports – taught about 90% of the 1.78 million pupils enrolled in Ohio last fiscal year? No way!
Sure, the Ohio Constitution says that “no religious or other sect, or sects, shall ever have any exclusive right to, or control of, any part of the school funds of this state.” So what? The legislature lavishes Ohio tax money on non-public schools anyway.
Thus non-statesmanship result from (a) lush campaign donations, or (b), schoolboy-like intellectual vandalism that at times pops up among General Assembly members.
A legislature that looks to the past, not the future: Those are the kinds of public-policy perils Ohioans are up against between now and July 1.
MEANWHILE: No, the Ohio House of Representatives, led by Lima’s Huffman, did not spare our public libraries.
PR sleight-of-hand aside, Huffman’s caucus appropriated less in state library aid than fellow Republican DeWine requested.
Huffman’s caucus allotted $490 million for libraries for the year beginning July 1, and $590 million for the next year.
All told, the House GOP rewrite cut DeWine’s proposed funding by $90.8 million. (And DeWine isn’t a Good-Time Charlie with Ohio’s money; during his governorship, the state’s bond rating – in effect, Ohio’s credit rating – has climbed.)
Arguably worse than cutting DeWine’s request, House Republicans’ ripper bill abolishes a bipartisan public library funding mechanism, crafted in the mid-1980s that for years has stabilized Ohio public libraries’ budgets, leading to today’s best in the nation public libraries.
Public fury over House Republicans’ anti-library moves forced Huffman’s caucus launch to a public-relations defense: A deceptive claim that, as passed, House Republicans’ budget would give libraries more money over the next two years than they got over the last two. Yah, sure – but that, of course, conveniently skirted the fact that the House budget plan would provide less than DeWine’s.
Ohioans love their libraries and show it at levy election after levy election. Few if any of Ohio’s public services are as cost-effective. Ohio’s public libraries repay public investment many times over by promoting the quality of Ohioans’ lives, burnishing skills, promoting our common culture. Those are facts that Ohio’s 132 legislators must hear – from their constituents.
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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