“I think this is the most consequential budget that I’ve been (involved) in, and this is my 17th year in the General Assembly,” House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said of House Bill 96 hours before the vote. “It does more things on more fronts than any budget that I’ve ever been involved in.”
“I agree it is very consequential,” responded House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, “and it is consequential in that it will be extremely damaging, especially to the funding of our schools.”
Of the five House Republicans to vote against the bill Wednesday, three of them — West Chester Rep. Jennifer Gross; Xenia Rep. Levi Dean; and Clearcreek Twp. Rep. Michelle Teska — are from the Miami Valley.
In a statement to this outlet, Teska said she opposed the budget’s Cleveland Browns stadium deal and believes the House’s draft would spend too much money and lacks adequate property tax relief. Dean likewise lamented the amount of spending and funding for the Browns stadium.
Teska said there was plenty of good policy, too. “Unfortunately, it’s a tough call and you have to vote as a whole package,” she said.
What does it do?
The House’s plan prescribes $61 billion in state spending and hundreds of new legislative provisions. It’s highlighted by:
- A mechanism to force school districts to return a set amount of unused school funding to property tax payers;
- A change in K-12 public school funding;
- A reinvention of how Ohio funds its public libraries;
- A $600 million bond provision to help fund the Cleveland Browns’ planned facilities in the suburb of Brook Park, alongside abnormal and enhanced financial assurances from the team;
- The elimination of DeWine’s proposed $1,000 tax credits for young children, paid for by tobacco tax increases;
- The elimination of DeWine’s proposed plan to increase gambling taxes to supplement the construction or renovation costs of pro sports facilities and students’ extracurricular activities.
- The abolition of the Ohio Elections Commission, an appointed board that adjudicates state election complaints, and the shift of that responsibility to the Ohio Secretary of State;
- Year-over-year pay raises for justices, judges, county and township officials through 2029;
- A prohibition on government entities placing tampons and pads in men’s restrooms in public buildings;
- The removal of county coroners as elected officials and instead requiring county commissioners to appoint a county coroner;
- A move to ban Ohioans from using food stamps to purchase soda;
- An increase in state spending on public higher education institutions;
- And the requirement that online pornography websites verify their users are at least 18 years old.
Cleveland Browns borrowing
H.B. 96 was amended only once over the course of a three-hour House floor debate, with the sole amendment centering on the House’s bond agreement package with the Cleveland Browns.
Heading into session, the agreement was that the organization would provide the state $38.5 million in upfront collateral, which would be invested over the course of 25 years as a fallback plan in case the state’s $600 million bond package was not repaid by the economic benefits of the Brook Park project.
After lauding the agreement as “the most conservative” public-private sports stadium agreement in the country, Ohio House Finance Chair Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, offered an amendment to require the Browns to put in $50 million up front. That amendment passed 55-15, with some Republican dissent.
The difference in initial investment, Stewart relayed, would take the overall collateral from an estimated $150 million to $200 million by the time the bonds’ lifespans expire. Stewart said Ohioans would not see higher taxes as a result of the project.
Democrats were unanimously against the bond proposal, noting that the city of Cleveland and various other relevant local governments oppose the Browns’ move from the lakefront to the suburbs.
“I urge this body to stand with the taxpayers, stand with working families, and send a clear message that the Ohio state House is not the personal bank account for billionaires,” Rep. Sean Brennan, a Cleveland-area Democrat, said on the floor.
School funding, property taxes
There are two substantial provisions in H.B. 96 that impact school funding and property taxes: The oft-debated school funding formula and an attempt to provide property tax relief by draining financial reserves held by school districts.
House Republicans opted to make substantial tweaks to a six-year gradual funding plan the state embarked on four years ago. The change came at the chagrin of Ohio’s education lobbies, which lamented that a fully implemented school funding plan would have granted public schools more than a billion dollars over the biennium.
“This is a day when the legislature had the opportunity to actually phase in the last two years of a well-researched, vetted, bipartisan funding formula that was based on the actual cost of educating students,” Ohio Federation of Teachers President Melissa Cropper told reporters after the vote.
House Republicans, meanwhile, have consistently argued that a fully implemented plan would have been unsustainable for the state. But, northeast Ohio Rep. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania Twp., noted that the tweaked formula will maintain or increase funding for every district in the state and increase the funding per-pupil for every K-12 student in the state.
“(Our bill) provides a $555 million increase in state aid for public schools over the next two years — over half a billion dollars we are adding into the fair school funding formula for our kids and our school districts," Williams said.
The House draft does, however, take aim at school districts that are sitting on substantial financial reserves. A provision was included to only allow school districts to carry up to 30% of the previous year’s operating expenses into the next school year. Any reserves above that rate, under the draft, would be returned to the property tax payers of that district.
House Republicans said 486 of Ohio’s school districts would be impacted by the law if it went into effect tomorrow, providing some $4 billion in property tax relief in those districts. Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, told reporters that he’s kicked the idea around for years. “Schools are just sitting on a lot more money than they can spend,” he said.
House Democrats, meanwhile, argued that the provision would punish financially responsible school districts and likely only provide substantial relief to taxpayers once.
“This is fake property tax relief to rob opportunities from kids so we can have a political talking point instead of actually doing real work to get property tax relief,” said Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, D-Westlake, who was Democrats’ top negotiator in House Finance Committee.
Library funding changes
The bill’s passage also marks a sea change in how Ohio might start to fund its libraries. Historically, the state has granted its public libraries a small share of the revenue the state raised through income, sales and business taxes. In current funding, that share is 1.7%.
House Republicans moved to get rid of that automatic slice and instead grant libraries $490 million in fiscal year 2026 and $500 million in fiscal year 2027, which House Republicans expect will be a slight increase from what the state put toward libraries in the current biennium.
Libraries, discomforted by the change, have vowed to turn their attention to the Ohio Senate once it begins its budget deliberations later this month.
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
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