Kasich Signs Budget Bill, Keeps Abortion Restrictions
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Gov. John Kasich and his allies hailed the state operating budget he signed into law last night, while Democrats including Kasich’s likely challenger in next year’s election took aim at the plan they say unfairly targets Ohio’s working class and poor.
Kasich vetoed 22 items in the legislation authorizing the $62 billion budget, including a provision to block an expansion of Medicate coverage. The budget contains $2.7 billion in tax cuts and $1.5 billion in new funds for education, according to the governor's office. It also includes a new plan to inject up to $3 billion in federal, state and local funds into Ohio’s highways and a new funding formula for colleges and universities. He left intact some of the strictest abortion provisions in the nation.
“Ohio has come a long way in two years and it hasn’t happened by accident,” Kasich said. “Our work to eliminate an $8 billion shortfall, cut taxes, strengthen education, and reform Medicaid has helped fuel our economic recovery and get people back to work. We’ve got more work to do, however, and this budget builds on that foundation by cutting taxes $2.7 billion and dedicating significant new resources for education.”
Ohio House Speaker William G. Batchelder applauded Kasich’s “bold vision” throughout the budget process. “The House and the Senate built upon and strengthened many of the governor’s proposals over the last several months of thorough public discussion. While we are disappointed in some of the vetoes that were issued today, the House Republican Caucus remains committed to ensuring a better life for all Ohioans,” he said.
"While I share Speaker Batchelder's concerns with many of these vetoes, I know that we share Gov. Kasich's passion for helping Ohio grow stronger and healthier,” said Rep. Ron Amstutz, chairman of the House Finance and Appropriations Committee. “We will work with every member in the House and Senate willing to commit to calling all private and public hands on deck as soon as possible, for the decade or more that will be required to complete the turnaround for every struggling mom, dad, child and adult who can be helped to a better place."
Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Kasich in next year’s gubernatorial election, said the budget "reflects the extremism in the legislature and that Kasich showed “a remarkable lack of leadership and his ineffectiveness as governor.” In the budget, Kasich rewarded “the most wealthy and well-connected, while sticking Ohio’s middle class and working families with the bill,” Fitzgerald said.
Also, thanks to Kasich, the Democrat continued, “Everyone’s sales tax just went up, our property taxes are going to go up and it will now become even harder for our communities to fund essential services than before. The tax burden has been shifted on to the backs of average working Ohioans in order to pay for a tax cut to benefit the richest in our state,” he said.
"To make matters worse, this governor has refused over and over again to stand up for Ohio women against the escalating radical attacks on women’s health care, like the defunding of Planned Parenthood, which provides crucial and often life-saving health care like breast exams, cervical cancer screenings, and access to birth control,” he continued. “On top of that, Gov. Kasich just enacted measures that force doctors to perform medically unnecessary procedures that interfere with the privacy between a woman and her doctor and that jeopardize women’s health.”
Tim Burga, Ohio AFL-CIO president, said the budget “fails a vast majority of Ohioans because of the way the bill unfairly places an increased tax burden on middle and working class taxpayers and fails to prioritize much needed funding that our communities rely on. The continued deep cuts to local government funding and public schools diminish our systems of public safety and public education,” he said.
“Further, these cuts have necessitated and will continue to create an avalanche of local tax levies to make up for the cuts and further increase the tax burden on middle and lower income Ohioans. Making matters worse, this budget removes the state’s obligation of covering 12.5% of all new local levies adopted beginning this year. This burden is undue and it is unfair.”
Ohio Right to Life praised the budget Kasich signed into law as the "most pro-life in history." Among the measures in the bill are reprioritization of family planning funds away from Planned Parenthood, a heart-beat informed consent requirement and strengthening of abortion clinic regulations.
“If there was ever any doubt of John Kasich’s extremist values, he’s made his priorities crystal clear by attacking women’s health care and giving his wealthy and well-connected friends a $6,000 handout, paid for by tax raises on the middle-class,” said Chris Redfern, Ohio Democratic Party chairman. “Kasich’s move to increase sales and property taxes shifts a greater burden on to working families across our state, and will make it even harder for local communities to fund essential services like education. And once again, the Governor has shown what a hypocrite and ineffective leader he can be by failing to take meaningful steps on Medicaid expansion.”
Redfern also blasted Kasich for what he called an “all-out assault on women’s health” in the budget, which he said “sets women’s health care back decades.”
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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