State Representative Jay Hottinger

In late May the Ohio Senate released their version of the state budget, House Bill 1. Due to new tax revenue figures they were forced to cut roughly $1 billion from the budget that was passed by the Ohio House of Representatives. Shortly after the Senate passed House Bill1 the Governor’s office and the Legislative Service Commission released new tax revenue figures that showed that an additional $2.3 billion would have to be cut, or raised through taxes, in order to balance the state budget as required by the Ohio Constitution.

In response to these dismal tax revenue figures Governor Strickland stepped forward and made the decision to release his recommendations for how to bridge the gap. Regardless of my disagreement with many of those recommendations, the Governor should be recognized for having the courage to release a set of budget cuts and a new gambling proposal that would bridge the budget shortfall. That being said I do disagree with most of his recommendations.

The first is adding slot machines to Ohio’s racetracks. In addition to what I feel are wildly optimistic estimates of the income it would provide to the state, slot machines add no value to the Ohio economy. At best they redistribute wealth, and the evidence shows that those of lesser financial means tend to play the most, from the poor to the state. I also believe that the state ought to derive its revenue from the strengths of the people of Ohio, not their weaknesses.

Cutting an additional 30% from the public libraries in our state is a bad choice on two fronts. The first is that libraries serve an important function in our society. They offer free entertainment to all, access to information not available on the internet through subscriptions to various research databases, and serve an important role in the education of individuals of all ages. Internet access at libraries is especially important in times of economic difficulty because of the role the internet has come to play in job hunting. Two and a half years ago the Ohio Legislature reached a deal with libraries to give them 2.22% of all state tax revenue. With state tax revenue down libraries are already losing about 20% of their state support, to cut an additional 30% on top of that is a betrayal of our word and bad public policy.

The Governor has also proposed drastic cuts to programs that allow senior citizens to stay in their own homes or assisted living facilities rather than nursing homes, that provide treatment to those struggling with alcohol or drug addictions, those with mental health conditions, and to the Bureau of Children with Medical Handicaps (BCMH). The problem with each of these cuts is that the alternative to these programs is immensely more expensive. A senior citizen that cannot stay at home along without assistance would be forced to go into a nursing home. It would be much cheaper for the state to pay a home healthcare aide to stop by three days a week to help with bathing and laundry. Each of these programs operates in a similar fashion. Make a small investment to keep these individuals in their own homes or off of Medicaid, or pay drastically higher costs.

The question now is where to come up with $2.3 billion dollars to close the budget hole. The state should be shifting more funding to programs that reduce Medicaid expenses. With Medicaid consuming about 40% of the state budget there is plenty of room to save. A top to bottom review of the mandates that the state places on public schools should be undertaken to see if there are mandates that can be eased to better enable school districts to manage their state funding. This would mitigate the fact that schools will be getting, at best, slight funding increases under any education proposal. Welfare benefits should be reviewed. Currently only tobacco and alcohol cannot be purchased with food stamps. Adding soft drinks and junk food would improve the health of those who purchase these items today and reduce their medical expenses down the road. The state has traditionally not told people what to eat, but if the state is paying the bills then some additional restrictions are not unreasonable. I would also like to see the federal government ease restrictions on the stimulus funding they have dedicated to Ohio. While the money is helpful, the restrictions they have placed on the use of the funds decrease our flexibility to shift money within the budget to cover the most pressing services first.

As always, I welcome your questions, comments and input on state government issues. Please feel free to contact me by mail (State Representative Jay Hottinger, 71st House District, 77 South High Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215), by email (district71@ohr.state.oh.us) or by phone (614-466-1482).