News
Your source on political action, legislation & voter info

Member activists impacted Ohio's state budget

Aug. 1 , 2005 - The wranglings, hearings, discussions and side bar meetings of the last six months are over and Ohio has a $51 billion dollar budget.

A last minute windfall of $1.2 billion in unanticipated tax collections helped boost local governments that had previously been faced with sizable cuts. But the legislature still left many Medicaid programs underfunded and K-12 education still gasping for air.

Nevertheless, lawmakers stuck around $394 million in the Rainy Day Fund.

Although the increases for most agencies will barely cover 2 to 3 percent cost of living adjustments, no institutional closures were announced and OCSEA still managed a few wins.

• DR&C
• E-Tech
• PUCO/OCC call center
• ODNR
• MR/DD
• Petro’s study
• Civil service

DR&C - The House originally allocated $6 million of DR&C’s budget for halfway houses. Then the Senate wanted to use the $6 million for a tracking system for inmates and correction officers. OCSEA worked with the conference committee that hammered out final budget compromises to restore the $6 million for the biennium to DR&C institutional operations. However, according to the Director’s testimony, DR&C still could lose hundreds of staff over the biennium.

E-Tech – The Senate merged two long-time commissions, the Ohio Educational Telecommunications Network Commission with the Ohio School Net Commission to create the new E-Technology Commission. The merger would have resulted in the complete loss of collective bargaining rights for those employees transferring to the new commission. However, during budget deliberations with the conference committee, OCSEA successfully negotiated to retain collective bargaining rights for current Ohio Educational Telecommunications Network Commission employees who will be moving to the new E-Tech Commission.

PUCO/OCC call center – The House version of the budget called for a single call center housed at PUCO in order to reduce duplication of call center duties between PUCO and the Ohio Consumers’ Council. OCSEA made sure the single call center will be housed at PUCO and that employees at the call center will remain in the bargaining unit.

ODNR - The Governor’s version of the budget called for the creation of a state park parking pass to generate additional revenue for ODNR’s Parks Division. OCSEA activists put pressure on House and Senate leaders who then dashed the idea and, instead, added $8 million to the parks budget. Unfortunately, the Senate reduced ODNR’s Litter and Recycling Division operating budget. At this time, it is unclear what the impact of those cuts will be.

MR/DD – After a long struggle, the Governor’s attempt to insert the “Martin vs. Taft” proposal – that would have converted all the funding for developmental centers and private facilities for the mentally retarded to waiver funds – has been dashed. The House proposed that only a study of the feasibility of converting to waivers be done. The Senate proposed that a pilot program be conducted using a private facility. In the final budget, the Senate’s proposal to do a pilot, was adopted, but developmental centers are exempted from being a part of the pilot.

Petro’s study – OCSEA prevailed in getting language out of the bill that outlined Petro’s plan to merge 23 agencies into nine. The budget had required DAS to conduct a study on government reorganization, but Taft vetoed it.

Civil service – No language weakening civil service laws was added to the bill.