The Ohio House may have approved the $71.5 billion dollar budget and sent it to the Senate, but that hasn't stopped critics from speaking our against the measure. Statehouse reporter Andy Chow has more.
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Most of the five conservative Republicans said Medicaid expansion was the reason for their "no" votes on the budget. But Representative John Becker of Cincinnati said the bill also spends way too much money.
He says it's understandable to raise spending to match the rate of inflation-but argues this bill spends five times more than that rate. Becker believes this went unnoticed as Republicans focused on other issues like taking out Gov. John Kasich's tax increases.
"The amount of money we spend seems to be everybody's last concern. It's like 'well you know let's get the bad stuff out of the budget, let's do this, let's do that.' But how much money we spend is kind of an afterthought," said Becker.
Becker suggests the House should be following a different formula to track spending increases.