Gov. John Kasich's budget director is sending a strong signal to the Ohio Senate that the budget plan passed by the House won't work. From our Statehouse Bureau Jo Ingles reports.
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Kasich's budget included income tax cuts that were offset with new taxes on tobacco, gas and oil drilling and increased or new sales taxes.
The House removed those tax hikes but offered a smaller 6.3% income tax cut. Budget Director Tim Keen says the House took money set aside for unplanned Medicaid expenses and used revenue figures that are too rosy.
"It was only four years ago that we had a 7.7 billion dollar structural imbalance whereby projected revenues fell short of the amount of money necessary to run state government programs and there were very difficult choices that had to be made in order to get that budget balanced," Keen says.
Keen says Kasich wants the Senate to make sure changes it makes in the budget are paid for and urges Senators to put back some of his proposed tax increases.