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Ohio House Speaker Justifies Budget Spending on OSU Program

photo of John Glenn College of Public Affairs
JOHN GLENN COLLEGE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

State lawmakers have been working to find ways to trim $800 million in spending from the next two-year budget. And that’s why a $5 million allocation to a new program at Ohio State University has gotten some attention.

The money would launch a leadership institute at Ohio State’s John Glenn College of Public Affairs, aimed at teaching local and state elected officials about budgeting, dealing with state government and other matters.

It was added to the budget by Republican House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger of Clarksville, who is term-limited at the end of next year.

“This has been in discussions for over a year. And let me just also quell – I am not looking, nor have I ever had an opportunity to say that 'I’m going to run that in the future.' This is solely an opportunity to get something started.”

Rosenberger says the funding isn’t reocurring, and there is a dollar-for-dollar match with the private sector.

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.