There are two versions of the state budget that have been approved, and time is growing short to reconcile them and combine them into one before the end of the fiscal year. The $71.3 billion Senate budget passed on Thursday afternoon, a day after it was expected to go through and a day after some last minute changes that angered Democrats. The budget is now in the hands of the conference committee, which should vote sometime next week.
One thing that the House and Senate budgets have in common is once again, there is no increase in the state’s 20-cent a barrel tax on oil and natural gas drillers – though Gov. John Kasich has wanted that tax hiked for at least the last three years. And Senate President Keith Faber says the idea won’t come back at least until a newly created bipartisan task force of lawmakers delivers a report on it by October 1.
At this point, there have been three versions of the budget – Gov. Kasich’s initial proposal, the House-passed version, and the Senate’s revision of that plan. But there’s a fourth budget out there. This alternative budget won’t make to a finance committee hearing or to a floor vote on its own, but that didn’t stop the conservative Republican representative who created it from bringing it forward. Rep. John Becker (R-Cincinnati) talks about his alternative budget.
One other thing that's not in the budget is an increase in funding for the state’s 61 public transit systems in the state. Gov. John Kasich's initial budget had a $1 million increase, but that was taken out by the House and not put back by the Senate. Rep. Cheryl Grossman (R-Grove City) and the House Transportation Subcommittee Chair, and Gene Krebs, a Republican former member of the Ohio House of Representatives who's now with the Center for Community Solutions talk about the state's spending on public transportation in the budget and beyond.