Rep. Brent, Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Calls for Substantive Changes to State Operating Budget

COLUMBUS — State Rep. Juanita O. Brent (D-Cleveland) and House members of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus (OLBC) today held a news conference at the Statehouse condemning provisions in House Bill (HB) 96, the State Operating Budget. OLBC members shared the changes they would like to see the Ohio Senate make to meet the most pressing needs of Ohio’s Black communities.

“Any legislator going against the will of voters is stupid,” said Rep. Brent. “The budget is a slap in the face to Ohioans and when it comes to marijuana it is a slap in the face of the 2.2 million people who voted YES for Cannabis in Ohio. Time is not up to change this Budget. NO more backroom deals or shady agreements with donors. It is time to listen to the voters. 2025 is about Organizing.”

Some of the most damaging provisions the OLBC found in HB 96 which were addressed at Tuesday’s news conference include: 

• Foregoing Fair School Funding: Dismantling the bipartisan, constitutional, school fair school funding formula that was created by education experts and passed by this legislature to fund Ohio children’s public school education. Around 90% of Ohio’s school age children attend their local public school.
• Forcing Schools to Put More Property Tax Levies on the Ballot: Inexplicably limiting public school districts from carrying over more than 30% of reserve funds from the previous fiscal year in their operating budget, an arbitrary and unvetted cap, and stripping funds from the district if reserves exceed the cap. This will force local districts to recklessly spend down cash reserves or lose the funding, which will result in public districts needing to rely more heavily on local levies more often at a time when Ohio is the most levied state in the nation. 
   
• More Giveaways for School Vouchers: Accelerating the shifting of taxpayer dollars for vouchers and expansion to entirely unaccountable non-public, non-chartered schools in the amount of $2.4 billion over the biennium, which will continue to benefit the wealthiest Ohioans. This amounts to a 16.5% increase over current state voucher program funding. This will not result in greater school choice–it will only result in more taxpayer dollars being dumped into unaccountable systems–as parents only have real choice when all schools eligible for public funds are held to the same standards.
• No Real Property Tax Relief: Failing to provide real property tax relief for the thousands of Ohioans who have reached out to their lawmakers asking them to act. Instead, Republicans have put forward a fake and unvetted scheme that will actually raise Ohioans property tax bills and punish public schools for responsible financial planning, forcing more levies at a time when homeowners’ tax bills are already too high.
• Fewer Childcare Slots to Support Working Ohioans: Slashes the Governor’s proposed expansion of childcare eligibility to Ohio’s hardest working families, which means more families and children will leave the state and many that stay will not be able to enter the workforce due to childcare needs. The governor proposed addressing the childcare crisis that Ohio families are facing by increasing access to childcare for 30,000 kids, helping tens of thousands of parents pursue better jobs and stabilize their families, and this House budget contains funding for 20,000 fewer children. The Ohio Chamber of Commerce estimates that more than $5 billion in economic growth is being lost each year due to Ohio’s lack of adequate childcare.
• Risking Medicaid Expansion for nearly 800k Ohioans: Makes it easier to kick 770,000 Ohioans off Medicaid by implementing a mandatory trigger to withdraw from the Medicaid expansion if there is even a $1 decrease in federal share reimbursement to the program. Republicans have placed Medicaid expansion on the chopping block for years, and are now using this cruel and unnecessary trigger as a method to kick off hundreds of thousands of Ohioans from healthcare coverage. If the trigger occurs, many hospitals will be at risk for immediate closure, especially in rural communities, because Medicaid expansion covers a large portion of patients served. Ohioans will be less likely to seek preventative care without insurance coverage, ultimately increasing emergency room visits and uncompensated care costs to our healthcare system overall. This affects all of us.
• Rolls Back Will of the Voters on Marijuana Funding: Voters overwhelmingly passed Issue 2 to allocate substantial tax revenue from cannabis sales to the local host communities. The budget cuts that funding by 44% and ends it after 5 years, sending the remainder of the money to the state budget to subsidize private school vouchers.
• Limits Minority-Owned Businesses Access to State Contracts: Eliminates certain filing requirements that support the state’s affirmative action contracting provisions for state contracts which could render useless the state-sponsored programs that help more minority-owned businesses to secure state contracts.
• Cuts to Clean Water Programs: Cuts $120 million (nearly 45% of funding) from H2Ohio which is a successful program to clean up our waterways, address algal blooms and protect our drinking water. H2Ohio also supports local communities to make critical water infrastructure upgrades to protect against lead and PFAS contamination. Recent polling shows that 75% of Ohioans support programs funded by H2Ohio, yet Republicans are using this budget process to cut popular and widely-supported Ohio programs that protect the health and wellbeing of our people and our water sources.
• Putting the State’s Credit on the Line for $600M to Billionaire Browns’ Owners but Doing Nothing for Food Banks: The budget still includes the state fronting $600 million to secure bonds to build a new Cleveland Browns stadium in a suburb of Cleveland, which would move the stadium from its downtown location, which is opposed by local leaders. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: A picture of Rep. Brent at Tuesday's Statehouse news conference is attached to this release. Courtesy: Ohio House Democrats