COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - House and Senate lawmakers have
agreed on a two-year $49 billion state spending plan that would levy a temporary penny
sales tax increase on Ohioans and use up much of the $770 million Ohio will get from the
federal tax cut.
After negotiations with their Democratic counterparts,
Republican leaders restored $70 million they had planned to cut for primary-secondary
education.
Lawmakers worked all night and into Thursday morning on
dozens of amendments proposed to the budget. They hoped to complete their work on Thursday
so the spending plan could go to the House and Senate floors for votes on Friday.
A tentative plan Wednesday had called for reducing spending
for schools by $268 million from the Senate's version. Instead, the compromise budget
bill, which must become law by July 1, would reduce the Senate allocation by $198 million,
which still would be an overall funding increase for schools over current levels.
Those additional dollars for schools, as well as other
funding increases to Democrats' priority programs and some changes in the corporate tax
structure, prompted some in the minority party to agree to provide the votes Republicans
in the majority needed to pass the plan.
"We came to the table with a list of concerns,"
said Rep. Chris Redfern of Port Clinton, the No. 1 Democrat in the House. "The
speaker asked us to provide six-to-10 votes. I don't promise votes. I go back to my caucus
and find out what they want."
Still, he said he expects six or so Democrats to vote for
the plan.
A six-member bipartisan committee worked overnight and into
the early morning Thursday to complete the compromise plan between the House and Senate
versions of the state budget that begins July 1. The committee was expected to approve the
bill before dawn Thursday, sending it to the full House and Senate for a vote.
State law requires Gov. Bob Taft to sign the budget by June
30. Legislative leaders want to pass the budget bill by the end of this week because of
the temporary penny-per-dollar increase in the 5-cent statewide sales tax.
The lawmakers and the administration want retailers to have
enough time to prepare for the change so they can begin collecting the 6 percent tax on
July 1, the first day of fiscal year 2004.
Over the past week, the committee had worked to fill a $1.1
billion hole in the Senate-passed two-year plan. The deficit has been blamed on the
failure of the economy to rebound in Ohio as first predicted.
To plug the hole, the compromise bill would use much of the
$770 million in one-time money the state expects to get from President Bush's tax cut
package; raise another $188 million by closing two corporate tax loopholes, and cut
spending from the plan the Senate passed.
Schools and colleges were the biggest areas reduced under
the compromise bill. Primary-secondary education would get $198 million less than the
Senate plan and higher education would get $80 million less.
Senate President Doug White, a Republican from Manchester,
said many areas sustained cuts, but that education spending, which had received the
largest funding boost overall, had to be reduced more severely than others.
"It had to be that way," White said. "Almost
all other areas of state government are at an appropriation level less in actual dollars
than what they were several years ago."
Barbara Shaner, legislative director for the Ohio
Association of School Business Managers, said basic student aid was the main area affected
in the reduction for schools.
For higher education, the decrease means that the state's
colleges and universities actually will get less money than they received this year, said
Deborah Gavlick, associate vice chancellor for finance of the Ohio Board of Regents.
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On the Net:
Legislative Budget Office: http://www.lbo.state.oh.us/fiscal/budget/
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