State legislators prepared last night to assemble the final
pieces of a compromise $49 billion two-year state budget for a vote of the House and
Senate, probably Friday.
A six-member House-Senate conference committee was ready to
trim up to $198 million for primary and secondary education and $70 million for higher
education from the Senatepassed version of the budget. Even so, schools still would
receive $14.46 billion - $700 million more than they do now - and colleges and
universities would get about $5 billion, up from the current $4.87 billion.
The conference-committee meeting began at 11:50 p.m. after
a full round of leadership meetings, party caucuses and backroom bargaining. The budget
was expected to be approved on a bipartisan basis.
House Minority Leader Chris Redfern of Port Clinton said he
assured majority Republicans that Democrats would provide a half-dozen votes for the
package, probably enough to pass it.
"We want to do the right thing and be
supportive," he said.
John Allison, a spokesman for Gov. Bob Taft, said Taft
would sign the bipartisan budget.
The spending plan, almost $5 billion more than the current
$44.3 billion outlay, was largely to be balanced by using most of the $735 million
windfall from the recently enacted federal income-tax reduction bill and about $190
million in business taxes to close a projected $1.2 billion shortage announced last week
by the state Office of Budget and Management.
Key to the budget is a temporary increase in the state
sales tax from a nickel on the dollar to 6 cents. The new rate would start July 1 and last
for two years.
Although Democrats were disappointed with the plan to trim
spending for schools, colleges and universities, they were pleased that the Senate's
Medicaid provisions - kinder to working parents and their children - were left intact.
Mental health and corrections institutions also escaped the ax, along with facilities for
the mentally retarded and developmentally disabled.
Under consideration were a pair of taxes on business. One
would extend the sales tax to toll-free hot lines - with business call-centers exempted -
raising $131 million. The other would tax corporate income earned in other states, gaining
$59 million.
Although the budget will not rely on gambling revenue,
lawmakers again reached tentative agreement yesterday on the terms of a proposal to have
the public vote on slot machines at racetracks, with the proceeds split among
school-building construction, college scholarships for top high school seniors and a
discount prescription drug program for low-income senior citizens.
Sen. Marc Dann, a Trumbull County Democrat, said a
provision objectionable to pharmaceutical manufacturers was dropped and state employees
and pensioners were included in the proposed drug discount program. Dann said Democrats
and Republicans were counting prospective votes in preparation for a Tuesday Senate
committee vote.
The conferees were expected to compromise on reimbursing
nursing homes for Medicaid recipients. Taft had proposed a freeze on the reimbursements.
The House removed the freeze, but the Senate put a ceiling on the amount nursing homes
could receive under the formula.
While preparations were being made for an all-night
marathon in the conference committee, lawmakers did not neglect their social activities.
House Speaker Larry Householder attended a $500-a-person fund-raiser at the New Albany
home of Columbus developer John W. Kessler. Proceeds were earmarked for Citizens for
Householder, the speaker's personal campaign fund.
Other legislators, including Senate President Doug White,
attended the monthly buffet at State Street Consultants, a lobbying firm less than a block
from the Statehouse. The fare, in honor of Ohio's bicentennial, was "Buckeye
foods."
The conferees were ready to retain 10 state-employee health centers, staffed by nurses, in
various state office buildings. The House had proposed eliminating them to save money, but
the Senate restored them after learning that the precautionary treatment of ailments saves
the state an estimated $5 million a year in sick leave.
The final settlement also included $10.3 million for expansion of the voucher program into
ninth and 10 th grades in Cleveland and more aid to community schools throughout the
state. The voucher program allows parents to receive a state grant for sending their
children to private schools.
lleonard@dispatch.com
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