Columbus, Ohio – Ohio Governor Ted Strickland today signed the FY 2010-2011 biennial budget bill.
The Governor’s budget message is below:
Budget Message
Article II, Section 16 of the Ohio Constitution authorizes the Governor to veto any item or items in any bill making an appropriation of money. I have boxed and initialed text in Amended Substitute House Bill 1 that I have disapproved. All remaining text in the bill is approved. The reasons for my vetoes are set out below.
Introduction
In February, I introduced a balanced budget in one of the most economically challenging times in our nation’s history. As the budget was considered by the Ohio House, Senate and subsequent Conference Committee, the state and nation’s financial situation deteriorated.
A collapse of international financial markets, combined with the ongoing contraction in the housing market and a decline in the automotive industry, led to a sharp decrease in tax revenues and an additional $3.2 billion budget gap.
General Revenue Fund tax receipts declined by $2.3 billion in fiscal year 2009, or 12% as compared to the previous fiscal year – the worst decline in state revenue in at least 50 years. General revenue taxes available to the State of Ohio will be lower in this biennium than they were seven years earlier, impacting our ability to maintain the services and operations of state government that Ohioans have come to expect.
In the face of these unprecedented economic challenges, we were able to come together to pass a balanced budget that invests in education without raising taxes on Ohioans.
Because Ohio families and businesses cannot afford a state tax increase at this time, this budget instead reduces state government spending by an unprecedented $2.5 billion. This after my Administration already realized budget reductions of nearly $2 billion and reduced the state workforce by more than 3,400 positions – resizing state government back to the level it was during the 1980s – to balance the budget in fiscal years 2008 and 2009.
This budget makes education our first priority. It includes an historic commitment to Ohio students, enacting transformational education reforms and establishing a constitutional funding system. The new funding model is based on what our students need to be successful and will ensure our schools have the resources to meet those needs as it is fully phased in. The educational reforms will improve the quality of our teachers, assessments, and curriculum. Every Ohio school will meet strict spending accountability standards. And every Ohio student will learn the skills that modern businesses look for in the people they hire. Investing in a reformed system of education sharpens Ohio’s competitive edge and strengthens our ability to attract the jobs and capital that will grow Ohio’s economy.
The budget also prioritizes extremely limited resources toward critical health and safety services to provide for the greatest possible number of vulnerable Ohioans during this difficult time. To meet our constitutional requirement to balance the budget, though, it is necessary to make very painful cuts to services that Ohioans have needed and received in the past but that the state cannot provide at this time.
In reducing these services, we have tried to minimize the impact on our children, the elderly and disabled. And this budget increases access to affordable, quality health care to 109,000 more Ohio citizens and preserves health care for an estimated 2,000,000 Ohioans through the Medicaid program.
Much of what we have been able to accomplish in this budget would not have been possible without the leadership of President Barack Obama and the members of Ohio’s congressional delegation who supported the President’s stimulus plan, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The budget leverages more than $5 billion in federal stimulus resources for their intended purpose – to create and save jobs and prevent deeper cuts to critical services.
This budget process has been long and difficult. However, we have come to an agreement on those things that matter most to Ohio families and businesses who are struggling through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We have invested in education for job creation, establishing the most sweeping education reform in generations. We have limited college tuition growth. We have maintained our commitment to providing health care coverage to every Ohio child and expanded access to more than 109,000 uninsured adult Ohioans. We have made hard choices to reduce spending and resize state government. And in doing so, we have balanced the budget without increasing taxes. Today I am happy to add my signature and make this budget law.
The following sections detail 61 line item vetoes I have issued among five issue areas. These are areas of honest disagreement in a budget document containing 3,123 pages and tens of thousands of lines of text.
Many of the disagreements laid out below are more about specific programs that, if implemented, would place us into a deeper budget bind by not ensuring flexibility in funding. Others are about maximizing flexibility to ensure state agencies continue to prioritize those services that matter most. Such matters are a natural area for asserting executive authority.
The budget reflects a set of commitments I have made, and the legislature has supported. Even with severely limited resources, this budget is a blueprint for Ohio’s economic revival.
To download complete .pdf copies of veto messages please click to following links: Veto Messages 1, Veto Messages 2