Posted on 02/16/2003 8:13:21 AM PST by Deadeye Division
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:25:27 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
COLUMBUS - When Gov. Bob Taft rolled out his version of the two-year state budget that began July 1, 2001, his budget office declared: "The U.S. economy continues to enjoy the longest peacetime expansion since the end of World War II."
(Excerpt) Read more at toledoblade.com ...
It was a heck of a bill to have to cast your first real vote on, but somehow the state representatives made it through last week, passing their version of a budget fix and sending it to the Senate. It would have been worse if tax increases had been involved.
Lawmakers had adopted a code of ethics and authorized their mileage payments for traveling to Columbus, but there wasn't any heavy breathing during the first six weeks of the new session until House Bill 40 came along.
The last time legislators put themselves on the line so early in a session was exactly 20 years ago, when majority Democrats decided the only way out of a continuing budget shortfall was to increase the personal-income-tax rates. House Bill 100 was signed by Democratic Gov. Richard F. Celeste on Feb. 24, 1983. It made permanent a temporary surcharge on the income tax, boosting rates by about 30 percent. The Celeste administration handled the public relations so poorly that the increase came out as 90 percent. That figure stuck and Republicans used it to defeat Democrats in almost every election thereafter, including 2002.
In the early 1980s, the Democratic majority decided to halt a procession of revenue shortfalls by holding their noses and filling the revenue stream not only for the budget in place but for succeeding ones. House, Senate and governor were on the same page.
This year, the solution is all Republican. But House, Senate and governor are on different pages.
Gov. Bob Taft wants to increase taxes on cigarettes, beer, wine and liquor, so the money will be available to help balance the next budget, too.
The House wants to wait and see what the income-tax collections look like on April 15 so maybe a tax increase is not necessary until later in the year.
Senators are thinking about a temporary sales-tax increase that would last for much of the rest of 2003. It would buy some time and avoid the "sin'' taxes that hit certain people harder than others and confound merchants near the state borders.
"We're not looking for conflict,'' Sen. Bill Harris, the Ashland Republican who chairs the Finance Committee, said late last week. "We're looking to satisfy the governor.''
By that, Harris meant that the governor sees the revenue shortage as $720 million and no less, and he wants part of the solution to be a dependable revenue stream. Taft is a by-the-book guy who wants to have every i dotted and every t crossed.
House Speaker Larry Householder, on the other hand, has to play it a little looser, because he has a number of individuals in his 62-member caucus who wouldn't vote for a tax if they were tied up and their fingers put on the yes button. So the Perry County Republican's solution was arbitrarily to reduce the size of the revenue gap to $566 million and fill it without new taxes.
"They're just a bunch of numbers anyway,'' Householder said of the revenue estimates.
The speaker can get away with saying that because the revenue projections have not been on target. Many lawmakers are reluctant to believe anything that comes out of Taft's budget office or even their own budget office.
Rep. Timothy Grendell, R-Chesterland, warmed up for cutting Taft's proposed $49.2 billion two-year budget by complaining about extravagances in the Ohio Department of Education. Taft has pressured lawmakers to vote for cigarette and alcohol taxes by warning he will reduce school aid if the revenue is not there.
Grendell ridiculed middle managers, public-relations personnel and in-house newsletters in government agencies, especially the Department of Education.
J.C. Benton, a PR manager, replied on behalf of the department that 98.8 percent of its funding goes to schools, and he defended the employee newsletter.
"This is a communications mechanism used to educate staff on good management principles, to recognize staff and improve employee morale -- something that is needed dearly in state government,'' he said.
"A newsletter is a luxury when we don't have money for classrooms,'' Grendell said, noting the department claimed to have cut its costs by one-third. "I think they should reduce it by three-thirds.''
This is just the appetizer. The main meal will be served soon.
Lee Leonard covers the Statehouse for The Dispatch.
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