Smith Commends Passage of Transportation Budget

Today, state Senator Kent Smith (D-Euclid) commended the Ohio Senate’s passage of House Bill 23, the state’s two-year transportation budget.

“This is the fifth transportation budget that I have voted on as a member of the Ohio General Assembly and it is the best one yet,” said Smith. “By passing H.B. 23, we improved Ohio's roads, bridges, airports and trains while putting Ohioans to work, helping to get them to work and making all of us safer.”

“As one of three Democrats on the Senate Transportation Committee, I was very glad to see this budget enact many Democratic policy goals and it includes many of my personal priorities, including a historic $100 million in public transportation and a mandate that trains operating in the Buckeye State have at least two personnel operating the train. This was a critical personal priority of mine, as I have been a cosponsor of the two-member crew mandate in each of my last three terms in the Ohio House. And we accomplished all of this without an increase in the motor fuel tax. This was a very good day for Ohio.”

H.B. 23 invests over $13 billion over the biennium in Ohio’s infrastructure to fund our roads, bridges, airports and trains. The budget allocates approximately $100 million over the next two years to public transportation initiatives — the most ever in an Ohio transportation budget — and includes rail safety measures that have been in the works for the last decade.