Matt Huffman: Ohio Senate's State Budget Plan Supports Ohio Families by Investing in Critical Human Services and Providing Significant Tax Relief

COLUMBUS—The Ohio Senate today unveiled its first draft of the state’s two-year operating budget (Sub. H.B. 166) that invests in Ohio’s essential human services while providing significant tax relief to hard-working Ohioans. "This budget will help build on the progress Ohio has made in recent years," said Senator Matt Huffman (R-Lima). "This takes a fiscally-responsible approach that makes substantial investments in key priorities like education, while letting Ohio's taxpayers keep more of their hard-earned money."Major provisions of the Senate’s plan include: Providing Critical Human Services

• Helping families in crisis by restoring and increasing funding for kinship and crisis care.
• Improving care for Ohio’s low-income, elderly citizens by increasing funding for home-living programs, like PASSPORT.
• Increasing funding for Ohio’s foodbanks and vital community service providers like Boys and Girls Clubs, United Way family stability programs, Ohio Children’s Trust Fund, among others.
• Protecting increased funding levels for indigent defense funding and for Ohio’s local drug courts which help Ohioans struggling with addiction receive treatment in lieu of conviction.
• Investing in a pilot program to help veterans who struggle with PTSD achieve healing and stability in their lives.

Investing in Our Children’s Education and Career Readiness

• Expanding availability of new $550M in funding for “wrap-around wellness” services in our K-12 schools.
• Adding $100M in additional funding for school facility construction, with an emphasis on supporting low-income school districts.
• Providing enrollment growth supplements to growing school districts.
• Increasing funding for Ohio’s nationally-recognized libraries.
• Increasing funding for Ohio's higher education institutions and for College Opportunity Grants for students with financial needs.
• Providing reimbursement options for workforce-related credential programs.

Preserving Ohio’s Water Supplies and Natural Resources

• Fully funding H2Ohio program over the next two years in a comprehensive effort to deal with the challenges faced by Lake Erie and Ohio’s other vital waterways.
• Providing additional funding for maritime port economic development in opportunity zones across Ohio.

Providing Significant Tax Relief to Hard-Working Ohioans One of the most important ways the Senate believes the state can invest in Ohioans is by returning tax dollars to the taxpayer. The Senate plan provides:

• Tax relief for working families by removing the bottom two tax brackets.
• An across the board income tax reduction of 8% over the biennium, providing Ohioans opportunities to build their future, not build big government.

Protects tax cuts for small businesses, the backbone of Ohio’s economy. The bill restores zero income taxes on the first $250,000 earned by small businesses, with revenue over that taxed within Ohio’s new marginal rates. The Senate’s tax relief package represents a $600 million tax cut for Ohioans and represents the Senate’s belief that lower taxes and less regulations make a significant difference in Ohio’s economy and the lives of the people who call Ohio home. The Senate’s version of the state budget was accepted today in the Senate’s Finance Committee and the committee will be holding hearings Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week and next Monday, all of which can be watched live on The Ohio Channel and at www.OhioSenate.gov. Today’s news conference is archived on www.OhioChannel.org. Follow @OhioSenateGOP on social media for more information and daily updates.