Senate Democrats Issue Statement on Governor's Vetoes

Today, members of the Ohio Senate Democratic Caucus responded to the governor’s 67 line-item vetoes to House Bill 96, the state operating budget:

“While I commend Governor DeWine’s decision to accept some of the veto requests that our Senate Democratic caucus proposed, and his work definitely improves the budget, make no mistake: this budget continues to reward the interests of the wealthy and well-connected over the needs of everyday Ohioans,” said Senate Democratic Leader Nickie J. Antonio (D-Lakewood). “The budget remains one of broken promises to the middle class by providing a tax cut for the wealthy, giving $600 million of Ohioans’ unclaimed funds to move the Browns’ stadium out of Cleveland, and maintaining Medicaid trigger language that would eliminate health insurance coverage for 770,000 hard working Ohioans if federal funding for Medicaid changes. This bill makes it more apparent than ever that Ohio Republicans consistently prioritize the desires of our top 1% over the necessities of the 99% of Ohioans. Sadly, Governor DeWine’s vetoes do not change that fact.”

“The 67 veto items show that the Governor did hear from some Ohioans who objected to aspects of the Conference Committee budget,” said Senator Paula Hicks-Hudson (D-Toledo), Ranking Member on the Senate Finance Committee. “I am grateful for many of those veto items. Maintaining healthcare for our babies and children, promoting accountability with the use of public funding for our schools, and modestly helping local governments are positives. Acknowledging that there needs to be a thoughtful, comprehensive, and holistic plan to bring true property tax relief to Ohio citizens is an important step. The partial protection of H2Ohio by removing certain items maintains the goal of cleaning Ohio rivers and waterways. Unfortunately, the budget continues to reward some at the expense of others. A budget should be a financial document clearly showing the priorities for the operation of government, whether federal, state, or local. This budget still contains too many items that should have been fully discussed in a robust legislative process rather than placed in the budget without thoughtful consideration by all.”

Some of the line-item vetoes are provisions that Senate Democrats urged the governor to consider vetoing last week, including:

• Rejecting the carry-over limit for public schools and removing the micromanagement of school funding to return it to the district’s administration;
• Reinstating Medicaid coverage for children from birth to age four;
• Rejecting a provision that would have mandated that libraries relocate materials that relate to gender expression and sexual orientation, as well as removing misleading language that would have cut funding from homeless youth shelters;
• Removing the provision that would have required school board elections to be partisan; and
• Removing unnecessary restrictions to allow H2Ohio to work towards continued progress.