Ohio's Budget Process Continues, Gavarone Highlights Key Provisions

COLUMBUS—Last week, the Ohio Senate passed the final version of the Senate’s $85.8 billion budget plan, which includes historic $3.1 billion in tax relief, education funding and accountability, and expands school choice for Ohio families.

The Ohio House voted yesterday to send the state budget to conference committee, which is comprised of 6 legislators, 3 from each chamber of the General Assembly. The committee is charged with the responsibility of reconciling the differences between the House-passed and Senate-passed versions of the state budget, House Bill 33.
 
“Our number one priority in the Statehouse remains creating an environment in Ohio where we can create jobs and grow our economy for the long-term," said State Senator Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green) "I am very proud of the way the Ohio Senate kept the Ohio taxpayer at top-of-mind during our part of the budget process."

The Senate-passed version of the budget provides a fair and simplified tax approach, reducing the number of tax brackets to only two over the biennium. The marginal rates will be 2.75% over $26,050 and 3.5% over $92,150. Ohioans making $26,050 or less pay no income taxes.

Senator Gavarone successfully advocated for several provisions in the Senate-passed version of the budget to:

• Make Ed Choice Scholarships universally available to every Ohio student based on a sliding scale of income eligibility.
• Provide foundation funding for students in public schools, a record $9.3 billion in FY24 & almost $9.6 billion FY25.
• Provide significant tax relief to businesses by implementing considerable reforms to the Commercial Activity Tax. Businesses will pay no taxes on the first $3 million of gross receipts in tax year 2024, and will pay no taxes on the first $6 million of gross receipts in tax year 2025.
• Extend Ohio's Sales Tax Holiday that will run for two weeks.
• Secure $5M in FY24 to implement the DATA Act, an effort to prevent voter fraud and continue increasing the transparency of Ohio's elections.
• Create a new licensed healthcare professional called a Certified Mental Health Assistant (CMHA), an effort to address the ongoing need for mental health professionals in the state.
• Provide an additional $10M each FY for the Continuum of Care Services line for ADAMH boards in the Department of Mental Health (Restoring to As-Introduced levels). Also increases the Criminal Justice Services line in Mental Health by $9M in FY24 for one-time expenses.
• Preserve a $1.0 Billion One-Time Strategic Community Investments Fund to be set aside during this budget and used in FY25 once all Ohioans, local officials, community leaders, State Representatives, State Senators, and others have time to advance requests to benefit their communities and all of Ohio.

"I am hopeful that the conference committee will continue our hard work, reconciling the differences in good faith, as they put the final touches on a bill that provides significantly for Ohio families, children and businesses," said Gavarone.

House Bill 33 must be signed into law by June 30th.