COLUMBUS—Gov. John Kasich on Tuesday night exercised his line-item veto pen 42 times before signing a $71.2 billion, two-year budget into law.
Among the vetoes was lawmakers’ replacement for K-12 school revenue from a now-defunct business tax during the second year of the budget. The move means some school districts will see less state aid during the second year.
Mr. Kasich’s office, however, did not provide revised numbers for individual school districts. The budget lawmakers sent to him would have provided $955 million more in basic aid over two years.
Despite pro-choice protesters outside his office, the pro-life governor did not veto a provision that targets Toledo’s Capital Care Clinic that is fighting a state order to close because it doesn’t hold an agreement with a “local” hospital to handle emergencies.
The state refused to recognize Capital Care’s agreement with the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor more than 50 miles away. The budget would now specify that “local” means a hospital located within 30 miles of the clinic.
“That 30-mile amendment was added to the budget purely to close Toledo’s last abortion clinic even through the judge in Toledo has already ruled that limitations like that are unconstitutional,” said Jaime Miracle, of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio.
Also surviving were provisions seen as punishing cities like Toledo that got court orders to continue their traffic camera programs, limiting collective bargaining rights for some public employees, and eliminating journalists’ right to review county sheriffs’ records on concealed carry gun permits.
The budget quietly continues to fund the controversial expansion of Medicaid to some 500,000 mostly working adults without independent children. However, the governor vetoed some provisions that would have further expanded Medicaid eligibility and services.
“Budgets are not about numbers,” Mr. Kasich said. “They’re about hope and opportunity, and I think we’re delivering on that as best as we can. We have a long road to go, but we are step by step—and each step seems to be bigger and bigger—restoring strength to Ohio.”
The governor also vetoed provisions that would have changed how utilities’ power plants would have been taxed, a move that could have affected local property tax revenue.
The budget holds an estimated net income tax cut of $1.9 billion over two years for individuals and small businesses. It cuts taxes across all brackets by 6.3 percent.
Small businesses would get a 75 percent break on their first $250,000 in income earned this year and would see that entire tax bill forgiven next year. They would pay a flat 3 percent rate on income above $250,000.
Smokers will pay 35 cents more for a pack of cigarettes, bringing the total tax to $1.60. But the budget does not include his other proposals to raise taxes to help underwrite a deeper income tax cut. He wanted a higher sales tax rate, an expanded sales tax base, and higher taxes on other tobacco products, and larger business earnings.
The plan contains a study committee, however, that will at least look at Mr. Kasich’s proposed hike on oil and natural gas “fracking” operations.
University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University officials cheered the budget’s roughly $200 million in additional support for higher education in exchange for a two-year freeze in tuition at public colleges and universities.
Contact Jim Provance at: jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.
First Published July 1, 2015, 2:16 a.m.
