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Though, there's plenty of debate on whether the pandemic is in an end.

The Mask mandate and other state health orders are.

Senate Republicans reveal their budget, complete with a tax cut and a totally different school funding formula.

And predictably, minority Democrats aren't happy about most of it.

We'll hear from one of them this week in the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio on Karen Kasler, after nearly a year of the state's mask, mandate is gone at just after midnight on Wednesday, as Governor Mike DeWine had announced in a statewide address last month, most pandemic health orders are rescinded, but some communities and businesses are keeping their mask requirements.

The orders for nursing homes, assisted living facilities and state psychiatric hospitals will remain in effect.

As the health orders lifted, the Ohio Department of Health put out a reminder there are those who should continue to still wear masks, including kids under 12 who are too young to be vaccinated.

But when they're out in crowds, out in public, out in stores, out at events, they should be mass and aware of the belief that parents should mass and family members should mask along with them.

It's it's just that the only way to protect that population, covid-19 is listed among the top 10 causes of pediatric deaths.

And Dr. Patty Manning Courtney with Cincinnati Children's Hospital says there are kids hospitalized at this moment with covid.

She adds, older people and those with poor immune systems are still in danger of catching covid, especially with new, highly contagious variants.

But that didn't stop people from celebrating, including Attorney General Dados and US Senate candidate and former state treasurer Josh Mandel.

Both Republicans running for office next year who shared mask burning videos on social media, the latter getting a fair amount of national criticism for his Republican.

Leaders of the Ohio Senate have proposed a seventy five billion dollar two year state budget, and it should be a surprise to no one that there is a tax cut in it.

And a Senate Finance Committee chair, Matt Dolan, said on this show a few weeks ago, it's been increased from the tax cut in the House budget.

Senate President Matt Huffman said it's a five percent across the board income tax cut, costing the state eight hundred and seventy four million dollars.

This is a reflection and you could in some ways call it a reward for people who are working.

But it's more than that.

It's an incentive.

It is in the best sense of the word, a stimulus, not because you're taking borrowed money from the Social Security trust fund or the Veteran's Trust Fund or the Medicare trust fund and writing checks to people who aren't working, but letting people who are working keep more money.

There's a total of one point three billion dollars in tax cuts in the Senate budget or both individuals and businesses.

And Hoffman said the tax cuts for the latter will also help the former.

So what happens when the business doesn't have to pay more tax to the government?

They have more tax to they have more money to reward their employees.

There are a lot of questions about the validity of that claim.

Among those raising them is the liberal leaning Policy Matters Ohio, which wrote, instead of building in Ohio that supports more opportunity for all.

The budget proposal presented by Ohio's Senate leadership doubles down on years of failed trickle down policies that caused the superwealthy to get even wealthier.

While most Ohioans saw meager, if any, gains for more than 15 years, certain Ohio politicians have chosen to cut taxes for the wealthiest residents and corporations, slashing public resources for our communities, holding down funding for our schools and colleges, and allowing workplace violations to go unchecked.

The Senate budget also basically blows up the school funding overhaul proposed in the House budget that school groups and education advocates supported.

Very simply put, the House overhaul of the formula calculates per student aid based on 60 percent property taxes, 40 percent income per student aid or the cost to educate a child is set at seven thousand twenty dollars and the House budget current student aid is set at a thousand dollars less.

The Senate budget uses 80 percent of teacher salary plus benefits, a student teacher ratio of 20 to one and adds in teacher development days, building administrative costs and operations, student support and district admin costs to calculate per student aid at six thousand one hundred and ten dollars.

The Senate plan puts over four hundred and twenty eight million dollars more into schools than the House budget does.

Senator Matt Dillon offered this as a comparison to the two plans.

Our goals were exactly the same.

The difference is our plan is sustainable and can be paid for not only in these two years but in the out years, Hoffman said.

The Senate proposal is more sustainable and predictable long term.

What we're trying to avoid by doing this is each year we know that the cost of education will go up.

A portion of this actually allows for a regular review of that.

And my concern with the House plan is that in four or five years, we are right back where we were for the last 20 years, which is a large increase in spending.

And we're faced with either cutting funding to schools, cutting funding to some other spending or raising taxes.

And that model is really not a good governing model, as everyone has complained over the past twenty five years.

But the.

President of the state's largest teachers union, the Ohio Education Association, which in full disclosure is an underwriter of this show, said the Senate plan moves in the wrong direction.

Scott DiMauro said the Senate's formula takes the state back toward the state share approach, and it ignores why Ohio's way of funding schools was ruled unconstitutional in nineteen ninety seven.

First, the reliance on property taxes.

The House and the Senate plan does not.

And then the second thing that the Supreme Court said is that there is not a commitment to adequately fund the schools the size of the actual cost of educating a child.

The House plan addresses that the Senate plan does not.

There are also questions about the salary data and the school funding formulas.

Senators had determined the House plan would add an additional four hundred and fifty million dollars for a total of around two point three billion dollars on top of what the state already spends on K through 12 education because the House plan had used twenty eighteen salary data.

But the Senate plan doesn't use the latest teacher salary data either.

It's calculated with numbers from twenty nineteen.

The Senate plan does restore six hundred fifty million dollars of the one point one billion dollars that was set aside by Governor Mike DeWine for wellness programs for all low income students such as mental health counseling and tutoring.

The house had taken those funds and absorbed them into their plan.

The Senate plan also provides for direct funding of vouchers, as the House budget does.

The Senate plan also increases edged choice and Cleveland scholarship vouchers to fifty five hundred dollars for K through eight students and seventy five hundred dollars for high school.

It also offers a private school tax credit of twenty five hundred dollars at a cost to the state of two point one million dollars.

As with every budget, there are some other things in it and not in it.

Senate budget cuts.

One hundred and ninety million dollars in the House budget for grants for broadband expansion.

It adds twenty three million dollars to cover Medicaid postpartum coverage for moms for a year, not 60 days.

It increases the Ohio College Opportunity grants for low income students by two and a half million dollars.

It boosts funding to Ohio's libraries from one point sixty six percent of the General Revenue Fund to one point seven percent, which amounts to about 20 million dollars.

And it requires Ohio Supreme Court and Appeals Court candidates who ran in primaries to appear on the general election ballot with a party designation.

On the other side of many of these proposals are Democrats, including Senator Nikki Antônio of Lakewood, who's on the Senate Finance Committee.

First of all, five percent income tax cut up from two percent in the House budget.

There are one point three billion dollars in tax cuts in this budget.

I don't think anybody is surprised by the increase in the tax cuts.

What are your thoughts?

Well, you know, and I'm I I guess it is a good place to start with that tax cut.

First of all, it's not a surprise that there was a tax cut put in in the House.

It's also not a surprise that it was increased in the Senate.

But I'm very, very concerned about that on a couple of levels.

One is we'll start with the fact that, you know, the federal stimulus money, future money could be in jeopardy because of these tax cuts, because they specifically indicated that tax cuts were not part of the plan here for the for those federal Arpad dollars.

So I have big concern about that.

Are we are we putting those dollars in jeopardy?

And then, you know, we did some we asked some of our some of our partners to do some math and just to look at what does this really mean?

It's not just a talking point, because it it actually does little to provide economic relief for Ohioans.

I mean, I think that's the goal.

But for everyday Ohioans, you know, even this at this the two percent tax cut, average Ohioans, if they make under sixty thousand dollars a year, they're going to get fifty seven cents per week.

You know, they're not even going to get a dollar to reinvest or put back into the economy, so if we really want to get the economy going, I think over time we know tax cuts are just not the way to go, especially for middle and low income folks.

It's just not the answer.

I know some higher income folks will benefit a little bit, but I still question is that enough for them really to invest?

And now the Senate has said that because there are no American rescue plan in this, they don't feel that that triggers any sort of tax cut problems here.

But let me move on to something that you were hinting at here.

President Hoffman had said that the tax breaks for businesses and also this income tax break will help not only workers, but also businesses, because if businesses pay less in taxes, they can give more to workers that workers will want to return to work because they are going to be getting more of their income back.

Ronald Reagan always talked about the trickle down, didn't he?

And and it was always very frustrating because we didn't really see it on the ground.

I I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I just read a report this morning very quickly in my morning reading of things.

And what I saw was the amazing results, these first roll out results of what it has meant to have both the the unemployment compensation, some of that additional money that came to folks.

They're staying in their homes.

They haven't been evicted.

They are spending money in local communities.

They're paying their utility bills.

So they have been able to be stable during this.

And we know every time we give low income and middle income folks additional money, whether it's at the end of the year with their refunds or whatever, nine times out of ten, they're spending that money in the local communities.

So if we want to see investments, we need to make sure those folks have a little bit extra in their pockets because they're going to spend it in the local economy.

And that's what we really want to see.

It's not part of the budget of the state is ending those stimulus checks for people who are unemployed.

Let's move on to the school funding plan in the Senate budget.

It blows up the Patterson plan.

House bill one, what was known as the fair school funding plan, goes in a totally different direction.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I will I will be real honest.

We have been trying to to sort through to weed through what this means, you know, kind of the good, the bad and the ugly.

I think between the two plans, there's there's certainly a lot that could benefit local communities and our all of our schools.

But then the devil's in the details in terms of, you know, I just stepped out of a hearing this morning where we're hearing some of the real concerns that folks who supported the fair school funding plan or the Patterson plan in the House with the House sent over, they're very concerned about what the Senate plan does for transportation.

The formulas are complicated.

The bottom line is complicated, depending on who you hear from and talk to.

They're telling us the the Senate plan is saying, look, we did a two year plan, which is good.

We kept the funding for for the wraparound services that the governor proposed.

Also a good thing.

But then on the other side, we have the the fair funding formula that says, look, we're reducing the dependance on property tax and we're providing a balance.

The Senate plan says we're looking at things like what's the cost to get to that per pupil number based on teacher salaries and some other things.

So we're not we're not.

We're talking about apples and oranges with it all.

The bill also, as the House bill does, provides direct funding of vouchers.

The Senate budget increases add choice and Kliman scholarship vouchers to fifty five hundred for K through eight seventy five hundred for high school.

It also offers a private school tax credit of twenty five hundred dollars.

So there's a lot in here for private schools and vouchers.

Well, and the curious part of that and again, I saw those numbers.

We finally got to those numbers this morning.

And the curious part of that is that the voucher would give more money per pupil than what they're proposing for the public school kids per pupil, because that base is sixty one sixty one ten.

Yes, Ohio is a state that has many choices for educating our kids.

I think, again, the best way forward is that it's balanced and fair for all families and kids, not just some.

And so that formula needs a little bit of work.

I think the Senate proposal also raises the income level for families who want to get state assisted child care and would eliminate the step.

Quality program for child care providers, because President Hoffman said the program is expensive, it's cost the state providers that specifically serve low income families.

And he had a child care provider who talked to us at the press conference talking about how the program was run by fear, more than encouragement, while at the same time that child care provider did actually qualify, do all the things necessary and have those quality measures in earn those stars and have that higher rating.

You know, I think this is this is definitely a values discussion as well as a dollars and cents discussion.

I think the thing that the Senate put in that I like is the fact that there is an evaluation.

Let's put a committee together.

Let's actually crunch the numbers.

I, I agree with that.

At the same time, our kids and families really deserve the quality and the quality measures that that program provides.

You know, former Senator Peggy Lainer was the champion, a Republican.

Yes.

For this.

And because she saw that the investment of those dollars today is we reap the benefits of that, when those kids are ready, more able and prepared for school, their families can rest assured that they're in a safe, quality environment.

And it gives those kids that maybe don't have there is no level playing field for them.

It gives them a step up in the right direction as they go on to their education further.

So I think that investment, that quality investment is worth our funding.

At the same time, I think it's good for us to take a look at it.

So that's one of those.

We're hoping to see some changes in that.

And if not in the Senate, maybe that ends up working its way out in conference.

There's another thing in the Senate budget that doesn't deal with money, and this is common with budgets that there are things they're put in because this is a document that must pass.

It adds a new section requiring candidates for the Ohio Supreme Court and appeals courts to appear on the general election ballot with a party designation.

That bill passed the Senate on a mostly party line vote.

It's still a similar version is over in the House.

The current chief justice, who is a Republican, says she doesn't like this idea.

Yeah, yeah.

And I agree with her.

I think that the way the system works right now works right now, and that I think it's important that when people appeal to the entire state of Ohio public that they go they're talking about what makes them the best judge and that they don't have that marker of political party on them.

I think it I think it shifts the discussion and it shifts the lens that we look at our justices through.

And I you know, I value so much our chief justice because because she has been so fair.

And I think without that party affiliation marker, it actually frees our justices to really do what they need to do for us and the people of Ohio, which is be fair and unbiased in how they approach the law.

One thing not in the Senate version of the budget is funding for broadband expansion.

The House had taken Governor Mike DeWine two hundred fifty million dollars request, dropped it down to one hundred ninety million.

It's completely gone in the Senate budget.

President Huffman says he doesn't know the plan.

So why put the money out there if there's no plan for how to spend it?

Well, what we do know is that broadband and the lack thereof affects rural as well as urban communities across the state.

And that we saw that during covid the fact that children we had families in parking lots of public libraries because the kids needed to do their homework or even participate in school, and that was the only way for them.

We know that's the case across the state.

I think the investment I think there are some plans.

I think there are plans that are better community based.

So maybe folks need to.

Circled the wagons and talked to each other, but I think the investment needs to to be there and I'm hoping it will be another thing not in the budget.

And again, not a surprise here on this one.

The Senate did not put back the gun proposals that DeWine had put forward in his budget.

It's interesting not only because Ohio has had several high profile shootings, including a couple of mass shootings, but also it's not a surprise when you consider that there are bills to declare Ohio a Second Amendment sanctuary state, also a bill to guarantee that gun stores can't be closed during an emergency and guns can't be seized during emergency, though in the last emergency, those things did not happen.

Right?

Right.

Look at this.

This seems to be a struggle for US interest in the state in terms of.

Major parts of the population really wanted to see some some reforms and some changes that are common sense and that their wishes and their desire for that being a bit out of step with our majority general assembly right now.

And I think until the makeup of the General Assembly changes, I think we're going to continue to see this this dichotomy in the in the the difference between the majority of the people and the majority of the policy makers in the General Assembly.

There have to be some things in here that you like.

For instance, there are twenty three million dollars to cover Medicaid, postpartum coverage for moms for a year, not just 60 days.

And that's something that you've talked about.

I've advocated for that.

That has that is very important because, again, when when moms are able to stay in their regular health care checkup.

Absolutely.

That increases the health of the baby that they just had and so forth through that first year.

And we're really hoping that we'll see some changes with our infant mortality rates with these two together.

Absolutely.

That's a great thing.

And the Senate also restored and boosted some funding for Ohio libraries.

It was supposed to be about one point six, six percent of the general revenue fund.

Now twelve point seven doesn't sound like a lot, but it translates to millions of dollars.

Well, absolutely.

And when they came in and talked to us and when you look at the funding over the period of years, they were bounced back years ago.

And and every every time they have to come back and recover back to what was instead of what it should be, you know, our public libraries are we call them the People's University in Cleveland.

And I think that's very, very true.

But there's so much more than that.

And what my hope is, is that we could get to a point where they have an incremental increase every every time we come back so that you don't have recession happens every two years, every time in the library.

We have to come save the libraries with good reason.

But it's like it would be nice for them to if they were on a more stable rates schedule for how they received their funding for sure.

And finally, one thing that was not restored in this budget was 50 million dollars that Dawai had put forward as a campaign to lure people back to Ohio or to persuade them not to leave.

Would you have liked to have seen that come back?

You know, what I love about this is, is that I I would love for people to come back to Ohio.

I, I have a different idea about how we get there.

I think we get there by passing things like the Fairness Act, where we tell everyone in the country that in the state of Ohio we do not discriminate against the LGBT community.

I would like to see things like we're we just passed a bill that will increase minority business owners and along with women business owners and veteran business owners.

And we can say to everyone, this is a great place to do business.

I think we need we need a fair funding formula for our schools.

If we start doing some of those kinds of things, then I think Ohio promotes itself to the rest of the country and says this is a great because, you know, it was a great place to raise my family.

It's a great place to live.

But I think spending funds on billboards and telling people things about us that we're progressive, it's aspirational, but I don't think we're there yet.

How do you get there, though, as Representative Bill Seitz, who was one of your former colleagues in the Senate, a Republican, has called Democrats the super minority.

How do super minority Democrats get some of these things accomplished?

Well, you know, super minority Superman, Superwoman, I don't know.

I think we're pretty powerful.

The way we do that is by having fair districts that are reflective where the districts that are designed in the state of Ohio, both congressional and in the General Assembly, reflect actually the people seeking out their people to represent them.

Right now, we have districts where the politicians, a very small group of people, seek people they they know will vote for them.

We need to flip that all the way around.

We do that.

And I think what we end up with is a balance.

And that's what we really need is a balance.

We should have a third are Republican districts, a third are Democratic districts, and then a third through the state of Ohio that go back and forth depending on movement and issues and economy and all those kinds of things.

So if we get there, I think we would have more balance.

The Senate budget is set for a floor vote next week, and that's it for this week, where my colleagues at the state House.

News Bureau of Ohio Public Radio and Television, thanks for watching, please check out our website at statenews.org and you can follow us and the show on Facebook and Twitter.

My colleague Jo Ingles will be in the seat next week.

Please join us again next time for the state of Ohio.

Support for the statewide broadcast of the state of Ohio comes from medical mutual, providing more than one point four million Ohioans peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at Medda Mutual.

Dotcom's slash Ohio by the law offices of PorterWright Morris and Arthur LLP.

Now with eight locations across the country, PorterWright is a legal partner with a new perspective to the business community.

More at PorterWright Dotcom and from the Ohio Education Association, representing 100 24000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online at O H E A dot org.