First Posted: 4/3/2015
In coming weeks, the Ohio Legislature needs to find an effective balance between the priorities that Gov. John Kasich laid out in his biennial budget, and the needs of local governments and agencies.
Kasich deserves kudos for engineering a turnaround that has seen the state’s unemployment rate drop to 5.1 percent with the creation of more than 245,000 jobs, and for producing a balanced budget and a $1.5 billion rainy day fund after inheriting an $8 billion budget shortfall in 2010.
But Ohio’s recovery was built in part on the backs of local governments and agencies. They saw their state funds slashed as the governor shifted the funding of programs to the local level. The result was schools, municipalities and agencies cutting services as voters continued to reject new taxes.
With the new budget showing even less money for local governments and agencies, it’s clear the hardships they face continue to be underestimated by the governor, and thus need to be carefully addressed by legislators.
“You don’t need to give us anything else, just don’t take anything away. We can’t stand to take more cuts,” said Bath Township Trustee Roy Hollenbacher during a roundtable discussion held at The Lima News. He pointed out the townships in Allen County stand to lose $1.6 million, much of which is used to repair and pave roads.
Allen County Children Services is expecting a loss of $300,000 at a time when it is seeing an increase in abuse cases. The Council on Aging stands to lose $184,000 in funding for senior citizen services. Others agencies also reported sizeable losses.
Policy Matters Ohio points out local governments will operate with $1.5 billion less in 2015 than they had in 2010. This includes the addition of new casino revenues.
Such a significant loss can mean real harm to local communities. On average, it amounts to 5 percent of a local governments’ general fund budgets. The smaller the jurisdiction, the deeper the blow. Those places with the smallest budgets suffered a loss of almost 16 percent of their general revenue funds, on average, according to Policy Matters. That does not take into account inflation.
As Putnam County Township Trustee Association president David Wieging aptly put it, “We’re operating with slim and none, and slim is on the way out of town.”
