Week in Review 06-11-21

FY20-21 BUDGET

The Office of Budget and Management (OBM) Monday released May 2021 preliminary revenue data. Total General Revenue Fund tax receipts finished the month $744.7 million or 34.1 percent above the budgeted estimate as the state heads into the final month of FY21. FY21 ends on Wednesday, June 30. The state is nearly $1.2 billion over the estimates for the 11 months of FY21, coming in at $1,170,379,000 or 5.2 percent over estimates for total revenues of $23,787,079,000 through May. As of this time last year, the state had collected a total of $20,395,055,000, a difference of over $3.3 billion.

FY22-23 BUDGET

The Senate passed its version of the biennial operating budget Wednesday on a party-line vote, with much of the lengthy floor debate focused on the chamber’s school funding formula as compared to the House plan. The chamber voted 25-8 to approve HB110 with no further changes beyond the omnibus amendment adopted Tuesday, though Democrats sought numerous floor amendments that all fell to tabling motions.

Teachers, parents, and other community leaders gathered in the Ohio Statehouse Ladies’ Gallery Wednesday to once again urge lawmakers to include the Fair School Funding Plan (FSFP) in the biennial budget over the Senate’s school funding proposal. Attendees were part of the All in For Ohio Kids Coalition, which includes the Ohio Education Association, Ohio Federation of Teachers, Ohio Organizing Collaborative, Policy Matters Ohio, and other community members. The group held their rally just a few hours before Senate members were scheduled to take up their version of the operating budget, HB110, on the Senate floor.

EDUCATION

Monday’s meeting of the State Board of Education Budget Committee focused largely on a review of federal education spending in the state. Aaron Rausch, budget director for the Ohio Department of Education, led a presentation on the federal spending. Rausch said federal funding usually constitutes about $2 billion per fiscal year, but was at $2.55 billion from COVID-10 relief funding and is now around $3 billion this fiscal year with Gov. Mike DeWine’s recent signing of HB170 (Bird-Richardson). Rausch said federal funding is expected to be substantially above the $2 billion figure as a result of various COVID packages passed by Congress.

The Columbus City Schools Board of Education voted recently to sign on to a planned lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of Ohio’s school voucher system, bringing the state’s largest school district into the effort. Board members Eric Brown, Michael Cole, Tina Pierce, Ramona Reyes, Jennifer Adair and Carol Beckerle supported the resolution, while James Ragland opposed it.