Republican leaders of the Ohio Senate are taking a page from their colleagues in the Kentucky Senate. They are trying to shift responsibility for making the spending cuts needed to erase a projected $933 million deficit in Ohio’s budget for the current fiscal year to the state’s Democrat governor, Ted Strickland.
The strategy is just as wrong in Columbus as it was in Frankfort. As a body responsible for approving the state’s budget — the primary task of state legislatures in all 50 states — it is the responsibility of the legislature to approve the necessary cuts when revenue falls short of what is needed to balance the approved budget.
In a 6-1 decision Monday, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that Governor Strickland’s plan to establish video slot machines at Ohio’s seven race tracks is subject to approval by voters in a statewide referendum. Because the Ohio legislature had used projected revenue from the slot machines to balance the state’s budget, the court ruling could throw the current Ohio budget out of balance by some $933 million.
However, Ohio Senate President Bill Harris says it is up to Strickland to determine what to do about the nearly $1 billion for schools in jeopardy because of the court decision over slot machines.
Such shirking of legislative responsibility should sound mighty familiar to those of us in Kentucky. With Kentucky facing a shortfall of nearly $1 billion in its budget for the current fiscal year, Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, earlier this year insisted it was the responsibility of Gov. Steve Beshear to make the necessary spending cuts to balance the budget. The Kentucky General Assembly need do nothing, Williams insisted.
The reluctance of Republican legislators in both Ohio and Kentucky to do their jobs is understandable. If Ohio has to cut funding for Ohio schools by almost a billion dollars, it is going to strain the budget of every school district in the state and result in the elimination of some popular programs. By shirking their elected duties, Ohio Republican legislators are attempting to shift responsibility for the unpopular cuts to the Democrat in the governor’s office.
That was the same strategy Williams was attempting to use in Kentucky. He wanted Beshear to take the bulk of the blame for unpopular spending cuts, but Beshear was not buying it. He called the General Assembly into special session and forced legislators from both parties to approve cuts in spending to balance the budget. That’s exactly what he should have done.
Of course, this is not the first time the legislature in Ohio has shirked its duties in regards to the state’s budget. Instead of approving a bill to allow video slot machines at race tracks, legislators in Columbus allowed Strickland to issue an executive order establishing the slots at tracks while at the same time legislators approved a budget that included funds from the slots.
By doing nothing to stop it, the Ohio legislature gave its indirect approval to slot machines at tracks. With the court decision threatening a budget that includes funding from slots, it is the responsibility of legislators to work with the governor on a plan to balance the budget. Attempting to shift that responsibility to the governor is cowardly and irresponsible.
Editorials
Shirking duties — 09/27/09
Ohio legislators try to shift budget cuts to the governor
- Editorials
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Charles Chattin
Before it merged with Ashland Community College to form Ashland Community and Technical College as a result of the 1997 Higher Education Reform Act, the Ashland Area Vocational-Technical School compiled an impressive record for teaching job skills to young adults and placing more than 85 percent in jobs for which they were trained.
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Try again
It is time for Kentucky Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, to cease playing political games and redraw district lines that are compact and are based far more on population changes during the first decade of this century than on partisan politics.
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'Asset poor'
More than one in four Kentucky households are “asset poor,” meaning that they are living from paycheck to paycheck with little or no financial cushion to fall back on should they suddenly lose their jobs or have another emergency resulting in a temporary loss of or delcine in income.
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Safer mines
The head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says coal operators throughout the country are improving their operations and, as a result, mines are becoming safer. However, MSHA chief Joe Main said too many coal operators still “don’t get it” and are continuing to cut costs by ignoring safety. That’s why MSHA plans to continue targeting mines with a history of repeated violations for additional inspections.
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Not far enough
For the past three sessions of the Kentucky General Assembly, bills that would raise the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18 have been approved by the Kentucky House of Representatives by wide bipartisan margins only to die in the Senate without even a vote.
Now the Senate Education Committee has unanimously approved a dropout bill hailed as an alternative to the House bill, but it does not go nearly far enough. It is a halfway measure that would have only a limited effect on preventing teenagers from quitting high school before graduation and virtually assuring themselves of lives on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.
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Not their job
The local government committee of the Kentucky House of Representatives has wisely killed a bill — dubbed “Cooper’s Law” — that would have allowed the family of the Lexington toddler with cerebral palsy to have a playhouse on their property despite a deed restriction that apparently prohibits such structures.
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Keeping FADE
Despite an increase in cost to the department, Carter County Sheriff Casey Brammell told the Carter County Fiscal Court that his department will continue to be active in the FIVCO Area Development Drug Enforcement (FADE) Task Force — at least for now.
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Needed changes
The soaring enrollment that Kentucky’s community and technical colleges have experienced in recent years could come to a sudden end — or at least be slowed — as about 5,500 students in the statewide system that includes Ashalnd Community and Technical College are expected to lose their financial aid under new rules being implemented by the federal government.
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Released early
While it is disappointing that 75 of the 952 prisoners granted early release in January have violated the terms of their releases, the good news is that none of the former inmates have been charged with new felonies. That’s an early, but positive, indication that the nonviolent felons released before their sentences were up have been carefully selected and are among those least likely to return to a life of crime.
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Obese children
Almost a decade after former Gov. Ernie Fletcher called childhood obesity an “epidemic” in Kentucky, a majority of Kentucky adults still think that there are too many overweight children in the state and they place the bulk of the blame squarely on the shoulders of their parents.
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Charles Chattin
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