Six Republican Ohio House veterans wrote a letter opposing a committee adding a seven-day interim budget to a bill that gives military families a tax break.
On Monday, the House Rules and Reference Committee approved an amendment to include this budget to Senate Bill (SB) 43 to expand the situations in which surviving spouses of disabled veterans may receive the “homestead” tax exemption.
Under the Ohio Constitution, lawmakers must pass the state’s two-year budget and have it signed into law before the fiscal year’s end on Friday. However, the budget legislation approved by the Ohio House and Ohio Senate differs significantly from one another, causing some in leadership to conclude that the budget will not be able to pass before its deadline necessitating a deadline extension.
State Representatives and Veterans Steve Demetriou (R-Bainbridge Twp.), Jennifer Gross (R-West Chester), Beth Lear (R-Galena), Brian Stewart (R-Ashville), Scott Wiggam (R-Wooster), and Bernie Willis (R-Springfield) opposed the interim budget amendment to SB 43 in their letter claiming that leadership is using the legislation to play their “political games” and are using military families as “bargaining chips” for budget discussions.
“We came to Columbus expecting a vote in favor of SB 43 to expand the homestead exemption for military spouses, which we wholeheartedly support. Unfortunately, we instead learned that SB 43 is being used by leadership to play political games, and now includes an unnecessary, premature continuing resolution jammed in to allow the legislature to miss its constitutional budget deadline. Military families should not be used as a bargaining chip for budget talks,” the lawmakers wrote.
According to the lawmakers, Demetriou and Lear supported SB 43 in the House Ways and Means Committee and recommended the bill’s passage on the house floor prior to this budget language addition.
The lawmakers said that although they support SB 43, they will oppose it as long as leadership uses it for political games during budget discussions.
How are budget negotiations going?
Six Republican House veterans wrote a letter opposing the addition of a budget stopgap funding onto a bill giving military families a tax break. pic.twitter.com/nNmK40tbCW
— Anna Staver (@AnnaStaver) June 27, 2023
“We support the policy behind SB 42, but we will oppose it so long as it is being used to gain leverage in conference committee,” the lawmakers said.
Gross told The Ohio Star that the general assembly must pass the budget as the law requires.
“Military families should not be used as fodder for political gain. We need to pass the budget by June 30th as required by Law,” Gross told The Star.
Lear concurred, telling The Star that the Friday budget deadline is “not optional.”
“Five of my fellow veterans and I were extremely disappointed to see Senator Brenner’s bill created to close a loophole that left some spouses of disabled veterans unable to access the homestead exemption as a premature vehicle for a budget extension. At the time, there were still four days to negotiate with the Senate. To me, jumping the gun and pushing a continuing resolution that early is not negotiating in good faith. Our constitutional deadline should not be viewed as “optional” but as a hard stop unless there’s an emergency- and there is not,” Lear told The Star.
House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) said that with the approximately 800 differences between the biennial budgets passed by the house and senate, it is likely that the state legislature may miss its end-of-the-month deadline and need to pass a temporary budget until they can strike a final deal.
Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine disagreed with Stephens, saying that they are confident the general assembly can pass the budget before its Friday deadline.
The house’s $88 billion budget included more significant funding for social services, daycare, K–12 schools, and food banks. It also eliminates Ohio’s third-grade reading guarantee, which requires kids to repeat third-grade if they don’t pass a reading proficiency test. The budget passed with substantial bipartisan support.
The senate’s $86 billion budget increased taxpayer-funded vouchers for private schools well beyond what the house authorized, and it delivered larger tax cuts by combining the three tax bands in the house budget into two. Republicans in the senate also reduced the amount spent on social services by the house and reinstated Ohio’s third-grade reading guarantee. The senate budget passed on party lines without support from the Democrats.
– – –
Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Bernie Willis” by Bernie Willis. Photo “Jennifer Gross” by Jennifer Gross.
Editor’s Note: Beth Lear was a journalist with The Ohio Star from May 2019 to December 2019.
