05/01/2019

Budget Sub Bill Due This Week

During a two-week recess, House leadership has been hard at work deliberating which of the hundreds of amendments submitted for HB 166, Ohio’s biennial budget bill, will be included in the substitute (“sub”) bill expected to be introduced in Finance Committee this week. The bill was originally anticipated on Wednesday, but that meeting was subsequently cancelled.

Once the sub bill is introduced, there will again be testimony and an additional opportunity for amendments to be included in an omnibus amendment before the bill is voted out of the Finance Committee and to the House floor for a vote, likely late next week. Once this bill is released, LeadingAge Ohio staff will comb the bill and share with members which key aging issues made it into the bill. Additionally, the Legislative Services Commission (LSC) will produce a comparison document (“comp doc”) which crosswalks the Executive budget to the House-passed budget, noting differences between the two.

The Center for Community Solutions has put together a summary of the budget process.

Because of this year’s compressed budget time frame due to a new administration, the Senate has already begun hearings on the budget, inviting the heads of the administrative departments in for initial testimony. The Senate Finance Committee is expected to begin hearing public testimony no later than May 14, and testimony on aging issues will be heard by the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health and Medicaid, which is chaired by Senator Hackett. Once testimony is heard, the bill will follow a similar path, reported out to the Finance Committee, then additional hearings and opportunities for amendment, before being reported to the Senate floor.

Because it is certain that the Senate and House versions of the bill will differ, the final week of June will likely be spent in conference committee, when a small group of leadership from the House and Senate work to resolve any differences between the two versions of the bill before each chamber votes on the final version to send to the Governor’s desk for signature by June 30.

LeadingAge Ohio continues to hold biweekly Budget in Brief conference calls every other Monday at 10am to offer the latest updates and developments in Ohio’s biennial budget process. The next call will be held Monday, May 13 at 10am, and will include a detailed review of the provisions of the As Passed by the House version of the bill. To join the next Budget in Brief call, dial (800) 582-3014; passcode: 60427031#.

Questions regarding the budget process may be directed to Susan Wallace, Director of Public Relations and Public Affairs, at swallace@leadingageohio.org.