Kasich Produces His Final Biennial Budget

On Monday, Governor Kasich unveiled his final biennial budget. His FY18-19 budget proposes to spend $71.5 billion in FY18, a 4.4% increase from FY17, and $72.8 billion in FY19, a 1.8%  increase from FY18.  Budget director Tim Keen called it the “most difficult” budget he’s ever put together due to “significant uncertainties we have faced.”

The governor seeks an aggregate increase of $3.1 billion over the two years in sales and other taxes to pay for a 17% cut in revenues generated by the personal income tax.

In K-12 education, Kasich plans to increase funding by nearly $200 million over the two years, or about 1% per year. School districts will see small increases or be flat-funded. District breakdowns will be available later.  Districts that have lost more than 5% of their student population from 2011 to 2016 would see less funding.

Kasich would freeze tuition and other fees at Ohio’s public colleges and universities for two years.

The governor’s budget proposal will be put into bill form and introduced by a House member (the chairman of the House Finance Committee). The Finance Committee began hearings this week with testimony from administration officials.  1/30/2017