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Wednesday, June 10, 2009
House rejects Senate budget; conference committee next
The Ohio House on Wednesday, June 10, rejected the Senate’s $53.5 billion version of the state budget.
The vote sets the stage for a House-Senate conference committee to try to come up with a compromise version of the budget for Gov. Ted Strickland to sign before July 1, start of the new fiscal year.
House Finance Committee Chairman Vern Sykes, D-Akron, identified the conference committee’s big problem. Gloomy, revised revenue projections, expected to be released on Thursday, June 11, will force the committee to cut “hundreds of millions” and possibly billions from the final version of the budget, Sykes said.
Rep. Matt Dolan, R-Novelty, a former House Finance Committee chairman, cast the only vote in favor of accepting the Senate’s version of the budget. Senators said they had cut more than $600 million from the version passed earlier by the House.
Earlier Wednesday, Gov. Ted Strickland and the two legislative leaders- House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, and Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, said the goal is to reach agreement by the June 30 deadline and avoid having to pass an interim budget. The last time the state had an interim budget was in 1991.
“It doesn’t get any easier for us to do and it continues to put us further in debt,” said Harris.
TweetCourt upholds ban on residency rules
In a 5-2 decision, the Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday, June 10, ruled that a 2006 state law banning residency restrictions is constitutional.
Cities such as Dayton have long required their employees to live within the city limits as a condition of employment. In 2006, the General Assembly passed a law banning local jurisdictions from imposing residency requirements. Cities, including Dayton, Toledo, Akron, Lima and Cleveland, challenged the law, saying it violated cities’ home rule authority to self-governance.
The court decided the Akron and Lima cases on Wednesday. The other cases, including Dayton’s, had been held pending Wednesday’s decision but it’s expected the court will apply the Akron-Lima decision to those cases.
Dayton City Manager Rashad Young said he is disappointed in today’s Supreme Court ruling.
Young said the city has always considered residency a home-rule issue and because of that disagrees with the Supreme Court ruling today. The city is reviewing the ruling currently and will have a press conference at 2:30 p.m. at City Hall after city leaders have had a chance to read the entire ruling.
Justice Judith Lanzinger and Chief Justice Thomas Moyer dissented. Lanzinger wrote that the court was opening the door for the General Assembly to possibly “eviscerate municipal home rule.”
Joanne Huist Smith contributed to this story.
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