Butler County state lawmaker misses vote on 2-year budget bill

One Butler County lawmaker missed the vote on the $69 billion biennium budget bill because of an illness, and another voted against it last week.

Ohio Rep. Sara Carruthers, R-Hamilton, did not cast a vote on Wednesday’s 17-day-late budget bill, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s first two-year budget.

Carruthers was excused from Wednesday’s session, according to the GOP leadership communications office. A letter to Speaker Larry Householder indicated she would be out of the country for the vote on the budget bill, which includes increased spending on education and tax cuts.

“While I do not take lightly missing any vote in the Ohio House … in this instance my daughter is currently in the infirmary in England,” she wrote in a press release. “While I had previously scheduled time to visit her, I am reluctant to cancel as the persistence of her illness has me concerned.”

RELATED: Ohio lawmakers OK income tax cut, education changes

The House voted 75-17 with Ohio Rep. Candice Keller, R-Middletown, as the only Butler County lawmaker voting against the bill. Keller voted against it because the bill “included tax increases and complete out-of-control spending. Unsustainable spending.”

Among other issues she had with the budget bill, Keller said there were increases to certain licensing boards, increased fees to fish and hunt, and increased fees at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, and the continued funding of Medicaid expansion.

The Senate passed the budget bill by a 29-1 vote.

Last week in Butler County politics also included:

RELATED: Butler County sheriff backs Trump’s ‘leave’ America statement

• Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones backed President Donald Trump’s comments posted on June 14 to Twitter, telling some Democratic congresswomen to “go back” from the countries they came. Three of the four congresswomen are natural-born Americans.

On Wednesday, Jones echoed President Trump’s sentiments, saying, “If you’re not happy, you can leave.”

“President Trump is not concerned that people are upset by his comment because he feels most people agree with him, as I do,” Jones said. “This is the greatest country in the world and if you are not happy here, then buy your one-way ticket and go.”

He also wrote on Twitter he would “chip in” for that one-way ticket.

The congresswomen Trump referenced, include Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, Ayanna Pressley, D-Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan, who were born in America, and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, who became a naturalized citizen as a teenager after her parents fled Somalia.

RELATED: Lang’s announcement sets up ‘a tough race’ in Butler County for Ohio Senate seat

• State Rep. George Lang, R-West Chester Twp., announced June 15 he would run for the open 4th Ohio District Senate seat. His candidacy prompts a three-person race for the GOP nomination in March 2020.

Ohio Sen. Bill Coley, R-Liberty Twp., cannot seek re-election because of term limits, and is running for a seat on the 12th District Court of Appeals. While many term-limited politicians resign before their term is up to seek their next opportunity, Coley told the Journal-News he intends to serve the remainder of his term.

Lang would face in the March 2020 primary fellow Keller, and West Chester Twp. Trustee Lee Wong. Lang served with Wong on the board before his Statehouse appointment in 2017.

There has not yet been a Butler County Democratic Party Senate candidate identified, but party chairman Brian Hester said there is at least one candidate circulating petitions. No one has pulled petitions from the county elections office, but potential candidates can anonymously download forms from the board’s website.

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