Counties, transit groups seek budget solution

With another veto override looming, counties and transit authorities are trying to persuade lawmakers and the Kasich administration to find a solution to the $207 million hole being blown in their future budgets.

The main issue, of course, is finding the money to do it.

“There seems to be a commitment to try to work on

the problem,” said Rep. Ryan Smith, R-Bidwell, who attended a closeddoor meeting this week with Tim Keen, the state budget director, a trio of county commissioners and a transit authority representative from Dayton. The commissioners included former long-time state Rep. Ron Amstutz of Wayne County.

“When you’re trying to figure out how to solve it, you have to figure out where you’re getting the money,” Smith said.

The federal government told Ohio it no longer could charge sales tax on services provided by Medicaid managed-care organizations. That meant that counties and transit authorities, including COTA, also will not get the share of the sales

tax that they had been receiving from managed-care services.

That's a loss of $207 million a year in local sales-tax revenue. Gov. John Kasich has been reluctant to provide much relief to counties beyond this calendar year.

Republican lawmakers led by Sen. Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls, crafted a budget provision asking the federal government’s permission to charge a higher franchise fee on Medicaid services, raising money to reimburse counties for five years. Kasich vetoed the measure, but the House voted to override his veto.

Senate President Larry Obhof, R-Medina, said the Senate held off on an override vote to allow time for the administration, commissioners and lawmakers to work out an agreement.

“We’ll see if there’s anything we can come up with," he said. "If there isn’t, then we’ll decide what to do with the potential override.”

Participants in the meeting this week said there were positive discussions, but no hard decisions were made.

“I hope we create a path toward agreement, but we’re not there yet,” said Dolan, who led the meeting. “At the end of the day, everyone is going to have to evaluate the risk factor and recognize that something is better than nothing.”

Cheryl Subler, policy director for the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, said she was pleased there was a general recognition that the $207 million in lost revenue needs to be addressed.

Big questions remain over how much should be reimbursed, how it gets distributed, how

long it is paid and where the state finds the money.

Obhof said he is not a fan of the franchise-fee proposal in the budget and likely won’t vote for the override. But if a significant majority of the caucus wants an override vote, he said, he would allow it.

Senate Republicans, he said, do not share the administration’s concern that asking to increase the waiver would jeopardize the franchise fee the state already was given.

“I would like to see some significant progress and proof that both sides are actually trying to work toward a common solution,” he said before this week’s meeting. “I wouldn’t feel particularly comfortable if I was the counties or the governor rolling the dice on this.”