Ohio Senate loads financial aid bill with $1.4B in spending
COLUMBUS – The Ohio Senate passed a fairly innocuous bill Wednesday requiring state community colleges and universities to disclose detailed information about the cost of education, as well as salaries of recent graduates — but not before adding more than $1.4 billion in state spending proposals.
The revised House Bill 27, which passed 30 to 2, would provide more than $1.1 billion in bonds for school and public-works projects, an extra $392 million for the Ohio State Fair, and $38 million for state adoption grants over the next two years.
Despite the bipartisan support for the bill in the Senate, the amended bill is dead on arrival in the House, according to House GOP spokesman Pat Melton. That’s because House leaders are feuding with the Senate over a separate bill that includes much of the same bond money, as well as $350 million for a lengthy list of projects.
The spending proposals, added on the Senate floor Wednesday just before the chamber passed HB27, would have the state issue $1 billion in bonds. Of that, $600 million would go toward K-12 school building construction and renovation projects, and the remaining $575 million would go to the Ohio Public Works Commission to use for state and local infrastructure projects.
That sets up a potential conflict with the Ohio House, which previously approved $1 billion in bond money for schools and public works in a different bill. That bill, House Bill 2, also includes $350 million in one-time funding for a lengthy list of projects, including $20 million for a land bridge connecting downtown Cleveland with the lakefront and $1 million to help build a pro women’s soccer stadium near downtown.
While the bond money has attracted little controversy, the Senate has hit the brakes on HB2 over the onetime funding, saying it needs several weeks to review the House’s list of projects and add another $350 million worth of its own projects.
Senate President Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican aiming to take House Speaker Jason Stephens’ job next session, has warned that some of the projects on the House’s list might be removed before the Senate passes HB2.
House GOP spokesman Pat Melton said Wednesday that the House — which passed HB27 as originally written by an 87-1 vote in May 2023 — won’t concur on the Senate’s changes to HB27.
“The House has remained very transparent about ensuring money is readily available for the beginning of the summer construction season,” Melton said in a statement. The sooner that the Senate passes HB2, Melton added, “the better for Ohio.”
Huffman told reporters before Wednesday’s vote that he and other senators wanted to pass the bond money now so that school and local-government officials have the money in time for the summer construction season.
Under the Ohio Constitution, bills generally don’t take effect until 90 days after they’re signed by the governor. That would mean these bond authorizations and appropriations would have to be enacted by March 31 to take effect by July 1, when the state’s new fiscal year starts.
Lawmakers could still pass a bill after March 31 if it passes with an emergency clause allowing the legislation to take effect. But an emergency clause requires at least two-thirds support in both the House and Senate. “That gets a little messy,” Huffman said.
The $196 million for the Ohio State Fair comes at the request of Gov. Mike DeWine, an avid state fair fan. DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said the appropriation is related to Expo 2050, a sweeping plan that would dramatically change the Ohio State Fairgrounds in Columbus by demolishing 20 structures, building 15 new facilities and adding campsites, among many other changes.
Tierney said in a statement that the $190 million provided to Expo 2050 in last year’s main state operating budget “did not fund all recommendations or future needs.”
Huffman said the $38 million would go to help pay for state incentives for Ohio families to adopt children. Under the program, which was overhauled last year, the state offers grants of $10,000 to families that adopt a child, $15,000 to families that adopt a child after Jan. 1, 2023, after fostering the child as a certified caregiver, and $20,000 to families that adopt a child with special needs after Jan. 1, 2023.
Huffman said the program has been so successful that more money is needed to continue offering the grants.
State Sen. Nickie Antonio, a Lakewood Democrat who is the chamber’s minority leader, said she supported the added-on spending in HB 27.
“But I do want to share my pockets of frustration of getting the amendment not even an hour ago,” she said on the Senate floor before Wednesday’s vote. “We did pour over it. We did try to make as much sense of it as we could... The phrase that keeps coming to mind is, ‘This is a crazy way to run a railroad.’ My father used to say that.”
In its original form, HB 27 requires state universities and community colleges to provide newly admitted, fulltime students to outline general and instructional fees, an estimated cost of room and board and special fees.
Furthermore, schools must provide newly admitted students the aggregate cost of attendance for the entirety of their program, the expected monthly loan repayment upon graduation based on federal student loans, financial aid options, and the income ranges between the 25th and 75th percentile for the state’s most recent graduating class and the class that graduated five years ago, the bill states.
If the student has declared a major, income ranges for the graduates with that major are also required.
The federal government requires most of the disclosures in HB 27 to be provided to students online through a net cost calculator, said Laura Lanese, president of the Inter-University Council of Ohio, which represents the state’s 14 public universities.