Kasich ripped by GOP over expansion

More than three years after Medicaid expansion was enacted in Ohio, the battle rages on for some legislative Republicans.

Sen. Bill Coley, of West Chester, was an outspoken critic of fellow Republican John Kasich with the governor’s push to implement Medicaid expansion in 2014 under Obamacare.

Last week, Coley tore into Kasich’s budget director, Tim Keen, describing administration actions with such terms as “boneheaded,” “bastardization” and “hell of a slap in the face.”

Keen, a veteran state budget official, ran into the unusual GOP reaction during routine testimony as part of the debate over the twoyear, $66.9 billion budget.

“I have some serious doubts over the good faith of the administration,” Coley told him.

The senator questioned Keen’s authority to transfer $10.7 million within the budget in March 2015 to purchase two state aircraft. He then turned to Medicaid expansion, which covers about 700,000 Ohioans, nearly half of whom are working.

Coley and others, including Senate President Larry Obhof, R-Medina, remain opposed to the expansion and have tried to avoid the appearance that they voted

to fund it in the current twoyear budget, which will end June 30.

That appearance became harder to avoid when Kasich used $118 million worth of Medicaid money this year to pay the state’s share of the expansion.

Starting Jan. 1, Ohio was required to pay 5 percent of the expansion costs. Coley and other Senate Republicans say that Kasich should have used a separate $200 million fund in the budget to make that payment — a fund that would have required approval from the state Controlling Board, a bipartisan legislative spending oversight panel.

“That’s the exact reason why you’re shaking the trust of the legislative branch of government,” Coley said to Keen, after Keen explained how the expansion payment was made largely from general revenue.

“You knew darn well

— and we made it clear and we talked about it — that we weren’t going to approve that,” Coley said. “When we wrote this up, there was

no intention to give you the authority to do that.”

Keen avoided dipping into the separate fund because Medicaid under-spending left enough money available to make the expansion payment without it. The language describing the fund is fairly vague, and Keen said that nothing in the budget prohibited him from using general revenue to pay for the expansion.

“We are wholly and consistently within our authority,” Keen said.

GOP legislative leaders are not surprised that Kasich managed to fund the expansion without coming back to lawmakers; he initially got the expansion approved in October 2013 without a full legislative vote, instead getting permission from the seven-member Controlling Board, with help from the Senate president and House speaker at the time.

“I certainly disagree about the Medicaid expansion, but both chambers and the governor still have a good working relationship,” Obhof said.

The $200 million in the fund likely will be spent — just not on Medicaid expansion.

Keen could use the fund to balance the current budget, if necessary, as state tax revenue continues to come in significantly lower than estimates. If the fund remains intact, Kasich proposes using the $200 million in the new budget to help offset some losses to counties and transit systems, a result of the state no longer being allowed to charge a sales tax on Medicaid-managed care services.

Coley also accused the Kasich administration of “bastardizing” the state rule-making process with requests to increase rates paid to home-health nurses and a plan to pay people to live with and care for elderly relatives. He said that “sure seems to be a boneheaded idea.”

After the Medicaid discussion, Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, asked a surprisingly critical question about the ongoing effort to cut the state income tax. Rarely do legislative Republicans publicly question a tax cut — though privately some are wondering whether it’s time to try other things.

“Why is the governor insisting on continuing with tax cuts at this point, rather than giving it a little more time to really see what’s going on, where these trends are taking us?” Lehner asked Keen. “It seems to me, when things aren’t working out the way you expect them to, you sit back and take a break.”

Kasich’s budget calls for $3.1 billion in income-tax cuts, offset with almost $3.1 billion in tax increases, including a broader and higher sales tax. For years, tax-cut critics have pointed to Ohio job growth that has continually lagged the national average.

Keen defended the income-tax cuts, arguing they have helped create jobs, have made Ohio more competitive and have shifted away from a tax that “punishes or discourages savings and investment.”