The $3.7 billion capital improvements budget that provides money for infrastructure and state and local projects is expected to pass in the Ohio House today and head to Gov. Mike DeWine. House Bill 450 puts state money toward building and renovating K-12 schools, universities and state facilities; improvements at state parks and local arts and cultural sites; and to update services.
It includes $208 million for 815 community projects around the state. That’s money for local facilities including community centers, zoos, theatres, museums, historical sites, pools, sports complexes (but not for professional teams) and public spaces like fountains, local parks and trails.
"This budget funds the things that our residents tell us that they value," said Rep. Brian Stewart (R-Ashville), who spoke for it in the House. "This budget funds the things that make Ohio cool."
HB 450 includes:
- $600 million for K-12 schools
- $510 million for local infrastructure
- $400 million for higher education facilities
- $385 million for six psychiatric hospitals
- $346.5 million for behavioral health facility improvements
- $265 million for state parks
- $236.8 million for prisons
- $122.3 million for statewide IT and technology upgrades
- $58.1 million for renovations at the Ohio Historical Center in Columbus
- $52.8 million for renovations at Ohio Army and Air National Guard facilities
- $35 million for a new youth psychiatric facility
- $24.1 million for the Ohio State Fair
- $24 million to the Ohio Department of Taxation to modernize the state’s electronic tax filing system
"For the first time in memory, we have evenly divided the funding between urban and rural counties, because that matches the breakdown of where our Ohioans actually live," Stewart said. "All of our 88 counties receive funding in this bill, but our largest urban communities do receive some of the largest individual shares. We have projects in this budget as small as $10,000. We have projects in this bill as large as $2 million."
Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) sponsored the capital budget, and said it was a challenge to narrow down thousands of local requests into what turned out to be 5% of the overall spending plan.
“The $208 million dedicated to community projects will support 815 projects across the state," Cirino said. "In the Senate alone, 1,531 projects were submitted, totaling well over $1 billion.”
Two lawmakers who voted in favor of the bill took the opportunity to talk about issues they said are related to capital spending.
Sen. Bill Blessing (R-Colerain Twp.) said a lot of time is spent narrowing down thousands of local requests into $208 million in community projects – only about 5% of the overall capital budget but with a huge impact.
"We spend so much time on what is arguably the smallest part of the capital budget, the community project piece of this, that there simply has got to be a better way to go about doing this," Blessing said, adding that he'd like a statewide commission to be created for this purpose. "Having a statewide commission that meets every year, year-round and has the ability to vet, look at the bond ability, look at the nexus with the agency fees and create some sort of system where we can say, look, this has gone through a process already—it really sets these projects up for success."
The capital budget has nothing to do with property tax relief, but Sen. George Lang (R-West Chester) said all this spending could be confusing to voters.
"The number one complaint I'm hearing is my property taxes are too high, especially, amongst our senior citizens," Lang said, saying he's not blaming fellow lawmakers and that he has project requests in this capital budget too. "I would just consider my colleagues in future capital budgets to let's try to really hone in on what are the core competencies and what it is we need to do without putting a burden on future generations."
The capital budget passed 93-2 in the House, after being approved unanimously in the Senate last week.
