Testimony: Boost funding for neglected needs, including children, adults, localities

The House version of HB 483 (Mid-Biennium Review), turns attention to neglected needs in Ohio including services for children and the elderly. Wendy Patton’s testimony addresses services for these vulnerable Ohioans as well as foreclosures, local government funding, and the state’s venture-capital fund.

Download testimony (3 pp)

Testimony to the Senate Finance Committee on House Bill 483

Good afternoon, Chairman Oelslager, Vice Chair Coley, Ranking Member Sawyer and members of the committee. I am Wendy Patton of Policy Matters Ohio, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization with the mission of creating a more prosperous, equitable, sustainable and inclusive Ohio. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today regarding House Bill 483. 

In the context of many pressing needs for investment, we are glad the House removed the income tax cuts proposed as part of the Mid-Biennium Review. Amendments made in the House to HB 483 turn attention to neglected needs in Ohio, including services for Ohio’s most vulnerable citizens: children and the elderly. I will briefly mention these amendments, the ongoing and unaddressed need for foreclosure prevention and local government aid, and two provisions of Ohio’s venture capital program, which is slated for expansion in House Bill 483

Neglect and abuse of the elderly is so pervasive it is called a silent epidemic. Elderly people dependent on others may be unable or afraid to report abuse, mistreatment or neglect. Studies of under-reporting range from five incidents for each report to 24 incidents for the most vulnerable. This is a growing problem in Ohio because the population of seniors is growing. Ohio’s population of residents 60 and older will grow by almost 14 percent between 2010 and 2015, with the highest growth in suburbs and rural areas.

At present, state funding for Adult Protective Services is half million a year for our 88 counties, one-sixth of what it was in the 1990s. Thirty-nine counties lack even one full-time APS caseworker. An amendment to House Bill 483 added $10 million for Adult Protective Services.  The proposal is both timely and modest. We estimate that the cost of adequate caseworkers alone, without including the costs of facility, administrative and supervisory staff and other operating costs, ranges from $11.7 million to $30.2 million. We thank the House for including this amendment, and we ask you to support it and increase it to $20 million to provide the services needed to protect Ohio’s seniors.

We are also glad the Ohio House included an amendment to increase funding for child protective services by $11 million. The state of Ohio provides a low level of support for this important service compared to other states, and local governments provide a high level of support.  An appropriation of $20 million dollars by the state for child protective services could improve the lives of 13,000 children and 80,000 families in Ohio. We ask you to support this provision and increase the funding to $20 million in the State Child Protection Allocation line item. 

We are grateful to the House for adding provisions improving eligibility in the state’s largest childcare work support program and aligning them with other early learning programs. Children in the public childcare assistance program should be accepted in a classroom for a full year, regardless of changing circumstances of parental employment (“continuous eligibility”), as in other Ohio early learning programs. Some of Ohio’s largest occupational categories