House targets Ohio’s kids and moms

The Ohio House of Representatives has released a state budget proposal that will harm Ohio’s children and mothers by eliminating programs to combat maternal mortality; repealing a Medicaid waiver that would help more children access healthcare from birth through age 3; removing a popular child tax credit proposed in Gov. DeWine’s executive budget; and even cutting $5 million in funding for pediatric cancer research.

“The budget proposal takes Ohio in the wrong direction, rewarding billionaire football franchise owners at the expense of the people who make Ohio great,” said Hannah Halbert, Executive Director of Policy Matters. “Cutting funding and killing programs that would help moms and kids be healthier; dropping a tax credit that would have supported family economic security; and restricting much needed doula services to a handful of areas — despite the fact that Ohio mother and infant mortality rates remain high — will weaken families and the state.”

Legislators would also abandon the Fair School Funding Plan, shortchanging Ohio’s public schools by $2.75 billion in needed funding in just two years. Policy Matters details the K-12 funding changes in this brief, and highlights harm to individual districts in a new set of factsheets.

The House sub-bill maintains language that would eliminate Medicaid expansion group coverage for more than 700,000 Ohioans should Congress decrease funding, and similar trigger language for other federal funds. The bill also limits Medicaid coverage of doula services to the six counties with the highest infant mortality rates, walking back improvements made in the last budget. House leadership also would reduce funding for programs that reduce infant mortality, such as Help Me Grow and Infant Vitality, and eliminate all dollars for reducing lead-poisoning hazards.

The House’s proposal attempts to address Ohio’s childcare crisis with a watered-down version of Michigan’s lackluster “Tri-Share” program. The House proposal — available only to those working for participating employers — would split childcare costs three ways: 40% on parents, 40% on employers, and 20% on the Department of Children and Youth.

“Instead of using our public tax dollars to fund broadly accessible programs like Publicly Funded Child Care (PFCC), or proven solutions like Free Childcare for Childcare Workers, House leadership cribbed an underperforming program from Michigan and made it worse.” Halbert said. “Not only is it inequitable for parents, but providers won’t see any improvements to the payment rates they receive for their critical labor in our state’s economy.”

A more effective policy, endorsed by childcare providers around the state, would make high-quality childcare more accessible by raising eligibility for PFCC from 145% of the Federal Poverty Level to 300%. Gov. DeWine proposed increasing eligibility to 160%. House leadership refused even that small step, leaving Ohio among the three worst states for PFCC eligibility.

The House spared the state additional cuts to the income tax. This is positive news, as policymakers have cut the income tax to the bone over the last two decades, despite it being the state’s only tax based on the ability to pay. Tax changes since 2005, which overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Ohioans, take about $13 billion in revenue out of the budget each year. In return, Ohioans making more than $647,000 receive an average tax cut of $52,459 a year. Moderate earners see an average tax cut of just $30 a month, and the lowest-income Ohioan is left paying more of their scarce income in taxes.

Instead of destructive income tax policies, the House budget proposes counterproductive property tax reforms. Legislators would require school districts that have cash reserves of greater than 25% of their operating costs to lower property tax rates in their districts. This would force school districts to fund property tax relief through their rainy-day funds, even as the state reneges on its commitment to fair school funding. This will only shift more of the cost of education onto communities and increase the number of property tax levies placed on the ballot.

“Ohio has the resources to fund great public schools in every district; high-quality childcare in every county; programs to support healthy moms, kids, and families; and all the other public goods and services that would make people want to put down roots in our state,” Halbert added. “But Ohio cannot hope to be a welcoming, broadly prosperous state when so many are held down by bad policy choices.”