Portage County Legal News

Proposal made to spend $2.4 billion on infrastructure, education in Ohio

TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News
Published: April 15, 2014

Tim Keen, director of the Ohio Office of Budget and Management, has helped push a capital budget bill out of the House.

House Bill 497, sponsored by Rep. Ron Amstutz, R-Wooster, would make capital appropriations and reappropriations for the biennium ending June 30, 2016 and establish the transportation building fund in the state treasury.

It would also specify what duties and functions of the Ohio Building Authority are to be carried out by the treasurer of state, the Ohio Department of Administrative Services or another state agency.

“This bill makes appropriations for the repair, renovation, reconstruction and construction of capital assets of state agencies, colleges, universities and school districts,” Keen said in proponent testimony for the bill before it was passed by the House last week in an 88-2 vote.

“It also funds a program of grants and loans for local infrastructure projects throughout the state. And with the improved fiscal condition of the state, for the first time in six years, a portion of appropriations in this bill targets funds to support economic development projects of local or regional importance.”

Keen went on to say that most of the $2.4 billion in capital appropriations contained in HB 497 are supported by long-term debt issued by the state with the principle and interest payments on that debt funded by the state’s general revenue fund appropriations made in future operating budgets.

The bill includes total capital appropriations of $498.1 million to the Ohio Board of Regents and institutions of higher education.

“Just as significant as the total funding amount provided for higher education is the manner by which capital resources are allocated to the institutions,” Keen said. “Recall that prior to the current capital biennium, capital appropriations for higher education campuses were distributed through an allocation formula that provided a guaranteed funding amount for each institution, but did not strategically allocate resources.”

Given the limited resources available, Keen said it was the governor’s belief that state capital support should be directed to projects of the greatest strategic importance for the university system of Ohio.

Keen said the governor called upon the state’s 37 public higher education institutions to engage in a collaborative process to develop a capital funding plan focused on statewide priorities.

“Thanks to the hard work and commitment of our higher education leaders, the inaugural collaborative funding process was considered a strong success and the resulting capital funding recommendations were ultimately supported and approved without revision by the General Assembly,” he said. “The governor has again asked higher education to take the lead in developing a collaborative capital funding request that prioritizes the needs of the entire university system ahead of the desires of individual institutions.”

Keen said the capital bill represents the collaborative committee’s recommendations for the funding of campus-level projects.

He said the committee identified the following strategic investment themes: maintenance and repair; small campus targeted workforce development; enhanced technology; strategic expansion; and student completion.

“In addition to campus-specific allocations, there are a number of other projects of statewide benefit to the university system of Ohio, including $12 million to support the Ohio Library and Information Network (OhioLINK), $12 million to support the Ohio Supercomputer Center and $8.5 million to support the acquisition of workforce-based training and equipment,” he said.

The bill also contains $675 million in total capital appropriations that continue state support for the construction and renovation of Ohio’s primary and secondary educational facilities and includes $444 million in appropriations for the Public Works Commission, including $375 million in GRF-backed debt appropriations and $69 million in revolving loan fund appropriations.

HB 497 also provides $100 million in new appropriations for the Clean Ohio Program, $236.4 million to support repairs, improvements and maintenance at state parks, forests, other Department of Natural Resources properties across the state and local parks projects and provides $130 million in new appropriations for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to support general facility renovations and improvements at the 27 state-owned adult correctional institutions.

HB 497 has been moved to the Senate Finance committee.

[Back]