05/11/2020

Governor DeWine Announces $775M in State Budget Cuts

On May 5th, Governor DeWine announced significant budget cuts in an effort to balance the budget for fiscal year 2020 which ends June 30th. The efforts included $775 million in general revenue fund (GRF) and non-GRF cuts. Many of the specific details on where the cuts are being made within each of the state Departments are still unknown. The most significant cuts were made where OPRA had anticipated them- k-12 education, higher education, and Medicaid. In total, the cuts to the three areas represented about 90% of the cuts. 

We anticipate this will not be the only cuts to the state budget. The severity of additional cuts will depend on state revenue as more businesses are allowed to open up during May. 

You can see all of the cuts for all of the state departments on page four and five of this report from the Ohio Office of Budget Management. 

Health and Human Services:

Ohio Department of Medicaid- $211,973,500 cut in GRF and $9,075,200 cut in non-GRF funding- $221M total

Department of Developmental Disabilities- $2,269,100 in GRF and $6,991,200 in non-GRF- $9M total

Read about the DODD cuts here

Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities- $63,400 cut in GRF $1,337,500 cut in non-GRF- $1.4M total

Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services- $8,288,800 cut in GRF and $13,375,000 cut in non-GRF- $21M total

Read about the ODMHAS cuts here

Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services- $36,180,300 cut in GRF and $7,626,000 cut in non-GRF- $43.5m total

Read about the ODJFS cuts here

Ohio Department of Aging- $1,435,144 cut in GRF and $836,782 cut in non-GRF- $2.2M total

Read about the ODA cuts here

Education:

Department of Higher Education- $109,088,900 cut in GRF and $1,533,300 cut in non-GRF- $110M total- each public university and community college took an almost 4% cut in their funding

read about the public higher ed cuts here

Department of Education (k-12 education)- $354,590,000 cut in GRF and $10,668,600 cut in non-GRF- $365M total

Read about the K-12 cuts here

Implications of the k-12 education cuts could force schools to return to voters to approve additional levies to make up for long-term losses. It is to be seen how this could potentially impact county board’s long-term ability to pass levies in the future.