Just hours shy of the June 30 deadline, the General Assembly approved House Bill 33, the $190 billion two-year state budget, and granted a three-day extension for the Governor to consider the 6,200-page Act before signing and considering any line-item vetoes.

The Budget Conference Committee had to sort out nearly 900 differences among the Governor’s proposed budget, the House-passed budget, and the Senate’s spending plan.

We are pleased that the final budget compromise included several of our policy priorities including: 

• Clarifying Ohio’s Nursing Home Patient’s Bill of Rights to include rights already in state and federal law regarding health and safety of resident discharges and requiring the Ohio Department of Health, in hearings regarding a notice of transfer or discharge, to determine if the proposed transfer or discharge complies with the resident’s rights and notification requirements. This will help prevent nursing home residents from being discharged without needed medication and equipment or to a facility that cannot meet their health and safety needs.
• Requiring schools to transfer a student’s record within five days of receiving a request. Although the final language allows an exception when there is an outstanding debt of $2,500 attributed to the student, the requirement will ensure that records including course lists, Individual Education Programs (IEPs), and other student assessments will be transferred in a timely manner to ensure teachers have the information they need to provide the most appropriate educational supports.
• The General Assembly lowered all reinstatement fees associated with noncompliance driver's license suspensions (i.e., failing to have proof of financial responsibility) to $40, rather than $100, $300, or $600 based on the suspension. While Governor DeWine kept the lowered $40 fee for a first noncompliance suspension, he unfortunately line-item vetoed the language to lower fees for repeat noncompliance suspensions. As a result, the fees for repeat noncompliance suspensions will remain at $300 or $600. The BMV charges fees to reinstate a driver’s license after the conditions of a suspension have been met. These fees are a separate fee from court costs or fines stemming from the underlying offense that caused the suspension.

Many of the budget’s investments and policies are critical for improving health care, food assistance, and housing. 

• Health Care: Although the final budget did not include Governor Mike DeWine’s proposed expansion of Medicaid coverage to pregnant women and children to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, it does allow continuous Medicaid coverage for children from birth through age three and coverage for Doula services. While the budget included some critical investments for lead poisoning prevention, it failed to include important language to allow the Ohio Department of Health to enforce safe lead-based paint removal and mitigation.
• Food Assistance and Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP): We were pleased that the Conference Committee removed language that would create barriers to SNAP benefits, included funding for free school lunches, and restored funding for foodbanks. 
• Housing: The Conference Committee removed language that restricted the ability of local governments to operate rental registries and maintained the independence of the Ohio Housing Finance Agency. Unfortunately, funding for the Healthy Beginnings at Home program, which provides housing to improve birth outcomes while reducing the state’s Medicaid spending, was not restored.

While we hoped for more investments and attention to programs that support low-income Ohioans, many of the provisions of House Bill 33 will offer needed support or relief for families struggling to make ends meet.