Gov. Mike DeWine and some legislators had fun celebrating the 40th Fish Ohio Day on Lake Erie last week. It was a grand celebration of fishing just before the Independence Day holiday, but there was business left unfinished in Columbus.
Legislators walked out of the Statehouse on Sunday evening, June 30, after failing to comply with the Ohio Constitution’s requirement that a budget be passed before July 1. They did pass a stop-gap measure to fund the state government through July 17, which DeWine signed.
Article 2, Section 11.22 of Ohio’s Constitution specifically states that “no money shall be drawn from the treasury, except in pursuance of a specific appropriation, made by law; and no appropriation shall be made for a longer period than two years.” The two year limit ended at midnight on June 30.
DeWine and members of the Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio Senate are expected back next week to work on a deal. No House or Senate Committees are scheduled for this week. “If needed” sessions are scheduled in both chambers.
In the meantime, some Ohioans are sharing a meme about saving money while the government is forced to operate at the same level of funding.
Rea Hederman of The Buckeye Institute would not confirm that the meme was accurate in its amount of $8 million, but he did say, “We can confirm that as long as the state of Ohio is operating on FY 19 dollars, the state is saving money due to the large increase for FY 2020 [in the not-yet-passed budget].”
“As the Buckeye Institute has consistently stated, the budget spends too much taxpayer money. Politicians should remember that the surplus exists because of Ohio taxpayers,” he continued. “The best policy is to return the surplus through deeper tax cuts for all Ohio taxpayers.”
Tom Zawistowski, president of We the People Convention and Tea Party activist, had some thoughts about the unfinished budget. “Mike DeWine is in legacy mode and we are going to see his administration spending like big government Democrats to build that legacy on the backs of the hard working taxpayers and businesses of Ohio because this is the last office he will ever hold.”
“I am not surprised that he and the gang were out fishing instead of passing the budget, because the fix is in,” Zawistowski added. “He’s going to get nearly all he wants in the budget, and then some, because there are nearly no checks on this administration.”
“DeWine should have at least invited the two Larrys [Speaker Householder and President Obhof] on his little fishing expedition to finish budget negotiations instead of just doing a meaningless photo-op,” commented Zawistowski.
Meanwhile, the weather for the 40th Fish Ohio Day was perfect.
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Beth Lear is a reporter at The Ohio Star. Follow Beth on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Mike DeWine Fishing” by Mike DeWine.
