Gov. John Kasich submitted his biennial budget bill to the Ohio House Finance and Appropriations Committee earlier today.
Kasich released four “blue books” on March 15 that outlined his plans for the state budget for the next two fiscal years. Today, he introduced the actual legislative language for the budget bill, or House Bill 153, to the Ohio House Finance and Appropriations Committee.
Ohio’s Higher Education Subcommittee is scheduled to discuss the bill this week.
The state legislature must approve a budget by June 31, before the beginning of the next fiscal year.
Ohio University’s Board of Trustees will pass next fiscal year’s budget at its April 22 meeting even if the Ohio legislature has not yet approved a budget for the state, said Becky Watts, chief of staff to OU President Roderick McDavis, in a January interview.
If the state has not yet passed a budget, the board will work with what information it has and allow for flexibility should changes need to be made once the state’s budget bill is passed, Watts said.
OU officials are estimating that its Athens campus will lose about $11.8 million in state funding next year as a result of a 10 percent reduction in overall funding for Ohio’s Board of Regents, the state’s higher education board. The budget gap is caused by a loss in federal stimulus money. OU received about $15 million in stimulus funding.
Read H.B. 153 at: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/BillText129/129_HB_153_PHC_N.html
