Testimony on HB 153

House Finance Committee

April 15, 2011
By: Andrea Fejes, Coordinator

Chairman Amstutz, Vice Chair Carey, Ranking Member Sykes and members of the House
Finance Committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to testify on HB
153, the biennial budget. My name is Andrea Fejes and I am the coordinator of One Ohio Now.

One Ohio Now is a statewide coalition of over 40 organizations ranging from health and human
services and education to public transportation and working families. Coalition members have
come together over the past year to examine the state’s crisis and suggest reasonable solutions
that minimize the impact to Ohioans and ensures our state emerges strong when prosperity
returns.

In Ohio, as in most other states, we’re facing some pretty tough times.

The longest and deepest national recession since the Great Depression has made it harder for
us to find work, provide for our families, support our communities or maintain positive
expectations for the future. The sad reality is that just as people’s needs are rising dramatically,
the resources to meet those needs are declining. In fact, Ohio and other states have seen
unprecedented losses of revenue in this recession.

Now Ohio does not have sufficient resources to provide essential services and invest in our
future. In response to this crisis, we have mostly relied on reducing services that assist
communities and vulnerable families who are struggling through no fault of their own.

We have seen the result of these cuts – libraries have decreased hours and closed branches;
access to mental health services has been reduced to those that are in dire need of help;
county Job and Family Services agencies have had to serve increasing numbers of families with
fewer resources; and public transit agencies have restricted services limiting people’s access to
work and their communities.

300 East Broad Street – Suite 490 | Columbus, Ohio 43215

614.221.4570 (Office) | 614.420.2027 (Cell) | 614.224.8132 (Fax)
www.oneohionow.org
It is always good to review what works and what doesn’t and make adjustments. However, this
crisis is too large to solve with just one implement. We need all the tools in the toolbox to
rebuild our economic foundation.

If we fail to support public education, eliminate services that help our children grow up in stable
homes, do not sustain vital health care services like federally qualified health centers and slash
funding to local governments where many of the services that support our families are
delivered we undermine the future economic prosperity of everyone in our state.

That’s why it’s crucial that we keep investing in Ohio’s people, schools, infrastructure and
communities. If we try to deal with hard times only by cuts in spending, we risk hacking so
much that we set ourselves permanently back.

We need to balance spending cuts with reasonable, wise revenue investments so that Ohio can
rebound fully from these times of trouble and strengthen the vital public structures that make
Ohio a great place to live and work such as schools, clinics, parks and police and fire protection.

One way to accomplish this is to ensure accountability by reviewing and reducing the more
than $7 billion that Ohio gives up every year in tax expenditures. These tax breaks, credits and
deductions are simply spending by another name. Some of them are warranted. However,
unlike appropriations that are reviewed every two years, many of these are put in place and not
reviewed for decades. There is no way of knowing if they are accomplishing the goals for which
they were intended.

Ohio has faced recessions before and every governor over the past 40 years, whether Democrat
or Republican, has responded with a plan that includes revenue. A majority of other states
have also responded to this crisis with a mix of spending cuts and revenue since the start of the
recession. A balanced approach has helped before and we need it again. The massive decline
in revenue has dug a hole for Ohio that we can’t cut our way out of.

We need an approach that will meet today’s growing needs and build a foundation for
tomorrow’s prosperity.

Again, thank you for your time and opportunity to testify on behalf of the member
organizations of One Ohio Now.