Fiscal Responsibility: Living Within Our Means
Though forecasts indicate general revenue taxes available to the State of Ohio will be lower in the 2011 fiscal year than they were seven years earlier, the Governor's budget is balanced through a series of tough choices, leveraging federal stimulus funds and without raising taxes on Ohioans.
Education: A Comprehensive Plan to Modernize Education and Ensure Every Child Learns Skills to be Successful in a 21st Century Economy
Governor Strickland's comprehensive plan to establish a modernized education system is designed to ensure every Ohio child learns the skills they need to be successful in the 21st Century - as productive citizens, in work and in life. The plan demands an unprecedented level of accountability and transparency from our school districts to ensure taxpayers know exactly how their dollars are being spent, right down to an individual school building's budget. When the new evidence-based approach to education is fully phased-in, the state contribution to local schools will reach 59 percent. This evidence-based plan meets the state's constitutional obligation to provide a thorough and efficient system of public education for Ohio students.
Tax Relief: New Tax Credits to Create New Ohio Jobs and Fully Phase-in Tax Reforms
The budget fully implements the tax reforms enacted in House Bill 66, including the full phase-in of a 21 percent across-the-board income tax reduction. In addition to broadening the Job Retention Tax Credit and Job Creation Tax Credit to encourage more business opportunity in Ohio, the Governor's budget creates several new job-creating tax credits, including a Film Tax Credit to spur growth of the film industry and a New Markets Tax Credit to give our cities and towns a proven tool to spur investment and bring new life to downtown centers.
Health Care: Access to Health Care for Every Ohio Child and 110,000 More Ohioans
Through the state children's health insurance program and buy-in program, we will provide access to affordable health coverage for every single child in Ohio. By allowing Ohioans with employer-provided insurance to purchase coverage for their dependents up to the age of 29, allowing small business employees who lose their jobs to purchase continuation coverage for up to 12 months and other innovative reforms, this budget expands health care access to an additional 110,000 adult Ohioans currently without coverage.
Higher Education: Extend Historic Tuition Freeze to a Third Year for All University System of Ohio Schools
Governor Strickland's budget extends the current 2-year tuition freeze at all University System of Ohio institutions for a third year in fiscal year 2010 (the 2009-2010 school year), and for a fourth straight year at all community college and university branch campuses in fiscal year 2011 (the 2010-2011 school year). Under this plan, 60 percent of all students in the University System of Ohio will have seen no increase in tuition for four straight years. The Governor has also asked all universities to voluntarily limit tuition increases at university main campuses to no more than 3.5 percent for the 2010-2011 school year. By the end of fiscal year 2011, Ohio will have held tuition growth to the lowest rate for a four-year period since before 1970.
Job Creation: Pledge to Work with Legislature to Develop a Second Job Stimulus Plan
In addition to several new job-creating tax credits to make Ohio more attractive to business growth and investment, Governor Strickland announced that he will work with the legislature to develop a second job stimulus plan in the coming months, to include an expansion of Ohio's Third Frontier program, regulatory reform and streamlining measures to assure that Ohio gets its share of federal stimulus funds and can put them to work quickly, and additional investments that will create jobs in the short term and strengthen Ohio for generations.
Full text of the speech can be found at
http://www.governor.ohio.gov/GovernorsOffice/StateoftheState/StateoftheState2009/tabid/984/Default.aspx