Ohio elected leaders joined hundreds nationwide to oppose federal budget bill

Elected leaders from the Ohio Statehouse to local school boards have signed on to a national letter opposing the federal budget bill currently being considered by the U.S. Senate.

More than 60 Ohio officials signed on to the letter organized by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), including state leadership, city and county administration from across the state, and school board members from Dayton and Trimble.

The letter urged Congress not to cut public services like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), cuts that the officials say threaten to “destabilize state and local budgets and force deep cuts across the board that will diminish public services and hurt working families nationwide – all to give billionaires tax breaks.”

Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo was one of the officials who signed the letter. She said she joined in because the budget “doesn’t just show misplaced priorities,” but rather “shows a complete disregard for working families.”

“Ohioans deserve a government that strengthens public services, not one that guts them to reward the wealthy,” Russo said in a statement on the letter.

Medicaid has been noted as one of the biggest public programs in the country’s budget, and the proposal from Congress looks to cut $880 billion, largely from Medicaid and SNAP. The cuts are projected to leave 29% more spending in the hands of state governments, with Ohio set to be one of the hardest hit by Medicaid cuts alone, according to the Commonwealth Fund.

The projected cuts also come as Ohio’s General Assembly sits in conference committee to combine state operating budget drafts from the House and Senate into a final draft to be sent to Gov. Mike DeWine for approval.

Both the Ohio House and Ohio Senate proposals included a “trigger” provision that would eliminate the Medicaid expansion group in Ohio if federal funding for Medicaid drops below the 90% contribution it currently provides.

Cutting the expansion group would leave more than 770,000 Ohioans without health insurance, according to advocates. The expansion group includes residents who are not eligible for traditional Medicaid, but are still in need of help, such as elderly Ohioans, students and residents with disabilities.

Medicaid cuts would impact more than a quarter of Ohioans, children and the elderly most of all

Earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office projected 10.9 million people nationwide would lose health insurance by 2034 as a result of the federal budget bill, and that the federal deficit would rise by $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years.

“As government leaders, we understand the importance of rooting out fraud, waste and abuse to keep public services strong, but this plan fails to do that,” the officials wrote in the letter.

Not only would the funding cuts to Medicaid negatively impact states, but proposed work requirements would also “impose huge costs on states,” and administrative costs resulting from a shift of $300 billion to states and local governments for SNAP services would cause cuts to other “critical services like our schools or roads.”

Ohio anti-hunger advocates urge U.S. Senators to reject SNAP changes

“Taken together, the cuts that are included in (House Resolution) 1 will place an impossible burden on states,” the letter read. “Forced to make up for the massive shortfalls in federal funding, every sector of our state and local economies will suffer, from health care to higher education, public safety to public schools.”

Anti-hunger advocates have also urged Congress to avoid hampering food assistance programs at a time when Ohio food banks and providers are straining under ever-increasing demand. They’ve also spent time pleading with the state legislature to help, or at the very least, not cut funding to anti-hunger programs.

One particular cut that has been maintained through the House and Senate proposals is a slashing of funding to the Children’s Hunger Alliance, which took DeWine’s executive proposal of $7.5 million over two years down to $5 million.

The Ohio General Assembly has until the end of June to send DeWine a final draft of the budget approved by both chambers. Negotiations on congressional budget reconciliation are ongoing in the U.S. Senate, having set a July 4 deadline for themselves.