COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, signed the state’s capital budget Tuesday. The governor said the $3.5 billion spending plan will make historic and important infrastructure investments over the next two years.
DeWine said the new capital budget, House Bill 687, is unusual because he believes Ohio is paying for the whole thing in cash instead of taking on debt for the first time in state history.
“We believe that this is the prudent thing to do. It’s the wise thing to do. It’s something that we can do and should do,” said DeWine.
The budget allows the administration to use $1.5 billion in cash with an option get an extra $1.3 billion in the future. That accounts for $2.8 billion of the $3.5 billion tab. The rest of the money will come from federal coronavirus relief.
“If we pay cash for all of this, I am told by our budget team that we’ll save the taxpayers of the state of Ohio up to $1.6 billion in interest in the coming years,” DeWine said.
The state is spending in a number of areas, but none bigger than its investment in Intel. Over the next two years, the corporation is getting $1.2 billion of the $2 billion the state promised it to build a semiconductor manufacturing plant in New Albany.
“This is a very important action by the legislature to get this done so that Ohio can keep its promises and demonstrate to the world that we can handle what it takes to do the biggest economic development project in the free world,” said Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, R-Ohio.
However, the budget does not force Intel to hire Ohioans. State Policy Fellow Guillermo Bervejillo with Policy Matters Ohio said the liberal think tank has a real problem with not giving state residents an advantage in the hiring process.
“In fact, Intel has done it before. In Arizona, they promised 60% of new jobs will be to Arizonans. Why can’t we provide something like that? There’s 12 million people in Ohio. We should be able to provide even more than 60% of the jobs required for this,” said Bervejillo.
Yet Husted laughed off that thought.
“They may move here from somewhere else but that’s the great thing about a manufacturing facility versus being a cryptocurrency company or a social media company. You gotta make it here, and that means that the people have to live here,” said Husted.
The budget also allocates $100 million of school safety grants for public, private and parochial schools. The president of the Ohio Education Association said while the extra money is great, it and the signing of House Bill 99 Monday to reduce the amount of training needed for teachers to carry guns in schools misses the mark on a more comprehensive solution.
“Unless action is taken to take dangerous weapons out of the hands of people who are going to use them to wreak havoc on children and on educators, you know, it leaves us all wishing that the governor would show some real leadership,” said Scott DiMauro.
DeWine said other capital budget highlights include more money for school construction and renovation, mental health care, state parks and prison security. The governor also called on Congress to pass the CHIPS Act, which would give Intel $50 billion it says it needs to offset other costs.
