Ohio’s next two-year budget is a done deal. Gov. John Kasich on Sunday evening signed controversial House Bill 59, a nearly $62 billion plan that attempts to spur economic growth while restricting reproductive rights.
The Republican governor used his line-item veto to ditch a provision that would bar the state from expanding Medicaid, but held on to the legislature’s tax reform cornerstones and volley against abortion.
“The governor is pro life,” said Scott Milburn, Kasich’s communications director.
The governor delivered remarks for about five minutes before signing the state’s new two-year budget, touching on the successes of his previous budget and Ohio’s road ahead.
“Ohio is healing without any doubt,” Kasich said. “We still have too many Ohioans out of work.”
Kasich made no mention of his 22 vetoes or the contentious anti-abortion measures kept in the plan.
He quickly left his Statehouse office after signing the document, not allowing reporters to ask questions.
The budget goes into effect Monday.
Under the new budget, Ohioans will receive a 10-percent income tax cut phased in over three years, and will pay an increased sales tax rate of 5.75 percent — up from 5.5 percent.
The ratified plan also includes a 50-percent tax break for small-business owners on up to $250,000 of yearly net income claimed on personal tax filings.
“We’re proud of our tax cuts because we think this is another installment in Ohio’s comeback,” Kasich said. “It’s going to continue to give us great momentum.”
Kasich did away with a measure that would stop his plan to expand Medicaid to cover nearly 275,000 of Ohio’s working poor, leaving the possibility for further debate in the Republican-controlled legislature.
Kasich left in place provisions in HB 59 that will strip funds from Planned Parenthood, bar abortion providers from entering into emergency transfer agreements with public hospitals, and force women seeking abortions to undergo an ultrasound.
The budget reprioritizes how federal dollars are distributed among the state’s family-planning centers, effectively placing Planned Parenthood at the end of the list, the group says.
HB 59 also requires abortion providers to find private hospitals, which are often religious, willing to enter into transfer agreements to comply with the state’s requirements.
A last-minute addition demands that abortion providers give women seeking abortions information on family planning and adoption services if a heartbeat can be detected through the use of a trans-abdominal ultrasound.
It also compels doctors to inform those women “of the probable anatomical and physiological characteristics” of a fetus during various stages of its development.
“These provisions in the Ohio state budget are part of an orchestrated effort to roll back women’s rights and access to health care in Ohio,” Stephanie Kight, president of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, said in a statement. “The budget is only the latest in a series of restrictive laws signed by John Kasich that have hurt the women in our state who need more access to health care, not less.”
Ohio Right to Life applauded Kasich’s decision to keep the budget’s anti-abortion measures.
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