Ohio General Assembly Approves State Budget $10 million fund for Public Transit Capital Grant Program and Modest GRF Increase Included in HB 119…….Governor’s Review Next Step

The Ohio General Assembly yesterday accepted the conference committee report on House Bill 119, the state biennial budget that included a 10 million dollar fund for public transit capital grants and an $850,000 general revenue increase for public transit funding during the 2008/2009 biennium.

The capital grant program will be used by the Ohio Public Transit Grant Program at the Ohio Department of Transportation and funded at a 5 million dollar level in each year of the 2008/2009 biennium. The program is required to use Federal Highway Administration funds from the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program (CMAQ).

Lawmakers and the Strickland Administration worked out final details of the budget after considering a recently reported revenue shortfall of a couple of hundred million dollars. Funding adjustments were made in the budget to ensure that it was balanced as required by the Ohio Constitution.

House Bill 119 now goes to the Governor for his final consideration of the budget prior to signing the bill which is set to go into effect July 1st as required by the Ohio Constitution.

Governor Strickland’s proposed budget to the Ohio General Assembly called for public transit to receive approximately an additional 4 million dollars for each year of the biennium from general revenue funds dedicated to public transit through ODOT.

The Ohio House of Representatives reduced the approximately twenty percent increase in biennial GRF funding of public transit to approximately one million dollars for the two year biennium.

The Ohio Senate determined that restoring the general revenue funding to the increased levels proposed by Governor Strickland was not possible due to the funding of other policy and political priorities. However, they have tried to assist Ohio’s public transit systems through the 10 million dollar transit capital grant program.

Ultimately, the conference committee negotiations between the Governor, the Ohio House and Senate brought a compromise that now calls for the 10 million dollar capital grant program and adds $850,000 of additional general revenue funds to the public transit funding appropriation to ODOT for the biennium.

Once Governor Strickland has signed the 2008/2009 budget into law, we will communicate the final details. OPTA members and transit supporters should be commended for their outreach to educate legislators about the need for increased funding. There is still much work to be done, but progress has been made…..Thanks!

Rick Ayish, OPTA Government Affairs Counsel 614-221-5882

Email: RAyish@thesuccessgroup.com