Category archive for ‘Justice and Safety’ rss

  • Prison privatization comes up short – new $114 million budget hole?

    Today we learned that the Governor’s plan to sell 5 state prisons for $200 million has turned into a scheme to sell only one facility for $73 million, and other steps to save an additional $13 million. So, unless our math is wrong, that means there is a new $114 million hole in the state budget.

    9/01/11 • (1)

  • House Provides Aid to Appalachia in Budget Amendments

    One little-told story in the Kasich budget is the hit that Appalachian Ohio takes. The Office of Appalachia sees an 18 percent cut in year 1 and may see all its funding eliminated in the second year. The House added a number of amendments that limit the impact of Kasich’s cuts to the region, and we have a rundown.

    5/08/11 • (0)

  • House GOP pissing in Kasich’s toolbox

    In exchange for cutting local government funding in half, Governor Kasich has emphasized how he is giving local officials “tools” to make up for the loss of funds. One way that he sold his proposal to privatize state prisons was to tell local officials that the new private owners of prisons would pay property taxes, adding to the local tax base. We posted about this the other day. Well, so much for that. The House amended the budget to benefit private prison operators at the expense of revenue for Ohio communities.

    5/05/11 • (3)

  • Private prisons: local governments win some and lose some

    As a result of the budget’s privatization of prisons, local governments will begin collecting property taxes on facilities in their communities. On the downside, they’ll also have to provide safety forces when incidents occur. You win some and you lose some. Actually, in this budget, mostly you lose, so we count this proposal as a bright spot.

    5/03/11 • (1)

  • Amendment Watch: Indigent Defense

    According to the weekly newsletter of the County Commissioners’ Association (CCAO), House Republicans have submitted an amendment to the budget that would transfer responsibility for indigent defense from counties to the state.

    4/27/11 • (0)

  • More Budget Whispers: DDN reveals massive prison privatization in the works

    The Dayton Daily News breaks the big story today – a number of proposals, direct from the Kasich administration, for cost-cutting that may appear in the Governor’s budget when it is introduced next week. As we told you over the weekend, there are plenty of rumors circulating about how the administration will address the shortfall.

    3/08/11 • (1)

  • State Budget: The Week Ahead

    Just a quick post to remind everyone that two of the three appropriations bills for State Government have been introduced and having hearings in the House of Representatives this week. We have information on committee hearings for the BWC and Transportation budgets, both active this week.

    2/28/11 • (0)

  • What’s in the Public Safety budget?

    HB114 – the state’s transportation budget – was released today, and hearings were held in the House Finance committee. In this post, we will focus on the Department of Public Safety, which receives its funding through the bill because it receives some gas tax revenue. All in all, the DPS budget so maintains the status quo that it looks like a copy and paste job from the last biennium. Click post title to read more.

    2/23/11 • (4)

  • Transportation Budget Preview – ODOT and Public Safety issues to watch

    Tomorrow features the first hearings on the FY 2012-2013 transportation budget, with testimony from the Departments of Public Safety in the morning and from ODOT in the afternoon in the House Finance committee. We present some policy issues and key decisions to watch when the budget is released.

    2/22/11 • (0)

  • Transportation Budget testimony to start next week

    We received our committee notice from House Finance yesterday that hearings were to begin on the State Transportation Budget next week. Here is the information: Wednesday, February 23, 9 a.m., House Finance Hearing Room (Rm 313), Ohio Statehouse Testimony from the Department of Public Safety Wednesday, February 23, immediately after House session, Rm 313 Testimony [...]

    2/18/11 • (0)