June 19, 2025 • 6 mins
WIMA Political Analyst Ben Rose joined Todd Walker to discuss the state budget process and a recent visit to Lima by Sharon Kennedy.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ben Rose joins us now to talk state politics, and
of course it is budget season. There's less than two
weeks now really to get the budget done. Recently, the
Senate got their version done, so now it goes back
to the House and they hash out some differences before
sending it to the governor. Ben when you look at
(00:21):
the differences between the two chambers, where are the biggest divides.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well, the biggest divide is over with the flat right tax,
which is ironic because one of the chief supporters of
slowly eliminating the state income tax altogether has been Matt Hopping,
the current I'll speaker, they chose not to do it.
(00:47):
In the Senate version eliminates the pop remaining rate for
income tax and has everybody paying two point seven percent,
which will, according to the Lesley budgeting Let's result in
a billion dollars shortfall or loss of revenue. That's one
(01:11):
that Governor Wine has sort of signal he doesn't want
to see happen, and they will be interested to or
see whether he line its detos at. Assuming that the
Conference committee trying to work out differences between the House
and Senate, chooses to eliminate the second rate and have
(01:31):
a single flat.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Right, Well with that man, let's say it happened and
it does result in one billion dollar shortage in the
budget or one billion dollars less brought in. I guess
is technically what they're saying. And where does the Republican
Senate budget make up that money or does it not
do that?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Well? They they argue that the lower tax rate will
stimulate economic activity, and that's an argument made frequently by
people who want to run deficits in the in the
federal government and have been argued in the past that
(02:12):
the economy will make up the difference. Nobody in the
Senate is saying that unequivocally. But what they are saying
is that they've cut back spending in a number of areas.
They're going to be responsible. The difference is, in Ohio,
being responsible is a constitutional requirement that the state can
(02:35):
borrow only seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars without a
statewide voting the people amending the constitution.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Well, ben other than that seems like maybe just small
differences from the House budget to the Senate budget. One
of them of differences, one of the differences is how
to fund stadiums. I guess that's a seemingly pretty minor
difference in the budgets. Is there anything else that could
(03:02):
at least bring some consternation between the House and Senate.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, there is something that might bring a pause. This
House proposal is to do it by putting abument. Issue
of the Senate version is to take money from the
Unclaimed FUNDUS account and use it. One of the interesting
things is is that once the Senate started talking about
unclaimed funds, there was a run on the Unclaimed Fund's
(03:28):
account and a lot of people picked up money that
they've been wasting their time and not following up on.
And it's not a significant amount to say that you
can't do it and come up with the money, but
it shows that the tax and budget decisions are subject
(03:49):
to change.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Been on another subject to the Chief Justice of the
Ohio Supreme Court share and Kennedy was in linea recently
for the gop luncheon and had meant for the assembled
Republicans there. What were some of the things that caught
your ear?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Well, she did what every Chief Justice ought to do,
and that is that she didn't she didn't get over
the partisan She laid out a very clear and articulate
discussion about what her fudential philosophy was in terms of
making decisions and what the Supreme Court should and should
(04:30):
not do in terms of the way it made decisions.
But one thing was interesting. She said that this is
not a democracy, this is a republic. Well give her
points for talking about serious issues, but it clearly is
a little bit of both. Pure democracy, of course, would
(04:53):
have the voters voting on everything and have no legislative
bodies whatsoever. The symptom we have it has a select
representatives through a democratic of what's involved through a democratic system,
and clearly the people choose their representatives to make laws
and in some states have the ability, as we do
(05:16):
in Ohio to have statewide initiatives of referendum, which is
true democracy. But I think the Chief Justice needed to
say a little bit about how democracy is the way
we pick our representatives, and that's the republican form of
government we have, but it's also governed by history democratic voting.
(05:43):
With a small deed.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Then let's veer back to the budget quickly. I think
there was one other thing that you had wanted to
talk about with the differences or something with the budget.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Oh, one quietly slipped in amendment to the Senate budget
version as the proposal to require all people running for
local school boards to romenance Republicans or Democrats or to
romance as partisan candidates, although it's possibly to run as
(06:14):
an independent. That's a major important issue in oh Island.
Need to be careful that they don't politicize local school
boards by turning them into battlegrounds or Republicans and Democrats
to settle their differences.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
All right, Ben, good stuff, boys, appreciate you checking in.
Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
You know what's welcome. Thank you
Ben Rose joins us now to talk state politics, and
of course it is budget season. There's less than two
weeks now really to get the budget done. Recently, the
Senate got their version done, so now it goes back
to the House and they hash out some differences before
sending it to the governor. Ben when you look at
(00:21):
the differences between the two chambers, where are the biggest divides.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Well, the biggest divide is over with the flat right tax,
which is ironic because one of the chief supporters of
slowly eliminating the state income tax altogether has been Matt Hopping,
the current I'll speaker, they chose not to do it.
(00:47):
In the Senate version eliminates the pop remaining rate for
income tax and has everybody paying two point seven percent,
which will, according to the Lesley budgeting Let's result in
a billion dollars shortfall or loss of revenue. That's one
(01:11):
that Governor Wine has sort of signal he doesn't want
to see happen, and they will be interested to or
see whether he line its detos at. Assuming that the
Conference committee trying to work out differences between the House
and Senate, chooses to eliminate the second rate and have
(01:31):
a single flat.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Right, Well with that man, let's say it happened and
it does result in one billion dollar shortage in the
budget or one billion dollars less brought in. I guess
is technically what they're saying. And where does the Republican
Senate budget make up that money or does it not
do that?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Well? They they argue that the lower tax rate will
stimulate economic activity, and that's an argument made frequently by
people who want to run deficits in the in the
federal government and have been argued in the past that
(02:12):
the economy will make up the difference. Nobody in the
Senate is saying that unequivocally. But what they are saying
is that they've cut back spending in a number of areas.
They're going to be responsible. The difference is, in Ohio,
being responsible is a constitutional requirement that the state can
(02:35):
borrow only seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars without a
statewide voting the people amending the constitution.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Well, ben other than that seems like maybe just small
differences from the House budget to the Senate budget. One
of them of differences, one of the differences is how
to fund stadiums. I guess that's a seemingly pretty minor
difference in the budgets. Is there anything else that could
(03:02):
at least bring some consternation between the House and Senate.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, there is something that might bring a pause. This
House proposal is to do it by putting abument. Issue
of the Senate version is to take money from the
Unclaimed FUNDUS account and use it. One of the interesting
things is is that once the Senate started talking about
unclaimed funds, there was a run on the Unclaimed Fund's
(03:28):
account and a lot of people picked up money that
they've been wasting their time and not following up on.
And it's not a significant amount to say that you
can't do it and come up with the money, but
it shows that the tax and budget decisions are subject
(03:49):
to change.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Been on another subject to the Chief Justice of the
Ohio Supreme Court share and Kennedy was in linea recently
for the gop luncheon and had meant for the assembled
Republicans there. What were some of the things that caught
your ear?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Well, she did what every Chief Justice ought to do,
and that is that she didn't she didn't get over
the partisan She laid out a very clear and articulate
discussion about what her fudential philosophy was in terms of
making decisions and what the Supreme Court should and should
(04:30):
not do in terms of the way it made decisions.
But one thing was interesting. She said that this is
not a democracy, this is a republic. Well give her
points for talking about serious issues, but it clearly is
a little bit of both. Pure democracy, of course, would
(04:53):
have the voters voting on everything and have no legislative
bodies whatsoever. The symptom we have it has a select
representatives through a democratic of what's involved through a democratic system,
and clearly the people choose their representatives to make laws
and in some states have the ability, as we do
(05:16):
in Ohio to have statewide initiatives of referendum, which is
true democracy. But I think the Chief Justice needed to
say a little bit about how democracy is the way
we pick our representatives, and that's the republican form of
government we have, but it's also governed by history democratic voting.
(05:43):
With a small deed.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Then let's veer back to the budget quickly. I think
there was one other thing that you had wanted to
talk about with the differences or something with the budget.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Oh, one quietly slipped in amendment to the Senate budget
version as the proposal to require all people running for
local school boards to romenance Republicans or Democrats or to
romance as partisan candidates, although it's possibly to run as
(06:14):
an independent. That's a major important issue in oh Island.
Need to be careful that they don't politicize local school
boards by turning them into battlegrounds or Republicans and Democrats
to settle their differences.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
All right, Ben, good stuff, boys, appreciate you checking in.
Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
You know what's welcome. Thank you
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!