Kasich Budget Increases GRF Spending by Another $7.5 Billion

By On February 4, 2013 · 3 Comments

In his budget announcement today Kasich said his budget only contains ”anemic growth” when you exclude Medicaid and Education.

The governor has tried to pull this trick before.   The fact is, Health and Human Services spending and Education make up somewhere between 78 and 85 percent of total General Revenue Fund (GRF) spending (depending on whether you include federal dollars in the mix).    So if you want to get an accurate measure of how much spending is going up – you ABSOLUTELY need to include these values.

The following two charts show the actual GRF spending numbers.

The first is from an LSC analysis and the second is straight out of Kasich’s budget documents.

2010-2013_Budget

2013_Budget

 

Here’s what the charts show:

GRF spending under Governor Strickland was $50.7 Billion.

John Kasich’s first budget increased GRF spending to $55.8 Billion.

Kasich’s new budget increases spending even more: to $63.2 Billion.

That’s an increase of $12.5 Billion dollars over the course of Kasich’s term as governor.

Matt Mayer, of the conservative think tank Opportunity Ohio, told Plunderbund : “I guess we now know why Governor Kasich refuses to fund a tax cut by reducing spending. Congressman Kasich would have had a field day with this budget.”

I think the Governor needs to look up the meaning of the word “anemic”.

Evangelize!
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  • http://www.bluebexley.com bonobo

    So, I’m not sure I’m getting this right – the categories change a bit between the two analyses. But even giving the benefit of the doubt, let’s forget k-12, hhs, and higher ed, which the guv doesn’t want to count. We’ll also leave out the exec/leg/jud branches, transpo, and ENR, as I can’t tell where they were included (if at all) in the LSC table.

    That leaves two comparable line items: General government and corrections/justice. It’s possible that some of the extra categories in the second table belong with general government, but that would mean that the estimate for the next two years for general government is actually too small.

    So, on the governor’s own terms, what happens to spending between his first budget and his second, on the items he wants to compare? In 2012/13 general government and corrections accounted for $6.71 billion in spending. In 2014/15, General government and justice account for $7.69 billion in spending. That’s a 14.5% increase. Sure, $1 billion doesn’t look like much compared to the whole budget, but if Kasich wants to claim he doesn’t really control most of the budget, then he’s responsible for a pretty darn big relative bump in funding between his two budgets.

  • dmoore2222

    So much for the small government and anti-tax-and-spend republican ideology. Keep digging, Johnny!

  • stryx

    Also this: Page two, Section B, Blue Book-

    “Leading indicators for Ohio are also consistent with continued, though modest economic growth. The Ohio coincident economic index, compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, increased for the 35th consecutive month in November 2012, although the rate of increase slowed late in the year. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia leading index for Ohio, which is designed to predict the 6-month rate of change in the coincident index, was positive for 41 months straight in November 2012,”
    Authorities state that Ohio’s economy has been growing for 35 months.

    How long has Kasich been in office?

    The math is hard, I can’t figure it out.

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