Columbus, OH – Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute, issued the following statement on the passage of Ohio House Bill 166, the state’s biennial budget.

“The General Assembly passed a budget that contains a number of good policies that will help grow Ohio’s economy, including an income tax cut for all Ohioans and strong regulatory reform. Lawmakers also took steps to expand meaningful school choice for Ohio’s families, adopted more rigorous graduation requirements, and increased health care transparency.

“Both chambers deserve credit for these policy victories, many of which echoed The Buckeye Institute’s suggestions for the conference committee.

“However, policymakers passed up the opportunity to adopt greater tax reform that would have allowed Ohioans to keep more of their hard-earned money and would have spurred greater economic growth and refused to rein in government spending. Instead, policymakers increased spending by another $1.4 billion over what the Senate passed just four weeks ago. This unsustainable level of spending endangers Ohio’s ability to weather future economic downturns.”

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