Reduced School Funding Price Tag a Stretch for Finan
The Hannah Report - Vol. 124, No. 183 - September 18, 2001

Senate President Richard Finan (R-Cincinnati) said Tuesday that even the reduced price tag for a school-funding fix that is wrapped into the state's re-consideration motion to the Ohio Supreme Court might be undoable.

Speaking to reporters after the Ohio Senate honored firefighters, police officers and rescue workers during a light floor session that saw no votes on legislation, Finan said a turn of events at the Court where the state would have to pour $450 million more annually into primary and secondary education instead of $1.2 billion stretches the economic realities gripping the state and the nation.

"We don't have $450 million," Finan said. "We are moving rapidly to a case of the shorts. Last Tuesday's events will in the short term play havoc with our revenues. I hear the airlines are going to lay off 100,000 people. Plus we're going to have units called up which will take them out of the workforce. I don't think any-body can know right now. But for some of us who had hopes that our economy was going to turn around some time in the fourth quarter, last Tuesday may dampen that enthusiasm."

Asked about whether momentum would gather around the idea of video lottery terminals (VLTs) at Ohio's horse-racing tracks, Finan said, "VLTs might be on the table. The only thing that is off the table is tax increases." Finan said he had concerns about asking the Supreme Court to reconsider its latest school-funding decision. "But I deferred to the governor," he said. "The governor wanted to do it, so it's done. We'll see what happens. Once it was pretty clear from the governor that he was going to do it, I wanted to have inputinto the draft."

Finan said he had good input into drafting the motion. "The bulk of it was drawn by the attorney general, but there were changes made," he said. "We probably passed four or five different drafts around."

Asked about the Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding's intent to ask the Supreme Court to reopen the decision, Finan said, "That was my concern. We'll see what happens."

At the close of Tuesday's session, which also saw the Senate accept the resignation of Senate President Pro Tempore Bruce Johnson to allow him to assume the directorship of the Ohio Department of Development, Finan urged committee chairs to hold meetings next week even though there would be no voting sessions during that time.