COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Library workers, mental-health advocates and others are criticizing Gov. Ted Strickland over more than $2 billion in cuts he has proposed to balance the state budget.
The final days of negotiations over how to erase a $3.2 billion deficit in the two-year, $54 billion spending plan have been marked by hordes of activists who said their favored programs are shouldering an unfair share of the cutting burden.
Some advocates are supporting a tax increase or floating other ideas on how to raise money to avoid cuts to their programs.
Others just say their programs aren't the places to cut.
The complaints began Friday when the Democratic governor released a plan detailing specific cuts totaling $2.4 billion and announced his support for putting slot machines at Ohio's seven horse-racing tracks to raise an estimated $933 million.
Hundreds of Ohioans came out to the Statehouse Thursday to rally against the proposed cuts, and NBC 4’s Matt Alvarez reported from the rally.
Local protestors berated Strickland’s decision to cut $227 million in funding for Ohio’s libraries.
It’s a cut that would devastate local libraries and library programs.
Strickland proposed cuts to the Public Library Fund (PLF) of $122.5 million in fiscal year 2010 and $114.8 in fiscal year 2011. The cuts would force systems to operate at 1990 levels.
About 70 percent of Ohio’s libraries receive state funding.
Alvarez talked to departments that face dramatic decreases in funding and is got answers on what those departments think state leaders should cut.
If the axe drops now, nearly every state agency will feel the pain, including the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug addictive services.
According to Maryhaven's president, Paul Coleman, when asked if he has any suggestions for cuts elsewhere he stated, "I think we can look hard at whether or not now is the right time for a massive infusion of dollars into elementary and secondary education and whether we can use this time to wait for the economy to improve and build a stronger consensus than I believe currently exists for the education reform plan."
In a midday rally on the steps of the Statehouse Wednesday, behavioral-health advocates sizzled with disbelief that cuts of 28 percent for drug and alcohol addiction services, and 34 percent for community based mental health services, had been proposed.
The cuts would amount to $111 million compared with the current fiscal year.
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
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