Senate finance committee chairman discusses Ohio’s final fiscal budget

State Sen. Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls, is the chairman of the senate finance committee. He talked with Mike Kallmeyer about the state’s final fiscal budget after several months of negotiations. Overall, Dolan said he is happy with the final product.

“It respects taxpayers, it gives money back to taxpayers, it invests in school children,” he said. “For the most part, I think this budget reflects the priorities of the state of Ohio.”

Dolan touched on how tax reform will affect Ohioans and pointed out that just a few years ago Ohio had nine tax brackets compared to the now two brackets.

“This idea that tax cuts somehow are being paid for at the expense of other programs just isn’t true. K through 12 public education got $1.8 billion more than they are receiving in the last fiscal year,” he said.

When discussing the Ohio Department of Education changes added to the budget, Dolan described why it is important to give the governor more say over education.

“There’s too many cooks in the kitchen,” he said.

Dolan said policy that was passed at the statehouse was not getting implemented by either the state board of education or the Ohio Department of Education and this new cabinet level position is meant to help streamline the process.