Ohio House Republicans, facing fury over attacking libraries, add a pittance to the budget

After intense public backlash against proposed cuts to Ohio’s libraries, House Republicans have offered what Today in Ohio podcast host Chris Quinn describes as “a tiny bit more” funding—but the adjustment falls far short of restoring the century-old funding formula that has sustained libraries across the state.

In the latest episode of cleveland.com’s news podcast discussion, Laura Johnston explained that Republicans restored a bit of the money they cut from the budget for libraries, they “aren’t backing down on this plan to end the century-old system that gives libraries guaranteed money.”

At issue is the state’s longstanding commitment to allocate 1.75 percent of state tax revenue to public libraries—a formula that has provided stable, predictable funding for a hundred years. The House budget proposal would abolish that system and, for the next two years, provide amounts well below that percentage:: $490 million in fiscal year 2026 and $500 million in 2027.

Johnston pointed out the figures are significantly less than what Governor Mike DeWine’s budget proposed: $531 million and $549 million respectively. The difference amounts to tens of millions of dollars that Ohio libraries won’t receive.

“This feels like a little pittance saying, ‘oh, pat you on the head. We heard your concerns, we’re giving you more money, but it still means the legislature is in charge and those libraries would have to come every two years and beg for their supper,‘” Johnston said.

Quinn was even more blunt: “They gave a tiny bit more, but it is not anywhere near the increase that is part of the formula. We’ve had a formula for a century that says libraries get a percentage of the total spending… They cut that. Seriously cut that.”

The attempt to slightly increase the proposed funding seems designed to generate positive headlines while still fundamentally changing how libraries are funded. “They’re getting the headlines they want: They’re restoring library funding. No, they’re not,” Quinn said.

The change from a percentage-based system to a fixed dollar amount creates significant uncertainty for libraries. As Johnston pointed out, “We’ve seen the way that these Republicans just slash out budget ideas… there’s no guarantee that they would give this money every year and they could just as quickly slash that.”

DeWine himself seemed to offer a puzzling defense of the change, suggesting it was related to the end of pandemic funding and the need to return to pre-pandemic budgeting. Quinn called this justification “complete hokum coming from the governor,” noting that the library funding formula was in place for a century, not just during the pandemic.

The podcast hosts predicted the controversy would continue, with Quinn suggesting it could become “a campaign problem for Republicans in 2026 if they don’t resolve it in 2025.”

The budget bill now heads to the State Senate, where libraries and their supporters hope the century-old funding formula might be restored. For now, Ohio’s libraries face an uncertain future under a funding model that requires them to repeatedly justify their existence rather than receiving their traditional share of state revenue.

Listen to the full discussion here.

Note: Artificial intelligence was used to help generate this story from Today in Ohio, a news podcast discussion by cleveland.com editors. Visitors to cleveland.com have asked for more text stories based on website podcast discussions.

Listen to full “Today in Ohio” episodes where Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.