[All-extension] News from the State House

[Kress, Cathann A.]

Colleagues-

As anticipated, the Ohio Senate Finance Committee released Substitute House Bill 166 yesterday afternoon. I would like to thank all of you for your efforts, patience and persistence over the last few months of this process. Many of you responded quickly when we asked for additional programmatic information, or for you to testify, or to answer questions. The quick review of the almost 3000 page legislative proposal includes at least 3 "offensive" wins and one "defensive" win for our college.


  1.  Under the Senate proposal, Cooperative Extension will receive a $1,000,000 increase in FY20 and FY21. This brings the total appropriation to $25,220,186.
  2.  The Senate proposal also increases the appropriation for Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Centers by $1,000,000 in both fiscal years. This increase brings the appropriation to $37,361,470.
  3.  The proposal increases the members on  Ohio Expo Commission to include the "dean of the college of food, agricultural, and environmental sciences of the Ohio State University" as an ex officio member with voting rights on the commission.
  4.  Finally, an effort by a member of the Senate to limit the spending of Extension funding for certain activities was defeated.

There are a several more milestones in the state budget process. The Ohio Senate Finance Committee must pass the bill out of committee, and the Senate (all 33 members) will vote on the bill sometime in the next couple weeks. The Ohio House of Representatives will likely refuse the Senate's changes and they will appoint a conference committee. Both chambers will have to agree to a bill before they send it to Governor DeWine. As you know, the Ohio General Assembly and the Governor are constitutionally required to have an operating budget in place by July 1st.

We are also monitoring additional bills which have implications for our work such as the approval for production and processing of industrial hemp and H2Ohio. We'll keep you posted as this progresses. I'd like to thank our Director for Government Affairs, Adam Ward for his consistent efforts to represent us at the State House and I'd like to thank all of you for your dedication to our mission and your exemplary work which allows us to more easily convince elected officials to invest additional funding.

Cathann Kress


[The Ohio State University]
Cathann A. Kress, Ph.D.
Vice President for Agricultural Administration & Dean
College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences
140 Ag Administration | 2120 Fyffe Road | Columbus, OH 43210
614-292-6164 Office
kress.98 at osu.edu<mailto:kress.98 at osu.edu>

Twitter: @cathannkress





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