On February 3, 2025, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine unveiled the initial details of his final two-year state budget proposal. The “budget” actually refers to four different pieces of budget legislation: 1) transportation; 2) workers’ compensation; 3) industrial commission; and 4) operating. Usually, when discussing the “budget,” most are referring to the operating budget. The transportation budget is on an expedited timeline and must be signed by March 31, 2025, to ensure that funding is released in time for critical infrastructure construction. The workers’ compensation and industrial commission budgets are also often on a quicker timeline and passed before the operating budget.
The Governor must sign the operating budget by midnight on June 30, 2025.
Past DeWine budgets focused on children and families, and, true to form, the Governor continued that trend. During the press conference, he highlighted proposals centered on family support, increasing child literacy, and improving child welfare.
Here are some highlights of Governor DeWine’s proposal:
- A new $1,000 per child (6 and under) tax credit, funded by a $1.60 per pack increase in tobacco taxes and increasing the tax on vapor products to 42% (current rate is 17%).
- Increasing subsidized childcare.
- $50 million to create the Ohio SEE program that will increase eye screenings for children (kindergarten through grade three) and make eyeglasses available.
- Expanded school-based healthcare.
- $100 million to increase housing in rural areas.
- Increasing the Historic Rehabilitation Tax credit from $60 million to $120 million and creating a new Historical Rehabilitation Tax credit for owner/occupied homes.
- $8 million to assist local governments with cybersecurity.
- Increasing both the local government fund and public library fund.
- Continues the “Fair School Funding Plan.”
- $380 million geared toward road safety upgrades.
- Increasing the sports gaming tax to 40% (current tax rate is 20%) to fund a new fund for supporting major and minor league sports stadiums and to reduce high school sports/activity fees for students.
According to Office of Budget & Management Director Kimberly Murnieks, the General Revenue Funds (GRF) proposal is $30 billion in FY26 and $30.9 billion in FY27, representing increases of 2.9% and 1.9%, respectively. The all-funds budget, which includes the GRF as well as federal and dedicated fund groups, is $108 billion (2.9%) in FY26 and $110 billion (1.9%) in FY27.
As for the legislative process, the House begins its hearings on February 4, 2025. Those hearings continue until mid- to late-April, when they will unveil their amendments and pass the legislation. The Senate then holds its own hearings until mid- to late-June and then makes its own changes. Finally, a special committee, called a conference committee, composed of members of both chambers irons out the final details. As mentioned above, the Governor must sign the state budget by midnight June 30, 2025. The Governor can line-item veto provisions from the budget.
The budget summaries, called the “blue books,” and some additional one-pagers from the DeWine administration can be found here. The actual legislation has not yet been introduced.
