It’s an odd-numbered year in Ohio, so we will soon see a state budget proposed by Governor Mike DeWine, the final budget in his time as governor. Every two years, the governor releases budget recommendations and the General Assembly takes the first half of the year to consider the proposal and develop its own versions of a budget for the state. By June 30, the General Assembly must present a budget bill to the governor to sign. The budget bill identifies funding priorities but spells out policy priorities of the governor and General Assembly.
The Center for Community Solutions aims to help make the state budget more understandable, accessible, and digestible with the content we produce during budget deliberations. We begin with this piece that lays out the budget process and an estimated schedule of budget activities.
Governor’s Budget Proposal: by February 3rd
Governor DeWine will release his budget recommendations, or the executive budget, by January 31st. This budget is presented in what is known as the “Blue Book.” The administration may also release supplementary materials, as they have done with some prior budgets. The governor’s budget is known as the “As Introduced” budget. It is not until the budget is introduced in the state House of Representatives that it receives a bill number. The bill is traditionally sponsored by the House Finance committee chairperson, Representative Brian Stewart (R- Ashville) in the 136th General Assembly, and should be introduced on or around Valentine’s Day.
In addition to the materials released by the governor’s office, the Legislative Service Commission (LSC) prepares what are known as Redbooks. There is a Redbook for each state agency, board and commission. The Redbook describes historical, current, and proposed funding for the agency and details any policy proposal specific to that agency. Redbooks can be found on the LSC website. Once the budget is completed later on in the year, LSC creates Greenbooks which detail the impact of the enacted budget on the agencies.
Budget Process in House of Representatives: February through mid-to-late April
The legislative budget process begins in the House Finance Committee. In past years various parts of the bill are assigned to House Finance subcommittees based on topic, for example, the House Finance Subcommittee on Health and Human Services traditionally hears testimony on the budgets for the Departments of Aging, Developmental Disabilities, Health, Job and Family Services and Medicaid (among others). That is changing this year. Speaker Matt Huffman (R- Lima) announced on January 14, 2025, that different portions of the budget will be heard by 8 to 10 to-be-determined standing House committees covering different areas of policy.
Different portions of the budget will be heard by 8 to 10 to-be-determined standing House committees covering different areas of policy.
In the past, extensive testimony was heard in the subcommittees, and this time around that will occur in the standing committees. Testimony begins with the agency directors presenting the proposed agency budgets and answering questions from the committee members. This is followed by testimony from proponents, opponents and interested parties on the budget bill. This is where organizations and individuals have a chance to weigh in on provisions of the budget that affect them.
At this stage's end, each committee will develop a report for the full House Finance committee with recommendations on changes (amendments) to the bill. With the reports, the House Finance committee will formulate an updated version of the bill, known as the substitute bill. LSC will develop what is known as a comparison document, or “comp doc,” that compares the as introduced bill to the substitute bill. Each subsequent version of the budget bill will be added to this comp doc, so that the changes from one version of the bill to the next can be monitored easily. These are also available on the LSC website.
The House Finance Committee holds hearings on the substitute version of the bill, which is another opportunity to provide testimony, although typically a much shorter window of time than the initial committee process. After this round of hearings, the Finance committee will incorporate additional amendments into the bill. This is often done in an omnibus amendment, which is many amendments grouped into one large amendment. The Finance committee will vote on this version of the bill and once approved, it moves to the House of Representatives for a vote. With an affirmative House vote, the budget moves to the Senate.
Budget Process in the Ohio Senate: mid-to-late April through early June
Like in the House, the substitute bill begins in the Senate Finance committee (Senator Jerry Cirino, R- Kirtland is the chair). But the process from there in the Senate has been different in each of the last few budget cycles. Former Senate President Matt Huffman (now Speaker of the Ohio House) shifted away from a Finance subcommittee process and the full Finance Committee heard from state agency directors, as well as testimony from stakeholders on the potential impact of the budget. In other years, the Senate budget process involved the existing standing committees serving as budget “subcommittees” and dealing with each subject area of the budget accordingly, as the House has adopted for the current General Assembly. From there, the process is identical to the House. The budget moves through the initial testimony phase, moves back over the full Senate Finance committee where it considers initial recommendations from the subcommittee/committee chairpersons, the Senate Finance committee hears more testimony and develops a revised bill that is voted out of the committee and moves to the Senate floor for a full vote.
There will be differences between the House-passed and the Senate-passed versions of the budget.
Conference Committee: June
There will be differences between the House-passed and the Senate-passed versions of the budget and a conference committee must reconcile these differences. Select members, typically from the House and Senate Finance committees, are named to the Conference Committee. These deliberations largely take place without public input. The committee develops a final version of the bill and once the bill is voted on by the committee, it goes back to both the House and Senate to concur with the final changes. The House and Senate cannot make changes to the bill at this point and must either adopt or reject what the conference committee has put together.
Budget Goes Back to the Governor
Once the House and Senate agree on and vote on a final budget, it goes to the governor for his signature. Any provision in any bill that includes appropriations can be line-item vetoed by the governor. This means he can strike out any part of the bill while approving the rest of it. He cannot add to or change the bill through line-item vetoes. The Governor typically has a long list of line-item vetoes.
The budget bill must be signed by June 30 for the appropriations to take effect on July 1, the first day of the new state fiscal year.
Helpful Resources
Ohio Office of Budget and Management: https://obm.ohio.gov/state-budgets/01-operating-budget/01-Fiscal_Years_2026-2027
This is where the Governor’s budget proposal will first be posted on the day it is released. In addition to the blue book, a report from the Ohio Department of Taxation on tax expenditures is posted with the budget.
Ohio Legislative Service Commission: https://www.lsc.ohio.gov/budget
This is where you’ll find Redbooks, the Comparison Document, the Budget in Detail, and the Bill Analysis. There are also LSC resources on the transportation budget, which is on a different timeline and must be finalized by March 31.
The Ohio House of Representatives, 136th General Assembly: https://ohiohouse.gov/committees
The House Finance Committee page is available under the “Committees” tab on the House of Representatives homepage. This is where you will find information on committee members, committee schedules, and posted testimony materials. Additionally, the live stream of the House Finance committee can be found on this page.
The Ohio Senate, 136th General Assembly: https://ohiosenate.gov/
The Senate Finance Committee page is available under the “Committees” tab on the Senate homepage. This is where you will find information on committee members, committee schedules, and posted testimony materials. Additionally, the live stream of the Senate Finance committee can be found on this page.
Livestreaming of all Statehouse committees and many events
The Ohio Channel live streams every Ohio House and Senate session, as well as all regular committee hearings and press conferences and some special events. This allows people all around the state to watch certain parts of the budget process online.
