Legislators from both parties had hoped Ohio would take a big step forward this year to invest in broadband Internet rollout across the state.

Ohio Senate leaders think differently. While their Ohio House counterparts are looking to allocate millions of dollars to Internet expansion projects, state Senators from the state want to cut those funds to pay for several proposed tax cuts.

Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, and CFO Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls, unveiled their chamber’s proposed state budget for the next two fiscal years on Tuesday. Highlights of this proposed budget include changes to Ohio’s school funding model and more than $ 1 billion in new tax cuts.

That includes a 5% income tax cut for Ohio workers, as well as other tax cuts related to business development that Huffman said are intended to boost employment growth. The Ohio House of Representatives budget, which was passed in April, proposed a 2% cut in income tax.

To pay for these tax cuts, the Senate presidents want to cut funding for the Department of Job and Family Services and the Department of Medicaid. Dolan referred to these as administrative cuts that will have no impact on public services.

Another way to pay for the tax cuts is by eliminating the funding of internet expansion projects.

Internet access has been a priority for both Democratic and Republican officials in recent years. Governor Mike DeWine proposed grant funding of $ 250 million in his own budget proposal in early 2021.

The House of Representatives’ draft budget earmarked $ 190 million for this.

Outside of the budget negotiations, both chambers recently gave their approval House bill 2 to create the Ohio Residential Broadband Expansion Grant Program. DeWine signed the law in May; It provides initial funding of $ 20 million.

It was hoped that the state budget would be able to pump more money into this funding program. The Senate is not proposing any additional money for broadband expansion and is completely canceling the US $ 190 million of the House of Representatives.

Huffman acknowledged that there are rural and urban areas of the state without reliable internet access, but continued to express hesitation about increasing spending to address the problem. Experts estimate that an estimated 1 million Ohioans do not have access to high-speed internet at home.

“I think people are eager to spend money on something that everyone thinks is a good idea,” Huffman told reporters on Tuesday. “I think it’s a bad idea to just spend money without a plan.”

The Ohio Residential Broadband Expansion Grant Program, initiated by HB 2, sets out a detailed way of using government funds for infrastructure projects.

Certain areas of the state – such as the hilly areas of Appalachian Ohio – do not have internet access because the difficult terrain prevents private companies from pursuing projects there.

The aim of the funding program is to close this “cost gap”. State funding is intended to encourage companies to invest in expansion projects in otherwise difficult-to-access areas.

State Reps. Rick Carfagna, R-Genoa Twp., And Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, were the two main sponsors of HB 2 and spent the first few months of 2021 highlighting the benefits of internet access for business, health and educational purposes.

“High-speed Internet is the great social balance of our time”, Carfagna has often said.

In a statement provided, the two lawmakers expressed the hope that their Republicans in the other chamber would reconsider.

“Ohio now has a bipartisan strategy in state law to address this issue,” noted Carfagna and Stewart, referring to HB 2. “It is imperative that we fund it sensibly to get real results.”

They continued, “The lack of broadband access is currently denying at least one million Ohio residents employment, education, health care and commerce, and the broadband expansion grants proposed by the House of Representatives and the Governor’s Office are designed to unleash hundreds of millions of private investments to aggressively combat these inequalities … (we) look forward to hearing how you pursue House Bill 2’s vision to facilitate the expansion of high-speed Internet to unserved households across Ohio. “

Huffman said that providing Internet access for all Ohioans doesn’t necessarily mean they have the opportunity to use it.

He suggested that this extension would not be helpful for residents who are not tech savvy.

“(S) the provision of broadband services does not mean that people who may have access to them will or will be able to access them,” said Huffman. “You still need to have some kind of equipment – a computer, an iPad, whatever it is – you need to know how to use it. You need to know what happens when it doesn’t work. And for people like me, I don’t know what happens if that thing doesn’t work, I have to ask someone, and I suppose a lot of other Ohioans are like that. “

The US rescue plan, signed by President Joe Biden in March, provides states and other territories with $ 10 billion for broadband infrastructure. Huffman said those potential US dollars did not affect his decision to raise Ohio funding from the proposed Senate budget.

“I’m always a little suspicious that the federal government is doing what it promises,” said Huffman. “These dollars appear to be real. We’ll see. But we can’t pass a budget until June 30th in the hope that the federal government will do what it has announced. “

As soon as the Ohio Senate has passed its version of the budget, the legislators of the two houses meet in a so-called conference committee to negotiate the differences between the respective budget proposals. The legislature has until June 30th to finalize an agreed budget before it is submitted to the governor for signature.

This story was republished by the Ohio Capital Journal under a Creative Commons license.