Ohio cities object to funding shift for opioid fight

Local officials are voicing concern about an Ohio Senate plan to divert funds from cities to fight the state’s opioid crisis (Source: “Ohio cities don’t want their funds cut to pay for state’s opioid fight,” Columbus Dispatch, June 14, 2017).

Under the latest changes to the new two-year state budget, which takes effect July 1, $176 million would go to battle drug addiction. The Senate added about $6 million on top of what the House proposed in April. But that Senate plan includes the transfer of about $35 million over two years out of the state local government fund, which city officials use for basic operations as well as new costs incurred by the startling rise of drug overdoses.

“We’re supportive of more state investment to deal with the opioid crisis,” said Keary McCarthy, executive director of the Ohio Mayor’s Alliance, a coalition of Ohio’s 30 largest cities. “But to take it out of a source of revenue that’s already being utilized to address this doesn’t make a lot of sense, especially when there’s $2 billion in the rainy day fund.”

The money shift is tapping into local government funds that for 40 years were paid as a supplement to cities that enacted a municipal income tax. Two-thirds of Ohio cities and villages have an income tax, and those that do not tend to be very small.

“We just think it’s better public policy to have this bonus money go to dedicated treatment for addiction,” said John Fortney, spokesman for Senate President Larry Obhof, R-Medina. He added that the shift amounts to a very small piece of city budgets, while a number of municipalities also have carry-over balances.