No word yet on specific cuts; Last 4 years resulted in 6 facility closings

Anticipated budget deficit figures were released one day before the official start of bargaining between the State of Ohio and OCSEA. Following Monday's press conference, OBM Director Pari Sabety on Tuesday morning briefed OCSEA leaders and the union's bargaining team.

However, there's no word yet on exactly how universities, institutions, agency services, wages, and jobs will be impacted, according to this morning's Dayton Daily News.

Strickland said areas including tax relief, Medicaid and debt service are non-discretionary and will not be cut. But the cuts will be deep — as much as 25 percent — for state agencies that are considered "discretionary" or are funded heavily through the general revenue fund, such as job and family services, youth services, prisons and other agencies.

Other departments, such as transportation, highway patrol and Ohio EPA, rely on fees, gas taxes, and other funding that could insulate them from steep budget reductions.

In fact, on top of earlier cuts this year, Ohio will be forced to find an additional $640 million in cuts to balance the current biennium budget by June 30. Sabety also warned that the state will need to ax $7.3 billion from the 2009 - 2011 budget. She says these anticipated cuts for the next biennium are partly tied to economic forecasts predicting that Ohio residents will earn less next year, thus decrease the state's income tax revenue.

Meanwhile, OCSEA leaders are growing increasingly more concerned about preserving the vital services public employee union members deliver -- especially at a time when most residents are counting on public safety nets more than ever -- and Ohioans need. For example, looking back over the last four years, Ohio closed the doors of six state facilities, the article reported.

Since 2004, the state has closed two prisons, two mental health hospitals and two centers for severely developmentally disabled Ohioans. Since March 2007, the state has trimmed 3,000 employees from the payroll.

Watch for State Budget News update on the OCSEA website and subscribe to the OCSEA E-News Digest.