Ohio Senate Republicans return to consider override

Aug. 22--COLUMBUS -- Senate Republicans will return to the Statehouse on Tuesday to consider whether to override their governor's vetoes of budget provisions nearly two months ago that he saw as restricting Ohio's expansion of Medicaid that he has fought to protect.

Republicans control the upper chamber 24-9, more than enough to muster the 20 votes needed for overrides without having to lure Democratic votes. But Democrats had sided with House Republicans in early July to vote to override a few of Gov. John Kasich's vetoes that they did not see as endangering the expansion providing health-care coverage for some 725,000 lower and middle-income Ohioans.

"I think there is a willingness from our members -- and I can't speak for the House -- to work with members of the House and also the administration on a chance to work things out without having to do an override," Senate Republican spokesman John Fortney said.

The Republican-controlled General Assembly sent Mr. Kasich a $65 billion, two-year budget shortly before the close of the last fiscal year on June 30. The governor exercised his line-item veto authority 47 times, and the House countered days later by voting to override 11 of those.

Because the budget was a House bill, the Senate cannot expand upon those 11, so the debate is limited to those areas for now.

Senate Minority Leader Kenny Yuko (D., Richmond Heights) said he expects Democrats will support some of the same items that their counterparts in the House supported, measures not seen as weakening Medicaid.

"I was in the hospital right before the election [dealing with cancer] as then-candidate Trump was talking about getting rid of what he said was this terrible thing [Obamacare], but the people up there were telling me don't mess with what's helping them," Mr. Yuko said.

"He didn't get rid of it," he said. "He didn't have the votes. He didn't have a plan. He didn't have a clue, to be honest with you.''

Among the vetoes the House did vote to undo were provisions that would increase reimbursement rates for nursing homes and some other Medicaid service providers, require the administration to seek a federal waiver to temporarily restore a state tax on Medicaid managed-care organizations that also benefited counties and public transit authorities, and limit the budgeting decision authority of the quasi-legislative Ohio Controlling Board.

For now, the Senate cannot take up what was perhaps the most contentious of Mr. Kasich's vetoes -- one requiring him to ask the Trump Administration for permission to freeze enrollment into the Medicaid expansion program under the embattled federal Affordable Care Act.

Under the freeze, beginning on July 1, 2018, those already in the program could stay, but, with few exceptions, no one could join the program after that date or re-enroll after falling off the rolls for some reason.

The House did not take that one up, so the Senate cannot do so now. But House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger (R., Clarksville) had left the door open for the chamber to revisit the issue. It has until the end of the current two-year legislation session at the end of the 2018 to take up any vetoes.

Among the more significant items overridden by the House and on the menu for possible Senate action Tuesday include provisions that would:

--Require the administration to seek federal approval to institute the Healthy Ohio program that would, among other things, require Medicaid expansion participants to pay monthly premiums toward their coverage. The Obama administration had previously rejected a similar proposal.

--Require legislative approval for significant increases in Medicaid spending beyond approval by the Ohio Controlling Board that Mr. Kasich originally used to draw down the first federal dollars to fund the expansion in late 2013.

--Require the administration to seek a federal waiver to raise the amount of a franchise fee imposed on managed-care companies to 7.2 percent for six years to at least temporarily replace revenue lost by counties and public transit authorities that previously benefited from a now defunct sales tax on those entities.

--Transfer appointment authority of members of the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission from the governor to the General Assembly.

Contact Jim Provance at jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.

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