Ohio: Senate Finance Committee

By 2040, the number of residents needing long-term care will double, and the added cost to the Medicaid program, which pays for many of those services with state and federal money, threatens to crush Ohio's budget.

Unless the system is altered, Medicaid could consume half the state budget by 2020, according to researchers at the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University in Oxford.

"The only way to serve more people is to increase the number in lower-cost services," said Robert Applebaum, a professor and director of the center's long-term care research project.

In testimony before the Senate Finance Committee yesterday, Applebaum said Ohio has made progress but has a long way to go to create an efficient and effective system of long-term care.

More than 130,000 children would lose access to preschool, mental-health services and wellness programs under a budget proposal passed by the House and under review in the Senate.

Katie Kelly, director of Groundwork, a statewide coalition of early-care advocates, said the cuts will mean that fewer at-risk children are prepared to start school and will lead to higher costs for the state down the road.

"The question is do we pay it now for an early-childhood system that we know can change the trajectory of these children's lives, or do we pay it when these children repeat third grade drop out of high school have babies when they are teenagers and look to our public assistance system for support have costly mental-health treatment as adults for conditions that could have been treated when they were toddlers; or, worst of all, do we pay to support these children in our jails?" Kelly testified yesterday before the Senate Finance Committee.

COLUMBUS -- Skeptical lawmakers quizzed the state budget director Wednesday on the implications of the $5.5 billion pillar of one-time money supporting Gov. Ted Strickland's next state budget.

As House Finance Committee members got their first peek at Strickland's revised budget -- a second look needed because the federal stimulus package for Ohio has jumped $135 million from when the Democratic governor initially rolled out his 2010-11 blueprint -- state budget director Pari Sabety took another stab at answering the questions from skeptics that have dominated the debate thus far.

Republicans have repeatedly raised questions about the $5.5 billion in one-time money, which includes $3.

State officials downplay the cost, saying some late payments are to be expected and that the interest amounts to a tiny fraction of what essentially is a $56 billion operation.

But with state revenue plummeting and critical services being cut, lawmakers plan to scrutinize the expense during deliberations for the two-year budget that starts July 1, said Sen. John A. Carey Jr., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

"In this budget, every dollar is going to count," said Carey, R-Wellston. "We need to be as efficient as we can."

Ohio law requires that the state pay interest to vendors when bills are not paid on time, typically within 30 days.