3/19/2025 Update: The Ohio Senate has given final approval to the state transportation budget. The final version approved by the Senate restored funding for the Workforce Mobility Partnership, while reducing the funding from $15M per year to $13.5M per year. The Senate also reduced funding for the six Regional Transportation Planning Organizations (RTPOs) to $3 million per year. It is anticipated that the House of Representatives will approve the Senate-passed changes to the Transportation budget within the next week ahead of the March 31 deadline to pass the budget.
The Ohio House has completed the first round of in-person public testimony on the main operating budget, while the Ohio Senate has released the details of their first-attempt at updating the state transportation budget. That is why this week, we are providing an update on the status of these two primary budgets as we reach the midpoint of March.
State Transportation Budget
On March 12, the Ohio Senate Transportation Committee introduced a substitute version of the state transportation budget. The Senate made a number of significant changes to the proposed budget, including restoring $5 million per year in funding for Ohio's six Regional Transportation Planning Organizations (RTPOs). This funding has enabled RTPO's to invest in 35 different projects across the state's rural counties since FY2022. A cut in this funding could have jeopardized the future of more than 180 outstanding, unfunded projects, including active transportation projects, in Ohio's rural communities.
The Senate did cut nearly $32 million in general revenue funding for a number of transportation-related projects, including the Workforce Mobility Partnership, a Transit Voucher Pilot Program, and Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail funding, with a statement these funds would be restored in the Main Operating Budget. We will be keeping close tabs on this proposal as the transportation budget now likely heads to a House-Senate conference committee in late March and the Main Operating Budget is nearly completion in the House.
You can read our most recent testimony on the State Transportation Budget below.
Main Operating Budget
The Ohio House Finance Committee concluded its first round of hearings on the main operating budget on March 13. The following day, Friday, March 14, was the deadline for lawmakers to submit amendments to the House Finance Committee for consideration of a substitute spending bill. Finance Chairman Brian Stewart (R- Ashville) has said that the House plans to have the substitute version of the bill ready by Tuesday, April 1, followed by a second round of amendments which will be considered on Tuesday, April 8. Final passage of the budget in the House is expected to occur by Wednesday, April 9, 2025.
Because it remains to be seen at the time of publication if a conference committee on the transportation budget will restore proposed GRF spending that the Senate removed from the transportation budget, it is too soon to know if it will be necessary to advocate for transportation-related spending in the main operating budget.
You can read our most recent Main Operating Budget testimony below.
Be sure to stay up-to-date on the latest budget developments on our blog and bill tracker, as well as our social media channels.