Rep. Ty Mathews Visits Hardin County Commissioners, Addresses School and Library Funding Concerns

Representative Ty Mathews, who represents the 83rd District in the Ohio House of Representatives, which includes Hardin, Hancock and part of Logan Counties, visited the Hardin County Commissioners on Tuesday.

Mathews talked about two hot topics currently making headlines, and they are funding for public schools and funding for libraries around the state.

When it comes to perceived cuts in the House passed budget, Mathews made it clear, “Currently no school in the state of Ohio and no public library is going to see any cuts this biennium. We’ve actually increased funding for every school and for every library.”

The confusion, Mathews said, lies with the House version and Governor Mike DeWine’s version of the budget, “I would encourage everyone to look at the current House version verses the Governor’s proposed version. So, when you hear that the House is cutting all these funds from either public schools or public libraries, what that’s being compared to is the Governor’s, Governor DeWine’s, proposed budget. However, when you look at what they are currently receiving in the last biennium to what the House has introduced and we have passed, there are no cuts. There’s actually increases in funding.”

If passed as is, the operating budget would require districts with more than a 30 percent carryover to return some of the money in order to provide property tax relief for Ohioans. He added that they also hope, “To create a stable formula, a more consistent formula, so that superintendents don’t always have to be worried what the legislature is doing.”

The House passed budget is now before the Ohio Senate, and Mathews anticipates that there will be changes before a final proposed budget can be sent to the governor’s desk by the end of June.