Lawsuit filed to stop Medicaid expansion in Ohio

Bill also introduced to give Ohioans a tax cut with Medicaid savings, Lebanon lawmaker among those suing state.

Six Republican state lawmakers and two anti-abortion groups filed suit Tuesday against the state and the Controlling Board for expanding Medicaid against the “legislative intent” of the General Assembly.

A Springfield lawmaker also introduced a bill Tuesday to give Ohioans an income tax cut with money the state is saving due to Medicaid expansion.

The lawsuit asks the Ohio Supreme Court to intervene and reverse the $2.56 billion appropriation made Monday by the Controlling Board and the Ohio Department of Medicaid’s decision to add more Ohioans to state Medicaid rolls.

As promised, Maurice Thompson, executive director of the 1851 Constitutional Law Center, is representing the plaintiffs: Reps. Ron Maag of Lebanon, John Becker of Union Twp., Andy Thompson of Marietta, Ron Hood of Ashville, Matt Lynch of Solon and Ron Young of Leroy; and Cleveland Right to Life and Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati. Ohio Right to Life supported Medicaid expansion.

The Controlling Board, a little-known panel that oversees state spending, decided in a 5-2 vote Monday to release more than $2.56 billion in federal dollars to the Ohio Department of Medicaid. The money will pay for 366,000 Ohioans to join the state’s Medicaid rolls, an estimated net increase of 275,000 people who do not have employer-provided health insurance or cannot afford private insurance on the new health insurance exchanges.

Ohio law authorizes the board to approve expenditures beyond the state’s two-year budget but prohibits the board from taking any action against the “legislative intent of the General Assembly.”

Greg Moody, director of the governor’s Office of Health Transformation, told lawmakers on Monday the administration believed the board legally has the authority to approve the request.

“We believe this action is appropriate,” Moody said. “We were very careful to understand the nature of the authority that’s involved. We believe that we would prevail in a challenge, but it is not within our control to predict what the nature of that challenge might be.”

Springfield senator wants Ohioans to get tax cut

Expanding Medicaid is projected to generate $404 million in savings to the state’s general revenue fund over two years, and state senators didn’t waste any time devising a plan to spend it.

Sen. Chris Widener, R-Springfield, introduced a bill Tuesday to offer a 4 percent, across-the-board income tax rate cut beginning in 2014. The move would reduce tax rates further than prescribed in Gov. John Kasich’s 2014-15 state budget, which cuts rates 8.5 percent in 2013, 9 percent in 2014 and 10 percent in 2015.

Ohio’s top tax rate would drop from 5.392 percent to 5.176 percent in 2014 and to 5.12 percent in 2015. The rate for the middle tax bracket, for Ohioans earning between $20,000 and $40,000, would drop from 3.2 percent to 3.076 percent.

“I am pleased to propose legislation that would allow hardworking Ohioans to keep more of the money they earn, while also preserving a sound, balanced budget,” Widener said in a statement.

Budget Director Tim Keen stood by the $404 million savings projection in an interview Tuesday with the Columbus bureau. He said the bulk of the savings comes from covering prisoners on Medicaid and additional revenue in sales and insurance taxes as a result of more people in the Medicaid managed care program. Any savings would end up in the general revenue fund, which pays for education, law enforcement and other local services.

Keen was not opposed to an income tax cut.

“Reduced personal income taxes is a goal of the governor and that’s something we’d be willing to consider,” Keen said.

A Policy Matters Ohio analysis of a 7 percent tax cut proposed earlier this year showed middle-class Ohioans would save $42 a year on average. Zach Schiller, research director for the left-leaning think tank, said Medicaid expansion will be good for Ohio but any savings it creates should go to services that have been cut in recent budgets. Schiller said a 4 percent across-the-board income tax cut wouldn’t be noticeable to most Ohioans.

“Because we have a graduated income tax system, a flat across-the-board income tax cut does not mean everybody is sharing equally in it,” Schiller said. “Even if they were, the fact is there are any number of needs that this could and should be put toward from reducing college tuition to supporting our local governments to supporting K-12 education to protecting our elderly from abuse and neglect to any number of important investments Ohio could make.”

The bill is cosponsored by Senate GOP leadership: President Keith Faber of Celina, Tom Patton of Strongsville and Larry Obhof of Medina as well as Scott Oelslager of North Canton, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee.

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