02/08/2025

House Bill 96

Status: House hearings are ongoing

Description: CCAO’s top priorities for this budget cycle are bolstering Ohio’s child welfare system, reforming and fully funding the indigent defense system, supporting county jail construction and renovation, continuing the rollout of NG 9-1-1, and increasing access to child care. However, CCAO is monitoring many other areas in the budget to advance county interests. This page is split between the five priority areas and other budget items.

Amendment Request Page

Beginning on February 7, each issue of the Statehouse Report will analyze certain budget areas. This page will be updated each week and will serve as a comprehensive analysis.

Priority Areas

Children Services

Placement Costs: Counties have faced many challenges with rising children services placement costs. Between 2020 and 2024, the number of youth in custody in paid placements decreased by 9%, but the placement costs for these youth rose by 68%. You can read more about placement costs in our previous Issue Spotlight.

HB 96 includes a $25 million increase in the State Child Protection Allocation (SCPA) for FY 2026 and a $30 million increase in FY 2027. These funds go directly to county public children services agencies for placement costs of children in foster care. This investment will help counties meet the challenge of paying appropriate placements.

In addition to funding, CCAO has asked for transparency and stability in placement costs. The budget includes language that authorizes DCY to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) to establish statewide rate cards for placement and care of children eligible for foster care maintenance payments. Providers would report to DCY the rates for various services provided, and counties would then pay those rates when placing youth. CCAO supports this approach to provide transparency and predictability regarding costs.

Crisis Stabilization – Child Wellness Campuses: In certain situations, county children services agencies cannot find an appropriate placement promptly, and a youth in custody will have to spend a night, or several nights, at the county agency. HB 96 includes $20 million in SFY 2026 and $10 million in SFY 2027 to assist communities in establishing regional child wellness campuses. The child wellness campuses would provide assessment and diagnostic services, as well as short-term treatment and care for multi-system youth unable to access timely, appropriate placements. CCAO supports this investment.

Additional Investments: In the introduced version of HB 96, the following investments are flat-funded: multi-system youth funding, the Kinship Permanency Incentive Program, the Kinship Care Navigator Program, children services best practices funding, and family and children first councils.

Benefits for Children in Custody: HB 96 includes new language that requires a PCSA to determine, when a child comes into custody, if the child is eligible for or receives benefits administered by any of the following:

• The Social Security Administration
• The US Department of Veterans Affair
• The Ohio Public Employee Retirement System
• The Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund
• The State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio
• The School Employees Retirement System of Ohio
• The Ohio Highway Patrol Retirement System

If the child is eligible, the PCSA is not permitted to use those benefits to pay for or reimburse itself for any cost of care, including placement costs.

Currently, some PCSAs use these funds to pay for a portion of a child’s placement costs. If PCSAs do not currently have this practice, an administrative change will be required to ensure the statute's requirements are met.

Indigent Defense

The budget includes funding for the Northwest Regional Hub pilot program to administer the indigent defense system in Allen, Hardin, and Putnam counties. This pilot program was a recommendation of two different task forces that studied the indigent defense system in recent years. The pilot program will provide a basis for potential expansion of direct state administration of the system in future budget cycles.

Unfortunately, the budget also provides only a negligible increase to the county reimbursement appropriation items ($800,000 in SFY 2026 and $5.2 million in SFY 2027). The Ohio Public Defender’s estimate for the reimbursement rate for the remainder of the current state fiscal year is 78%. With no change to the reimbursement appropriation, next year’s reimbursement rate will likely decrease.

The agency requested the reimbursement items to total $240 million in SFY 2026 and $252 million in SFY 2027. In its budget request, OPD estimated three scenarios to show the reimbursement rate that would result from potential total system costs. Since OPD provided these estimates, it is fair to say that the agency thinks total system costs at these levels are reasonable estimates. The table below contains these scenarios with both the funding level the agency requested, and the funding provided in the Governor’s proposal.

The Governor’s proposed budget’s lack of funding for indigent defense reimbursement will harm county general funds as they must continue to cover a disproportionate share of a system that is a constitutional requirement of the state. CCAO urges the General Assembly to increase the funding for this purpose to at least the OPD request and will work with Representatives and Senators to stress the need for this funding.

Additionally, the budget includes a cap on reimbursement for county-appointed counsel at $75 an hour for non-capital cases and $140 an hour for capital cases. The language would only allow OPD to reimburse counties up to these amounts, and the county would be responsible for the costs if they elect to pay appointed counsel at a rate above the cap. CCAO will work with the Ohio State Bar Association and other stakeholders to remove that language from the budget as it disproportionally impacts smaller counties that need to raise their appointed counsel rate to attract attorneys to their county.

Finally, the budget contains new language that OPD believes will assist with maintaining a consistent reimbursement rate throughout the fiscal year. The language in HB 96 requires counties to submit an estimated indigent defense budget for the upcoming biennium by July 1, 2026. This information will allow OPD to submit a request for funding to cover projected indigent defense budgets from counties and provide them with an accurate projected cost of the overall system. There is no penalty for an inaccurate estimation or for failing to provide an estimate to OPD by the designated date.

County Jail Construction and Renovation

The Governor's proposal includes $154.9 million over the biennium for county jail projects. These funds come from the excise tax on adult-use marijuana, distributed to several different purposes (see "Adult-Use Marijuana Tax" later on this page). County jail projects will receive 25% of the revenue from the adult-use tax. The funding will be distributed through a Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC) process in a manner similar to most of the prior jail funding rounds. The DRC-led approach enables flexibility for county match rates and is CCAO’s preferred method.

Next Generation 9-1-1

The budget will complete construction of the state system and continue to provide operational funding. 

HB 96 removes language from the previous budget bill that would revert the monthly 9-1-1 access fee from $0.40 per month to $0.25 per month. The removal of this language is a CCAO priority, and we are pleased to see it included in the Governor’s version of the budget.

However, the bill does not contain an increase in the monthly access fee. The fee increase in the previous budget was projected to provide approximately $100 million dollars a year in revenue and it is currently providing around $50 million dollars. CCAO is presently working with members of the House of Representatives to increase the monthly user fee $0.40 per month to $0.70 per month, which is projected to cover the $50 million dollar shortfall.

The $0.70 per month figure is the official recommendation of the 9-1-1 Steering Committee, which Henry County Commissioner Glenn Miller and CCAO Managing Director of Policy Kyle Petty serve on.

Child Care

Eligibility: The budget proposes increasing the eligibility for publicly funded child care from 145% of the FPL to 160% of the FPL. Additionally, the Child Care Choice Voucher program will continue to provide publicly funded child care to families between 161% and 200% FPL. The Child Care Choice Voucher program was implemented last spring following Governor DeWine’s State of the State address.

Federal Requirements: DCY is also implementing several federal child care requirements during this biennium, including:

• Capping parent co-pays at 7%;
• Paying providers by enrollment;
• Paying at the 50th percentile of the 2024 market rate; and
• Allowing families who are homeless to be eligible for publicly funded child care for twelve months.

Other Budget Items

Other budget items are presented either by state agency/department or by subject area, and are presented in alphabetical order, starting with budget provisions that do not pertain to any specific agency or department, followed by the statewide elected offices. If you have any questions about provisions listed below, please contact policy@ccao.org.

General Government Provisions

Suspension of Programs: HB 96 proposes if the federal government reduces, discontinues, pauses, or otherwise suspends any federal program that provides federal funds for any corresponding state program, such program may be reduced, discontinued, paused, or suspended. This would include any contract, agreement, memorandum of understanding, or any other covenant entered into by the state that is dependent on federal funding.

Procurement Law and Public Records: HB 96 includes language that clarifies that all documents related to a competitive selection (including competitive sealed bidding, competitive sealed proposals, reverse auctions, and electronic procurement) are not public records until after the contract has been awarded. It also eliminates a provision that specifies such documents as public records after a competitive selection is cancelled.

Notice of Open Meeting on a Public Body's Website: HB 96 includes a provision that requires a public body to establish a method for announcing all scheduled and special meetings on its website instead of requiring that the method be established by rule. Any advance notification could include electronically mailing the agenda of meetings to all subscribers on an electronic mailing list. The language removes the reference to making an advance notification using self-addressed, stamped envelopes provided by a person requesting an advance notice.

Designation of a Public Records Officer: The budget bill expressly authorizes a public office or person responsible for public records to designate one or more officials or employees to act as its public records officer or officers, and specifies that the public office may require that a person requesting a public record address the request to the designated public records officer or officers. It requires a public office to include the designation of the public records officer or officers and operative contact information for the public records officer or officers in its public records policy, and it also posts this information on any website of the public office.

Attorney General

Law Enforcement Training

The budget includes $35 million in SFY 2026 and $40 million in SFY 2027 for peace officer training. The funding is drawn from the adult-use marijuana tax and may also be used for construction, renovation, or improvement of facilities.

Auditor of State

Audit Costs

The Auditor of State’s budget request proposed that the hourly rate for audits charged to local governments increases from $41 per hour to $42 per hour in SFY 2026 and $43 per hour in SFY 2027. However, according to Auditor of State Keith Faber’s testimony, the agency received less funding than they requested which will necessitate increasing the hourly rate to $50 per hour in SFY 2026 and $56 per hour in SFY 2027.

Auditor Faber estimates it would cost $16 million per year to bring hourly rates to the agency’s proposal.

Secretary of State

Help America Vote Act (HAVA)

The budget largely eliminates funding from the federal HAVA appropriation item. The appropriation item has previously totaled about $5 million per year.

(Note: An earlier edition erroneously indicated that HAVA had been repealed at the federal level. That is not the case, and CCAO apologizes for the confusion)

Treasurer of State

County Recorder Modernization

The budget eliminates funding for county recorder modernization assistance. These funds were intended to be one-time funds to assist county recorders in complying with digitization requirements.

Department of Administrative Services

MARCS

The budget consolidates appropriation items in the Department of Administrative Services’ budget that deal with MARCS. There is not expected to be any change in the level of support for MARCS.

Department of Agriculture

Soil and Water Conservation District

The budget increases funding for soil and water conservation districts by 17% in SFY 2026.

County and Independent Fair Support

The budget does not provide funding for county and independent fairs. Funding has intermittently been provided through budgets, including in SFY 2025 and, before that, SFY 2022.

Department of Behavioral Health

Department Name Change: HB 96 proposes to change the name of the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to the Department of Behavioral Health.

Funding for ADAMH boards: HB 96 proposes changing the funding structure for many funding streams that flow through ADAMH boards. Currently, ADAMH boards receive funding for several programs, each with specific criteria for how the funds will be spent. HB 96 proposes structuring this funding through six block grants designed to provide the boards more flexibility in spending the funds.

The six block grants are Prevention, Crisis Services, Mental Health, Substance Use Disorder, Recovery Supports, and Criminal Justice Services. The funding for these individual block grants is below.

The Director of Behavioral Health shall adopt guidelines on the eligible uses of these block grants and create a uniform reporting structure related to the expenditures, uses, and outcomes of the state block grants described in this section to ensure that thorough and accurate data is reported with a focus on transparency, accountability, process improvement, outcomes, and return on investment.

Prevention State Block Grant: HB 96 funds this grant at $3 million per year. Allowable uses for the Prevention State Block Grant include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Prevention across the lifespan;
2. Suicide prevention across the lifespan;
3. Early intervention;
4. Cross-system collaborative effort to address prevention needs in the community.

Crisis Services State Block Grant: HB 96 funds the Crisis Services and Stabilization line item at $17 million in SFY 2026 and $22 million in SFY 2027. A portion of this will fund the Crisis Services State Block Grant. Allowable uses for the Crisis Services State Block Grant include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Substance use and mental health crisis stabilization centers;
2. Crisis stabilization and crisis prevention services and supports;
3. Cross-systems collaborative efforts to address crisis services needs in the community.

Mental Health State Block Grant: HB 96 funds this grant at $69.5 million per year. Allowable uses for the Mental Health State Block Grant include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Mental health services, including the treatment of indigent mentally ill persons subject to court order in hospitals or inpatient units licensed by the Department of Behavioral Health under R.C. 5119.33;
2. Cross-system collaborative efforts to serve adults with serious mental illness who are involved in multiple human services or criminal justice systems;
3. Other initiatives designed to address mental health needs.

Substance Use Disorder State Block Grant: HB 96 funds this grant at $9.5 million per year. Allowable uses for the Substance Use Disorder State Block Grant include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Initiatives concerning alcohol and drug addiction services;
2. Substance use stabilization centers;
3. Cross-system collaborative efforts to address substance use disorder needs in the community.

Recovery Supports State Block Grant: HB 96 funds this grant at $19.5 million per year. Allowable uses for the Recovery Supports State Block Grant include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Subsidized support for psychotropic and substance use disorder treatment medication needs of indigent citizens in the community to reduce unnecessary hospitalization due to lack of medication;
2. Peer support;
3. Operational expenses and minor facility improvements to class two and class three residential facilities licensed under R.C. 5119.34 and recovery housing residences;
4. Community reintegration supports;
5. Cross-system collaborative efforts to address recovery support needs in the community.

Criminal Justice Services State Block Grant: HB 96 funds this grant at $6.8 million per year. Allowable uses for the Criminal Justice State Block Grant include, but are not limited to, all of the following:

1. Medication-assisted treatment and treatment involving drugs used in withdrawal management or detoxification;
2. Community reintegration supports;
3. Substance use disorder treatment and mental health treatment, including the provision of such treatment as an alternative to incarceration, as well as recovery supports;
4. Forensic monitoring and tracking of individuals on conditional release;
5. Forensic and crisis response training;
6. Projects that assist courts and law enforcement in identifying and developing appropriate alternative services to incarceration for nonviolent offenders with mental illness;
7. The provision of services to incarcerated individuals in jails with a substance use disorder, severe mental illness, or both, including screening and clinically appropriate treatment;
8. Linkages to, and the provision of, substance use disorder treatment, mental health treatment, recovery supports, and specialized re-entry services for incarcerated individuals leaving prisons and jails;
9. The support of specialized dockets, including the expansion of existing medication-assisted treatment drug court programs, the creation of new medication-assisted treatment drug court programs, and assistance with the administrative expenses of participating courts, community addiction services providers, and community mental health services providers;
10. Cross-system collaborative efforts to address the needs of individuals involved in the criminal justice system.

Behavioral Health Drug Reimbursement Program: HB 96 appropriates $5.25 million each fiscal year for this program.

988 Suicide and Crisis Response: HB 96 primarily uses recreational marijuana revenue to fund the operation of the 988 line. The total appropriations to support the operations are $34 million in SFY 2026 and $41 million in SFY 2027.

Department of Children and Youth

Home Visiting: HB 96 includes an additional $7.6 million in SFY 2026 and $29.5 million in SFY 2027 to increase home visiting to more than 25,000 additional children over the biennium. DCY plans to spread and scale the Cradle to Cincinnati model.

Early Intervention: HB 96 includes $7 million in SFY 2026 and $9 million in SFY 2027 to be used by DCY to subgrant or contract with county boards of developmental disabilities to provide early intervention evaluations, assessments, and service coordination. The bill requires boards that accept these funds to maintain the local funding level for early intervention at the same level as the prior fiscal year.

Child Tax Credit: HB 96 creates a refundable child tax credit of up to $1,000 per child under six years old. The credit, funded by an increase in the cigarette excise tax, is intended to aid parents who work or are in education.

Department of Development

Grant Programs

The Department of Development’s budget contains no funding for new grants under the Water and Sewer Quality Development, Brownfield Remediation, or Demolition grant programs. A small amount of money is retained to administer the Brownfield and Demolition programs.

Housing

The budget allocates $100 million in SFY 2026 for a new housing support program, Ohio Housing Investment Opportunity (OHIO) Program. The program will award grants and loans to local governments, or their designees, in rural and border counties. Funds from the program can be used for site acquisition, demolition, remediation, wetland mitigation, or extension/enhancement of sewer, water, gas, and electricity services. Priority will be given to sites designated for housing development that previously received funding from the Brownfield Remediation or Building Demolition grant programs.

The bill does not make clear who local governments may make their designee.

The funding for the program comes from a transfer of unused Expanded Sales Tax Holiday reimbursement dollars.

Broadband

The budget includes $793 million in federal funding for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, a one-time federal award.

The budget also includes $50 million for grants to facilitate projects to replace broadband poles and broadband undergrounding projects.

Cybersecurity

The budget includes $7 million for local government cybersecurity grants in SFY 2026. Details about the grant program will become more available after the introduction of legislative text.

Individual Energy Assistance Programs

The budget shifts administration and operation of five energy assistance programs to the Department of Job and Family Services. The programs transferred are those that are available to individuals or households. Similar programs that are available to commercial entities or community-level entities will remain in the Department of Development. The transition will occur in SFY 2027. The programs are:

• Low Income Energy Assistance
• Utility Community Assistance
• Home Energy Assistance Block Grant
• HEAP Weatherization
• Community Services Block Grant
• Home Weatherization Program

Department of Developmental Disabilities

County Board Waiver Match: The line items for the county boards of developmental disabilities waiver match, which is the county’s nonfederal share of home and community-based services, include a 21% increase. This reflects the increase the department anticipates based on various factors in service delivery.

Multi-system youth: Multi-system youth funding for county boards of developmental disabilities is flat-funded at $5 million per year.

Environmental Protection Agency

Water System Cybersecurity Grants: The budget includes $8 million for water system cybersecurity grants over the biennium. $2 million is available in SFY 2026 and $6 million is available in SFY 2027. Details about the grant program will become more available after the introduction of legislative text.

Solid Waste Fees: HB 96 proposes altering where the $4.75/ton solid waste transfer and disposal fee is allocated. The changes are summarized in the table below.

These changes could result in the boards of health receiving a collective revenue increase of $7.1 million annually.

Administration of Solid Waste and C&DD Fees: HB 96 applies the above $4.75/ton fee to construction and demolition debris (C&DD) transferred or disposed of at a solid waste transfer facility or solid waste disposal facility. Consequently, it eliminates the requirement that these solid waste facilities collect C&DD disposal fees.

The bill also revises the remittance procedures for fees collected on the disposal of C&DD and asbestos or asbestos-containing material at a C&DD facility as follows:

• Allows a board of health and the Ohio EPA Director to enter into an agreement for Ohio EPA to collect C&DD disposal fees on behalf of the board.
  
  
• Requires a municipal corporation, township, or county that appropriates money from C&DD disposal fees to mail a certified copy of the ordinance or resolution providing for the appropriation to the Ohio EPA Director and the applicable board of health, as in current law.

Solid Waste - Community Impact Analysis and Meetings: HB 96 adds a new requirement for a person proposing to open a new solid waste facility or to modify an existing solid waste facility. During the application for the permit to open or modify, the person must submit a community impact analysis that evaluates the impact of the proposed solid waste disposal facility on the local economy and considers mitigation measures to minimize adverse impact on the host community.

The applicant must have a publicly accessible website that includes the application, community impact analysis, and opportunities for public involvement in the process. The Ohio EPA Director may notify the public of the public hearing regarding a solid waste facility permit application or infectious waste treatment facility permit application via newspaper publication or publication on the Ohio EPA website.

Department of Job and Family Services

County JFS administrative dollars: Operations dollars that county JFS agencies receive for public assistance operations are largely flat-funded.

Benefit Bridge: The Benefit Bridge Program continues to be funded in HB 96. In the last operating budget, the legislature included an Employer Benefit Bridge Program, run through the employers rather than JFS agencies. This program is not funded in HB 96.

Transfer of assistance programs: HB 96 proposes transferring five assistance programs from the Ohio Department of Development to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services:

• Home Energy Assistance Program
• Percentage of Income Payment Plan
• Electric Partnership Program
• Home Weatherization Assistance Program
• Community Services Block Grant

The first four eligibility-based programs help Ohioans with energy bills, home weatherization, minor repairs, and energy usage. The Community Services Block Grant program provides federal funding for local Community Action Agencies.

Unemployment: The Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) proposes a technology and customer service fee to support the modernization of the unemployment system technology. This fee will not be assessed on counties as employers. The proposed fee is no more than 0.15% of wages paid per covered employee from each contributory employer and a fee of no more than $13.50 whenever a nonprofit organization, or group of such organizations, that has elected to reimburse the unemployment system files or renews a surety bond required under continuing law.

Department of Health

Health Department Funding: Funds for health department operations are flat-funded.

Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (formerly BCMH): This program's county assessments line item is flat-funded at $24 million per year.

Lead Abatement: The Ohio Department of Health's lead abatement funding decreased by 6% in HB 96 to just over $7 million each fiscal year. The Lead-Safe Home Fund Program is flat-funded at $1 million per year.

Department of Medicaid

Multi-System Youth Custody Relinquishment: Funding through the Department of Medicaid (ODM) for these purposes decreased by $7.5 million each year of the biennium.

Medicaid Expansion: The budget includes a provision that requires ODM to immediately discontinue medical assistance for the Medicaid expansion population if the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) for that group is set below 90%.

Work Requirements: The last state operating budget required ODM to submit a waiver to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services for a work requirement for the expansion population. HB 96 includes language allowing ODM to transfer money to counties via JFS to implement a work requirement if one is established. Counties would submit allowable expenses, and ODM would make rules around these dollars.

Department of Public Safety

Drug Task Forces

The budget includes $12.5 million in SFY 2026 and $18.5 million in SFY 2027 for drug task forces. The funding comes from the adult-use marijuana tax.

Peace Officer Training

The budget includes $40.0 million in SFY 2026 and $59.2 million in SFY 2027 for peace officer training. The funding comes from the adult-use marijuana tax.

Department of Taxation

Local Government Fund

The budget increases the share of state General Revenue Fund tax revenue that is distributed through the Local Government Fund from 1.70% to 1.75%. The Blue Book estimates the LGF will total $531.7 million in SFY 2026 and $549.1 million in SFY 2027.

Sales Tax Holiday

We reported that the Governor’s budget proposal eliminated the Expanded Sales Tax Holiday. This was based on a quote from the Governor’s press conference announcing the budget. After reviewing the bill language, however, the Expanded Sales Tax Holiday is not repealed. We apologize for the confusion.

Sales Tax, General

The bill does not include any new sales tax exemptions.

Income Tax

The bill does not include any changes to the state’s income tax brackets.

Adult-Use Marijuana Tax

The budget proposal dedicates 25% of the revenue from the adult-use excise tax to county jails. While this is slightly less than the share proposed by HB 86 of the 135th General Assembly, it is not subject to a cap, and it does not prescribe the use of a funding formula. Other county-related programs that receive funding from the tax structure include peace office training, substance abuse programs, and drug task forces. The full distribution table is below.

Department of Youth Services

RECLAIM Ohio

The budget provides an 11.3% increase in funding for RECLAIM Ohio in SFY 2026.