State Representative Mark Romanchuk was the guest speaker at Ontario Growth Association’s monthly meeting on Thursday morning. He described how resolving state budget issues has allowed the state to cut taxes and increase school funding.
Also during the meeting, President of the OGA David Yaney provided updates on upcoming events and Mark Weidemyre with the City of Ontario described growth in Ontario.
Romanchuk praised the work Ontario has accomplished. “I think there are a lot of good things going on here in Ontario and you should be very proud of everything that is going on because I know I am. Keep up the good work and let’s keep moving the city and the area forward,” said Romanchuk.
Romanchuk gave a recap of what has been happening over the past nine months since he has taken the role of State Representative.
“First, I think it is important to remember where the state was three or four years ago. The state was in very bad shape fiscally. We had a huge budget deficit of around $8 billion. In addition to the budget deficit, there was only 89 cents in the rainy day budget. So the state had 89 cents in its savings account. Fast forward to today and we have closed the budget gap without raising taxes and there is $1.5 billion in that rainy day fund. The state is in much better shape than it has been in a long time,” said Romanchuk.
“The state is in such good shape in this budget cycle that we cut taxes by $2.7 billion. Half of that tax cut went to individuals. So you will be seeing about a 10 percent income tax reduction and there will be about a 50 percent tax cut for small businesses. If you’re an LLC or a partnership, you will see a 50 percent tax cut on your state taxes. I think that’s good and I hope that money gets reinvested back into the companies and into our communities. Hopefully this will create more jobs,” said Romanchuk.
Along with businesses, Romanchuk made note of schools in Ohio. “We added $700 million to the total of school funding here in the state of Ohio. $11.4 million of that is coming to Richland County and all of the school districts in Richland County got an increase,” said Romanchuck.
“We changed the higher education form a little bit. In the past, colleges and universities were paid based on their admission. They were paid and graded by how many people they got in the door. We have changed that to where 50 percent of their payments will be based on graduation rates, certificates, and course completion. It is all about the output and getting something out into the market place,” said Romanchuk.
President of the OGA David Yaney made note of the annual Christmas tree lighting. And Weidemyre added that the lighting would be on Tuesday, Dec. 3. “Santa will be available and it should start around 6. We will probably bring Santa out around 6:30 p.m. but that could be later,” said Weidemyre.
Yaney also gave results from the Fall Festival. “We were able to do everything with no cost this year this thanks to the Richland Mall and Fireside Homes, as well as the table sponsors. We had a great turnout of about 350-400 kids and we were happy with the results,” said Yaney.
Weidemyre gave an update on the Ontario Growth Cooperation. “We are continuing to work on the Industrial Park and it is going well. Avita has purchased the former Lazarus building and there’s a possibility we may get another hotel in town. Things are booming out here right now and it is the biggest surge of growth I have seen in quite some time,” said Weidemyre.
“Fast forward to today and we have closed the budget gap without raising taxes and there is $1.5 billion in that rainy day fund. The state is in much better shape than it has been in a long time,” said State Rep. Mark Romanchuk.
