Funding Priorities

VietVet,
       In another blog I told you I would try to get an answer from Representative Tim Derickson's office on how they obtain funds for verious projects and what criteria they use for prioritizing funds to a project. I believe Tim Derickson is totally sincere and does his best for his district. I'm sorry I took so long. Here is the answer I got from his office:

Paul, 

I apologize for not sending this sooner. It has been a hectic week with the MBR budget. 

Please see this fact sheet from the Office of Budget and Management on the bill: http://www.media.obm.ohio.gov/obm/budget/documents/capital/fy-15-16/CapitalBudget_FactSheet.pdf 

Here is how the capital appropriations bill priorities were determined on our end:

Entities seeking funding came to our office with their requests. We put together a packet of the requests and advocated for the ones that fell within our district. Representative Derickson did his absolute best in securing funding for projects in the 53^rd District by speaking directly to the Finance Chairman and convincing him that the projects made sense economically and fiscally. While he fought hard for each and every project, ultimately funding was not secured for 100% of them (but it was pretty close).

Rep. Derickson was praised for his efforts locally here: http://www.journal-news.com/news/news/local/state-rep-brings-capital-funding-home-to-butler-co/nfGBm/

Hope this helps!

Spencer C. Gross

Legislative Aide

Representative Tim Derickson | District 53

Ohio House of Representatives

spencer.gross@ohiohouse.gov

(614) 644-5094

Also, I thought that this was interesting on the Governor's perspective on prioritizing projects to fund. This came from his speech here in Butler County on March 21st.:

Gov. John Kasich said the key to turning a potential $8 billion deficit into a $1.5 billion surplus is that “nobody gets a deal.”

Kasich was the keynote speaker Friday night at the Oscar Event Center in Fairfield for the Butler County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner, the party’s largest fundraiser. He said a key to balancing the state’s budget and working toward a surplus is to not cut anybody breaks.

“You can’t do it that way,” said the Republican governor who is up for re-election this November. “When you go about setting priorities — and it’s the same way you go about setting priorities with your family — what do we really need, what would we like to have, and what is it we don’t need. You have to make those decisions and you have to figure out a better way to carry on your life with a limited number of resources, and that’s exactly what we did.”

Kasich said his administration has worked to turn the deficit the state faced into a $1.5 billion budget surplus.

Paul Nagy