House approves $131.6B budget plan Senate expected to make major changes

Copies of the 3,215-page budget bill passed by the Ohio House of Representatives on Wednesday sit on a table in the House chamber.

(Jeremy Pelzer, Northeast Ohio Media Group)

Budget tensions are brewing in Columbus. Hillary Clinton adds a staffer in Ohio. Sherrod Brown gets called out. Read on in today's Ohio Politics Roundup.

Budget advances: "The Ohio House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a two-year, $131.6 billion budget plan that would reduce the state's top income tax rate to its lowest level in more than three decades," writes Jeremy Pelzer of the Northeast Ohio Media Group. "The legislation, approved by a 63-36 vote, would -- if passed -- be the largest state budget in Ohio history, according to the Office of Budget and Management."

House Republicans gutted the budget Gov. John Kasich sent to them, but they left in place money for Medicaid expansion, which some conservative members had been hoping to end. The Senate will now work on its version, likely from scratch.

Kasich fumes: "Their spending increases and rosy budget projections threaten the progress Ohio has made in the past four years, and the rejection of tax reform is a missed opportunity that, if allowed to remain, would erode our improving economic climate," Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said in a statement to Pelzer and other reporters. "After the fiscal crisis subsides, people think it's okay to slip back to old habits. The governor will do everything possible to prevent that from happening."

Three House Democrats voted for the budget: Per Pelzer, new Rep. Martin J. Sweeney aligned with fellow Cleveland Democrats John Barnes and Bill Patmon to support the Republican budget. Barnes and Patmon have sided with the GOP on big issues for a while now. As for Sweeney, his move may have been foreshadowed last year, when as a Cleveland councilman he publicly honored the Ohio Republican Party chairman.

Also approved by the House Wednesday: Legislation that would move Ohio's 2016 presidential primary back a week, from March 8 to March 15.

Hillary Clinton's man in Ohio: The Democratic presidential contender is building a grassroots operation in all 50 states, Amanda Terkel reports for the Huffington Post.

Already on the ground in Ohio, according to a Clinton campaign official, is Jay Plant. The Wooster native worked on President Barack Obama's campaigns, in the Obama administration and for 270 Strategies, a consulting firm run by ex-Obama advisers.

Throwback Thursday: A 2008 feature on Plant from his hometown Daily Record.

Has Kasich's 2016 toe-dipping become a distraction? "John Kasich has been a traveling governor in the months since his resounding re-election and the start of his second term," NEOMG Columbus Bureau Chief Robert Higgs writes.

"This year Kasich has been to nearly a dozen other states and to Washington, D.C., lobbying for a balanced budget amendment, addressing Republican gatherings and acknowledging he might run for president in 2016. His travels, though, have critics saying he should spend more time governing in Ohio. Others question whether he is focused on his job, particularly at a time when he needs to fight for his budget plan, which his fellow Republicans in the legislature have begun to dismantle.

"The administration insists he can do both."

Getting the band back together: Bob Walker, who served with Kasich in Congress and chaired Newt Gingrich's 2012 presidential campaign, is advising the Ohio governor as he explores a 2016 bid. Walker, whose involvement was first reported by Robert Costa of the Washington Post, is at least the second pal from Kasich's congressional days to sign on with the campaign-in-waiting. John E. Sununu of New Hampshire is a director of New Day for America, the national committee raising money for Kasich's expenses.

Kasich plans big push in the first primary state: "The beauty of New Hampshire is that people want to get to know you," he said Wednesday in an interview with Paul Steinhauser of NH1. "Just because you have a name doesn't mean you'll do well. And if you don't have a name it doesn't mean you can't do well. It's a place where you can tell people what you think, and I just think it's ideal. That's what makes New Hampshire special. The ability to kind of get launched."

Programming note: Kasich is in Washington today and Friday for speeches on budget policy and the economy. He is also scheduled to attend this weekend's White House Correspondents' Dinner as a guest of the Wall Street Journal.

Rob Portman heads to Las Vegas: Ohio's Republican U.S. senator will speak Saturday at a Republican Jewish Coalition conference - a coveted invitation for politicians looking to make nice with GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson and his allies.

Julie Bykowicz of Bloomberg Politics offers this tidbit to Portman, who faces a tough re-election fight next year, and the others: "Exactly half of the 36 candidates the 81-year-old Adelson and his wife, Miriam, supported during 2012 and 2014 -- either through direct contributions or donations to super-PACs dedicated to individual candidates -- lost their races, data from the Federal Election Commission show."

Four 'Pinocchios' for Sherrod Brown: Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post's fact-checker, looked into words about trade that Ohio's Democratic U.S. senator attributes to former President George H.W. Bush. Spoiler alert -- "In our research," Kessler writes, "we found no evidence that Bush had ever made this remark."

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