Both Statehouse Chambers are “waiting in anticipation” for the unveiling of Gov. John Kasich’s new biennial budget today, according to State Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Clearcreek Twp.

“The budget is the governor’s prerogative. I understand that the governor wants to have a clean shot before we start pulling it apart which is inevitably what happens,” said Jones, who’s district now includes the 4th Ward and part of the 2nd Ward in Middletown. “The governor has kept his now second budget very much like he did the first budget — close to the vest. We’ll know all the gory details come Feb. 4.”

Jones addressed a small crowd of Middletown residents, and those with an interest in the city, at a meet and greet last week at Cincinnati State Middletown.

Kasich’s first state budget forced township, municipal and county governments to cut a significant portion of the budget because local government funds were cut by half over the last two years, in addition to the elimination of the estate and tangible personal property taxes. Middletown lost a couple million because of those cuts.

Jones addressed some of the things she anticipates will be discussed at the Statehouse, including tax reform, a new schools funding formula and how the Ohio Turnpike — a limited-access toll highway that connects Indiana to Pennsylvania — will affect the southern part of the state.

“The governor is looking to leverage those resources in the toll collections above and beyond maintaining the asset itself, being able to leverage those dollars through bonding to do infrastructure projects around the turnpike area,” Jones said. “Then he further said that would free up resources that would ordinarily be spent in the northern part of the state … for the southern part of the state here. The devil’s going to be in the details and there’s going to be many many details that were going to have to work out.”

Jones said a topic that won’t get much press will be the new funding formula for higher education, which is being discussed among community college, college and university presidents.

“For the first time for a very long time, instead of focusing on how many kids were enrolling the focus is shifting on how many kids are completing,” Jones said. “That’s the kind of work we can no longer afford to pay people for enrolling. We need to be paying our institutions on a good completion.”

Enrollment and partnership

Cincinnati State Middletown now has about 600 online and in-class students, with more than 350 students taking classes at the Middletown campus at 1 N. Main St. The school’s presence has not affected enrollment at its main campus in Clifton. In fact the school’s enrollment has been flat.

The school switched at the start of the school year to a semesters format and of the 17 Ohio colleges and universities that made the switch, only Cincinnati State and Ohio University had not seen a drop in enrollment, according to the Ohio Board of Regents.

With Cincinnati State, Middletown now has two higher education options, and Cincinnati State President Dr. O’dell Owens plans to work with Miami University Middletown. He told Monday evening’s crowd that a question he often receives is about the community college’s relationship with Miami University Middletown.

“We think there’s a lot of things we can do together,” he said. “Yes, there will be some overlap, but at the end of the day both of these institutions are going be better institutions because we are going to work together.”