The Ohio House has approved more than $61 billion in state General Revenue Fund spending over the next two fiscal years.
However, taxpayer funding for Ohio’s public libraries has become a flashpoint. Critics have charged that the spending plan reduces public library funding by $100 million over two years, a number that has spread like wildfire across social media.
However, a deeper look at historic funding levels shows that the budget changes are not as straightforward as they imply.
Critics and Democrats say the House budget included in House Bill 96 slashes the amount of taxpayer money going to libraries. Instead of a variable funding level, the budget sets the public library funding at a level set by the state’s GRF, Ohio’s primary operating fund.
“Every library is going to get more money than they did [in] 2025,” Statehouse News Bureau quoted House Finance Chair Brian Stewart, R-Ashville.
An analysis shows the House-approved budget aligns the library allocations with the pre-pandemic trajectory.
The House-approved budget allocates $490 million for the “Public Library Fund” in fiscal 2026 and $500 million in fiscal 2027. According to an Ohio.news analysis, the fiscal 2026 proposal is about 24.7% higher than the Public Library Fund’s fiscal 2020 allocation.
The levels are $90.8 million lower than Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s two-year executive budget, which included $531.7 million for the Public Library Fund in fiscal 2026, a 0.3% increase from fiscal 2025, and $549.1 million in fiscal 2027, a 3.3% increase from the proposed fiscal 2026 spending level.
However, DeWine’s executive budget is merely a blueprint, not codified spending levels.
According to DeWine’s executive budget released earlier this year, the Public Library Fund distributed $489.3 million in fiscal 2024. The budget is estimated to be $530 million in fiscal 2025, a roughly 8.3% increase over fiscal 2024.
However, previous budget documents from DeWine’s office show that Public Library Fund allocations were nearly $393.1 million in fiscal 2020, nearly $452.1 million in fiscal 2021, and more than $489.8 million in fiscal 2022. Public Library Fund allocations increase 15% from fiscal 2020 to 2021 and 8.4% from 2021 to 2022.
Additionally, the number of registered borrowers has declined in recent years and remains roughly the same as it was in 2000.
State Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery, took umbrage with assertions that Ohio Republicans were reducing funding for Ohio’s libraries.
“Ohio’s Libraries are literally the most well-funded in the nation,” he said in a Facebook post. “We believe that Ohio’s public libraries serve a vital function in our communities which is why our budget INCREASES funding to nearly a BILLION DOLLARS over the next bienium. This is an increase of more than 20% over 2020.”
Aside from funding, the measure also mandates libraries to keep materials related to sexual orientation or gender identity out of view of minors.
In a release, Stewart touted the House-passed budget as paving “the way for the largest property tax relief effort in state history, while increasing funding for every public school district in Ohio, and making necessary reforms to government from top to bottom.”
Unsurprisingly, Ohio Democrats derided the spending measure.
“Rather than provide real and meaningful support to all of Ohio’s citizens, House Republicans have chosen a fiscally irresponsible state operating budget that puts politics over people and which will cost Ohioans dearly. People deserve better,” Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, said in a release.
“This budget and its Republican architects fail the people of Ohio and the idea of the American Dream,” Russo added. “House Democrats will continue to stand with those fighting for public school funding, Medicaid, genuine property tax relief, our cherished public libraries, and for programs that will ensure better outcomes in life from babies to the elderly because we believe in putting people first.”
