At 2,438 pages and with a combined street value of around $162 billion, Ohio’s 2022-2023 biennium (two-year) Operating Budget will fuel everything from supporting the State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors to helping out public education.
Tucked away in the massive document as well are six pages anchored on behalf of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Within that handful of ledger notations is the setting aside of a little more than $1 billion over the next two fiscal years for the Department.
In spreadsheet wizardry that accountants thrive on, the breakdown for the individual divisions is peppered throughout the six pages. Among the Divisions covered are Wildlife, along with Parks and Watercraft, and also Natural Areas.
The Ohio General Assembly built and then approved the two-year budget in late June and Governor Mike DeWine signed it July 1st.
Ultimately, the bottom line for the Natural Resources Department is, well, welcome, says the agency’s chief financial officer for the agency's internal Office of Budget and Management, Ryan K. Frazee.
“It’s a fantastic budget for the ODNR,” Frazee said. “Our budget didn’t decrease, but actually went up.”
Frazee has the unenviable task of deciphering the official budgetary hieroglyphics and putting the data into understandable language for the Department’s ultimate users along with the media and the public.
“It’s kind of a nerdy thing for what we do here in our office; the budget,” Frazee said with a chuckle.
Specifically, the rows of numbers and scrolls of separate accounts shows that for Fiscal 2022, the Natural Resources Department is earmarked to receive $526,081,196 while for Fiscal 2023, the Department is slated to receive $493,331,100.
In actuality, the Ohio General Assembly was more generous than was DeWine’s initial request, too. The governor originally had asked that the Natural Resources Department get $483,531,196 for Fiscal 2022 with Fiscal 2023’s gubernatorial request matching the General Assembly’s generosity.
“We love it when the legislature gives the ODNR more money,” DeWine told “Ohio Outdoor News” in a short interview.
DeWine added the legislature “recognizes we have more people fishing and going outdoors” and that a lot of the Department’s infrastructure “needs to be fixed up.”
“We’ve had good feelings from the legislature about the ODNR. It’s one area where we all can work together; the outdoors is not a partisan issue, and we have more that needs to be done.”
Broken down by divisions – not necessarily the easiest of tasks since individual divisional line items appear to pop up when least expected – the document shows where the financial goods are being delivered.
For Fiscal 2022 an assembly of all the various related items for the Wildlife Division totals $114,450,329. For the Natural Areas Division that figure is $12,317,024, and for the Parks and Watercraft Division the figure is $137,960,329.
To be sure there are always accounting asterisks when dealing with a budget with the complexity of the one for Ohio’s state government. Perhaps none more so than when dealing with the Parks and Watercraft Division.
At the beginning of each fiscal year, there is a cash transfer from the State Park Fund to the State Park Maintenance Fund to be used for maintenance, repair and renovation projects at state parks, Frazee said, launching into his budgetary tutorial.
“The amount of the transfer is five percent of the average of the previous five years of deposits. The cash transfer for last fiscal year (FY21) was $1,467,658.69,” Frazee said.
Since this amount exceeded the budget provided by the General Assembly, the department went to the Controlling Board and increased the budget on December 14, 2020, Frazee said.
“So I don’t consider this line to be a ‘cut.’ Rather, (by) providing base funding and any adjustments that are necessary would (then) go to the Controlling Board for review and approval,” Frazee said.
The Department is also handling $3 million in insurance claims money designated for the restoration of the Hocking Hills State Park Lodge, destroyed by a fire in 2016, Frazee said.
Similarly, says Frazee, the Natural Areas-Preserve Division budget will assist in helping that division return to flank speed.
Natural Areas and Preserves was liquidated in 2009 under then Ohio Governor Ted Strickland. During the bargain-basement John Kasich Administration the Natural Areas and Preserves Division suffered under the care of the Parks Division, which proved incapable of handling the job.
When DeWine became governor in 2019 he promised to resurrect the NA&P group, beginning by playing catch-up in his first cycle of the two-year Operating Budget. Consequently, starting with Fiscal 2022 the Natural Areas section is again running on all of its cylinders.
Frazee says too the Natural Resources Department is responsible for various personnel activity and logistical support matters. These figures appear in various locations in the budget’s six pages devoted to the agency.
Meanwhile, the Department has set aside $1.5 million to pay The Ohio State University for fisheries research, Frazee says.
The state’s H2Ohio Fund will see an additional $25 million for each of the two fiscal years, a key environmental protection project of DeWine’s and for which Frazee said is “a great program.”
And what many Ohio outdoors enthusiasts will acknowledge with a hearty nod of approval is a single line entry. That journal mention is devoted to the state’s 35,396-acre Appalachian Hills Wildlife Area and adjacent Jesse Owens State Park, formerly known as the Ohio Power Area.
The Ohio General Assembly set aside $28.6 million for Fiscal Year 2022 for the on-going Appalachian Hills project, Frazee says.
“The Legislature thought a one-time budget line item to the Wildlife Fund was the best way to go,” Frazee said. "It’s a tremendous asset for the state.”
To which DeWine noted the former AEP lands continues to remain a priority for the state.
“There are certain things we want to accomplish there, and finishing up what we started was vital,” DeWine said.
Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
JFrischk4@gmail.com
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