A lot like the state operating budget, the capital budget is passed every 2 years, in the second year of the General Assembly. The capital budget is legislation where the State of Ohio appropriates resources to state owned infrastructure as well as other government purpose projects called community projects. Community projects make up only a small amount of the on-average $2 billion capital budget, but these appropriations generate the biggest focus from the legislature. The Ohio capital budget bill funds “community projects” that are arts, cultural, historical, theater, sports stadiums, workforce, technology, fiber rings, parks, swimming pools, R&D, museums, sculptures, zoos, community centers, trails, presidential centers and other local projects with grants ranging from $100,000 to over $5,000,000 for projects that are “capital in nature.”
As the table above illustrates, parks projects lead the list of Community Projects approved in the last state of Ohio Capital Budget.
Engaging a registered lobbyist lends professional guidance and increases the likelihood of success for many matters before the local, state and federal government. State of Ohio capital budget community project requests clearly benefit from the help of registered lobbyist who are familiar with what projects qualify for the capital budget as well as bringing established relationships with state government officials that all help gain additional funding for capital budget community projects. In fact, Montrose Group’s review of the last state of Ohio capital budget identifies that 71 Community Projects benefited from registered state of Ohio lobbyist support gaining $57 M in funding.
Montrose Group has successful lobbied on state of Ohio Capital Budgets since 1995 and advocated successfully for over $100 M in capital budget funding. Contact Dave Robinson at [email protected] or Tim Biggam at [email protected] if you have questions about gaining funding from the state of Ohio capital budget or other lobbying needs.