State Rep. Sean Brennan, a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, told Parma City Council members and staff on June 16 that competing House and Senate versions of the 2026–27 state operating budget contain measures that would reduce state revenue and shift costs to local governments.

Brennan said the Senate plan includes a new flat income tax and other changes that he estimates would reduce state receipts by about $1.4 billion in the biennium and, as a result, lower the amounts available for the Local Government Fund and other state-shared programs that Parma depends on.

The detail matters locally: Brian Day, fiscal officer for the city of Parma, told the council during the same meeting that the city’s unvoted inside millage currently generates roughly $7.9 million for city operations and police/fire pension contributions. “That would be a drastic financial hit to this city,” an official said during the exchange about House Bill 335 and related proposals.

Why it matters: Brennan said reductions to the Local Government Fund and to other state-shared accounts would force cities either to raise other local revenues or to cut services. He also criticized a Senate change that would switch the Public Library Fund to a fixed-dollar appropriation rather than a guaranteed share of the General Revenue Fund, saying that would expose libraries to future cuts. “If there’s one levy almost everybody supports, it’s the libraries,” he said.

Brennan also flagged provisions in the budget that would do the following if retained: raise the signature threshold for municipal referenda from 10% to 35% of registered voters; require political-activity restrictions on municipal communications similar to those applied to some school districts; and permit public agencies to charge for preparing video public records (with victims exempted from fees in many cases).

Council members and city administrators pressed Brennan for specifics about the proposals he opposed. Brennan described the flat-tax proposal as “a $1,400,000,000 giveaway to the very wealthy at the expense of the local government fund, at the expense of our first responders, our police and firefighters.” He and local officials said one legislative proposal being circulated (referred to in the meeting as House Bill 335) would remove the 10-mill “inside” floor and immediately reduce revenue both for Parma and for Parma City Schools by millions of dollars.

What the city is doing: Officials said they and statewide municipal groups — including the Ohio Municipal League and other local-government associations — have sent letters of opposition to legislative leaders and the governor. Brennan said he planned a press conference the morning after the Parma meeting to oppose the inside-millage elimination and to push for targeted, state-funded property-tax relief rather than broad, flat tax cuts.

Council members asked for continued updates and said the city will monitor both the conference committee process (where House and Senate negotiators meet) and any last-minute budget language that might be inserted into the biennial budget.

Ending note: Brennan said the conference committee would convene within days to reconcile House and Senate versions; any final, identical bill returned to both chambers would then go to the governor for signature, veto, or line-item veto.