Statement from PCFO Executive Director Joe Flarida on Passage of Budget Bill

July 1, 2025

“The United States Senate has voted to pass the budget reconciliation bill. At a time when electricity prices are increasing for Ohioans, leaders in Washington have decided to make the problem worse. Every yes vote on this bill was a vote in favor of higher utility bills. This bill will also cut good union and manufacturing jobs and make our grid less reliable. It will also increase the debt by trillions according to the Congressional Budget Office.

“Restrictions placed on tax credits will be devastating to the financial feasibility of future clean energy projects in Ohio. These are projects that benefit communities by providing budgetary relief to local governments, reducing energy costs for residents, creating jobs, and stimulating long-term investment and economic growth.

​”The budget bill pulls the rug out from both the private and public sector, which have respectively leveraged billions in investments to support rapidly growing industries that will drive economic growth for the next decade. Investment and progress on clean energy projects across the state will halt, if not vanish - unnecessarily spurring the type of wasteful spending the bill’s architects claim to oppose. 

“This is bad policymaking that will directly impact the livelihoods of Ohioans and upend progress that our state has made. This bill sends a clear message: the future of Ohio’s economy, jobs, and communities can be sacrificed for the sake of politics, and our elected officials in Washington have failed all Ohioans.”