The Senate Finance Committee has yet to unveil how they propose to fill the $851 million hole in the current state biennial budget.  After a series of delayed start times yesterday and today, the Finance Committee has abandoned the practice of posting a new time and simply said that it will reconvene “at the will of the Chair.”  A great deal of activity has brought us to this point.  Late last week, additional cuts to behavioral health and other programs were feared when word circulated around the Statehouse that the Senate may propose cuts instead of agreeing to a delay in personal income tax cuts as proposed by the Governor and passed by the House in HB 318.  It appears that intensive lobbying by advocacy groups and press releases from business interests such as the Ohio Business Roundtable encouraging adoption of the delay in income tax cuts may have had an impact on the direction of Senate deliberations.  Today, media outlets reported that Senate Republicans were trying to get support from Senate Democrats for a proposal that would partially delay the personal income tax cuts, incorporate casino licensing fees, add revenues by providing for oil and gas drilling in a state park, and take money from the Housing Trust Fund.  However, Senator Dale Miller (D-Cleveland), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said no deal.  Therefore, the Senate’s proposal to fill the budget hole remains unknown at this point.