Most Ohioans have felt the financial strain as the COVID-19 pandemic has taken its deadly toll on our nation.

Despite a couple of federal stimulus efforts, the struggle grinds on.

State government has been affected, too, and Gov. Mike DeWine responded properly last week when he ordered $390 million in across-the-board cuts for the rest of the fiscal year.

The new budget year does not start until July 1.

Those budget adjustments are not as steep as the cuts sought in June, when DeWine slashed $775 million from appropriations as a result of lost revenue.

The good news, then, is that it means $160 million that had been withheld from the Department of Education and Department of Higher Education can now be provided to help improve learning across the board.

Many Buckeye State residents have had to adjust — and then readjust — their own budgets as the pandemic wore on.

For most Buckeye State residents, there is very little — or perhaps absolutely no — wiggle room for frivolous or wasteful spending.

The same simply must be true for the bureaucrats in Columbus.

Of course we have seen enough of how King Bureaucracy operates to know there is still waste and redundancy that could be eliminated.

That $390 million should be just a starting point in the quest to save taxpayer dollars that must be stretched to get us through this.