Ohio Dems argue lawmakers need to do more for Ohioans ahead of State of the State

Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, left, and Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, right. (Photo by Nick Evans, Ohio Capital Journal.)

Ahead of Wednesday’s State of the State address, Ohio’s Democratic leaders argued much of what’s going right in Ohio comes thanks to the Biden administration. Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio joked there should be a drinking game for how many times Gov. Mike DeWine mentions the Intel facility being built outside New Albany.

“Thanks to the Biden administration,” she insisted, “not only was it initially funded by the federal government, but we have some additional funds that are going to be coming to really supercharge that program.”

Highlighting the cost of child care and property taxes, House Minority Leader Allison Russo argued, “The economic picture does not look so rosy on the ground, but I suspect that’s what we’ll hear from the governor.”

The governor will deliver his address at noon on Wednesday April 10. The speech will be broadcast and livestreamed on The Ohio Channel .

What a difference a year makes

In February last year, DeWine touted investments from Intel, as well as Ford, GM and Honda. He argued Ohio was “on the move” but numerous sites around the state need to be developed to attract investors. He asked lawmakers for $2.5 billion to help prepare sites around the state.

DeWine also put substantial emphasis on education. He called for a statewide “science of reading” push, aimed at updating curriculum to emphasize approaches like phonics. He also proposed a dramatic increase in private school voucher scholarships. Instead of setting eligibility threshold at 250% of the federal poverty line, DeWine proposed 400%. He also proposed a $5,000 annual scholarship for top performing Ohio high schoolers who choose to go to Ohio universities.

Also nice for parents, DeWine suggested a $2,500 tax break per kid and the elimination of sales tax for baby products like diapers.

A year later, you win some you lose some .

State lawmakers agreed to DeWine’s site development fund but it got a substantial haircut. Instead of $2.5 billion, he got $667 million. Meanwhile, the Intel rollout has been a tad bumpy .

The private school voucher program went in the other direction. Instead of extending the threshold to 400%, lawmakers pushed it to 450% and then devised a system for handing out reduced scholarships for families making even more than that. So far education officials have handed out more than 87,000 scholarships .

The governor got his merit scholarship, and a little more than $100 million for the science of reading rollout. Less than he wanted, but schools around Ohio will need to have an approved curriculum in place next year. So far, a third are in compliance .

The state budget eliminated taxes on baby products, but the parental tax credit didn’t go anywhere.

Dems’ prebuttal

Russo and Antonio said they know “the real state of the state.” Antonio turned around DeWine’s “on the move” description from last year.

“You know who else is on the move? Young people,” Antonio said. “They’re on the move out of the state of Ohio, sadly.”

She argued they’re an important long-term resource for the state and lawmakers should make it a priority to avoid “exporting young people” out of Ohio.

In a similar vein, she argued a recent bid to roll back Ohio’s Step Up to Quality child care rating system amounts to mismanaging state resources.

“These young children are our most precious Ohio commodity, if you will,” she said. “It boggles my mind that we would want to do anything less than the absolute best.”

Although masks and lockdowns are behind us, Russo argued COVID recovery funding could still do a lot to improve services around the state. Lawmakers just haven’t agreed on how to spend the money.

“Without a doubt Ohio has tremendous opportunity in how we invest many of these dollars to really do some very transformative things,” she argued. “The problem is, and the reality is, there are still a lot of unallocated funds that have come down from the feds.”

According to The Ohio Checkbook , federal authorities have awarded $31.2 billion in Ohio, but those dollars won’t last forever. So far, the state has spent about $24.3 billion. Ohio got funding from several sources, and one of them, The American Rescue Plan has a deadline of Dec. 31, 2024 for appropriating funds. Authorities have to actually spend the money by the end of 2026.

“Talking to people on the ground,” Russo said, “for example, our food banks, our housing authorities, the childcare providers, all of these things that we could be doing, in very transformative ways, to address very real issues that the citizens are facing, are just simply not happening.”

Follow OCJ Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.

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