“Since taking office, my administration has worked each day to help ensure that every Ohioan has the tools to live up to their full potential and the opportunity to live their version of the American dream,” said DeWine. “For the truth is, we cannot achieve our full potential as a state unless each Ohioan first achieves theirs.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Democrats, despite finding themselves in agreement with much of DeWine’s rhetoric — sometimes more than their Republican peers — told reporters that the governor’s speech did little to address large-scale challenges Ohioans are facing.
“One in five Ohio children are also food insecure and our food banks are experiencing record-high demand,” Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, told reporters after the address. “You didn’t hear the governor talk about food insecurity because his budget actually cuts the food bank funding by 23%.”
Economic development
At the top, DeWine credited the Republican-dominated legislature with creating an environment that has allowed the state to add 81,000 private sector jobs and attract economic projects that promise to bring thousands more.
Those forthcoming jobs include Joby Aviation’s new Dayton site, where the manufacturer of electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles expects to assemble up to 500 aircraft each year.
“Soon in the Miami Valley sky, we will see air taxis actually flying in the air, made by the 2,000 employees at Joby Aviation,” DeWine said, taking the crowd on a verbal tour of the top economic development projects across the state.
In central Ohio, DeWine lauded the much-delayed-but-still-promised Intel manufacturing plant and the forthcoming manufacturing park for Anduril Industries, which promises 4,000 jobs connected to the production of weaponized drones.
DeWine also lauded the state for cutting income taxes to the lowest rates in 50 years and significantly slashing regulatory code, which he said have helped move the state from a middling state in terms of business-friendliness to a regional leader.
Workforce challenges
DeWine said developing Ohio’s workforce to supply those jobs is the state’s next hurdle and “and our most significant challenge.”
The DeWine administration has attempted to tackle workforce development through early education interventions; supporting career technical schools; and expanding access to child care to allow parents to reenter the workforce and other ventures. But on Wednesday, the governor provided new insights into how he intends to expand upon his administration’s prior work.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
He encouraged businesses to be more willing to employ overlooked populations, including the 18,000 Ohioans who are released by the state’s correctional facilities every year; retirees and senior citizens; Ohioans struggling with addiction or mental health issues; youth in state custody; and Ohioans with disabilities.
“I say to the employers in Ohio: Give them a chance. Help them find the dignity, purpose, and hope that comes with a job,” DeWine said of Ohioans with criminal records.
DeWine also called on his newly-minted Lieutenant Governor Jim Tressel to take the reins on a new program that will assess regional workforce needs in Ohio and coordinate with universities, career-tech schools and local businesses to “(meet) the specific needs of each region of Ohio.”
Budget requests
As is usual in odd-numbered years, DeWine used the state of the state as an opportunity to urge lawmakers to support some legislative proposals he put forth in his proposed operating budget, which is currently being vetted and amended by the Ohio General Assembly.
Two of DeWine’s biggest asks would be funded through significant hikes in “sin” taxes.
His proposal to give Ohio families a $1,000 tax credit for every child they have under seven years old would be paid for by nearly doubling the tax on cigarettes.
DeWine said such a credit is needed today, more than ever, to alleviate Ohioans’ financial constraint. He’s found theoretical support from Democrats and Republicans, but both sides are wary of funding the program through a tax that is inherently meant to dissuade a certain behavior and thereby decreasing its revenues.
“That’s not an indication, necessarily, on where we come down on the child tax credit,” Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, told reporters. “We certainly want to have pro-family policies that are going to make it easier for people to raise a family.”
The governor also wants to double sports betting taxes and use the new revenue to create a standalone fund to support the construction and renovation of pro sports facilities while also helping Ohio students overcome prohibitive costs of extracurricular activities.
DeWine sees it as a way to stop using the state’s general funds — which could go toward education but are often diverted towards projects like Dayton Dragons' stadium renovations — on construction projects, while also keeping students engaged with constructive activities.
But what DeWine sees as a “win-win” hasn’t been overtly supported by either party in the legislature and received a lukewarm response from lawmakers Wednesday afternoon.
Finally, DeWine called on the legislature to support a raft of policies included in his budget, like his initiative to help an estimated 33,000 children receive eyecare; to start a pilot program to help kids get dental care; to expand the amount of school-based clinics; to fully ban phones in schools; to get schools to begin offering drivers education and career-planning courses; and more.
Response
The Democratic party, which holds a super minority in both chambers, held a press conference after the speech to respond. They were more focused on what DeWine didn’t say in his address.
“Many of the policies that (DeWine) talked about are things that we do champion, have championed in the past, and join him in supporting going forward,” Antonio told reporters. “At the same time, we also did not hear some things. We did not hear, certainly, the discussion or acknowledgment of the fact that many Ohioans are in crisis.”
Antonio and House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, noted that the state budget includes no provisions to help Ohioans with skyrocketing property taxes, nor does it address Ohio’s well-documented housing shortage.
The two derided DeWine’s budget plan for using older data in its state school funding plan, and therefore not accounting for recent inflation, which would result in the loss of $103 million in state funding toward public schools.
Democrats also criticized DeWine for not going far enough in his quest to provide child care vouchers while arranging $2.4 billion for the state’s universal private school voucher program.
“The real state of the state is that our communities are suffering,” said state Rep. Desiree Tims, D-Dayton. “The ‘thriving’ that Ohio Governor DeWine speaks of is limited to a privileged few. The best measure of progress is how we treat our poor and the reality is, the most vulnerable communities don’t feel a thriving Ohio. Further, the MAGA Republican party is gutting any glimmer of economic opportunity while the Ohioans in charge remain silent.”
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
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