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Author: Ohio Capital Journal

Despite claims of transparency, JobsOhio pay disclosure raises questions
By: Marty Schladen – Ohio Capital Journal
Ohio’s “private” economic development corporation boasts that even though it’s legally private, it practices the “highest standards of accountability and transparency…” But when it comes to how much the agency pays its employees in what used to be public dollars, its disclosures are far from complete.

It doesn’t name the employees receiving salaries as the Ohio Checkbook does for all state employees. Instead, it uses vague and redundant job titles only. It doesn’t distinguish between full and part-year employees. And it refused to provide the information on a searchable spreadsheet, although it maintains it on one.

Created in 2011, JobsOhio has been controversial from the start. It’s exempt from open records law and its website proclaims it engages in “complete public reporting of how it spends private dollars.”

But it’s a corporation that was set up by the state legislature and it was allowed to make the only bid to run the state liquor franchise while paying the state far less than it’s worth.

The “private dollars” it spends all used to go into the state treasury. And JobsOhio “complete public reporting” doesn’t lay out the contracts for more than $1 billion in incentives it’s given to businesses, what was promised, or whether the beneficiaries kept those promises.

The agency has also stirred controversy by providing financial benefits to businesses run by people with connections to the agency.

And most concerning, perhaps, is that while it claims many wins, JobsOhio hasn’t provided hard evidence that it’s not paying businesses to do what they would have anyway. JobsOhio has been up and running for a dozen years, yet Ohio lags its neighbors and the nation as a whole in job growth.

Despite that, the Ohio Controlling Board last month extended the agency’s liquor franchise another 15 years — to 2053 — without requiring it to pay taxpayers anything in addition to the $1.41 billion it paid for its initial 25-year franchise. It’s not as if the state doesn’t need the money. House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, says Ohio can’t afford to fund its public schools — an economic development priority if ever there was one.

When it comes to how much JobsOhio pays its own employees, its transparency also leaves room for improvement.

Asked last month for a listing of compensation, a JobsOhio spokesman said an open-records request would have to be filed with the Ohio Department of Development. The department responded 19 days after a request with a PDF table listing 2023 salaries for 159 positions.

When asked why employee names weren’t listed alongside the positions and why the data weren’t on a spreadsheet so it could be more easily analyzed, a spokesman for the Department of Development referred those questions to JobsOhio, which created the document that the public has to obtain from a state agency at taxpayer expense.

The JobsOhio salaries range from less than $10,000 for interns to $709,000 for President and CEO J.P. Nauseef. But the table didn’t give his name, and it only refers to him as “President and Chief Investment Officer.

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Asked about the discrepancy, JobsOhio spokesman Matt Englehart said “J.P. Nauseef’s official title is still President and Chief Investment Officer, but the JobsOhio Board of Directors permits the President and Chief Investment Officer to also use the ‘CEO’ title.”

The other job titles listed in the PDF table are so vague as to be meaningless.

“Senior” appears in them 37 times, with salaries ranging from $64,000 for a “senior office services manager” to $362,000 for a “senior managing director, talent.” The word “manager” appears 62 times at similarly divergent rates of pay.

Englehart was asked why JobsOhio didn’t include the names of people receiving what used to be public dollars next to the positions they filled.

“To protect the privacy of JobsOhio associates,” he said. “Total compensation paid is disclosed annually to the Ohio Department of Development, as required by (the law) and the Services Agreement between JobsOhio and (the Department of Development). The agreed-upon reporting is compliant with Ohio law and is an example of how we work with our state partners and of our commitment to attracting jobs and investment for Ohioans responsibly, with accountability and transparency.”

That “accountability and transparency” is objectively less than what the state — which used to control the liquor franchise — does with its own employees. Mason Waldvogel, the Department of Development spokesman who provided the JobsOhio compensation data, makes $130,000 a year, according to Ohio Checkbook.

Englehart, the JobsOhio spokesman, was also asked what kind of document the PDF table was generated from, and why didn’t JobsOhio just provide a searchable spreadsheet.

“The document is a PDF of a spreadsheet,” he said. “It is provided in PDF form to prevent manipulation by recipients.”

Which seemed strange, given that a person with the most rudimentary computer skills was able to import the PDF back into a searchable spreadsheet and manipulate the information. Some details of JobsOhio’s 2023 compensation.
- Total amount — $21,224,256
- No. of employees making $300,000 or more — Nine
- No. of employees making $200,000 or more — 24
- Median compensation (including interns and part-year) — $113,145
- Ohio per capita income for 2023 — $39,455
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Marty Schladen

Marty Schladen has been a reporter for decades, working in Indiana, Texas and other places before returning to his native Ohio to work at The Columbus Dispatch in 2017. He’s won state and national journalism awards for investigations into utility regulation, public corruption, the environment, prescription drug spending and other matters.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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March 11, 2025
Gov. DeWine seeking more federal support for Ohio flocks reeling from bird flu

By: Nick Evans – Ohio Capital Journal

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has promised to push federal officials to provide greater support to farmers affected by bird flu. The governor spoke alongside state Agriculture Director Brian Baldridge Thursday as well as the state veterinarian and poultry industry representatives.

State impacts

Highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI, commonly known as bird flu, has been spreading throughout the country since the beginning of 2022, but a recent a recent spike has hit Ohio farmers particularly hard. According to the latest USDA data, Ohio has culled nearly 14.5 million birds since the beginning of this year alone. That’s more than double any other state over that timeframe.

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“And to put it in perspective,” Baldridge said, “as far as the layer facilities, about over 30% of our layer birds here in Ohio have been depopulated. Those are the ones that are laying the eggs each and every day.”

He noted that one facility raising ducks and a few raising turkeys have been impacted as well.

DeWine explained that once farmers detect a case there’s little they can do besides cull the flock.

“The doctor tells me the fatality rate is very, very, very high, right?” he said, looking to State Veterinarian Dennis Summers. “You could be as high as 90, 95, even 100%, so those birds are going to basically die anyway. The point, the point is you’re trying to either slow this thing down or, obviously the main goal is to stop it.”

To that end, Summers noted, “One thing that we definitely want to make sure that we’re keeping an eye on is an effective way to use a vaccination strategy for poultry for HPAI. So that’s one thing that we’re going to be continuing to watch, and hopefully we have that as a tool in the toolbox here for Ohio.”

Jim Chakeres, who heads up the Ohio Poultry Association, has made the same point with state lawmakers, but the idea of vaccinating flocks faces competing interests within the industry.

Farmers who focus on meat production — known as broilers — could see their export business dry up following vaccination because buyers in other countries worry birds coming in could carry the virus and infect their domestic flocks.

In a recently announced $1 billion response effort, USDA officials earmarked $100 million to research vaccines or other treatment, and the agency has awarded a conditional license to develop a bird flu vaccine. Despite that funding though, a vaccination program would be a significant step. The agency has stockpiled vaccines in the past without actually using them.

What DeWine wants

The governor said he would be an advocate for the state and its farmers but “one of the things that is clear, is the federal government is really going to have to accelerate the research that is being done in regard to bird flu.”

The potential impacts extend beyond hot spots like poultry farms in Western Ohio, DeWine said — not explicitly referencing the risk of human infection but noting “obviously bigger ramifications in regard to bird flu.”

Ohio reported its first case of human infection last month — one of 70 tallied so far. Although one person in the U.S. has died, there has been no indication of the virus spreading from person to person.

DeWine said he’d convey the message to speed up research when he speaks to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins Friday.

The governor added that he’d push for the secretary to extend the extra financial support she announced recently to farmers who have already been impacted.

“One of the things that the federal government has done is up the amount of compensation,” DeWine said. “One of the things I’ll take up with the secretary is to see whether or not that could be backdated, basically retroactive, because some of these farmers’ (losses) obviously occurred before the date when it went into effect.”

But even with greater support, Chakeres warned that egg prices wouldn’t come down right away.

“Our farmers are working every day to get those barns cleaned and disinfected so they can repopulate and start producing eggs again,” he said. “That takes time. It takes that chick 21 days to hatch. It takes 18 weeks before that hen is going to start laying eggs again. So it just takes time to repopulate the facilities.”

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Nick Evans

Nick Evans has spent the past seven years reporting for NPR member stations in Florida and Ohio. He got his start in Tallahassee, covering issues like redistricting, same sex marriage and medical marijuana. Since arriving in Columbus in 2018, he has covered everything from city council to football. His work on Ohio politics and local policing have been featured numerous times on NPR.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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March 8, 2025
Ohio House Republicans introduce their own proposal to rewrite state’s recreational marijuana law

Stock photo of a marijuana dispensary from Getty Images.

The Ohio House Republican version would keep home grow and tax levels the same, but reduce THC levels and redirect most of the tax revenue

By: Megan Henry – Ohio Capital Journal

A week after Ohio Senate Republicans passed a bill that would overhaul the state’s marijuana law, Ohio House Republicans introduced their own proposal. Their version would keep home grow and tax levels the same, but reduce THC levels and redirect most of the tax revenue.

State Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, introduced Ohio House Bill 160 during a press conference Thursday. Similar to the Senate’s bill, the House’s bill would reduce the THC levels in marijuana extracts from a maximum of 90% down to a maximum of 70% and caps the number of marijuana dispensaries to 350. The bill, however, would keep the 10% tax on marijuana and keep Ohio’s home grow at 12 plants.

“Our bill preserves the core of Issue Two, while also adding important protections for Ohio’s minors and addressing the issue of intoxicating hemp,” Stewart said, noting his goal is to pass a marijuana bill before the lawmakers go on summer break.

Ohioans passed a citizen-initiated law to legalize recreational marijuana in 2023 with 57% of the vote, and sales started in August 2024. Ohio lawmakers can change the law since it passed as a citizen initiative. The state’s total recreational marijuana sales were $361,994,872 as of Saturday, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Cannabis Control.

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“Every product that is legal today will remain legal under this bill,” Stewart said. “I think we are making very, very few changes here. … We’re not touching any of the core parts of Issue Two.”

The bill deals directly with intoxicating hemp by requiring every THC product to be treated like marijuana and only be sold at the state’s regulated marijuana dispensaries.

“Simply put, if it gets you high, it goes through a dispensary,” Stewart said. “I don’t think Ohioans are excited about the fact that you get essentially the same thing that’s less safe from a local gas station. I don’t want my kids to go walk into your local gas station chain and buy marijuana.”

The bill would change how the marijuana tax revenue is directed, sending a “bulk of tax revenue to Ohio’s general fund,” Stewart said, mentioning he worked closely with House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, on drafting the bill.

Even though legal weed sales started last year, Ohioans could start legally growing marijuana at home shortly after Issue Two passed in 2023.

Ohio state Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville. Official photo.

“I think the longer you wait, the harder it is to make substitute changes,” Stewart said. “I think in the real world, folks who are growing 12 plants today are not likely to grow less than 12 plants just because we passed a law at the Statehouse.”

H.B. 160 prohibits using marijuana in public spaces, but allows for smoking inside a privately owned property, including outside on a residential front porch.

“It’s legal to use these products at your home,” Stewart said.

The bill would also offer expungement for prior convictions for marijuana related offenses.

“As the views of Ohioans have shifted on the issue of marijuana, our laws should reflect that, and allowing people to remove these offenses from their criminal record is good policy,” Stewart said.

Even though the Senate recently passed their own bill, Stewart doesn’t think his bill will create a possible standstill where nothing gets passed.

“I’m going to leave it to the two gentlemen that hold the gavel as to which bill is moving, but it’s one or the other,” Stewart said.

The Ohio Cannabis Coalition (OHCANN) is still digesting this latest piece of legislation, but Deputy Executive Director Adrienne Robbins seemed optimistic about H.B 160.

“We do think this is a really positive step forward,” she said. “When you look at the Senate bill and the different iterations of it that came out, I think this is another step forward, and it does make us feel like lawmakers are one, listening to us, but then, maybe more importantly, listening to consumers’ concerns as well.”

What’s in the Senate marijuana bill?

Senate Bill 56 would significantly change Ohio’s weed laws.

The bill would limit Ohio’s home grow from 12 plants down to six, reduce the THC levels from a maximum of 90% to a maximum of 70%, and mandates that marijuana can only be used in a private residence.

S.B. 56 allows someone to apply to the sentencing court to have their record expunged if they were convicted or plead guilty to possessing 2.5 ounces of marijuana before the state law went into effect. Under the bill, the applicant must pay a $50 filing fee.

The bill would combine the state’s medical and recreational marijuana programs under the Division of Cannabis Control, require marijuana be transported in the trunk of a car when traveling, and would limit the number of active dispensaries to 350.

It would also ban Ohioans from using marijuana that is not either from a licensed Ohio dispensary or cultivated at a consumer’s home. This would make it illegal for Ohioans to drive up to Michigan to purchase marijuana and bring it back over state lines.

The bill originally dealt with taxes and how funds were distributed, but those provisions were removed during committee.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposed budget, which is currently being heard in the Ohio House, increases the tax on marijuana from 10% to 20%. The budget is due July 1.

Potential déjà vu?

This is not the first time both chambers have tried to pass their own legislation in attempts to change the state’s marijuana law.

Shortly after Ohioans voted to legalize marijuana, the Ohio Senate quickly passed a bill that would have made major changes to the law that would have affected taxes and home grow, but the Ohio House never brought the bill to the floor.

Instead, state Rep. Jamie Callender, R-Concord, introduced a bill that would have clarified some of Issue 2’s language, but it never made it out of committee.

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Megan Henry

Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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March 7, 2025
‘The bill is very racist.’ Ohio House Democrats question Republican senator on his higher ed bill

Hundreds of students protested against Senate Bill 1 on Ohio State’s campus on March 4, 2025. (Photo by Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal).

By: Megan Henry – Ohio Capital Journal

Ohio Democrats peppered Republican state Sen. Jerry Cirino with questions over his higher education overhaul bill this week. The bill would ban faculty strikes and diversity efforts on campus, as well as set rules around classroom discussion.

One Democratic lawmaker called the bill racist.

Cirino gave sponsor testimony on Senate Bill 1 Tuesday afternoon during the Ohio House Higher Education and Workforce Committee meeting.

State Sen. Jerry C. Cirino, R-Lake County. (Photo from Ohio Senate website.)

“S.B. 1 is about more speech, not less,” he said. “It is about creating an environment of continuous improvement. It is about the core value that students come first; they are the customers of these institutions.”

Senate Bill 1 would ban diversity and inclusion efforts, block faculty from striking, set rules around classroom discussion, put diversity scholarships at risk, shorten university board of trustees terms from nine years to six, and require students take an American history course, among other things.

Regarding classroom discussion, it would set rules around topics involving “controversial beliefs” such as climate policies, electoral politics, foreign policy, diversity and inclusion programs, immigration policy, marriage, or abortion.

S.B. 1, which only applies to public colleges, stipulates classroom discussion allows students to “reach their own conclusions about all controversial beliefs or policies and shall not seek to indoctrinate any social, political, or religious point of view.”

State Rep. Desiree Tims, D-Dayton. (Photo from Ballotpedia.)

“I think the bill is very racist,” state Rep. Desiree Tims, D-Dayton, said during Tuesday’s committee meeting.

The Ohio Senate passed S.B. 1 last month and hundreds of students, faculty and staff protested S.B.1 at Ohio State University as Cirino gave his sponsor testimony Tuesday afternoon.

Tims asked Cirino why he was interested in getting rid of diversity scholarships and Cirino responded by saying Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost addressed race-based scholarships last year.

“We have guidance from the attorney general that we cannot do those,” Cirino said. “Our institutions may not do those things based on race.”

In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Harvard and the University of North Carolina violated the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment by using race as a factor in applications. The days after the ruling, Yost sent a letter to Ohio colleges and universities saying his office won’t legally protect someone at a college or university who uses race as a factor.

“How is it that you want diversity of thought, but not diversity of people at these public institutions that would bring that diversity?” state Rep. Joe Miller, D-Amherst, asked.

Cirino responded by saying diversity of thought and programs that promote diversity and inclusion are not comparable.

“You cannot discriminate against one group to make up for discrimination of another group,” Cirino said.

Miller also asked about whether limiting speech through legislation, such as this bill, is a slippery slope.

“There’s absolutely not one limitation of what can be talked about in the classroom,” Cirino said in his response. “What we say very specifically and explicitly in the bill is that there has to be an openness to looking at other opinions and welcoming diverse opinions as well.”

State Rep. Beryl Brown Piccolantonio, D-Gahanna, asked about the retrenchment and collective bargaining parts of the bill.

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“We need to treat our institutions of higher learning a little bit more like a business,” Cirino said. “If we don’t help (university presidents and boards of trustees) with these management tools, we’re going to find a real disadvantage for the state of Ohio.”

Piccolantonio questioned if this bill is giving lawmakers more control over public universities.

“It is clearly not the legislature trying to step in and operate the college or university,” Cirino said. “It’s about empowering the boards of trustees, the governing board and the presidents.”

Piccolantonio also asked if Cirino would be open to making any changes to the bill and he said no, reminding committee members that this bill went through 11 revisions in the last General Assembly.

“This bill is matured and it’s ready to go,” Cirino said. In the version of the bill passed last month by the Ohio Senate, most of the changes made in the last General Assembly were rolled back.

More than 800 people submitted opponent testimony against the bill — significantly outweighing the amount of supporter testimony the bill has received. Several students have said they would leave Ohio if this bill passed.

When state Rep. Munira Abdullahi, D-Columbus, asked about so many students opposing the bill, Cirino said legislation is not developed based on how many people come to testify.

“If we started doing that, it would be a popularity contest, and we should all take a huge pay cut because we’re getting paid, in my view, to make policies sometimes, whether it’s popular or not, if we think it is the right thing to do and good for the state of Ohio,” Cirino said.

Abdullahi also asked why the bill would ban higher education faculty from striking.

“Simply because higher education, all postsecondary education, is absolutely critical to us in Ohio if we’re going to maintain a strong economy in the future and meet the workforce requirements that we need to meet in order to employ people and to provide the workers that our companies are looking for,” Cirino said.

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Megan Henry

Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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March 6, 2025
Local Ohio public school leaders tell lawmakers that full funding is critical for their districts

(Stock photo from Getty Images)

By: Susan Tebben – Ohio Capital Journal

Local public school leaders from all around the state filled the Ohio House Education Committee’s hearing room on Tuesday to explain to lawmakers how full state funding is critical to their districts.

Christopher Edison, superintendent of Pymatuning Valley Local School District, described the pride in the district’s diversity and resilience. At the Northeast Ohio district, 76% of the students are considered economically disadvantaged and there’s been an increase in the need for specialized services. Edison also highlighted the successes in academic achievement, career and workforce readiness, and mental health supports at the district.

“However, the sustainability of these programs is increasingly at risk due to rising operational costs,” Edison told the committee in Tuesday testimony. “Inflation has significantly increased expenses for essential resources such as transportation, instructional materials, and staffing.”

Without an increase in base funding, Pymatuning’s ability to “maintain and expand these successful initiatives is severely threatened,” Edison said.

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Hits have already come to districts because of inflation and increasing costs not reflected in the funding model that looks to see its final funding phase-in this year, if the legislature includes it in the operating budget set to be passed by July 1.

Montgomery County’s Northmont City Schools — a district with rural, suburban, and urban areas — has seen state funding cuts and defeats of school levies that resulted in the need to cut more than 40 district positions in May 2023, and the closure of one of their elementary schools, according to Superintendent Tony Thomas.

“I understand that members of the General Assembly passed a budget two years ago that increased funding across the state, and we are thankful,” Thomas told the education committee. “But unfortunately for Northmont, those dollars are not reaching our school buildings and we are doing more with less.”

It’s stories like these that the Fair School Funding Plan workgroup, which was created along with the state’s public school funding model, is hoping will flood both the education and finance committees, along with the offices of state legislators, to inform them about the importance of proper public school funding in Ohio.

“It’s our responsibility to ensure that every member of the Ohio legislature and the General Assembly be made fully aware of these facts, their implications, and the legislative decisions that led to these circumstances as they contemplate this important budget,” said Mike Hanlon, Jr., superintendent of Chardon Local Schools, and Fair School Funding Plan workgroup member.

The workgroup met recently, along with more than 600 other education community members, to discuss upcoming legislative meetings about the budget, what the governor’s proposal would mean for districts, and how to engage with lawmakers.

“In my visits to Columbus … one message was very clear with the legislators that we met with: ‘We need to hear from constituents on the issue of school funding,’” Hanlon said.

Members of the workgroup said they’ve heard another message from the lawmakers: resources are limited in the budget.

In the governor’s executive proposal, the Fair School Funding Plan’s final phase-in was included, but inputs that would account for inflation costs at districts were not, something the governor’s office has “remained silent” on in all budgets that included the public school funding plan, workgroup members said.

“First and foremost, this is not our ideal proposal from the governor,” said Jared Bunting, CFO and treasurer of the Athens City School District. “However, this is in line with what the governor has done in the past and we’re thankful that the governor has included the Fair School Funding Plan in his budget, even though it falls woefully short of our expectations.”

In the governor’s budget for the next two years, the budget would decrease funding for traditional public schools by 0.9%, according to a workgroup analysis. Community and STEM schools will receive an 11.3% increase in the governor’s proposal, while joint vocational school districts receive a 14.1% increase. Voucher programs including the EdChoice private school program would see a 15.8% increase.

“So 90% of the students in the state are seeing a reduction in funding,” Bunting said, referring to the enrollment numbers in the state, which show the vast majority of students attend traditional public schools.

Alternately, last year, the state funded private school voucher scholarships with nearly $1 billion in one year, according to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.

Source: Ohio Fair School Funding Plan Workgroup

School administrators on the workgroup noted that the funding simulations used in the governor’s budget proposal show an intention to “continue to update capacity each year without any input updates.”

Without inputs to account for rising costs and inflation, the state not only won’t meet the workgroup’s ideal of a 50% state share of education costs, but will drop below the share of funding before 1995, when the Ohio Supreme Court first ruled in DeRolph v. State of Ohio that the state’s education funding violated the state constitution, falling short of the “thorough and efficient” system of schools directed in the founding document.

With talk of addressing property taxes in Ohio, something that school funding has relied on for decades, workgroup members said updating cost inputs could help with that issue as well.

“When we talk about property tax relief, we would like to argue that … updating all inputs consistently is a form of property tax relief to our community members,” said Jenni Logan, treasurer for the Sycamore Community Schools.

Now, as the budget process continues, educators, and administrators not only plan to push for proper education supports in committees considering the budget document, but also want to get district stories to all legislators, including newly elected GA members, who haven’t had a front-row seat to the public school funding model fight.

Those who are new to school funding are also faced with “competing interests in other areas that are not related to school funding,” according to Hanlon. He said legislators who talked to him said they “haven’t heard from anyone” on school funding.

“As a result, it’s very likely that they need to hear from us, and from someone that they trust and are confident in, that will provide them with the necessary facts to shape their understanding of school funding,” Hanlon said.

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Susan Tebben

Susan Tebben is an award-winning journalist with a decade of experience covering Ohio news, including courts and crime, Appalachian social issues, government, education, diversity and culture. She has worked for The Newark Advocate, The Glasgow (KY) Daily Times, The Athens Messenger, and WOUB Public Media. She has also had work featured on National Public Radio.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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March 5, 2025
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine officially requests federal approval for Medicaid work requirements

By: Megan Henry – Ohio Capital Journal

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has officially asked the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to approve Medicaid work requirements.

Under the proposal, Ohio Medicaid expansion recipients would need to be at least 55 years old, employed, be enrolled in school or a job training program, be in a recovery program, or have a serious physical or mental health illness.

“As part of our work to empower people to reach their full potential, we have a responsibility to make sure as many Ohioans as possible are on a pathway toward financial independence,” DeWine said in a statement. “Reinstating our work requirement will promote self-sufficiency, it will give more people the purpose and pride that comes with a job, and it will improve the well-being of Ohio’s workforce.”

Medicaid offers health coverage to households making at or below 138% of the poverty line — $44,367 a year for a family of four. About 92% of U.S. adults under age 65 and eligible for Medicaid are already working or are exempt from requirements due to caregiving responsibilities, illness or disability, or school attendance, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Hundreds of Ohioans submitted comments to the Ohio Department of Medicaid opposing the requirements, and Ohio medical professionals argued that extensive research has shown that work requirements won’t increase employment but they do limit access to care to people who need it.

DeWine sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. asking to approve the work requirements on Friday. Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman and Ohio Senate President Rob McColley also signed the letter.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid will now review Ohio’s waiver and then the federal agency will have a 30-day comment period, said Ohio Department of Medicaid Spokesperson Stephanie O’Grady.

Once those steps are completed, Ohio’s Medicaid department will begin talks with the federal agency about setting up state terms and conditions, O’Grady said.

“We are dedicated to delivering high-quality healthcare to millions of Ohioans every day, empowering them to take control of their own health,” ODM Director Maureen Corcoran said in a statement. “By encouraging them to seek employment, we not only enhance their quality of life, but also contribute to healthier communities and a thriving economy in Ohio.”

The proposed Medicaid work requirements mean more than 61,000 Ohioans could lose their health insurance according to estimates from ODM. The two goals of the requirement are “promoting economic stability and financial independence; and improve health outcomes by encouraging individuals to be engaged with their health and healthcare,” according to ODM.

Ohio’s 2023 budget requires the state Medicaid department to re-apply with the federal government under the new presidential administration for permission to impose work, drug testing, and/or education requirements for adult Medicaid health coverage recipients.

ODM received more than 450 comments on the proposed Medicaid work requirements and an overwhelming majority opposed the requirements with many sharing about their personal experiences with Medicaid.

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Megan Henry

Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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March 5, 2025
Ohio Republican state senator wants to ban diversity and inclusion efforts in public schools

By: Megan Henry – Ohio Capital Journal

A new bill proposed by an Ohio Republican lawmaker would ban diversity and inclusion efforts in Ohio K-12 public schools.

State Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, recently introduced Ohio Senate Bill 113 which would require every local board of education in the state to adopt a policy that would end any current diversity and inclusion offices or departments and ban any diversity, equity, and inclusion orientation or training. It would also prevent the creation of any new such offices or departments and using DEI in job descriptions.

Under the bill, each board of education would be required to create a complaint process for an alleged violation of the policy and the board would investigate the complaint with a hearing.

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Ohio teacher unions were quick to critique the bill.

“This is another petty attempt from this legislature to sidestep local control and micromanage every aspect of how public schools operate,” Ohio Federation of Teachers President Melissa Cropper said in an email. “It is objectively a good thing for students of all races when school districts make an effort to hire a diverse teaching staff.”

Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro said S.B. 113 is a distraction.

“Ohio’s General Assembly should be focused on the real issues facing Ohioans and our schools — fully and adequately funding public schools and seeking solutions to help alleviate the economic challenges faced by families and communities,” he said in an email.

Honesty for Ohio Education Executive Director Christina Collins said this is another example of Ohio lawmakers are going after school curriculum and programming.

“This bill uses the vilified acronym ‘DEI’ without offering a definition to advance an agenda that harms our public education system,” she said in an email.

S.B. 113 is not the only bill Ohio lawmakers have introduced that would ban diversity and inclusion efforts in education. Senate Bill 1 would, among other things, ban diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at Ohio’s public universities. The Senate passed the bill earlier this month and is waiting to be heard in the House.

S.B. 113 comes as President Donald Trump’s executive orders attempt to get rid of diversity and inclusion efforts across federal agencies.

On Feb. 14, the U.S. Department of Education sent a Dear Colleague letter to schools nationwide threatening to rescind federal funds for schools that use race-conscious practices in admissions, programming, training, hiring, scholarships, and other aspects of student life.

This would apply to all preschool, elementary, secondary, postsecondary educational institutions and state educational agencies that receive financial assistance. Institutions have until Friday to comply or else they face the “potential loss of federal funding.”

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Megan Henry

Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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February 27, 2025
Ohio teachers take action amid state, federal education funding uncertainty

Public education supporters rally at the U.S. Capitol in early February, speaking out against proposed cuts to the federal education budget, and the possible elimination of the U.S. Department of Education. Members of the Ohio Education Association attended the rally. (Photo by Jati Lindsey, courtesy of the National Education Association.)

By: Susan Tebben – Ohio Capital Journal

With state and federal funding up in the air, Ohio teachers are speaking out about what budget cuts would mean to their districts, about the importance of public schools to families and communities, and about how schools need to be strengthened to prioritize students’ futures.

In her 31 years as a teacher in Cleveland Public Schools, Tracy Radich has never felt the need to fight for public school funding as much as she has this year, with state and federal budgets both giving public schools uncertain futures.

“Having everything be so up in the air and … how we prepare and think about what might happen next school year, it makes me very fearful and very worried for the future of my school, my students,” said Radich, who has spent her career at Joseph M. Gallagher School, where she currently teaches third grade.

Radich joins many public school advocates in questioning the funding of private school voucher programs in Ohio at a rate of more than $1 billion last year, while public schools who educate 90% of the state’s student population sit on pins and needles awaiting the fate of their funding.

The state budget is currently being developed by the state legislature, but debates have been raging about whether or not funding for a model that’s been in place for years, called the Fair School Funding Plan by supporters, will stay in place for it’s last round of phase-in funding.

Members of the Republican supermajority have questioned whether or not the plan is sustainable, and while Gov. Mike DeWine’s executive budget included the final phase-in of funding, public education advocates criticized the governor’s lack of inflation inputs as part of the final round of funding.

Even one of the authors of the funding model, former state Rep. John Patterson, spoke out at a League of Women Voters of Ohio event to say leaving out inflation inputs would “create disruption” in the formula, increasing the costs for taxpayers.

Dan Fray, a middle school English-Language Arts teacher and educational technology instructor with Toledo Public Schools, sees rallies and days of action as ways to raise awareness of what public school teachers do for the vast majority of students in the state.

“We didn’t become teachers to get rich or to do anything but help students learn,” Fray said. “In this day and age, we didn’t become teachers to get cussed at or told what we’re doing is wrong.”

To bring more attention to their cause, Radich and Fray will be part of a “day of action” on March 4, when teachers who are members of the their local teachers unions, along with the Ohio Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers as a whole, will promote education as the spending priority they think it should be.

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The action will start first thing in the morning at Radich’s school, with a celebration line of teachers welcoming students at the start of the day, and passing out information to parents about the impacts of funding changes on their child’s education.

Some teachers will head outside in Toledo, where Fray said signs will inform passersby of their aims, and blue shirts worn by teachers show educators’ desire to “preserve public education.”

“We’re not protesting to say we hate the governor or we hate the budget or anything like that, it’s more what education is about and where we are in it,” Fray said.

The view of the role of educators, particularly within the legislature, has “taken a hit” over the years, Fray said. He and Radich agree that despite the varying needs of school districts across the state, standardized testing has become king.

“These high-stakes tests, by the time any data comes back from that, my students have already moved on to the next grade, so those tests don’t really help,” Radich said. “They inform the state, they punish schools, but they don’t really help the students.”

In Fray’s view, state testing has impacted education decisions to such a degree that “the world is definitely a teach-to-the-test kind of world,” to the detriment of teaching and education in general.

Focusing legislation and budgetary decisions on test scores that don’t give a full view of education, and the expansion of private school vouchers not only misses the point of education, the teachers say, but flies in the face of multiple state supreme court decisions ordering the state to bring back a thorough and equal system of learning in the state.

“From a classroom teacher standpoint, it just seems like that continues to get ignored, and at this point, not only does it seem like it’s ignored, but they’re thumbing their nose at it,” Fray said.

Disruptions to the federal contribution to the state’s education budget could add even more problems to the system, as Ohio’s school districts receive an average of about 10% of their revenue from the feds.

“I don’t think people realize how cuts made in Washington, D.C., are going to directly impact thousands of children in Cleveland, Ohio, in rural communities and urban communities, everywhere,” Radich said.

For some Ohio educators, that meant traveling to D.C. and standing on the steps of the U.S. Capitol earlier this month, to engage with members of Congress and urge rejection of changes or possible elimination of the U.S. Department of Education.

Those who went to D.C. hoped to sway leaders against proposed cuts to programs within the education department, especially those benefitting lower-income students through Title I funding, and students who qualify for federal career training and college grants and loans.

According to the Ohio Education Association, more than 800,000 students in the state receive Title I funding, and special education programs in Ohio would lose more than $550 million in proposed federal cuts.

“Ohio educators and parents expect elected officials to prioritize our students’ futures and strengthen our public schools, so they remain a cornerstone of opportunity and equality,” the Ohio Education Association said in a statement following the D.C. rally.

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Susan Tebben

Susan Tebben is an award-winning journalist with a decade of experience covering Ohio news, including courts and crime, Appalachian social issues, government, education, diversity and culture. She has worked for The Newark Advocate, The Glasgow (KY) Daily Times, The Athens Messenger, and WOUB Public Media. She has also had work featured on National Public Radio.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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February 27, 2025
‘Conceived children’ could be dependents under new Ohio House bill

File photo of an ultrasound. (Stock photo from Getty Images.)

By: Susan Tebben – Ohio Capital Journal

Ohio taxpayers could claim “conceived children” as dependents on their taxes under a bill recently introduced in the General Assembly.

The bill began after state Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery, championed a “personhood” bill that would have created rights for embryos and fetuses at the moment of conception. That bill wasn’t moved by the legislature, but a critic of the bill asked Click if the bill allowed embryos and fetuses to be claimed on taxes.

“Somebody that was trying to nitpick at me actually gave me a good idea,” Click said.

And thus came a bill last year with similar language on creating tax credits for “conceived children,” which has been reintroduced this year as Ohio House Bill 87.

Click said it’s had time for improvements that weren’t available in the short time frame the bill had at the end of last General Assembly.

“We took some input from some folks that we received last year and tried to improve it,” Click told the Capital Journal.

The bill language adds certain items like cribs and pack-and-plays to the list of things that are tax-exempt, in an attempt to give breathing room to expectant families, Click said.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — JANUARY 10: State Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery. (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original article.)

“These seem like little things, but when you’re just a little couple starting off, every cent matters,” he said.

An announcement of the reintroduction of the bill cited a 2022 Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of health costs related to pregnancy, child birth and postpartum care, which found costs averaged $18,865 nationally, with nearly $3,000 in out-of-pocket costs.

But the bill also allows couples, and the pregnant individual if a couple is filing separately, to include “each child conceived, including each child conceived by assisted reproduction that has been placed inside the taxpayer or taxpayer’s spouse’s uterus” as a dependent on their yearly taxes.

Pregnancies lost to “spontaneous miscarriage” are also included in the bill in a change since the last bill was introduced. Click said he “thought that might be a little heartless to exclude them.”

In including pregnancies conceived through “assisted reproduction,” Click said he wanted at least state tax support of a child to “begin at implantation.”

“They don’t become a dependent after they’re born, they become a dependent as soon as you know the child,” Click said.

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One exception made in the bill is to any pregnancy terminated through abortion, something critics have said flies in the face of the constitutional amendment passed in November 2023 that established the right to abortion in the Ohio Constitution.

“If you think a tax credit can undo a constitutional amendment, you need to go back to school,” Click said in response.

Currently, in order to claim dependents on state taxes, they have to be included in a “schedule of dependents,” which must include the names of the dependent, their Social Security Numbers, their dates of birth, and the relationship to the tax filer, according to the Ohio Department of Taxation.

It’s not clear how the language in the schedule of dependents would change under the bill to include fetuses who would not yet have a Social Security Number or birth date.

In terms of proving the conception, Click likened that information to business travel mileage, which would only need to be proven in the case of an audit. But he said that a doctor’s official notes or medical diagnosis could possibly be used to prove the time of the conception.

Blaine G. Saito, an assistant professor of law at the Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law with expertise in tax law and policy, said there are a fair amount of items on tax forms that “do not always have reporting,” for example, cash transactions.

“People are just supposed to report honestly,” Saito said.

Saito also noted prior to a federal change in 1986 that required Social Security Numbers in dependent filings, “there were a lot of dependents, and they suddenly disappeared.”

“A lot of the tax system then requires people to make estimates in general and report in good faith, and quite a bit may not be subject to third party reporting or easily found,” Saito said.

There may be ways to prove “conceived children,” he said, “though a requirement to ‘document’ it when claiming the dependent may be considered onerous.”

H.B. 87 was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee earlier this month, where it will be subject to hearings before a committee vote can bring it to the House floor.

YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.

_______________

Susan Tebben

Susan Tebben is an award-winning journalist with a decade of experience covering Ohio news, including courts and crime, Appalachian social issues, government, education, diversity and culture. She has worked for The Newark Advocate, The Glasgow (KY) Daily Times, The Athens Messenger, and WOUB Public Media. She has also had work featured on National Public Radio.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

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February 25, 2025
Ohio Senator introduces a bill in response to the Ohio Supreme Court boneless wings ruling

By: Megan Henry – Ohio Capital Journal

An Ohio Democratic Senator recently introduced a bill in response to last summer’s Ohio Supreme Court ruling saying that a man who ordered boneless wings should have expected bones in them and denied him a jury trial after he sustained significant injuries.

State Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus, was outraged by the Supreme Court ruling and introduced Senate Bill 38 last month which would look at how the state determines liability when someone is injured by “negligently prepared food from a restaurant or food supplier,” DeMora said last week in his sponsor testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In 2016, Michael Berkheimer ate boneless wings at a Southwest Ohio restaurant, but felt like he swallowed something wrong. He developed a fever later that night and ended up going to the hospital a couple days later with a 105-degree fever. The doctors discovered a nearly two inch chicken bone in his throat that ripped open the wall of his esophagus.

Berkheimer developed an infection, had to undergo several surgeries, was in two medically induced comas, and had a week-long stay in intensive care.

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He sued the restaurants and their chicken suppliers in 2017, saying “negligence” led to his injuries. The Butler County Court of Common Pleas and the Twelfth District Court of Appeals sided against Berkheimer and didn’t let the case go to trial.

The case went to the Ohio Supreme Court where the majority ruled the lower courts made the right decision. The ruling was four Republicans to three Democrats.

The restaurant wasn’t liable “when the consumer could have reasonably expected and guarded against the presence of the injurious substance in the food,” Ohio Supreme Court Justice Joe Deters wrote in the majority opinion.

This story received national attention and even ended up being a bit on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

“What (Berkheimer) went through was horrific, timeconsuming, and costly,” DeMora said in his testimony.

But the bill doesn’t focus on Berkheimer’s injuries, but rather how judges were the ones who decided his case.

“That’s not just wrong,” DeMora said. “It’s a direct assault on the very foundation of our legal system.”

S.B. 38 is trying to change that.

“It will make sure that future cases like Mr. Berkheimer’s are heard by a jury – as our Constitution demands,” DeMora said. “It will also make sure that when determining liability, we use the reasonable expectations test used by most states.”

Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky.

YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.

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Megan Henry

Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network.

Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

MORE FROM AUTHOR

February 25, 2025