Innovation Ohio

What you need to know about Ohio Politics and Policy

Innovation Ohio Condemns LaRose Effort to Weaken Ohioans’ Right to Citizen-Led Ballot Initiatives

COLUMBUS — Today, Desiree Tims, President and CEO of Innovation Ohio, released the following statement in vehement opposition to Secretary of State LaRose and Representative Stewart’s proposed change to Ohio’s Constitution, which would destroy majority rule for citizen-led ballot measures and weaken the power of Ohio citizens:

“When a majority of Ohioans speak, politicians and lobbyists should listen. But Frank LaRose, the man who controls Ohio’s elections, has announced his intention to significantly weaken Ohio voters’ power at the ballot box.

“We have a fundamental, constitutional right to majority rule in our elections. Columbus politicians didn’t like it when Ohio voters of all parties used ballot measures to create term limits, prevent gerrymandering, or challenge federal encroachment on our individual healthcare freedoms. 

“Now, instead of a majority of Ohio voters deciding what’s best for our state, this ridiculous proposed alteration to our constitution would allow just 41% of voters to block what the majority wants.

“In Ohio, the people should rule, not lobbyists and politicians.” 

Innovation Ohio Urges Gov. DeWine to Veto Dangerous Budget Items

Today, Innovation Ohio, Ohio’s leading progressive politics and policy advocacy organization, urged Governor Mike DeWine to line item veto the most harmful lines still remaining in Ohio’s operating budget bill.

“We’re grateful that minority party members were able to negotiate some deeply troubling items out of the budget, but the Republican supermajority refused to remove additional provisions from the bill that will weaken our democracy here in Ohio,” said Desiree Tims, President and CEO of Innovation Ohio. 

“Ohioans need Governor DeWine to veto the most extreme budget bill provisions.”

Innovation Ohio is asking Governor DeWine to veto several of the budget bill’s most damaging provisions, including:

  • A provision prohibiting election officials from working with or accepting grants from nongovernmental entities (likely including barbershops, bars, church groups, sports programs such as the Cavs, even the League of Women Voters) on voting or voter education
  • A provision allowing ONLY Republicans to intervene in lawsuits — specifically redistricting lawsuits
  • A provision abolishing the Citizen’s Education Fund, which uses donations for voter education, registration programs, & improving election facilities
  • A provision allowing medical professionals to refuse to treat anyone if it violates their “moral or religious” beliefs
  • And several additional items of concern to Ohioans

“Without Governor DeWine’s vetoes, this budget bill will devastate our ability to register and educate voters in all future elections. It will let doctors refuse to treat essentially any patient they don’t like. It could close several of our few remaining abortion providers. And it will take vital resources from our children by expanding charter schools and vouchers,” continued Tims.

TAKE ACTION: Innovation Ohio urges Ohioans to contact Governor DeWine today and tomorrow (Tuesday and Wednesday) to urge him to veto these troubling budget items.

Desiree Tims Comments on Householder’s Removal from Ohio House

COLUMBUS — Today, Desiree Tims, President and CEO of Innovation Ohio, released the following statement after the Ohio House of Representatives voted to remove former Speaker Larry Householder for allegedly coordinating a massive statewide bribery and racketeering scandal involving several Ohio Republican politicians.

“It’s been nearly a year since Larry Householder was arrested for likely the largest bribery scandal in Ohio history. But his fellow Republicans let him stay in the Statehouse — voting on bills that impact your life — until this afternoon. I am not impressed. 

“Now that the ringleader is finally out of the Statehouse, it’s time to repeal HB 6 and ask tough questions about the other Republicans tied to this scandal.

“It’s past time we have a government that truly represents the people of Ohio. Our work is just beginning.”

New Citizens’ Redistricting Commission Launches in Ohio to Spotlight Community Needs

COLUMBUS, OH — Today, a new multiracial commission of top Ohio leaders announced the launch of the Ohio Citizens’ Redistricting Commission (OCRC). This nonpartisan and highly diverse commission will hold public hearings in a wide range of communities to provide robust public input throughout Ohio’s map-drawing process. 

“This past week, we witnessed an attempt by Statehouse leadership to shorten the redistricting process and decrease opportunities for public input. This new citizens’ commission will help hold the map drawers accountable to ensure no one can silence Ohioans during the redistricting process,“  said former State Representative Kathleen Clyde.

The OCRC aims to: 1.) Model a thorough and robust public engagement process for Ohio’s official redistricting commission, 2.) Develop and demonstrate citizen-derived principles of redistricting, and 3.) Draw unity maps based on community input and feedback. OCRC’s work will culminate in mapmaking recommendations and a report that includes model unity maps, which will be submitted as public testimony in the official redistricting process. 

The project is co-sponsored by the Ohio Organizing Collaborative (OOC), Ohio State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI) of Ohio. The Commission will partner with the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University and MGGG Redistricting Lab at Tufts University for data collection, analysis and community mapping.

“Whether you’re in Akron, Toledo, or Cincinnati, gerrymandering harms all of our communities. The Ohio Citizens’ Redistricting Commission will ensure the people’s voices are heard during this critical redistricting process,” said Ohio Organizing Collaborative Policy and Advocacy Director, Jeniece Brock. “This commission will engage the most marginalized communities to make sure they provide their input. All Ohioans deserve a say in how their districts are drawn and who gets to represent them.”

The OCRC is composed of academics, political party officials, community representatives, and others from across the state. It will be chaired by former State Rep. Kathleen Clyde and Greg Moore of the Promise of Democracy Foundation. The Ohio Organizing Collaborative’s Policy and Advocacy Director, Jeniece Brock, will serve as the commission’s secretary. 

Commission members will include:

  • Barbara Sykes, Former state representative, Ohio Legislative Black Caucus (OBLC) Foundation President & CEO
  • Tom Roberts, Former state senator, President of the Ohio State Conference of the NAACP
  • Andre Washington, President of the A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI) Ohio Chapter
  • Katy Shanahan, All On The Line Ohio State Director 
  • Kathleen Clyde, Former state representative
  • Greg Moore, Promise of Democracy Foundation  
  • Jeniece Brock, Health Scientist, Policy & Advocacy Director for the Ohio Organizing Collaborative 
  • Sam Gresham, Chair of Common Cause Ohio
  • Akii Butler, Ohio Student Association
  • Dr. Richard Gunther, Retired professor
  • Chris Tavenor, Ohio Environmental Council
  • Dr. Lis Regula, Professor and LGBTQ activist
  • Jeremy Blake, Newark City Council member, Equality Ohio board member
  • Dr. Ellen Greene Bush, Clinical Psychologist
  • Alan Bannister, Ohio political professional, former Ohio statewide political director for Joe Biden
  • Amina Barhumi, Council on American-Islamic Relations CAIR-Ohio

Additional members may be added to the commission in the coming days.

“The OCRC is made up of a broad, diverse cross section of Ohioans from across the state who support a fair redistricting process. We are looking forward to giving the citizens who voted to reform the redistricting process in Ohio the opportunity to finally have their voice heard,” said Greg Moore, OCRC co-chairperson.  

The OCRC’s activities will include hosting public hearings for community input, collecting publicly available data for mapmaking, and supporting public education on redistricting. 

The Commission will hold public hearings on the redistricting process on every 2nd and 4th Thursday at 6:00 pm EDT from May 2021 through September 2021.

The public and the press will be encouraged to attend these hearings — which will be virtual — to ensure widespread public awareness of and attention to Ohio’s redistricting process. For more information, please visit www.mapohio.org. 

Follow the Ohio Citizens’ Redistricting Commission on social media:

####

The Ohio Citizens’ Redistricting Commission (OCRC) is an independent, non-partisan commission made up of volunteer members. Commission members will include academics, political party officials, community representatives, and others from across the state. The Commission’s activities include: hosting public hearings for community input, collecting publicly available data for mapmaking, and supporting public education on redistricting. The work of the commission will be culminated into a report including recommendations and a unity map(s), which will be submitted as public testimony in the official redistricting process.

Equal Districts Coalition Strongly Opposes Proposal to Shorten, Weaken Ohio Redistricting Process

COLUMBUS — Today, the Equal Districts Coalition — a unified group of several prominent Ohio advocacy organizations engaged in the 2021 redistricting fight — announced strong opposition to Senate President Matt Huffman’s proposal to give Statehouse leaders complete power to unilaterally determine Ohio’s redistricting schedule, creating the potential to cut back on public engagement opportunities.

“Ohioans voted twice, with powerful majorities, to make our redistricting process more open, accessible, and fair. The people demanded to play a key role in drawing district lines,” said Desiree Tims, President and CEO of Innovation Ohio. “Ohio must respect the voters’ wishes and maintain a redistricting timeline that allows everyone’s voice to be heard.”

President Huffman’s proposed constitutional amendment would allow Ohio’s legislature to change redistricting deadlines anytime Census data is delayed. Because the legislature is currently dominated by a supermajority of Republican members, this would likely create scenarios where one party has unilateral control over redistricting deadlines. This stands in direct opposition to the intent of the ballot reform measures that Ohio’s voters overwhelmingly passed in 2015 and 2018.

“No matter where we’re from or what we look like, our votes should count. We cannot allow selfish politicians to take electoral power away from the people. That’s exactly the problem Ohioans were attempting to solve with these new redistricting laws,” said Prentiss Haney, Co-Executive Director of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. “Gerrymandering has allowed certain politicians to rig district maps and election outcomes for far too long, diluting the power of Black and brown voters. We cannot condone any proposal that would take Ohio back in that direction.”

Ohio has known for well over two months that the state will receive its redistricting data by September 30, 2021. While this presents some challenges connected to meeting Ohio’s constitutionally-mandated redistricting deadlines, it does not change the fact that voters overwhelmingly demanded these new deadlines — and the related timeline — in two recent elections.

“When a bipartisan group of legislators and advocates came to the negotiation tables in 2015 and 2018, everyone agreed about the essential nature of ensuring a fair redistricting process. Missed deadlines, even those caused in part by the global pandemic, cannot and should not be used as an excuse to resurrect the political games of the past,” said Heather Taylor-Miesle, Executive Director of the Ohio Environmental Council. “We call on Ohio lawmakers to follow through on Ohio voters’ decisive mandate to end partisan gerrymandering and to ensure a thorough and transparent redistricting process.” 

The census delay is absolutely not an excuse to cut corners in terms of how transparent or how inclusive the redistricting process is. “To best mitigate the impacts of the delay, we need to preserve as much of the existent redistricting process as possible – with an emphasis on maintaining ample opportunities for public engagement. As it stands, however, Senate President Huffman’s proposal is a complete non-starter,” said Katy Shanahan, Ohio State Director of All On The Line. 

The Equal Districts Coalition includes the Ohio State Conference of the NAACP, Ohio Organizing Collaborative, the Ohio Environmental Council, Innovation Ohio, the Ohio Student Association, ProgressOhio, All On the Line-Ohio, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, Ohio Council of Churches, NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, URGE – Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, LEAD Ohio, the Ohio Women’s Alliance, and more. 

Lame Duck Lawmakers Pass Government Shutdown Bill

closed_crop Overview Senate Bill 329, a little-noticed bill rushed through the recent lame duck session, could have disastrous consequences if allowed to become law. Without a veto from Governor Kasich, SB 329 would effectively allow for the dissolution of state government departments, potentially throwing thousands out of work and open the door to privatization, while threatening the effective continuation of public services and programs that provide for the state’s economic vitality and competitiveness. How it Would Work Under SB329, Gubernatorial Departments would be required to make an affirmative case every four years to justify their continued existence, involving a time- and resource-intensive process. Agencies would be required to review and report on the legal justification of rules and procedures, potential for privatization, conduct a multi-year analysis of cost effectiveness, and benchmark all regulations against other states. Creates Chaos Not Reform
  • The extensive reviews mandated for Departments every four years would be time and resource intensive, and duplicate reviews already performed by the Auditor of State, JCARR, and the Governor’s Common Sense Initiative Office.
  • Nothing in the legislation would eliminate burdensome rules or regulations, it merely provides for the elimination of Departments currently empowered to oversee them.
  • Without an affirmative act of the legislature to keep departments open, state rules, licenses, and contracts would remain in effect, raising significant questions about how the executive branch could continue to carry out its obligations under Ohio law. The bill permits, but does not require the legislature to transfer these obligations to other departments.
Dangerous
  • Many programs that Ohioans rely on, including vital education, public safety, and other essential services would be put at risk, with no provisions to ensure these functions continue after closure of a cabinet department.
  • By closing departments that carry out essential functions, the proposal could put Ohio into conflict with federal requirements, and may violate parts of the state Constitution, such as the obligation to establish and maintain a workers’ compensation program.
  • By forcing the review of 25 cabinet agencies every four years, the legislation could consume much of the legislature’s oversight capacity and put essential services at the mercy of an already slow legislative process.
Tilts the Balance of Power to One Party, Branch of Government
  • Empowers the legislative branch by eliminating a future check on its authority by the executive branch; the bill’s automated future elimination of departments by the failure of the legislature to act would provide no opportunity for the executive to exercise its veto authority.
  • Empowers the majority party to appoint members of standing committees, postpone reviews, and, ultimately, to continue operation of a government department without bipartisan support.
  • Protects today’s and future legislators from blame by eliminating departments automatically, without an affirmative act of lawmakers required.
Unnecessary and Ineffective
  • The arguments in favor of the proposal (to review, modernize, and eliminate unnecessary regulation) are all currently served by existing functions of the general assembly;
  • Meanwhile, the claim that unneeded or overly technical licensing law creates a burden is not served by the legislation which would not eliminate any rules or licenses either in SB 329 or through the expiration of statutes creating Departments.
Represents a Right-Wing Wish List
  • Without eliminated government departments and staff, executive would have little option other than to employ private contractors to carry out essential health and safety functions (police, fire, etc.).
  • Elimination of cabinet agencies would reduce the significance of the state as a public sector employer, weaking the power of its employee unions.
  • The departmental review process emphasizes market-based solutions, such as private credentialing, wherever possible as an alternative to state regulation and licensing.
  • Straight from the Conservative Playbook. Similar measures have been proposed by right-wing lawmakers in a number of states and in Congress.
  Take Action Call Governor Kasich at 614-466-3555 to ask him to veto this bill

Lame Duck Lawmakers Block Local Wage, Sick Leave Laws

wage-2

Take Action Now: contact your State Representative today to oppose SB331

Today, the Ohio House is moving a bill that radically undermines the notion of local control and ties the hands of communities to set standards for the treatment of workers. Enshrined into the constitution is a strong commitment to local control, or “home rule”:
Municipalities shall have authority to exercise all powers of local self-government and to adopt and enforce within their limits such local police, sanitary and other similar regulations, as are not in conflict with general laws.
Ohio lawmakers appear ready to throw that notion out the window with the adoption today of a major overhaul to Substitute Senate Bill 311, which would block the authority of communities around Ohio to, among other things:
  • Regulate the sale of puppies from unlicensed breeders at pet stores
  • Adopt a minimum wage rate higher than the state minimum
  • Adopt any ordinance that regulates worker benefits, schedules or work locations.
The bill was originally written when lobbyists for Petland sought to block ordinances adopted in Grove City and Toledo that would crack down on the sale of puppies at pet stores. The fix contains a “hobby breeder” loophole that experts say could be used by unethical breeders to sell their dogs at pet stores. More recently, the business community jumped in with a wish list of its own, getting the following language added to the bill:
No political subdivision shall establish a minimum wage rate different from the wage rate required under this section.
The move is an attempt to undermine a measure on the ballot in Cleveland that would have asked voters whether to gradually raise that city’s minimum wage, but also blocks any other city from doing so. And, reacting to a movement from progressive cities around the U.S., special interests saw a measure adopted that would block cities from requiring local employers to provide earned sick time, family leave or regulate practices that require workers to be on call for shifts without pay and by which employers can make last minute scheduling changes that leave workers in the lurch – especially if they need child care or want to hold down a second job. From the proposed amendment:
Except as otherwise expressly provided in state or federal law, the following matters are exclusively the result of an employer’s policy, an agreement between an employer and the employer’s employees, a contract between an employer and the employer’s employees, or a collective bargaining agreement between an employer and the employer’s employees: (1) The number of hours an employee is required to work or be on call for work; (2) The time when an employee is required to work or be on call for work; (3) The location where an employee is required to work; (4) The amount of notification an employee receives of work schedule assignments or changes to work schedule assignments, including any addition or reduction of hours, cancellation of a shift, or change in the date or time of a work shift; (5) Minimizing fluctuations in the number of hours an employee is scheduled to work on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis; (6) Additional payment for reporting time when work is or becomes unavailable, for being on call for work, or for working a split shift; (7) Whether an employer will provide advance notice of an employee’s initial work or shift schedule, notice of new schedules, or notice of changed schedules, including whether an employer will provide employees with predictive schedules; (8) Whether an employer will provide additional hours of work to employees the employer currently employs before employing additional workers; (9) Whether an employer will provide employees with fringe benefits and the type and amount of those benefits.
SB 331 was reported favorably by the House Finance committee this morning, and is expected to be voted on by the full House this afternoon.

Take Action Now: contact your State Representative today to oppose SB331

Trump’s Tax Dodge Highlights Ohio Tax Policy That Hurts Communities

If you prefer policy to the scandals and conspiracies that have taken center stage in the Presidential race, let’s briefly revisit the recent revelation that Donald Trump was able to avoid paying income tax for nearly two decades. This move was a result of Trump’s taking a $916 million deduction in 1995 for losses from his various businesses. In yet another example of how the tax code is skewed to favor those at the top, federal tax law allows business owners to subtract what is termed a “Net Operating Loss” (or NOL) from their income when determining tax liability. 416eff1001c09f03c7202612dc366f67_787_442 Unfortunately, this tax trick isn’t limited to federal taxes. Two years ago, Ohio lawmakers rewrote state law to force Ohio cities to allow the same type of tax break for business owners. The result is that cities, which had already been deeply impacted by state funding cuts, have less revenue to deliver essential services like road repair and public safety. In late 2014, legislators passed a bill – House Bill 5 – that requires cities to allow individuals who report business income on their personal income taxes to allow the deduction of business losses (NOLs) for up to 5 years. This change impacts 234 cities and villages, reducing the amount of revenue they collect to pay for vital public services and creates a new tax breaks for business owners. Ohio cities must allow a deduction of business losses even if the profits they offset came from wholly separate business. Unlike federal law, salary income cannot be offset by NOLs (bad news for any in-state real estate moguls drawing a big salary from popular reality shows!) The revenue impact to Ohio cities from the policy is expected to be large. While it is hard to predict the impact of a deduction businesses don’t currently claim, some cities offered estimates at the time of HB5’s consideration. Athens projected losing $60,000 per year; Westerville $300,000; Cleveland said it would cut $3 million. We estimated the statewide impact of the law could be as high as $82 million. Today, a legislative task force is currently working to estimate the impact of the law on cities’ bottom lines, but that didn’t stop lawmakers from enacting it into law. Proponents of even larger NOL tax breaks are still at it. In late September, a witness argued in a bipartisan committee hearing that lawmakers should go much further and force Ohio cities to extend the favorable treatment of tax losses from 5 to 20 years. At the federal level, Speaker Paul Ryan’s House Republican budget blueprint calls for allowing the tax break to grow with inflation and taking them for an unlimited number of years, not just the 18 Trump enjoyed. Ohio cities are coping with the elimination of the estate tax and cuts in state revenue-sharing and now are dealing with this new major hit on revenue. Further expanding the ability of businesses to shield taxable income for years after experiencing a loss means that individual rate payers have to pay more or local communities will continue to be starved of critical resources needed for public safety and other services. As local official put it when this state law passed, “If businesses don’t pay, residents will have to.”

Accountability 101: If State Counts ECOT’s Kids, School May Close. Exactly.

If the Ohio Department of Education tries to verify that students at the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow are online 5 hours a day, ECOT Superintendent Rick Teeters told email recipients, “they would likely force us and other e-schools to close our doors.” Exactly. It’s called accountability. At issue is ECOT’s whole business model — getting paid $7,127 per student (more per pupil state funding than 85 percent of Ohio’s traditional school districts) to simply offer 920 hours of curriculum to kids, not actually prove they are educating them. ECOT received $108 million last school year from the state, and has been paid nearly $1 billion since it opened in 2000. ECOT This is nothing less than an existential fight for the nation’s largest for-profit charter school. ODE wants to verify that the kids it’s sending taxpayer money to educate actually logged on and off enough to justify the $108 million expenditure. ECOT claims in a lawsuit filed last week that ODE doesn’t understand its technology, which is so apparently groundbreaking that it allows kids to be educated effectively without logging in. As Special Counsel to the Ohio Attorney General Douglas R. Cole put it in his filing responding to ECOT’s complaints, “Under a plain, common-sense reading of the community school (charter school) funding statutes, ECOT is required to track. and ODE to reimburse for, actual student participation. Finding otherwise would render numerous (Ohio Revised Code) provisions … meaningless, and, as a more fundamental matter, the statutory scheme would not make sense.” How else do regulators determine student participation in online educational experiences except through logging in and out of the system? It’s sort of like saying that a student in a traditional setting is “participating” even if the student shows up to school for a few minutes every so often. ECOT is arguing, essentially, that it should be paid in full for educating kids that barely show up simply because ECOT would let them in if they ever did show up. It’d be one thing if ECOT’s performance indicated this novel approach actually worked. However, as has been documented over and over again, ECOT’s performance is among the worst of any school in the state, and it can’t even graduate 4 out of 10 kids. So the returns aren’t great. According to the Dispatch article about the ECOT lawsuit, we may have a hearing as early as today to decide whether ODE can proceed with its quasi-audit of ECOT’s kids. So we may have clarity about whether this count moves forward very shortly. But if ECOT is forced to close because ODE is simply checking to make sure the school is educating students the state has already paid to educate, that says something about how ineffective ECOT has been. And it explains, once again, just how lacking Ohio has been on charter school oversight. For it appears that all ODE had to do to overcome ECOT’s significant political clout was to simply ask them to prove their kids actually participate in an educational program. And you wonder why Ohio’s charter school regime has been so mocked.  

Stay informed about key issues and bills.

Sign Up

We monitor Ohio politicians to help you hold them accountable.