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Sep 17 2019

How the Latest State Budget Impacts Ohio’s Women and Working Families

Read the full analysis of the Ohio budget through a gender lens on the Ohio Women’s Public Policy Network’s website.

Ohio’s new two-year state operating budget brought numerous improvements for the livelihood of women, but that’s not to say there weren’t plenty of drawbacks and lack of action on key issues as well.

Progress was made to improve the quality of childcare in Ohio. But there’s more work to be done.

The new state budget allocates $198 million to improve the quality of Ohio’s publicly funded childcare system. This increase in funding will allow improvements in ensuring that workers within the childcare sector are paid fair wages, and will also help to facilitate professional development and facility improvements.  Where the budget falls short is allocating resources to increase the access and affordability of childcare. By increasing the accessibility of childcare, children would enter school well prepared, and parents would have the opportunity to participate in the workforce.  While the DeWine Administration stated that increasing eligibility for childcare was a policy priority, ultimately no funds were allocated to support this endeavor. 

After attempts to restrict access to Medicaid via the inclusion of the “Healthy Ohio” Program in the budget, Medicaid services were ultimately left unharmed.

The provision of the so-called Healthy Ohio Program would have required premiums to access Medicaid, which would have had crucial implications on women, who comprise more than half of Ohio’s Medicaid population. Medicaid has long been a lifeline for women, and the legislature’s decision to ultimately remove the “Healthy Ohio” language was crucial to protect access to the program.

Progress was made towards addressing wage theft, an issue that faces many working-class Ohioans, particularly women and people of color working in low-wage jobs.

When workers are paid less than they were contractually promised, it is known as wage theft. Whether it be through violation of minimum-wage laws, not getting paid overtime, or forcing an employee to work off-the-clock, Ohio clocks in with the second-highest amount of wage theft among the ten largest states. Additional funding was allocated to the Ohio Bureau of Wage and Hour to help address this issue.

The state budget also codified some policies that we expect to negatively impact Ohio women and working-class families. 

By continuing to support a business tax cut known by many public service advocates as the  “L.L.C. loophole,” Ohio loses out on about $528 million per year or $1.1 billion for the duration of every state operating budget where it remains intact. There is little evidence to suggest that this tax break for L.L.C.s has created any significant number of new jobs in the state. Ohio is missing out on billions of dollars of revenue that could have been allocated towards programs to address our school funding crisis, increase childcare assistance eligibility, or invest in a refundable Earned Income Tax Credit (which we’ll discuss in just a moment), to name only a few ways this money could be better spent. 

There were also some issues facing Ohio women and their families that the state budget failed to address, entirely. 

Ohio’s Earned Income Tax Credit remains non-refundable.

One of these crucial areas of inaction was the budget’s failure to make Ohio’s Earned Income Tax Credit (E.I.T.C.) refundable, a policy that would have given a major economic boost to low-income families across the state.

.@PolicyMattersOH led the charge to advocate for a refundable state #EITC during the state operating budget process.

Unfortunately, lawmakers did not answer the call, and Ohio’s state EITC remains non-refundable. #OHBudget — Women’s Public Policy Network (@OhioWPPN) September 10, 2019
Nationally, the E.I.T.C has been crucial in lifting working families out of poverty. However, it is not without its limitations here in the state. The greatest shortfall of Ohio’s state E.I.T.C. is that it is non-refundable. If this gap in anti-poverty policy had been addressed, the state budget would have been able to put money back into the hands of working families. 

Despite the 2020 Census being right around the corner, the bill allocated no funding towards planning or conducting a complete census count in the Buckeye state. 

About $33 billion dollars in federal funding rests upon the outcomes of the U.S. Census, which determines how those federal dollars are dispersed, state-by-state. Without a correct and complete count, the well-being of women and historically undercounted communities, populations which rely heavily on these federal grant dollars, are undermined.

No efforts were made to create a framework for statewide paid family leave. 

Paid family and medical leave policies allow workers to address the needs of their families or their own health without risking their financial health. Currently, only 17% of American workers have access to paid leave through an employer, but lawmakers made no effort through the state budget to increase those statistics here in Ohio… To learn more about the push to bring paid family leave in Ohio, check out the Women’s Public Policy Network’s Paid Leave Advocacy page on their website.   

Read the full analysis of the Ohio budget on the Ohio Women’s Public Policy Network’s website.

Written by Erin Ryan · Categorized: Democracy, Economic Development and Jobs, Gender Equity, Ohio State Budget, Paid Leave, Reports, Taxation, Winning Agenda · Tagged: Budget, earned income tax credit, Ohio, Ohio Budget, ohio wppn, State Budget, taxation, Taxes, women's public policy network, women's rights, Women's Watch

Jul 17 2019

Innovation Ohio Statement on Charter School Provisions in Operating Budget

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 17, 2019
Contact: Michael McGovern mcgovern@innovationohio.org
Columbus, OH – Today, Innovation Ohio President Janetta King issued the following statement regarding the charter school provisions in the state operating budget:
“It is disappointing that Republicans in the legislature have once again placed the interests of failing charter schools ahead of Ohio students and communities. The budget passed today weakens state oversight of charter schools like ECOT, which ripped off Ohio schools and taxpayers to the tune of $200 million. After the ECOT debacle, we should be strengthening, not loosening, the rules regulating charter schools. Ohio taxpayers – and more importantly, Ohio students – deserve better.”
Founded in 2011, Innovation Ohio is a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank that blends policy research and advocacy to fight for working families in Ohio.

Written by Michael McGovern · Categorized: K-12 Education, Ohio State Budget, Press Releases, Statehouse Update · Tagged: Charter Schools, children, ECOT, ECOT Scandal, education, kids, Larry Householder, Larry Obhof, Mike DeWine, Ohio, Ohio Budget, Ohio Politics, Republicans, schools, State Budget, Taxes, taxpayers

Mar 21 2019

What’s in DeWine’s K-12 Budget?

Like much of Gov. Mike DeWine’s budget, his K-12 proposals are underwhelming. No New Base Funding Schools see no new change to the school funding formula in the DeWine proposal, as he has left the heavy lifting to State Reps. Cupp and Patterson, who next week will release the most highly-anticipated school funding reform plan in a decade. As we prepare for next week’s proposal, it’s important to have some historical context. When adjusted for inflation, Gov. Kasich’s last budget left schools about $900 million short of what they received in the recession budget 10 years ago. If the state were to base school funding on the actual cost of providing a high-quality education to students, Ohio would currently be about $1.7 billion short, according to figures from the last serious attempt to reform its school funding formula. Thus, any serious new funding formula will require significant new revenue.  $300 million a year more for wraparound services This money would bring more mental health and other services to poor students, providing every district with at least $25,000, even if the district has only a handful of poor students, up to about $250 a student, which could make a real difference. There would be cause for concern if this becomes a substitute for adequately funding schools. Our students deserve the investment the state simply hasn’t made for 30 years. And every kid deserves that commitment. Even with $300 million more in the 2020-2021 school year, adjusted for inflation, districts would remain several hundred million dollars short of what they received a decade ago during the Great Recession. $30 million for high performing charter schools While Ohio absolutely should begin to differentiate between low and high-performing charter schools, creating a market based on quality rather than enrollment, DeWine is doing so by tapping into the state’s lottery fund, forcing cuts in lottery money headed to traditional public districts. At the end of this two-year budget, nearly $50 million will be headed to charters from the Lottery, which was supposed to go strictly to school districts. We need to be creating a charter school market that rewards success. But taking it out of funds voters created for school districts seems counterproductive. There is already $16.6 million in the current state budget for high-performing charters to receive capital funding. Not even 25 percent of that amount has been spent because so few charters meet the criteria. Adding $30 million which is limited to the few high performing schools operated in Ohio in hope that more will materialize prevents that money from going to kids in our traditional public school districts. Another big increase for the voucher program DeWine continues the misguided increases to the EdChoice, income-based voucher in this budget. EdChoice has actually been shown to harm student achievement. Pouring $24 million more into this program that has hurt the kids who take the vouchers makes little sense. We also need to review amounts going into the other voucher programs when the final budget documents are released to see how much total revenue meant for school districts will be going instead to private, mostly religious schools. Preschool flat funded This was actually shocking. Ohio’s struggles with early childhood education have been stunning, especially given how even conservative states like Oklahoma have created Universal Pre-K. And while there has been a lot of talk about beefing up our state’s early childhood program, this budget is not that. Significantly more charter school oversight DeWine increased the budget for ODE’s charter oversight office from $2.5 million to $7 million. That’s good, but still not enough to oversee an $889 million a year industry with a track record of fraud and underperformance. Workforce Development Much of DeWine’s workforce development agenda is funded within the K-12 budget, with new resources to help students achieve more industry-recognized credentials. Between 2014 and 2018, the percentage of Ohio students leaving high school with an industry-recognized credential grew from about 4 to just over 6 percent. While that’s a significant increase, it’s still far short of what our students should be achieving. We need more details to understand whether the new money in this budget would be paired with programs to motivate more students to seek these credentials during high school. Conclusion Overall, this falls short of the “investment budget” that DeWine promised. There are some small benefits and a few districts will see significant increases to address the real challenges of their most needy students. But it’s neither enough money to overcome the needs of poor students in every district nor is it enough to overcome the last decade of Kasich budget cuts. All while charters more than double their money from lottery funds, vouchers continue to increase, and early childhood education is all but ignored.

Written by Stephen Dyer · Categorized: K-12 Education, Ohio State Budget · Tagged: education, Ohio, Ohio Budget, Public Education, School Funding, State Budget, Taxes

Jun 20 2018

New Analysis: ECOT Overbilled State Nearly $200 Million

New Analysis: ECOT Stole Nearly $200 Million from State

Estimate shows ECOT scandal is largest in state history
Columbus, OH – Today, Innovation Ohio Education Policy Fellow Stephen Dyer released a new analysis of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) scandal, finding that the shuttered charter school defrauded the state by at least $189 million since 2000. This is the first published estimate of the total amount stolen by ECOT. When ECOT was caught billing the state a total of $80 million in 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 for students they couldn’t prove they actually educated, the immediate question arose: how much more did they potentially rip off taxpayers during their entire 18 years in operation? In 9 of the 18 years of ECOT’s existence, the Department of Education found and documented overpayments of various sizes. Based on these findings, Dyer took the percentage overpayment in each of those years, calculated an average percentage of overpayment during those FTE reviews, then applied that to the years in which ECOT’s enrollment wasn’t scrutinized. The estimated overpayment was combined with the previously reported overpayments, and the result is that approximately $189 million was overbilled during the school’s time in operation. “This is easily the largest scandal in Ohio history,” said Dyer. “ECOT stole nearly $200 million in taxpayer money that should have gone to educate our children. Instead, this money enriched ECOT’s founder and his political allies.” A full explanation of Dyer’s methodology can be found here. In terms of scale, the infamous Tom Noe “Coingate” scandal in 2006 involved $50 million in unemployment insurance money (technically not taxpayer money). Even with this relatively conservative estimate, the ECOT scandal could be four times larger than Coingate – likely even more. Tom Noe was given more than 20 years in prison for his scandal. Will this much larger, taxpayer funded scandal produce similar results? “While it is important to have this number and understand the scope of this scandal, this also raises many more questions that must be answered. The Department of Education and state Auditor owe us a full explanation of how they allowed this to happen for 18 years,” Dyer continued. Despite the size and scope of this scandal, lawmakers have yet to address the underlying issues that allowed this to occur. KEY NUMBERS IN THE ECOT SCANDAL Total taxpayer dollars diverted to ECOT since 2000 – More than $1,000,000,000 Total diverted since 2012 that we can document by each school district – $591,000,000 Estimate for the total amount stolen – $189,000,000

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For more information: All of Innovation Ohio’s ECOT research can be found here: innovationohio.org/ecot  

Written by Katherine Liming · Categorized: ECOT, Featured Items, Press Releases · Tagged: ECOT, ECOT Scandal, education, Taxes

Jun 14 2018

Ohio Taxpayers Forced to Pay $588,000 in ECOT Hush Money

Ohio Taxpayers Forced to Pay $588,000 in ECOT Hush Money

Columbus, OH– The Electronic School of Tomorrow (ECOT) paid $588,000 in hush money to 201 former employees, according to records that the now-shuttered online charter school provided in response to a public records request.

Because ECOT was a public charter school, these severance packages were paid for with taxpayer dollars.

Filed by Common Cause Ohio and Innovation Ohio, the request came after a whistleblower refused to take the money, then told reporters that ECOT purchased and manipulated new software to extract millions of dollars from the state that it did not deserve. Ohio officials are attempting to recover more than $80 million from ECOT, and ECOT is in court, insisting it owes taxpayers no money at all.

All the money was paid out in 2017 as part of a “severance and release agreement,’’ the records show. In addition to “non-disclosure” clauses, the agreements also contained “non-disparagement” clauses.

“Public funds should never be used to pay hush money,’’ said Common Cause Ohio Executive Director Catherine Turcer. “A severance package is supposed to give employees a cushion when they leave – not hide problems from elected officials, administrators, the press and the public.’’

ECOT’s attendance padding has been referred to the FBI and Franklin County Prosecutor for further review, and the scandal has emerged as a central issue in this year’s statewide elections.

The agreement’s “non-disparagement” clauses stipulate that former employees receive severance packages only if they agree that they “have not and will not make statements to anyone that are in any way disparaging or negative towards ECOT, including disparaging remarks about individuals associated with ECOT or the service it provides.”

Stephen Dyer, a lawyer and Education Policy Fellow for Innovation Ohio, said the agreements are not standard.

“The agreements ban employees from making statements to ‘anyone that are in any way disparaging or negative toward ECOT, including disparaging remarks about individuals associated with ECOT or the services it provides,’” Dyer said. “ECOT’s lawyer notes that employees are free to talk with law enforcement. What he does not tell you is that these types of agreements cannot legally prevent people from cooperating with law enforcement.’’

The records request asked for the amount of hush money paid over a five-year period.

While ECOT said it fully complied with the request, charter school researcher Sandy Theis said she is aware of other former employees who signed non-disparagement agreements in exchange for money who are not included in the information that ECOT provided.

###

The documents turned over by ECOT are online here:

ECOT Response Re: Public Records Request

Severance and Release Agreement: Absi to Deemer

Severance and Release Agreement: Delboccio to Kroehler

Severance and Release Agreement: LeBlanc to Roach

Severance and Release Agreement: Rooney to Zoog and includes complete list

Written by Katherine Liming · Categorized: ECOT, Press Releases · Tagged: Common Cause, ECOT, Innovation Ohio, Taxes

Jul 25 2013

Effects of Kasich property tax increase already being felt

property taxAs we wrote about recently, Republican lawmakers slipped in a provision in the waning hours of the budget process that will  soon cause property taxes to increase for all Ohioans. The provision, the elimination of the property tax rollback, means that property owners will be forced to pay an additional 12.5 percent on all new and replacement levies. Since the 1970’s that 12.5 percent was picked up by the state, but with the signing of the budget the state will no longer cover that cost. Going forward this means that tax bills will rise for all property owners, continuing the transfer of  paying for government services from the state level to the local level. This change is already starting to affect local communities. On Tuesday, there was an excellent article on the increased tax burden property owners face in Upper Arlington, a suburb outside of Columbus. Upper Arlington Schools planned on placing a new levy on the November ballot for $6.3 million a year but school officials noted that the cost to homeowners increased significantly since the budget was signed into law. [Read more…]

Written by bpeyton · Categorized: K-12 Education, Ohio State Budget, Taxation · Tagged: Levies, Property Taxes, School Levies, Taxes

May 29 2013

Senate budget changes include misguided business tax cut proposal

After weeks of deliberation, the Senate Finance Committee accepted the newest version of the state budget, on Monday. Highlights included:
  • Senate Republicans decided to swap the 7 percent income tax cut that House Republicans had inserted for Gov. Kasich’s original small business tax exclusions;
  • Gov. Kasich’s Medicaid expansion was not included but Republican leaders said standalone legislation could be introduced soon;
  • Republicans punted on changes to the school funding formula and plan to introduced their recommendations as an amendment to the bill next week; [Read more…]

Written by bpeyton · Categorized: Ohio State Budget, Taxation · Tagged: Ohio Budget, Small Business Tax Cut, Taxes

Mar 11 2013

Omen for Ohio? Michigan’s sales tax on service repealed 17 hours after taking effect.

In his two-year budget, Governor Kasich proposes to expand Ohio’s sales tax to apply to most services to pay for an income tax cut. Expansions of sales taxes to services have been proposed before, but typically fail. We’ve already discussed previous efforts in Florida and Ohio. Today we look at a 2007 effort in Michigan. On October 1, 2007, the Michigan legislature passed a bill expanding the state’s sales tax to services. Like in Ohio, proponents noted that the service sector was growing as a share of the economy and represented three-fifths of consumer spending. Expanding the sales tax would generate an additional $1 billion in revenue that was needed to fund infrastructure projects, education, police and fire departments, welfare and the prison system. And, also similar to the Kasich effort in Ohio, proponents of the Michigan tax expansion argued that the expansion was actually more progressive than the existing sales tax on tangible goods because wealthier taxpayers use more services — and more expensive services — than the poor. The bill took effect on December 1, 2007, but was repealed just 17 hours later. Here’s how it played out: [Read more…]

Written by ironside · Categorized: Ohio State Budget, Taxation · Tagged: Ohio Budget, Sales Tax, Taxes

Mar 07 2013

Florida’s failed experiment with sales tax expansion

Governor Kasich is seeking to expand the state sales tax base to help pay for a $4 billion income tax cut. This is not the first time a state has attempted to broaden its sales tax base. Yesterday we looked at Gov. Taft’s 2003 effort. Today we review the 1987 expansion of Florida’s sales tax to services which faced many of the same roadblocks. At the end of the 1986 legislative session, the Florida legislature passed a bill extending the state’s five percent state sales tax to an array of new services and repealed exemptions for many previously exempt services. Florida did not have an income tax and needed additional revenue to provide services for a rapidly growing population. After the bill’s passage, the legislature was forced to postpone the tax’s enactment until July 1, 1987, citing “significant policy, revenue, legal and administrative implications” that required further consideration. Six months later, the new sales tax was repealed. Here’s what happened: [Read more…]

Written by ironside · Categorized: Ohio State Budget, Taxation · Tagged: Ohio Budget, Sales Tax, Taxes

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