January 2021 Legislative Update
Material is drawn from different stories in the Ohio Capital Journal
New Ohio legislative session begins as lawmakers discuss coronavirus, House Bill 6
When the Ohio General Assembly adjourned in 2020, members left behind several high-profile bills that never made it to the governor’s desk – such as a school funding overhaul and a sweeping domestic violence bill that would require police to screen victims for their risk of murder and help connect them to job training and other resources.
Lawmakers will arrive in Columbus in 2021 with pressure to pass a two-year state budget, and will likely continue to wrestle with Gov. Mike DeWine on whether to limit his authority to create public health orders.
What to do with House Bill 6?
After months of deliberation about House Bill 6, lawmakers decided to punt any repeal or replacement effort to 2021.
HB 6 is the $1.3 billion nuclear bailout bill at the center of what has been called the largest corruption scheme in state history.
As a result, one thing is clear: Ohio lawmakers needed to do something about the tainted bill.
DeWine, who signed the bill into law in 2019, called for its repeal. Householder was removed as House Speaker. His replacement, Rep. Robert Cupp, R-Lima, said one of the first priorities of his speakership would be addressing HB 6.
Cupp did create a new “House Select Committee on Energy Policy and Oversight,” which met nine times between September and December to hear testimony on various attempts to repeal HB 6.
Members could not come to an agreement on how to best approach HB 6; some wanted a full repeal, others wanted only certain portions replaced and a few defended the whole bill as being good public policy, even if it did come about through sordid means.
“Well, I had certainly talked to people who were against it, I talked to people who were for it,” DeWine said. “I looked at everything. Over half of the states have a similar law such as this.”
Two of those involved have already pleaded guilty in federal court; the cases against Householder and two others are ongoing.
Householder was reelected to another term and it remains to be seen if the chamber will take a vote in 2021 to expel him. When Cupp was elected as speaker in July, he indicated such a vote would wait until after the new term starts.
School spending reform will take more time
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled the state’s school funding model was unconstitutional back in 1997. Decades later, lawmakers are still working to figure out a constitutional and equitable substitute.
A bipartisan funding overhaul passed the House in early December, but did not make it through the Senate.
It’s hoped that the Senate will pass the new formula as a piece of the next state budget, which will be decided in the first half of 2021.
Republicans still concerned about pandemic authority
For all the condemnation leveled against Ohio’s pandemic response by Republican lawmakers in 2020, the legislature achieved little this year in the way of curbing the government’s executive powers.
Between May and December, Republicans introduced numerous bills targeting the pandemic authority of the governor and the Ohio Department of Health (ODH). Only a few of them passed, and DeWine followed through on a pledge to veto any bill restricting ODH’s ability to issue health orders meant to stem the spread of COVID-19.
DeWine vetoed a bill over the summer which would have reduced the penalties for violating a public health order. Lawmakers did not seek a veto override.
More recently, DeWine vetoed a bill to prevent ODH from issuing widespread quarantine orders (it also would’ve given lawmakers authority to vote down any public health orders). Despite protests and pressure from conservative lawmakers to override the veto, such a vote was not taken during the lame-duck session.
Late in the term, lawmakers debated efforts to make future health orders more fair to business owners, should they be necessary. At other points this year, legislators said they wanted to address the state’s pandemic authority for future crises beyond the coronavirus. Those efforts may come up again in 2021.
Campaign finance and election reform
These were two hotly-debated topics this year in large part because of the presidential election cycle and the House Bill 6 scandal.
Lawmakers proposed a wide array of improvements to the state’s election system over the past term — from automated voter registration to online absentee ballot requests. Some legislators expressed worry about approving reforms during an election year, but there may be an opportunity for reforms to be heard during an “off year” like 2021.
The HB6 scandal involved allegations of bribery money being funneled through “dark money” groups in order to influence Ohio elections and public policy. These groups are registered nonprofits which are not required to disclose who funds them.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, whose office oversees campaign finance in the state, came out in favor of improved transparency when it comes to “dark money groups.” He supported legislative efforts which followed Householder’s arrests to require such groups to publicly disclose their financial activity.
A bipartisan bill proposing reforms to the state’s campaign finance system did not receive a hearing in 2020, but these efforts may carry over to the new term.
Split opinions on criminal justice reform
There was much attention paid to the legislature’s work to reform the Ohio criminal justice system, with plenty of disagreements leading to mixed results.
Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1, which expands access to drug treatment programs in lieu of convictions and broadens the description for criminal records that may be sealed.
A separate bill to reclassify low-level drug offenses from felonies to misdemeanors passed the Senate last June, but was not taken up for a vote during the House’s lame-duck session. The bill sought to divert drug offenders into treatment rather than criminal punishment.
Despite bipartisan support in the Statehouse and among civil rights groups, the bill remained controversial among law enforcement groups and prosecutors. The Ohio State Bar Association came out against the bill, arguing in testimony that some drug offenders “must have serious consequences hanging over their heads like the threat of a felony and prison time” in order to commit to a treatment program.
Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Green Twp., will serve as Majority Floor Leader next term, told The Cincinnati Enquirer that work will continue in 2021 on criminal justice reform.
Gov. Mike DeWine
The early months of the new year will be difficult, DeWine says, and his administration’s focus will be to stabilize Ohio’s coronavirus case numbers, as well as deploying the COVID-19 vaccine throughout the state.
Beyond that, he said his administration’s priorities include:
The governor said gun reform will top his agenda, along with a plan for police reform that includes more training and getting rid of police who he said are not good people.
And, of course, economic and coronavirus recovery are part of his agenda as well.
Pushing the state legislature to take up police reform. The governor is supporting House Bill 703, which hasn’t gotten a committee hearing after it was introduced in June in the aftermath of the protests and unrest sparked by the death of George Floyd. “The legislature should take that bill and go through the normal legislative process,” DeWine said.
Using his 2021-2022 budget proposal to continue his priorities of emphasizing early-childhood education, Lake Erie water quality and mental health resources. “These are long-term projects. I’ve felt that the governor, particularly in the earlier years, needs to focus on long-term projects… People might not immediately see the results, but they have a long-term impact.
More on the state budget. He said he doesn’t expect there to be any major funding cuts. “You’re going to see a lot of things flat-funded, but we hope to avoid any significant interruption or significant cuts. And thank heavens we have the rainy-day fund. We’ll have no hesitancy in spending it.”
Promoting and improving Ohio’s state parks, which got an additional $253 million in his capital-budget bill. “One of the great things coming out of this pandemic is that people are rediscovering our great state parks,”
Lt. Gov. Jon Husted
Husted said his hope for 2021 is that once the vaccine has been distributed, the administration can put greater focus on its long-term educational and technological initiatives that were his priorities before the coronavirus pandemic. He said the pandemic only increases Ohio’s need to focus on workforce training and expansion of Ohio’s broadband network. But it created a new problem in that many students are now going to need to catch up for the classroom time they’ve missed.
Attorney General Dave Yost
Yost plans to focus on building trust between law enforcement and communities by promoting “better training and better accountability for the very few bad apples with a badge,” according to a spokesman. Another focus will be to seek tougher penalties for human traffickers and people who pay for sex while “reaching out to help survivors find their way back.”
Secretary of Frank LaRose
LaRose wants to lobby state lawmakers to expand elections access by allowing people to apply for absentee ballots online and allowing counties to set up multiple early-voting centers if they choose. He also said he will continue to back a proposal to require greater disclosure in political spending, an effort to combat the “dark money” efforts like the one that underpinned the scandal-tainted House Bill 6 campaign.
Sen. Matt Huffman, Lima Republican and presumed Senate president for 2021
-K-12 funding overhaul. The Ohio House passed House Bill 305, after years of work on the issue, with broad bipartisan support. The bill died in the Senate during the lame duck, but Huffman said that he wants to get funding reform passed in the first six months of 2021. The Ohio Supreme Court decided the state’s school funding scheme was unconstitutional nearly 25 years ago.
-A review and possible changes to how the state and local health departments make public health decisions — “and how the legislature stays involved,”
-Changing the amount of assets and wealth people can have before they qualify for public benefits. Huffman believes some Ohioans have a relatively high level of wealth and assets but still qualify for benefits. He said this results in less money being available to people who really need assistance.
-Requiring more transparency around hospital ownership of small clinics. Huffman said there’s been a trend of hospital systems increasingly buying smaller clinics and physician practices. This is hiking up the amount insurers and government health programs pay for services, he said.
-A review and changes to the cost of public higher education. Students take on tremendous debt to get educated, and sometimes they don’t graduate, or they take years to obtain their degree,
Senate Minority Leader Kenny Yuko, a Richmond Heights Democrat:
“We’re going to have a lot to do next year to make sure we meet the needs of the families and small businesses that have been most impacted by the pandemic, and that starts with passing a fair budget that puts workers first and helps our economy recover.
We’ll also have to tackle two major issues that have set Ohioans back for years: gerrymandered districts and unconstitutional school funding.
Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp, a Lima Republican:
“I’ll be discussing with our caucus’ new and returning members regarding House priorities for 2021. However, retaining and creating jobs, keeping our local businesses and our state’s economy open, and a new funding framework for local schools will certainly continue to be a priority for our members, as will a number of other issues, such as education, health care and COVID-related issues.”
Ohio House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes, an Akron Democrat:
“House Democrats will be focused on many of the same things we were focused on in 2020 that the Republican supermajority never allowed to get done, like a real, statewide plan to control the virus, protect workers, boost consumer confidence and invest in an economy that works for all of us.”
Sykes said that Democrats are committed to repealing House Bill 6, which sought to bail out nuclear power plants formerly owned by a FirstEnergy subsidiary but is now associated with a federal corruption investigation of whether $60 million in bribes were paid to benefit the political career of former House Speaker Larry Householder.
She also wants to pass Aisha’s Law, which seeks to protect domestic violence victims by requiring police to screen for whether they face the risk of murder, among other requirements.
She would like the legislature to pass measures for paid family and sick leave, criminal justice system reform, “commonsense gun safety” and House Bill 305, the school funding overhaul that died in the Senate.