Latest news with #MikeDeWine
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a day ago
- Business
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Ohio school district leaders express mixed reactions to Governor Dewine's budget vetoes
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The new state budget is in effect after Gov. Mike DeWine issued 67 vetoes, many of which directly impacted public education funding. Leaders from Ohio's largest school district, Columbus City Schools, shared their reaction to the budget. The superintendent, treasurer, and school board president all said there are pros and cons to the budget. They are happy with the governor's vetoes, but are still worried about having enough money to educate students. CCS leaders said the biggest issue with the budget comes down to the Fair School Funding Plan, a bipartisan effort created in 2021 that makes sure school districts get the state funding they need. Superintendent Dr. Angela Chapman said the funding formula in the current budget does not keep up with inflation. Honda Marysville faces lawsuit over unpaid time 'We know that the cost of educating our students today has not decreased. Those costs are actually increasing, but the revenue has not caught up with those that increase cost,' said Dr. Chapman. Treasurer Ryan Cook said the formula uses cost data from 2022 instead of 2025. 'We continue to evaluate every way possible to do more with less,' said Cook. Cook and Chapman said this lack of funding could have immediate and long-term effects on students' education. 'We have to make sure that our classrooms have the resources that they need. Our teachers are ready,' said Dr. Chapman. 'Our staff are ready to support our students when they return, regardless of what funding source is in or out.' The superintendent and treasurer both expressed their gratitude to Gov. DeWine and his many vetoes that are beneficial to school districts, including those on property tax relief and a cap on how much money districts could carry over. 'I think it's important to note the appreciation to Governor DeWine on all of his vetoes that help protect public education, public funding of that, local control, not just for school districts but municipalities,' said Cook. Columbus Board of Education President Michael Cole said if lawmakers decide to override any of these vetoes, it could be detrimental to CCS and other districts statewide. 'The way that the governor set this is right and appropriate. Don't change it. Don't undo things that were thoughtfully put in place to protect students,' said Cole. Ohio House members said they will return to the statehouse later this month so they can talk about overriding some of the governor's vetoes, most regarding property tax relief. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
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a day ago
- Business
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Is Ohio's funding fair yet? Fair School Funding Plan sponsor says not quite
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — When high school history teacher John Patterson won his first state House race, he wanted to fix Ohio's public school funding. More than a decade later, the state has once again implemented his funding plan, but Patterson said Ohio still has a ways to go. 'It's going to be, again, a commitment to right this ship,' Patterson said. 'We didn't get here overnight. We're not going to get out overnight.' Ohio uses the Cupp-Patterson Fair School Funding Formula to determine how much money each public school district should get from the state. Under Ohio's new biennial budget, which was signed late on June 30 by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, the formula was phased in as the 'largest overall school funding investment' in Ohio's history, per DeWine. Public school advocates say the state is still underfunding schools by $2 billion. Patterson said Ohio is not yet fairly funding districts, as the state needs to consider all aspects of the formula, update its financial data more regularly and embrace bipartisan solutions. How Ohio's recently passed budget will expand driver's ed requirements Patterson, a Democrat, created the Fair School Funding Plan alongside former Speaker of the Ohio House Robert Cupp, a Republican. The pair spent several years working with legislators, superintendents and school treasurers to develop a formula to fund schools adequately. This formula weighs individual factors for each of Ohio's 611 public school districts to determine which needs more state support. Patterson said although he's glad the formula was continued, equitable funding requires a better implementation of the formula's categorical inputs. The categorical portion examines transportation demands, economically disadvantaged students, English language learners, special education and other important factors that Patterson said have been largely sidelined in Fair School Funding discussions. He also asked the state to consider more efficient updates. Under the current funding plan, districts have to update their data inputs with the most recently available data. However, the state will use data from 2022 through the end of Fiscal Year 2027, widening the gap between districts' inputs and the state's annually. Patterson said the cost of running a school, like the cost of groceries, has noticeably increased since 2022, so using outdated data points minimizes how much schools get under the formula. Public school advocates have long echoed Patterson's worry about the state's use of outdated financial data, encouraging the state to use the most recently available information. Patterson said although the data should be more recent, a slight delay in the state's inputs is needed to properly plan allocations. However, he said districts still need to update their data annually to avoid skewing the formula. 'There's got to be a cushion there to make sure that there's enough money to cover what ought to happen,' Patterson said. 'Because remember the data inputs there, that's real dollars.' Ohio equal rights, gay marriage amendment eyes 2026 ballot Patterson said the funding plan blends property and income wealth to better understand a school district's ability to fund education. Property tax reform was a major issue this budget cycle, but Patterson was grateful DeWine vetoed reform proposals that could have skewed the formula. Patterson was glad to see DeWine created a new work group to tackle property tax instead, saying the problem is too ingrained in local funding systems to fold into the budget. Patterson said the legislators who were involved in developing and passing the Fair School Funding Plan are being phased out of the legislature, leaving a newer General Assembly without input from the original work group. He encouraged lawmakers to learn as much as possible about the funding plan and public districts' funding needs. 'That's the beauty of the Fair School Funding Plan. It's not a wish list. It's a real depiction of what school districts are spending in a certain amount of time in order to meet their obligations,' Patterson said. Patterson said Ohio's school funding — and adjacent property tax relief concerns — need bipartisan collaboration like his with Cupp on the formula. He said he spent more time with Cupp than he did with any other lawmaker except for his roommate, another Republican representative who shared an apartment with Patterson. 'It can be done if we want to do what's best for the people, and by doing what's best for the people, both parties are benefited as well,' Patterson said. 'Some are more concerned with climbing the ladder or holding on to power. I believe in doing what's right for the people, and that's who Bob Cupp is, too.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
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Ohio House will return this month to consider property tax provision veto overrides
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Ohio House members will return to the Statehouse later this month to consider overriding Gov. Mike DeWine's vetoes on several property tax provisions in the state's $60 billion budget. A memo was sent to state representatives informing them of a session at 11 a.m. on July 21 for the purpose of considering overriding the vetoes of items 55, 65, and 66 regarding property tax relief. Those items are: Property Tax: County Budget Commission Authority & Procedure 20-Mill Floor Calculation School District Property Tax Levy Restrictions Not included in the list of items being considered for overrides is a provision that limited how much money school districts could carry over from one year to the next. However, the memo notes that other line-item veto overrides could be considered at future sessions. Here's what DeWine vetoed from the $60B state budget 'As Finance Chairman, I fought for those provisions & they should become law,' Rep. Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) said in a social media post. 'Speaker Huffman & my GOP leadership colleagues have been working hard to wrangle scheduled & pave the way for a veto override & I'm glad we've now got a date on the calendar — July 21. Game on.' The lawmakers will meet in the Senate Chamber due to maintenance work being done in some areas of the Statehouse. It is unclear when the Senate could return to also vote on the overrides. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
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a day ago
- Business
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Ohio House overrides one budget veto, hoping to provide property tax relief
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The House reconvened Monday and successfully agreed to override one of Gov. Mike DeWine's 67 line item budget vetoes. DeWine signed the state's 2026-2027 budget into effect on June 30, issuing 67 line-item vetoes. The House met Monday in hopes of overriding three property tax vetoes, and successfully voted to override one: item 66, school district property tax levy restrictions, which passed 61-28. The House did not vote on the other two vetoes they were expected to try to override because some Republican lawmakers were absent, and they did not think they would pass. If the veto override is concurred by the Senate, political subdivisions will no longer be allowed to levy replacement property tax levies, and school districts will no longer be able to levy fixed-sum emergency, substitute emergency and combined income tax and fixed-sum property tax levies. These levies are typically used to provide funding for day-to-day operational needs, like salaries, supplies or key services. 'They deserve the right to determine how much they want to fund their schools at the local level and when they go to the ballot to pass a levy, we should be respecting their ability to have local control over how much they want to fund their schools,' House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati) said. Proponents of the change say words like 'emergency' and 'replacement' mislead taxpayers into voting for property tax increases they may not want. Opponents, including DeWine and many public school districts, say those levies are important revenue sources, and eliminating them will not provide meaningful tax relief. 'No one is getting less money as a result of what we did today,' House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said. 'In the future, maybe voters will say, I didn't know I was voting for that. I'm going to be against it.' Why is it raining so much in central Ohio? To successfully override a gubernatorial veto, the House must have 60 of 99 members agree, and the Senate must have 20 of 33 members concur. On Monday, 89 House members were present. Prior to Monday's vote, there were questions as to how many lawmakers would make the out-of-season session vote, as many have left Columbus on break. Although the House has passed the overrides, the Senate would need to concur, and they have not announced any plans to reconvene for a veto override vote. State lawmakers generally agree Ohioans need property tax relief, but the debate stems from how and when to offer it. DeWine said he vetoed item 66, the tax levy restrictions, because they could harm public school funding, among other concerns. DeWine said he understands the need for property tax relief, but wants to provide it outside of the budget. 'These levies serve as important tools for school districts as they seek to maintain their long-term financial stability,' DeWine wrote in his veto message. DeWine and many Democrats say property tax relief cannot come at the expense of local schools and municipalities, who often rely on property taxes to stay afloat. Many Republicans disagree, saying property tax relief cannot wait. 'We're in a crisis, and when we're in a crisis, you act immediately,' Rep. David Thomas (R-Jefferson) said. 'He vetoed them for a reason because they don't provide the property relief that people actually need,' Isaacsohn said. 'We should not be voting on these veto overrides at all.' Along with his vetoes, DeWine created a property tax reform working group to address meaningful property tax relief. DeWine selected former legislators Bill Seitz and Pat Tiberi to chair the group. The group is asked to issue a report and tax relief proposals that still ensure adequate funding for schools, emergency services, libraries and disability support services by Sept. 30. DeWine announced nine other members of the work group just hours after the veto override vote, and new members include county auditors, commissioners, mayors and superintendents. Columbus City Council votes to create new LGBTQ+ affairs commission In Ohio, there are multiple types of property tax levies that must be used for specific costs, including the four types included in the veto override. Replacement levies replace existing property tax levies, either by maintaining or increasing the levy amount, typically when one expires. Emergency levies address an immediate need for funding to maintain current services. The veto override also limits the use of fixed-sum levies. In Ohio, property tax levies are calculated using mills, with millage referring to the rate property is taxed. For instance, a school district or fire department might pass a 10-mill levy that generates $2 million annually. As property tax values increase, it takes fewer mills to generate the same amount of money, so either the cash amount or millage fluctuates. A fixed-sum levy ensures a district gets the same amount of money every year, regardless of how many mills it takes to generate that sum. The House had initially hoped to reinstate three changes to how these levies are regulated, but did not vote on two others: Property tax: County budget commission authority and procedure 20 Mill Floor calculation 'I think if we have more discussion, we'll come back in October,' Huffman said. 'It's my expectation that we will take veto overrides on those two and likely some others also.' If reinstated, the first provision would have allowed county budget commissions to reduce how many mills a voter-approved property tax levy was charging. The second change would have adjusted what types of property tax levies are included in the 20 Mill Floor, altering complex tax laws about how school districts can benefit from levy millage. Although opponent and proponent speakers at the House session were largely split along party lines, the House voted on the vetoes using iPads, so it is not yet known how every member voted. Democrats have already been outspoken against the override. 'The elephant in the room is that if the Republican majority had fully funded our state share to the schools, we would not have a property tax crisis,' Senate Democratic Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) said after the override vote. 'This vote will strip communities of the ability to make decisions about their schools, fire departments, libraries and more, and it directly contradicts the values of representative government.' The Ohio House last successfully overrode budget vetoes in 2017, the first time it had happened in 40 years. In that instance, the Senate approved six of the 11 overrides. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
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a day ago
- Health
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Efforts to reduce toxic algae in Lake Erie appear to be making progress. Now they face budget cuts
Photo of a 2009 algal bloom in Lake Erie | NASA This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here. Cuts to a major water-quality program in Ohio's biennial budget will likely weaken efforts to control the spread of toxic blue-green algae in Lake Erie. The program in question, H2Ohio, has invested millions of dollars in improving water quality throughout the state. Much of that money has gone toward cutting off the supply of nutrients to the aforementioned algae, also known as cyanobacteria, which bloom in massive quantities every summer. The new state budget, which Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law on July 1, drastically cuts funding for those efforts. Large blooms of cyanobacteria cause problems for pretty much everything that isn't algae. They block sunlight and create aquatic 'dead zones' where there isn't enough dissolved oxygen for other organisms to survive. They also release toxins that pose significant health risks to humans, especially to people with pre-existing conditions. David Kennedy, a professor of medicine at the University of Toledo, described a case of a 7-year-old girl with asthma who was exposed to cyanobacteria while swimming in Maumee Bay. 'Her asthma was exacerbated to the point where she needed to be intubated and had a very long, complicated stay in our medical center,' Kennedy said. The girl did eventually recover. By reducing the nutrients entering the lake each year, scientists and environmental stewards hope to limit how big the algal blooms get. The main culprit is phosphorus, a key component in agricultural fertilizers, both commercially produced and via manure. 'Whenever it rains, that water goes into the soil, it dissolves the phosphorus just like your sugar in a coffee, and then that water leaves the field carrying the dissolved phosphorus,' said Chris Winslow, director of the Ohio Sea Grant College Program at the Ohio State University. Some of that water finds its way to the Maumee River, then into western Lake Erie, where the phosphorus it carries becomes food for cyanobacteria. The more phosphorus the Maumee brings into the lake, the bigger the bloom that year. Nathan Manning of the National Center for Water Quality Research at Ohio's Heidelberg University said as of June 16 this year, researchers had measured 227 metric tons of dissolved phosphorus flowing out of the Maumee. That puts the likely total for the summer around 235 to 273 metric tons. 'The target … for dissolved reactive phosphorus is 240 metric tons. So there's a good chance that we will stay below or right at that target, which is good news,' Manning said. Winslow said that's a sign everyone's efforts are paying off, though he cautioned that it's impossible to say for sure unless those efforts are scaled back. 'We assume these things are doing great jobs to trap nutrients, but the only way you know is to stop doing it. So if we go next year, and see that the dissolved phosphorus goes up and these programs are no longer there, it's a good indication that they were working,' Winslow said. With the cuts to H2Ohio, that proof may come sooner rather than later. Since its inception in 2019, the program has tackled the phosphorus problem in two ways: by incentivizing farmers to change their practices, and by funding the construction and maintenance of wetlands. On the agricultural side, the Ohio Department of Agriculture uses H2Ohio money to help farmers limit how much fertilizer runs off their fields. That includes testing soil to determine how much fertilizer a farmer should apply in the first place, as well as training on things like manure management and overwinter cover crops. Thanks to H2Ohio, farmers don't have to pay for those changes themselves. Wetland management, which falls under the purview of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, plays an equally important role. When water passes through a wetland, the plants there act as natural filters, absorbing some of the nutrients before they reach a larger river or lake. Under the new budget, the Department of Agriculture's yearly H2Ohio budget is going from $60.8 million to $53.6 million. The Department of Natural Resources is getting hit even harder: Its H2Ohio budget is dropping from $46.6 million to $21.2 million. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency also gets H2Ohio dollars, mostly to protect drinking water; its budget is falling from $27.5 million to just $7.5 million. Nate Schlater, senior director of ecological restoration at the environmental and economic development nonprofit Rural Action, is overseeing the construction of a new wetland near the Auglaize River in northwestern Ohio, which feeds into the Maumee. He and his team are using H2Ohio dollars for the project. The land was previously owned by a farmer, who sold it to Rural Action because it was prone to flooding. Constructing could mean various things depending on the wetland. In some cases, it may be necessary to redirect where a stream flows. In the Auglaize project, the team discovered three cars buried along the stream bank in an effort to control erosion, which will have to be removed. After that, there's seeding the appropriate plants and ensuring nothing invasive takes root in the new ecosystem. The Ohio State University's Winslow said it's also important to keep monitoring the wetland after it's finished. That also falls within ODNR's now-reduced H2Ohio budget. 'You can build a wetland and think it's gonna work, but then when you step back and monitor it, you're like, 'Oh, it's not working as good as it should, let's go in and do X, Y and Z,'' Winslow said. Schlater said the money for this particular wetland has already been allocated and won't be affected by the new budget. However, he worries the cuts may make it harder to find funding for new projects in northwest Ohio and elsewhere. 'There's a lot of great water in the state, and there's also a lot of impaired water in the state,' Schlater said. 'The H2Ohio funding opportunity for the state was really providing a lot of money directly impacting water quality, and any reduction in that is essentially less water that's gonna be improved, preserved or maintained.' The H2Ohio cuts are not the only setback this year in the effort to contain Lake Erie's harmful algal blooms. The Trump administration's staffing cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have forced that agency to suspend its deployment of Environmental Sample Processors, or ESPs, for the rest of the year. An ESP is a device that automatically collects and processes water samples from a body of water—in this case, Lake Erie—and gives researchers back home an almost real-time glimpse of how much toxin is present in a given part of the lake. Monica Allen, director of public affairs for NOAA Research, wrote in an email that the organization's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory will train other staffers on ESPs during the winter months, with the goal of resuming ESP deployment in 2026. Winslow said the cuts may force scientists to scale back how many places in Lake Erie they can sample. Those samples, which are spread over a large area, are how scientists understand what's actually happening in the lake. 'The data will never be inaccurate. A scientist or an academic institution, if they take a water sample, they are using the highest level of rigor to analyze those samples,' Winslow said. 'The one thing that you might see is the number of places that we can sample is not as broad.' Some monitoring is done with satellites, which Winslow said should continue operating as normal. It's understanding the chemicals in the water that may become more challenging. 'I don't think you'll see a hit in where the bloom is at and how thick it is, but you may see a delay in our ability to predict toxin in those blooms,' Winslow explained. Exacerbating the problem in the long run is climate change, which is bringing increased rainfall and higher temperatures to the Great Lakes region. 'We're seeing warmer temperatures, so the lake tends to warm up faster. This type of organism that causes these harmful algal blooms likes warmer water … so they could start showing up earlier,' Winslow said. However, Winslow stressed that the relationship between the algal blooms and the warming climate is complex. No matter how conducive the weather is, the overall size of the bloom still depends on how much phosphorus enters the lake. What the weather does affect, he explained, is the timing and duration. 'It's showing up early and lasting longer this time, but the maximum peak that it reaches is less than when it was cooler,' Winslow said. Exactly what that means for people in the long run remains to be seen, according to Winslow. It does raise the probability that members of the public will see the blooms, but the peak won't be as severe. What could become a problem, Winslow said, is if the earlier blooms come when cyanobacteria are producing the highest amount of toxins. That depends on another nutrient that also leeches out of the soil and into the lake: nitrogen. Nitrogen levels in Lake Erie are highest around the end of June and early July, he said. 'And so what we don't want is the peak to fall there, because then it means you have a bloom that's huge and crazy and very, very toxic,' Winslow said. Climate change also poses a potential threat to the mitigation efforts themselves. 'When you're designing a wetland, you're designing a wetland based on a certain river dumping into it, how much water's coming from that river. Well, if we're seeing more rainfall, we may have designed the wetlands not big enough, or maybe in the wrong place,' Winslow said. 'And for farmers, they lose their nutrients when it rains. So the more rain we're gonna get, the harder it is for them to keep their nutrients on their fields. So all of these solutions, wetlands and what we pay our farmers to do, … they're gonna be just harder to do because of climate change, because of more precipitation.' Solve the daily Crossword
