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Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ohio Republican lawmakers plan to pass marijuana restrictions by end of June
The Ohio Statehouse. (Photo by David DeWitt, Ohio Capital Journal.) Ohio Republicans plan to pass recreational marijuana reform by the end of June. Both the House and Senate are working together to create restrictions, which have drawn criticism from legalized marijuana supporters around the state. Under the law passed by Ohio voters in November 2023, if you are 21 years old or older, you can smoke, vape, and ingest marijuana. Individually, you can grow six plants, but you can grow up to 12 plants per household if you live with others. Right now, Ohio House and Senate leaders are negotiating for multi-chamber-approved cannabis reform. 'Generally, trying to get to a place that more people support,' House Finance Chair Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, said. The lawmakers are trying to combine two bills: Senate Bill 56 and House Bill 160. Both make dozens of changes to cannabis access, but most notably, S.B. 56 limits THC content and reduces home growing to six plants, while H.B. 160 limits THC and keeps home growing the same. Asked if Statehouse Republicans had come to an agreement yet, Stewart said 'stay tuned.' He added that he did like the House's substitute bill — one that addressed the 'desire in the caucus to have low-dose drinks.' 'I think that there are going to be some adjustments on the criminalization side that should hopefully address some of those concerns,' Stewart said. That answer depends on who you ask. Ohio Senate Republican leaders have continued to say that the voters knew they wanted legal weed — but the lawmakers claim that voters didn't know everything they were voting on. Stewart and House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, have echoed those claims. 'It's obviously a complex issue growing out of the '23 initiative and with the growth of the THC, hemp, and artificially created hemp products,' he said. Huffman said he wanted to deal with delta 8, low-level THC products sold in convenience stores with no age limits first, as his 'primary goal is regulating the sale of all these products, including getting them out of the stores where they're accessible to minors.' Ohio Democratic lawmakers, and some Republicans, disagree with Huffman, saying it's about control. 'We want to make sure that the will of voters is protected,' House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, said. 'We want to make sure that the use of that revenue is upheld.' Contact them. To find your district's legislators, click here. You will see a page where you can put in your address. From there, two people should pop up on the screen. If you click the lawmaker's icon, you will be directed to their page. From there, you will see a banner with different options. Click the one that says 'Contact.' Depending on your browser, you may need to click a 'More' option before 'Contact.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ohio House ditches DeWine tax proposals, funds $600M Browns stadium, child care program, K-12 schools
Apr. 1—Ohio House GOP leadership unveiled their first official budget priorities Tuesday, making significant changes to Ohio's public school funding formula and eliminating governor-proposed "sin" tax increases to fund new programs. The operating budget is a two-year spending plan that funds the lion's share of state government programs and offices. Ohio's constitution requires the budget to be balanced, starting with the governor before being vetted by the House and Senate. The House's proposal cuts a $61 billion proposed budget from Republican Gov. Mike DeWine down to $60 billion in state general revenue funds, with sweeping eliminations to some of the governor's most notable proposals. "I think our budget kind of speaks for itself and what we thought of some of the proposals," Ohio House Finance Chair Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, told reporters Tuesday. Browns stadium House Republicans canceled DeWine's proposal to double Ohio's gambling tax, which the governor hoped would raise enough money to allow the state to shell out money to professional sports franchises' stadiums and to help students afford extracurricular activities. DeWine's plan followed the Cleveland Browns asking the state to supplement the construction of a new domed stadium and entertainment grounds in a Cleveland suburb. The House's new proposal sets aside the authority for the state to issue and sell up to $600 million in state bonds "to help finance the Cleveland Browns stadium megaproject in the city of Brook Park," according to a House document. Conversations between the Browns and the legislature have been ongoing. Stewart said on Tuesday that the project promises to bring a preeminent entertainment venue, and perhaps the capacity to host the Super Bowl, to Cleveland. House GOP leaders have been soothed by the idea of raising the funds through public bonds at a rate of about $30 million per year rather than directly using taxpayer funds. Stewart said lawmakers also like the Browns' supposed offer to put up collateral of a $38 million investment, expected to grow to about $120 million to $130 million by the end of the bond payments. "We believe that the metrics are that we will generate enough tax revenue from that project to pay back those bonds in their entirety," Stewart told reporters. "But if those projections are off at all ... we then have $130 million to plug and pay off the rest of those bonds and make sure the taxpayers are made whole." The House's plan doesn't, however, create a permanent game plan the state can follow for future occasions a franchise asks for state help, which was the primary goal of DeWine's plan. "Maybe we'll have an opportunity to talk about a larger, more general source of funding that could be used for cultural facilities like this. Moving forward, I would agree that we need to kind of identify some rules of the road," Stewart said. Child care Also snuffed was DeWine's proposal to significantly increase tobacco taxes and use the revenues to fund up to $1,000 refundable tax credits for every child under seven years old. Instead, the House GOP plan creates a $10 million pilot program that splits child care costs three ways: 40% on participating employers, 40% on employees, and 20% on the state. This "triage" subsidy, like DeWine's approach, is meant to get more Ohioans back in the workforce as jobs outpace workers. State Rep. Andrea White, R-Kettering, who has consistently pushed for the state to increase its child care subsidies, told this outlet she'll look for more opportunities to add solutions to the state budget. "I think any and all options that we can fund to expand access, availability and affordability of child care is important," said White. While the pilot program is considerably less of a commitment than DeWine's proposed credits, White noted that she was pleased with the $10 million figure, as it's more than other states have put into similar programs. She hopes business take advantage of the program and prove its effectiveness. Public school funding The House's plan will put approximately $226 million more state dollars towards public K-12 education than DeWine's plan would have, but school funding advocates still warn that it severely undercuts what the state has been working toward over the past six years. House Finance Committee Ranking Member Bride Rose Sweeney, D-Westlake, who helped develop a plan the state has used over the past three budgets to gradually shift the school funding onus away from property tax payers and onto the state, told reporters Tuesday that the House plan doesn't do enough to fix DeWine's plan. "What is being produced is likely one of the lowest state shares in the state's history, even with what they've put forward today, meaning that it's even less state money going into our schools than when this was deemed unconstitutional," Sweeney told reporters. "Who is paying for that? Property owners across the board who are gonna be asked to pay more so we (the state) can pay less. That is wrong." In a text to this outlet, Sweeney said the House's funding plan undercuts a fully-implemented fair school funding plan by roughly $1.5 billion over the biennium. House Republicans, however, argue that under their plan, no district will receive less in state aid in fiscal years 2026 and 2027 than they did in fiscal year 2025. In particular, the House plan adjusted the state formula to grant more money to growing districts. ------ For more stories like this, sign up for our Ohio Politics newsletter. It's free, curated, and delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday evening. Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Proposed Ohio child tax credit could cost state $450M a year: Here's how it would work
Feb. 4—Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's newly proposed child tax credit, which would give Ohio families up to $1,000 in tax refunds per child under seven years old, would cost Ohio about $450 million per year, the state estimates. On Monday, DeWine made the case for a child tax credit helping Ohio families pay their rents, mortgage, or child care — all aspects of raising children that have gotten considerably more expensive in recent years. As proposed, the refundable tax credit would be equal to 5% of a household's income for every child they have younger than seven years old. The credit is capped at a maximum of $1,000 per year per child. State documents show an expected cost of $450 million in FY 2026 and $440 million in FY 2027, making it one of the most expensive new policy suggestions in DeWine's budget. The proposal is part of a bigger budget package handed down by the DeWine Administration to start negotiations on the state's operating budget in fiscal years 2026 and 2027. Ohio's process always begins with executive proposal that gets vetted and amended by the Ohio House and Senate, in that order. Ohio's budget must also be balanced, which means that newly-proposed programs are often floated in lockstep with new ways to pay for them. In this case, the DeWine administration suggests paying for the child tax credit by increasing tobacco taxes, namely by nearly doubling the cigarette tax from its current $1.60 per pack to $3.10. Other tobacco products will also see an increased tax "to provide parity with the average tax on cigarettes," according to Office of Budget Management Director Kimberly Murnieks. "The governor's budget addresses a tax policy area deserving modernization: the tax rates imposed on cigarettes and other tobacco products, including vapor products," Murnieks told the House Finance Committee Tuesday, noting that cigarette tax rates haven't increased in Ohio since 2015 and taxes on other tobacco products haven't increased since 1993. The proposal would also address a gap in state law that allows vape products with noncombustible nicotine — not tobacco — to escape taxation, Murnieks said. Those changes would result in an estimated 58.2% increase to the state's cigarette and tobacco tax revenues year-over-year, raising FY 2025's $703.5 million in revenue to an estimated $1.1 billion in fiscal years 2026 and 2027, the state estimates. Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle expressed some trepidation Tuesday with how DeWine intends on planning for child tax credits, even if they agree that the program would benefit Ohio families. "We all want to take care of children, we all want to support families," Republican House Finance Chair Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, told reporters. "I think there's a legitimate question of whether cigarette taxes are the best way to do that, but I think we have a lot of members in our caucus who are really focused on child issues. I think that's going to be a hot topic." House Finance Ranking Member Bride Rose Sweeney, D-Westlake, told reporters that she, too, has reservations on using increased cigarette taxes despite finding the overall idea of a state child tax credit to be "fantastic." It's one of the most direct ways that we have seen to put more money into hardworking Ohioans' pockets to help children," Sweeney said. "I think it's a fantastic, good first step and it's one of the top thing that we'll be fighting to protect." However it's funded, if Ohio were to adopt a child tax credit, it would follow in the footsteps of 16 other states. The federal child tax credit has lifted an estimated 2 million children out of poverty each year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Stewart expects much of the GOP's discussions on the budget to center around a series of taxes proposed by DeWine. The Republican party has used the budget for over a decade now to predominantly slash taxes — most recently removing an income tax bracket and ratcheting down commercial activity taxes. DeWine's budget looks to tap into other tax markets in their stead, including taxes on cigarette and tobacco sales; sports betting (a tax DeWine suggested raising from 20% to 40% to pay for professional sports facilities and youth sports initiatives); and recreational marijuana sales (which DeWine suggested taxing at 20% instead of the voter-approved 10% to pay for police training, drug enforcement efforts and safe driving initiatives). ------ For more stories like this, sign up for our Ohio Politics newsletter. It's free, curated, and delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday evening. Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
