Latest news with #Stivers
Axios
16 hours ago
- Business
- Axios
The penny's days are numbered
The federal government is phasing out the penny to save money — and while change is hard, an Ohio business leader tells us losing the cents makes sense. Why it matters: The coin's demise means prices for cash transactions will need to be rounded, impacting business' pricing strategies and consumers who rely on cash (typically older and lower-income Americans). Catch up quick: The U.S. Mint will stop making the coins early next year. The Treasury Department placed its final order for blank templates last month. Stopping production will save the government $56 million a year in reduced material costs, a Treasury spokesperson said. Production costs have risen from 1.3 cents to 3.69 cents for every penny over the past decade. The big picture: For similar reasons, Canada discontinued its penny in 2012 and Australia and New Zealand stopped producing their lowest-denomination coins decades ago. How it works: The Treasury told the Wall Street Journal businesses will need to round up or down to the nearest 5 cents once there aren't enough pennies to use in everyday cash transactions. Cashless transactions will still be priced at exact change. Zoom in: "I haven't heard a thing from our members about it," Ohio Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Steve Stivers tells Axios. Typically, mandates concerning whether businesses can or can't take cash — like a state bill introduced in January — are more controversial, he says. Local businesses are increasingly going cashless, including major institutions like sports arenas, the zoo and amusement parks. Stivers said he will be paying attention to the rounding logistics as they play out. Flashback: A former U.S. representative, Stivers sponsored legislation for pennies to be made of steel, rather than copper, zinc and nickel, to cut costs. The intrigue: A 2022 Federal Reserve report found $14 billion — about 60% of actively circulating coins — is sitting in jars and not flowing in the economy. The bottom line: "As we move to a more digital world, it's less and less important whether there is a coin to back something up," Stivers says.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Issue 2: Voters approve infrastructure bond issue
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Ohio voters approved continuing to fund the state's major infrastructure projects through a $2.5 billion bond issue on the primary election ballot Tuesday. Issue 2 will, through a state constitutional amendment, allow Ohio to issue bonds to help local governments pay for infrastructure projects, including roads and bridges, wastewater treatment plants, and more, via the State Capital Improvement Program. 'Our members think infrastructure is important because they drive on the roads every day, and they want them to be safe and they want them to be, to have good quality roads so they don't damage our cars or trucks or commercial vehicles,' Ohio Chamber of Commerce President Steve Stivers said. A 'yes' vote on the ballot extended the bond issue. Which school issues central Ohio voters approved in May 2025 election 'Issue 2 is important for local infrastructure. Issue 2 will help create about 35,000 good-paying jobs, mostly construction jobs,' Stivers said. The program will fund $2.5 billion over 10 years, or $250 million per year, for those projects. This is an increase in funding of $50 million per year. While the bond issues won't increase residents' taxes, those state taxes would be used to pay down the bond issues over a possible 30-year period. 'We have lots of discussions about what we should spend money on, obviously, but almost all Ohioans agree on roads and bridges and infrastructure, and all Ohioans benefit,' Ohio Speaker of the House Matt Huffman said. The bond program was first instituted in 1987, with voters approving it three times since – in 1995, 2005, and 2014. That first bond issue was for $120 million per year. Election results are unofficial until certified by their county's board of elections. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kentucky Senate president hopeful Trump executive orders will launch ‘coal comeback'
FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — New moves by the Trump Administration to energize a 'coal comeback' have some Kentucky leaders feeling hopeful. Kentucky uses coal to power the state's energy needs at the third-highest rate in the nation, supplying 68% of the state's energy needs, behind only West Virginia and Wyoming, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Kentucky weather tomorrow: More sunshine, less wind Kentucky Senate president hopeful Trump executive orders will launch 'coal comeback' Buffalo Trace Distillery announces modified visitor experience after Kentucky floods: What has changed Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers was in attendance on his first-ever trip to the White House when President Trump signed the orders last week. 'We're slashing unnecessary regulations that targeted the beautiful clean coal,' Trump said. The series of orders will incentivize and reduce regulations around permitting and leasing to mine federal land and redirect pots of money the Biden administration spent on renewable energy to upgrade carbon-based coal-fired power stations. 'To help upgrade them, make them more efficient, more environmentally friendly,' Sen. Stivers said Tuesday morning, speaking to reporters. 'To basically invest in them instead of shutting them down when they still have five, 10, 15 years of useful life,' Stivers said. As demand for energy grows thanks to needs from the tech industry, Stivers, a native of eastern Kentucky coal country, is hopeful the move could not only prime the state to be an attractive place for locating high-energy-demanding data centers but also revitalize the region. 'When things went down in the coal industry, we saw an outmigration of almost 40,000 people, and when that happened, that hurts the school system. It hurts your property taxes, it hurts your businesses, and it's hard to come back,' Stivers said. Study: Kentucky is the toughest state to own an EV in Study: It costs over $200K to raise a child over 18 years in Kentucky These Kentucky small towns make USA Today's '10 Best' The US Energy Information Administration reports one out of five US-operating coal mines is located in Kentucky and is second only to West Virginia in the number of mines located in the state. Environmental group The Sierra Club argued that extending the life of some plants could impact public health and raise energy costs. 'Again and again, politicians fly through coal country with false promises about revitalizing industry, when what they mean is milking the last bit of profits out of Appalachia for the benefit of executives and shareholders. Standards that keep our air, water, and working conditions safe: gutted. Cheaper alternatives to producing electricity: boxed out of the market. Unions to defend good-paying jobs: undermined at every turn. 'Reviving coal' has always been about coal executives, not coal country,' Kentucky Senior Beyond Coal Campaign Organizer Elisa Owen said in a statement after the orders were issued. Stivers believes the state needs an 'all of the above' approach. RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz launch 'Make America Healthy Again' initiative Kentucky Senate president hopeful Trump executive orders will launch 'coal comeback' Former Texas lawmaker hospitalized after launching congressional bid 'You know, there's no doubt that we're going to have to change in this nation some of our thought processes about energy production and dispatchability and reliability. But for now, this is the cheapest, most reliable, affordable, dispatchable energy source we have. Along with developing more resources and assets in the nuclear realm,' he said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
KY Senate president praises Trump's pro-coal moves, questions fossil fuels' role in climate change
Republican Senate President Robert Stivers speaks to reporters about President Donald Trump's executive orders aimed at averting the retirements of coal-fired power plants. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley) FRANKFORT — Saying that fossil fuels' role in causing climate change is 'subject to debate,' Republican Senate President Robert Stivers touted President Donald Trump's recent executive orders aimed at boosting the coal industry as a 'step in the right direction' toward making the United States and Kentucky competitive in coal production again. Stivers, who was among Kentuckians present when Trump signed the executive orders last week, told reporters Tuesday morning Trump is offering a 'two-pronged approach' by first incentivizing coal mining and distribution and then expediting the process to get coal mining permits. Stivers said the policies put 'Kentucky in a good position' to be 'a low-cost energy producer.' Heavy reliance on coal has eroded a KY economic advantage. Can Trump reverse the trend? Stivers said producing more coal is also a national security issue, so the U.S. can control more of its own resources instead of relying on importing energy materials. The U.S. already has significantly decreased its dependence on energy from other countries. The U.S. has been a net exporter of energy since 2019, reports the U.S. Energy Information Agency, and a net coal exporter since at least 1949. In 2023, annual U.S. coal exports increased by about 15% and equaled about 8% of total energy exports, reports the agency. The U.S. is most dependent on other countries for crude oil which accounted for the largest share of U.S. energy imports in 2023. When Stivers was elected to the legislature in 1997, the state generated nearly $300 million annually in coal severance tax, he said. In the last few years, it's been close to $100 million, which is a 'a reflection of production,' which has declined steeply, Stivers added. The Trump administration policies are likely to be an economic booster in Kentucky, Stivers predicted. Coal production in Stivers' home of Clay County in Eastern Kentucky peaked at 2.5 million tons annually in 1980, according to the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet. Clay County now produces no coal. In recent years, Western Kentucky — led by an Alliance Resource Partners mine in Union County — has surpassed Eastern Kentucky in coal production. Alliance Partners CEO Joe Craft, a Republican megadonor, also was at the White House with Stivers last week to watch Trump vow to revive 'beautiful, clean coal,' a promise he also made in his first term. 'It won't just be miners going back to work,' Stivers said. 'It'll be all the peripheral jobs that will come back, that you'll see that used to be there … supply stores, lumber companies, little grocery stores, mom and pop operations. That's the hope.' Kentucky generated about 68% of its electricity from coal in 2023, the third-highest of all states. Over the last 25 years, Kentucky has fallen from producing the country's cheapest power to the 12th cheapest as natural gas, solar and wind have often become cheaper than maintaining aging coal-fired power plants. The last large coal-fired power plant built in the country was in 2013. During the press conference, Stivers pushed back on fossil fuels like coal contributing to climate change. He said 'the assumption that fossil fuels are a contributor to climate change is subject to debate.' Stivers' assertion contradicts scientific studies that consistently identify the heat-trapping emissions from burning fossil fuels — coal, oil and gas — as by far the leading cause of climate change. 'If it is a factor in climate change, do you want us with some of the strongest regulatory processes doing more fossil fuels than shipping it and allowing our products to be produced in Russia, China and India that have limited or no environmental concerns and produce way more than what anybody in the United States does in the realm of fossil fuels contaminants?' Stivers said. 'I would rather do it here. We're more cognizant of potential impacts, or at least aware there is an argument of that.' China in 2023 released more heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions than any other country, followed by the U.S, India, the European Union and Russia, according to an independent tally. Historically, the U.S. is the world's No. 1 emitter of greenhouse gases emissions, which accumulate in the atmosphere, because of the country's earlier and rapid industrialization dating back to the 1800s. During the Tuesday press conference, Stivers also was asked about the response to Kentucky's recent devastating floods, which have renewed conversations about the state's disaster funds. Before the legislature finished the 2025 legislative session, it passed a law to create a new state aid fund for communities affected by February floods. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said it would not be 'enough' to cover damage from those storms. Beshear also has warned that a spending cap imposed by the legislature will limit state resources available for flood recovery. When asked about Beshear's concern that the state could run out of funding if it faces another natural disaster this year, Stivers said he finds Beshear's 'lack of knowledge problematic' and that calling the legislature into a special legislative for one day would cost less than the governor traveling to Davos, Switzerland, for an economic forum, or paying the salary of Beshear's Senior Adviser Rocky Adkins, a former House speaker. 'He is creating a crisis without the crisis existing,' Stivers said. 'One day is all it takes.' In 2021, the Legislative Research Commission said a special session costs about $65,000 a day.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Dayton arts school launches nationwide search for new principal
Dayton Public Schools is searching for a principal for Stivers School for the Arts, which is known for its academic and artistic programs. The current principal has been in the position for two years, but is changing roles at the end of the year. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] 'The district is now seeking an inspiring, involved, and innovative leader who will build upon this strong foundation and guide the school into its next chapter of growth and success,' a spokesperson for the school district said. Stivers School for the Arts works with 7-12 grade students as a magnet school and is ranked among the top 50 schools in the nation, according to the school district. TRENDING STORIES: 4 injured in Montgomery County crash Sheriff's deputy released from hospital after being shot in head during traffic stop Tennessee man wanted on parole violation for manslaughter arrested in local community 'Stivers is a shining example of how the arts can elevate academic performance and foster creativity, discipline, and innovation,' said Dr. David Lawrence, Superintendent of Dayton Public Schools. 'As a former assistant principal of Stivers myself, it is personally important that we find the best leader to serve as Principal. We are seeking someone who shares this vision and is ready to inspire students, support staff, and engage the community to ensure Stivers continues to thrive as a premier school of arts and academics.' The school district is looking thoroughly for their new Stivers principal. Candidates with experience in educational leadership and interest in the arts are encouraged to apply, the school district says. To apply, visit and select 'Careers.' [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
