With the state legislature on recess, use the time well
April 13, 11 a.m. Zoom meeting with Rep. Isaacsohn on Ohio K-12 public school funding
Rep. Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati) is the ranking member on the Ohio House Finance Subcommittee on Primary and Secondary Education. He will give an update and advice on how to weigh in on Ohio’s Fair Funding formula to address the longstanding inequities between districts, as well as two bills which could cut or divert state aid from public schools: HB 1 (the income tax reduction and flat tax bill) and HB 11 (the Backpack Bill to allow any child, regardless of income, to claim a state scholarship to attend private or home school.) We also hope to discuss Gov. DeWine’s line item on reading instruction. PLEASE share this invitation with public school advocates in your network. Here’s the Zoom meeting link and information: Meeting ID: 842 6024 8481. Passcode: 675654
April gun safety meetings for Ohio
If you were devastated by the murder of three nine-year-olds in a Nashville parochial school and the expulsion of two Black representatives from the Tennessee legislature for demanding their colleagues allow debate on gun safety, start by watching this powerful Easter Monday reflection by Canadian priest Rachel Parker on the “Tennessee Three”, shared by our sister Libbie Crawford, postulant for the diaconate at Ascension and Holy Trinity, Wyoming. Then consider joining Ohio Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense. This link takes you to their volunteer interest form. Roles include volunteering at information tables, community outreach on safe firearms storage and school safety, phone banking, and more. There are several upcoming meetups in Ohio. Here’s the Moms event page, filter by state. Photographed on Easter Monday just hours after the mass murder at a Louisville bank, this poster at Kenwood Town Centre, a suburban Cincinnati mall beloved by my granddaughters, is a chilling reminder of how dangerous our everyday spaces have become.
April 19, 7 to 8:30 p.m.: Global Crisis, Local Hope
Catholic Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso to speak in Cincinnati on welcoming refugee families: Catholic Charities of Southwest Ohio will give updates on refugee resettlement in Ohio, and refugees will share their experiences. Bishop Seitz chairs the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Migration Committee. This is an in-person event at Xavier University’s Cintas Center. RSVP here.
April 26, 7 p.m., Gun Violence Prevention in Rural Areas, Zoom meeting
Ohio Moms Demand Action is holding a Zoom meeting about effective ways to share information with rural communities on suicide risk factors and safe storage of firearms. The speaker is Jenessa Keller, Rural Engagement Lead for Missouri. RSVP here.
In the name of God, stand up against violence
As Christians, Jews, and Muslims celebrated Ramadan, Passover, and Holy Week, Israeli police raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Dr. Samina Sohail, board member of the Cincinnati Islamic Center posted an eloquent guest editorial in the Cincinnati Enquirer lifting up the dedication of all three faiths to peace and justice, and calling on us to oppose violence, intimidation, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia. Dr. Sohail is a leader in the Cincinnati interfaith coalition EquaSion, in which several Cincinnati Episcopal congregations are active.
Constitutional amendment to raise Ohio’s minimum wage to $15 surmounts hurdle
Our churches and their community emergency assistance partners constantly meet neighbors unable to afford rent. Ohio’s current minimum wage is $10.10 for non-tipped employees. The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports that an Ohio family needs to earn $35,468 a year to afford a two-bedroom rental home at HUD’s Fair Market Rent. A person working 40 hours a week at $15/hr for 52 weeks would earn $31,200 before taxes. This is the context which makes the proposed constitutional amendment to raise Ohio’s minimum wage to $15 crucial to our efforts to prevent homelessness.
The wage gap is immense. NLIH reports that Ohio has a shortage of at least 270,000 affordable homes for extremely low-income renters. 31% of those renters are in the labor force, 28% are senior citizens, and 22% are disabled.
After rejecting the language of the original petition last fall, Secretary of State Frank LaRose has approved the language of a petition to amend Ohio’s constitution to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 by 2028. The next step is for the ballot board to certify whether the petition meets the standard of being a single constitutional amendment. If it’s certified, supporters can start the task of collecting 413,000 valid signatures by July 5 in order to appear on the November ballot. The proposed reproductive rights amendment is already racing to collect signatures even as the State Legislature debates resolutions and bills that would create a special election in August to change the hurdle for citizen-sponsored amendments from a simple majority of the vote to 60%.
Abortion drug could become illegal in Ohio this weekend
Abortion is still legal in Ohio while a Cincinnati judge has stayed the state’s Heartbeat bill pending review. The ruling by US Federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk halting the FDA’s approval of mifepristone for abortions could go into effect as soon as Saturday in Ohio unless an appeals court judge issues a stay.
Jessie Balmert of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Ohio Department of Health statistics that this drug was used in 9,891 abortions in the state in 2021, 96.6% of all medication abortions. US Federal Judge Thomas Rice in Washington State ordered the FDA not to restrict access to mifepristone in the 17 states under his jurisdiction, but that does not include Ohio. Click here if you’d like to help get the constitutional amendment for reproductive rights on the fall ballot (collecting signatures, social media, phone banking). Find upcoming reproductive rights events near you here.
PUCO already two years late on audit of coal plant subsidies
Ohio’s Sierra Club and other environmental groups are calling on the Public Utilities Commission to complete the 2021 audit of whether the coal subsidies provided for two ageing coal plants at ratepayers’ expense are “prudently incurred costs.” PUCO is required under HB 6, the 2019 law that imposed the subsidies, to complete this audit every three years.
“The PUCO’s job is to look out for ratepayers,” the Sierra Club’s Molly Nichols said. “Instead they are looking out for the utility’s shareholders, continuing to make us pay off the OVEC economic losses and debt. We have already paid over $300 million for these plants and are expected to pay up to $850 million by 2030. These plants are also spewing pollution — damaging our air, water, and public health.”
“Senior PUCO figures were deeply involved in bailout legislation that last month resulted in the racketeering convictions of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges,” the Ohio Capital Journal reported, recapping how Sam Randozzo received $4.3 million from First Energy right before the Governor appointed him to chair PUCO, which regulates Ohio’s utilities. After a utility lobbyist recommended PUCO senior advisor Pat Tully, “Within weeks, Tully was working for the House Republican Caucus, helping to draft House Bill 6, the corrupt utility bailout,” wrote Ohio Capital Journal‘s Marty Schladen.
Advocacy briefings are compiled by Ariel Miller, a longtime community advocate and member of Ascension & Holy Trinity, Wyoming. Connect with her at arielmillerwriter@gmail.com
