Update on bills that would slash funding for K-12 Public Schools
HB 11, the “Backpack Bill,” is a top priority for Senate President Matt Huffman and was also included on House Speaker Jason Stephens’ educational priority bills. As I reported last week, this bill would make every Ohio student who does not attend public school eligible for a voucher to attend private or parochial school or to be home-schooled. This removes the family income cap and other restrictions on Ohio’s current voucher program. The Ohio Legislative Services Commission said this could cost the state up to $1.13 billion a year if all eligible students use it.
Several people representing Christian schools testified in support of the bill on March 14. The next hearing in the House Primary and Education Committee will be for opponents. Please email your views to the Chair, Rep. Adam Bird and ranking member Rep. Phil Robinson.
Meanwhile, HB 1, which would reduce Ohio income tax to a flat rate of 2.75%, is hurtling ahead, with its fourth hearing today (March 21) in the House Ways and Means Committee. You can read the testimony here. Fourth hearings often bring a vote, but it’s possible the bill could be amended in response to concerns about its projected impact.
The Ohio Legislative Services Commission (LSC) fiscal analysis finds that these policy changes would raise property taxes an estimated $929 billion a year on homeowners and agricultural property owners, and deliver a $538 million dollar cut to local tax revenues for schools, libraries and counties’ levy-funded human services. Almost all the income tax savings would go to Ohio’s wealthiest taxpayers. (See Ohio Education Policy Institute Summary of LSC HB 1 Fiscal Note.). The press reports strong push-back among legislators because of the projected impact on local voters. Read Karen Kasler’s update in the Statehouse News.
Bear witness at the March 28 Hunger Network Budget Advocacy Day in Columbus
Pandemic emergency expansions of federal food aid have ended, but grocery store inflation has not. Bring your first-hand stories of the people your church serves. The Hunger Network in Ohio, the Ohio Council of Churches, and the Dominican Sisters of Peace are convening advocates to ask legislators to increase state funding for schoolchildren, senior citizens, and the food banks our congregations depend on to stock pantries and soup kitchens. The day starts at Trinity, Capitol Square. Sign up here. Lunch is included.
Bipartisan bill creating Ohio Housing Tax Credit advancing
Ohio HB 3, which would create a state version of the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit to catalyze the development of more affordable housing, is desperately needed across the state in both urban and rural communities. HB 3 is one of the Republican House Leadership’s priority economic bills. The Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO) and Cincinnati’s Model Group, which has partnered with Episcopal churches and nonprofits to develop affordable housing, both testified in favor of the bill last week. So did the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. The bill is scheduled for its third hearing today (March 21) in the House Economic and Workforce Development Committee. Please email your views to Committee Chair DJ Swearingen and House Speaker Jason Stephens.
“Here’s how these public-private partnerships work,” explained COHHIO Executive Director Amy Riegel in her testimony.
- OHFA [Ohio Housing Finance Agency] awards housing tax credits to developers, who then sell the credits to private investors in exchange for funding the construction and rehabilitation of affordable workforce housing.
- The credits lower the debt required to finance the development of housing (and resulting debt payments), which allows for lower, more affordable rents.
- Credits increase and preserve the supply of rental housing so low-wage working families and individuals can afford a safe, decent, stable home.
Ohio’s constitutional battle heats up
HJR1, the proposal to raise the hurdle for citizen-sponsored constitutional amendments from a simple majority to 60%, has its first hearing tomorrow, Wednesday, March 22, before the new Ohio House Constitutional Resolutions Committee. This comes as supporters are beginning to collect signatures to place a constitutional protection of reproductive rights on the fall ballot.
If you would like to help collect signatures, visit Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom, whose sponsors include Faith in Public Life, Ohio Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Unitarian Universalist Justice Ohio, and United Church of Christ.
Please write your Ohio Representative and House Speaker Jason Stephens to express your views on HJR1. You can find your representative’s name and contact information by putting your address in the box “Who Represents Me?” at the Ohio Legislature homepage.
This is the language of the petition which the Ohio Ballot Board approved as a single question: “Every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care and abortion.” This week abortion opponents filed a suit arguing that decisions on whether to continue or terminate pregnancy are inherently different from decisions about fertility, contraception, and miscarriage care, asking the Ballot Board to separate the measure into two.
“Abortion rights activists have already started collecting the required 413,446 valid signatures needed to meet the July 5 deadline,” reported Jessie Balmert, Ohio statehouse correspondent for the Gannett papers. “If the ballot board had to reconvene, they would have to start signature collection again. If the abortion amendment were divided into two questions, proponents would need to collect double the signatures to get each proposal on the November ballot.
Jo Ingles of Statehouse News reported that abortion opponents have spent $5 million on ads to air statewide in coming weeks, and plan to visit churches to rally opposition to the reproductive rights amendment.
A measure similar to HJR1 failed to pass in December after the huge Dec. 13 Rally for Democracy organized by the Ohio Council of Churches and many other fair districts advocates who had been struggling to prevent partisan gerrymandering. They worked throughout 2021 and 2022 to uphold Ohio’s constitutional rules on redistricting, which were passed by over 70% of Ohio voters in two citizen-sponsored initiatives after the 2011 redistricting. The Ohio Supreme Court found every single plan drafted by the Redistricting Commission – all of whom are elected officials, with five of the seven of them Republicans – to be unconstitutional as partisan gerrymandering. If the Legislature passes HJR1, it could go on the ballot this fall. If voters pass this measure, it would make it much harder for advocates to amend Ohio’s constitution again to create a non-partisan redistricting process.
Retired Ohio Supreme Court Justice Maureen O’Connor has just been named as Ohio’s honoree by USA Today’s Women of the Year for her courage in breaking ranks with her party in holding the Redistricting Commission accountable for following the Ohio Constitution’s voter-approved provisions to prevent gerrymandering.
Transparency bill
As I’ve been reporting throughout this month, Ohio’s lax laws have allowed dark money to shape state politics and to keep corruption covered up. Ohio Reps. Bride Rose Sweeney and Jessica Miranda have just introduced the Ohio Anti-Corruption Act (HB 112) to amend the state’s campaign finance law. The bill has 27 sponsors. It has not yet been assigned to a committee, and I’m waiting for a summary and analysis from the Ohio Legislative Services Committee of the changes proposed by the bill. Stay tuned.
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.
