Ohio lawmakers pass capital budget, dozens of other bills in vote-a-rama before summer break: Capitol Letter

Rotunda Rumblings

Out for the summer: During their last session day before a months-long summer break, Ohio lawmakers either passed or moved forward more than 50 bills on a variety of topics, headlined by a $4.2 billion capital budget that offers money for hundreds of construction projects around the state. Jeremy Pelzer has an overview of the capital bill – including what Northeast Ohio is slated to get from it – as it heads to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk.

Sign of the times: A campaign backing a redistricting reform amendment has collected 750,000 voter signatures and plans to submit them to the state on Monday, according to a key group that’s part of the amendment campaign. Per Andrew Tobias, the Brennan Center, a left-leaning legal advocacy group, touted the number in a social media post on Tuesday. The post also plugged a planned Monday rally at the Ohio Statehouse where the group will celebrate turning in the signatures to state officials. The number isn’t a slam dunk, since many signatures invariably are rejected by elections officials, but is a sign the measure is likely to qualify. For comparison, the campaign backing last year’s abortion-rights amendment turned in 710,000 signatures and ended up comfortably exceeding the roughly 413,000 signatures that were needed to make the ballot.

If you build it: The Ohio House passed legislation Wednesday creating a $20 million interest-free loan fund and property tax cut in the hopes of sparking development of natural gas pipelines in what are deemed to be underserved areas in the state. As Jake Zuckerman reports, Republicans pitched it as a locally driven economic development bill. Democrats called it another giveaway to the gas industry.

Closing the book? State Sen. Jerry Cirino, the Lake County Republican sponsor of a controversial bill that would ban DEI trainings on college campuses and require schools to affirm intellectual diversity, is hitting pause on the bill, saying the political environment in the House isn’t right. The bill has been in the GOP-controlled House for over a year but hasn’t yet hit the floor. Cirino said he’s hoping it’ll pass next year, when there is a new General Assembly session and new leadership, or perhaps during lame duck in December, Laura Hancock writes.

By the numbers: Ohio is changing how it numbers state ballot issues, under a provision in a wide-ranging bill that cleared the House and Senate on Wednesday. Per Tobias, Senate Bill 98 includes language that ensures the state won’t reuse numbers for a state ballot issue for decades or longer. The change is meant to avoid confusion that resulte d last year when voters considered two different state Issue 1s – the first of which was meant to help block the second – in conservative elections in August in November.

Oily question: A bipartisan group of U.S. senators, including Ohio’s Sherrod Brown wants the Biden administration to address a surge in used cooking oil imports from China that are being used to make biofuels in lieu of domestically produced materials, Sabrina Eaton writes. Brown joined Republicans Roger Marshall of Kansas, Pete Ricketts and Deb Fischer of Nebraska, and Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa in a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the United States Trade Representative.

Making waves: The Ohio House has approved a bill naming the walleye the official state fish. The co-sponsors of House Bill 599, state Reps. Sean Brennan and D.J. Swearingen, said Ohio is only one of three U.S. states lacking an official state fish, and said the walleye, found in Lake Erie, is a major source of state pride. Gov. Mike DeWine indicated support for the bill on Wednesday, saying he’d eaten a walleye caught and cleaned the previous day by Lt. Gov. Jon Husted during the governor’s annual Fish Ohio expedition. The bill now heads to the Ohio Senate.

Ramped up: Opponents of a controversial highway interchange between Strongsville and Brunswick scored a legislative victory, as the Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill to repeal budget language requiring the Ohio Department of Transportation to build the project. Pelzer has more on Senate Bill 155, which now heads to the House.

Cut short: The House passed a recently amended bill to provide nearly $4.7 million to keep the State Board of Education financially afloat, but the Senate didn’t hold a concurrence vote before wrapping up Wednesday evening. Senate President Matt Huffman told reporters that senators want to look further into the SBOE’s spending before providing the money and that the Ohio Controlling Board could approve the money without needing to pass legislation.

Musical chairs: Ohio Senate Republicans on Wednesday evening appointed state Rep. Al Cutrona, a Mahoning County Republican, to fill the Senate District 33 seat recently vacated by newly sworn-in U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli, another Mahoning County Republican. In turn, the Ohio House GOP appointed Tex Fischer, the first vice-chairman of the Mahoning County Republican Party, to finish Cutrona’s term in House District 58.

Full Disclosure

Five things we learned from the Feb. 23, 2024, ethics disclosure filed by Kevin Ritter of Marietta, the Republican nominee for Ohio House District 94, about his 2023 finances:

1. Ritter was paid $71,096 last year to serve as a Washington County commissioner

2. He’s board president for the Campus Martius Museum, a history museum in Marietta.

3. His investments include an IRA and mutual funds with Raymond James

4. At some point in 2023, Ritter owed at least $1,000 to American Express, a Chase credit card, a Capital One credit card, and John Deere Financial

5. His wife Khadine is a partner at the Marietta law firm of Theisen and Brock.

Straight From The Source

“It’s been a long week.”

- Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, a Lakewood Democrat, after she referred to Senate President Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, as “Mr. Speaker” during a floor speech Wednesday. “I know what you meant,” Huffman said.

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