Rotunda Rumblings
Ch-ch-ch-changes: Ohio House Republicans on Tuesday revealed their revisions to the state’s biennial budget. Anna Staver and Jeremy Pelzer write that the House budget changes would up-end Ohio’s current plan for funding K-12 education, though House Republicans promised their plan would deliver a funding increase for every district.
Gone gov: The House budget also takes an axe to some of the biggest priorities Gov. Mike DeWine laid out in the executive budget proposal he delivered in February. Plans to increase taxes on sports gambling companies, cigarette smokers and marijuana users all were eliminated by the House, along with the programs the additional revenue would have supported. They even trimmed a proposed funding increase for one of DeWine’s favorite programs: the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.
Browns backers: The House nixed DeWine’s plan to use additional tax revenue from sports gambling companies to seed a fund that would pay for future sports stadium projects and youth sports initiatives. Pelzer reports that the House instead moved a plan team owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam have pushed to help pay for the $2.4 billion stadium in Brook Park: $600 million in state-backed bonds, to be repaid with state tax revenue generated at the stadium and surrounding development.
Gender rules: Republican state lawmakers also tucked new provisions in the state’s revised budget bill targeting pro-transgender policies, books and symbols, including a proposal that the state of Ohio would officially recognize only two sexes, Pelzer writes. The measures would also ban public libraries from placing material related to sexual orientation and gender identity in areas where minors are likely to see them, prohibit state agencies from flying LGBT pride or other politically themed flags, and restrict state aid for youth homelessness from going to shelters that “promote or affirm” gender transition.
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Judging the judges: Congressional Republicans led by Ohio’s Jim Jordan are leading a multi-pronged attack on federal judges who are blocking some of the more than 100 executive orders Donald Trump has issued since becoming president in January, Sabrina Eaton reports. On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee that Jordan chairs held a joint subcommittee hearing on “judicial overreach,” teeing up a Wednesday vote in the full House of Representatives on a measure that would block courts from issuing nationwide injunctions. “Who decides? That’s the fundamental question,” Champaign County’s Jordan said at Tuesday’s hearing. “Is it the guy who got 77 million votes, or some district judge?”
Take a hike: FirstEnergy is asking state utility regulators for a $183 million cost increase over its 2 million customers’ monthly bills. As Jake Zuckerman reports, an auditor hired by the Public Utilities of Ohio recommended a much more modest $8.5 million increase. And the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, incensed by the company’s self-professed public corruption, said the regulators ought to significantly reduce net costs for customers.
The color of money: Ohio’s economy loses $5.5 billion a year because a lack of child care keeps adults at home, according to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation report. The state loses tax revenue. Companies lose business profits and workers lose wages because there isn’t sufficient or affordable child care. The Ohio Chamber of Commerce has made child care one of its priorities this year, Laura Hancock reports.
Baby blues: House Speaker Mike Johnson abruptly adjourned the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday after losing a procedural vote that would have blocked consideration of a measure letting new parents vote by proxy in the legislative body, Eaton reports. U.S. Rep. Max Miller of Bay Village, who has a one-year-old daughter, was the only Ohioan among nine Republicans who joined with Democrats in a 222 to 206 vote against the measure.
Well wishes: Over 40 Cleveland employees of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights exited the building for the final time, eliminated by President Donald Trump, who wants to shutter the agency. John Kuntz documented supporters who applauded and hugged them, thanking them for their service. The Cleveland office investigated discrimination violations on the basis of gender, race and disability.
For the tree huggers: Federal cuts means fewer trees will be planted during Earth Day Columbus. The nonprofit that organizes the city’s earth day will receive some funding from Columbus to buy trees normally provided by the feds, but not all of it. After city’s tree-planting program didn’t receive nearly $400,000 of an awarded $500,000 federal grant to plant trees in disadvantaged neighborhood, Columbus joined a lawsuit against President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, the Dispatch’s Jordan Laird reports.
Lobbying Lineup
Five organizations that lobbied Gov. Mike DeWine and state agencies over rules he passed allowing gender-firming care for minors but banning surgeries. The legislature ultimately banned the care, and its law is being litigated in the courts. For now, the law is on hold.
1. Equitas Health
2. Abortion Forward
3. Ohio Academy of Family Physicians
4. Ohio Counseling Association
5. The MetroHealth System
On the Move
Mike Frosolone joins JM2, a Democratic direct mail firm in Ohio and South Carolina, as a principal. He has worked in several campaign roles, including Michigan state manager for the Harris-Walz campaign.
Birthdays
Former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger
Straight from the Source
“Ohioans at this point in 2025 are much more concerned about their property tax bill than their income tax bill.”
-Ohio House Finance Committee Chair Brian Stewart, a Pickaway County Republican, during a press conference unveiling the House’s version of the two-year state operating budget.
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