The leader of Democrats in the Ohio House is blasting a Republican controlled panel of lawmakers for its decision to deny a request by the Republican Secretary of State to pay for postage on ballots. Statehouse correspondent Jo Ingles reports.
Sen. Bob Peterson (R-Washington Court House), the Ohio Senate President Pro Tempore, has tested positive for COVID-19. Peterson, along with Senate President Larry Obhof (R-Medina) have placed themselves under quarantine.
The fund that the state uses to pay jobless benefits is now broke – which was predicted even before the pandemic. And now state leaders are struggling with how to pay back the money being borrowed to keep those unemployment checks coming.
As state lawmakers are asked to consider a resolution to declare racism a public health crisis, Ohio Senate leaders plan to hold meetings throughout the state to listen to the concerns of black Ohioans. Here's some of the issues Senate President Larry Obhof thinks might come up in those meetings.
An investigation is ongoing into threats targeting two sitting Democratic state lawmakers, a well-known senator from Akron who’s served in both chambers and his daughter, who leads the minority in the Ohio House. And some state leaders are speaking out.
Among the possible questions voters might face on the ballot this fall is whether they want to make it harder to raise the state income tax, by requiring approval from a supermajority of state lawmakers.
There’s now a dual front in the battle over what to do with the state’s private school voucher program – two conference committees dealing with two versions of vouchers. A resolution needs to happen before April 1, when the process to apply for those vouchers opens up after lawmakers delayed it.
With just hours to go before families could submit applications for the state’s EdChoice private school voucher program on February 1, lawmakers delayed that window till April 1 till they could work out a compromise. And those chambers’ Republican leaders are holding fast to their different proposals.
As Ohio prisons officials work on a way to continue carrying out executions, House and Senate leaders are considering having deeper discussions on the future of the death penalty.
The House has voted on a plan to move the start of Ohio's private school voucher application process ahead to April 1, just hours before the EdChoice program is supposed to start accepting applications on Saturday. It now has to go to the Senate this morning, and a statement suggests the vote there may run into problems.
Ohio lawmakers are taking the rest of the year off before coming back to the Statehouse in 2020. Some of the top leaders in the House and Senate say they have some New Year's resolutions when they return.
Abortion was a big issue in Ohio in 2019, as it has been for several years. A strict abortion ban was one of the 21 bills that passed, and more bills are still under consideration.
Gov. Mike DeWine says one of his top priorities in 2020 will be to push the package of gun and mental health law changes that he put forward after the mass shooting in Dayton in August. But the leaders of the Ohio Senate are suggesting that might be an uphill battle.
Senate President Larry Obhof (R-Medina) says the plan to change drug sentencing laws is one of the most important pieces of legislation they'll have during this two-year session.
A small nativity, complete with a figure representing newborn Jesus, is on display at the Ohio Statehouse right now. And the private group and lawmakers who want it there say it’s perfectly constitutional.
One of the Ohio House’s top agenda items known as priority bills was passed in the Senate on Wednesday. But Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford) said he’s still frustrated with the pace of legislation moving from his chamber through to the other one.
Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford) is throwing shots at the Ohio Senate, claiming they're taking too much time to pass bills that are priority issues in the House. Householder says his fellow Republicans in the Senate need to pick up the pace on issues that could help Ohioans.
It's been more than six weeks since Gov. Mike DeWine unveiled a 17-point approach to reducing gun violence, which included expanded background checks and a version of the red flag confiscation law. But so far lawmakers have yet to see those specific plans in the form of proposed legislation.
FirstEnergy Solutions says it will continue its plans to deactivate and decommission Ohio's two nuclear power plants since lawmakers were not able to pass a bail out measure before the June 30 deadline. However, the energy company says there’s still time to reverse course.
Ohio lawmakers failed to reach a state budget agreement by the midnight deadline, missing the mark for a spending deal for the new two-year cycle. Because the House and Senate couldn’t reach a compromise, both chambers passed a temporary budget extension to keep the government running.
Among the changes the Senate made to the House version of the budget was a $5 million boost to a program that funds centers that counsel pregnant women against abortion.
State lawmakers have been advised by their economic researchers to cut the spending in Gov. Mike DeWine’s budget. And they may try to add something into the House version of the budget set to be released on Wednesday that DeWine deliberately left out.
It’s taken eight years and many hours of testimony, but the so-called “Heartbeat Bill” has been signed into law. Gov. Mike DeWine delivered on his campaign promise to sign the controversial legislation that bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. But where does it go from here?
For the third time, a bill that bans abortion from the point a fetal heartbeat is detected has passed the Ohio House and Senate. But this time will likely be the last for what's been called the "Heartbeat Bill", because Gov. Mike DeWine says he’ll sign it into law.
The deadline for a new state transportation budget with a gas tax hike came and went at midnight – without a new spending plan being signed. Lawmakers are coming back to the Statehouse this week hoping to work it out.
As lawmakers are working out differences in their transportation budgets, there’s one thing in the Senate’s version that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with transportation – a change in a tax credit designed for low-income people. But it’s being tied to the increase in the gas tax.
