Week in Review 6-10-2022

FY22-23 BUDGET

Better than expected tax collections continued in May with $105.3 million collected in excess of forecasts, bringing the state’s FY22 tax collections to $2.55 billion over estimates with just one month left in the fiscal year. Sales taxes accounted for most of May’s over-estimate collections. Non-auto sales taxes brought in $973.7 million versus the $910 million expected, a 7 percent bump over forecasts; auto sales taxes were essentially on target, missing the expected $179.4 million expectation by just $59,000. For the fiscal year to-date, sales taxes have brought in $590 million or 5.2 percent more than expected. 

EDUCATION

State Board of Education (SBOE) President Charlotte McGuire announced Friday, June 3 that recently appointed State Superintendent of Education Stephen Dackin has resigned from the post — less than a month after being selected. Stephanie Siddens will once again serve as interim superintendent, pending formal appointment by SBOE at its June meeting. Dackin served as the board’s point person for much of its search for a new state superintendent. He resigned as vice president of the SBOE in March to apply for the position himself ahead of the application deadline. After rounds of interviews, the board selected him in May. He cited “revolving door” concerns in a letter announcing he’d step down as state superintendent.

While the State Board of Education (SBOE) is scheduled to kick off the June 13-14 meeting by returning Stephanie Siddens to the role of interim superintendent, board member John Hagan plans to ask the board to hire the second-place contender in the recent leadership search, Springboro Schools Superintendent Larry Hook. Hagan told Hannah News that Hook has the qualifications and that he wants to avoid further delay in finding permanent leadership for ODE. 

Two Dayton-area lawmakers, state Reps. Tom Young (R-Centerville) and Andrea White (R-Kettering), recently introduced a bill to require high school students to complete self-defense instruction as part of qualifications for a high school diploma. HB639, which the lawmakers dubbed the “Student Protection Act,” requires each student who enters 9th grade on or after July 1, 2023 — the class of 2027 and on — to complete self-defense instruction to qualify for a diploma. The self-defense instruction must include a demonstration provided by a school resource officer or another certified self-defense instructor.

Republicans have dubbed language rolled into HB151 (Jones) the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” but Democrats and health professionals say the bill will deter girls from participating in sports out of fear of having to undergo a potentially invasive screening. Reps. Beth Liston (D-Dublin, a physician, and Jessica Miranda (D-Cincinnati) continued to speak out against the bill Thursday, saying it will result in the “state mandated sexual assault of student athletes” and is a “violation of a child’s bodily autonomy.”

GENERAL ASSEMBLY/STATEHOUSE

After Tuesday’s Senate session, Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) told reporters that while he generally agrees that state government should “deal with” the “issue” of transgender women and girls participating in women’s and girls’ sports, he’s not happy with how the House amended the transgender athlete ban into HB151 (Jones) on the floor near the end of a marathon session. “I wish the House would just pass a bill. This happened a year ago when it got tacked on to an unrelated bill,” Huffman said, referring to when the House added the language to college athlete name, image and likeness (NIL) bill SB187 (Antani). 

Huffman was also asked about Rep. Bill Seitz’s (R-Cincinnati) recent floor speech on election funding. Seitz had said the Senate refused to include funding for the secretary of state to send absentee ballot request forms to all voters in the state to help increase voter turnout for the Tuesday, Aug. 2 primary. “We didn’t have enough time, really, to consider it and say, is this worth it?” Huffman said. “It doesn’t take a political genius to say it’s an off-year election, not a presidential election, in August. Voter turnout is going to be way down, but I don’t know necessarily that that would have gotten more people to vote. I think people who are going to go vote in this election are going to do it.”

GOVERNOR

On Tuesday, Gov. Mike DeWine was asked about the House’s passage of the transgender athlete ban bill, and how it might drive companies away from doing business in the state. “I think Ohio is a welcoming state. We have to continue to emphasize that — we have to emphasize that Ohio is a great place to live, a great place to raise a family, a great place to start a business and to grow a business,” DeWine said. “And we’re going to keep talking about those things, those are just very, very important and if we can get people in to look at Ohio, take a look at us, we’re going to get our fair share of businesses coming into Ohio because we’ve got what we need to have and what businesses are looking for.”