Latest news with #PolicyMattersOhio
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Child care programs take hits in Ohio Senate budget, even a Republican-supported one
Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, speaks at the Ohio Senate Republican Budget Press Conference. Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, stands in the background. (Photo by Morgan Trau, WEWS.) The Ohio Senate-approved budget keeps eligibility for state-supported child care at levels that state leaders and advocates say is one of the worst in the country, and eliminates a cost-sharing model for child care that was supported by Republicans in both chambers. Eligibility for Publicly Funded Child Care wasn't increased in the Ohio Senate proposal as advocates had urged, maintaining the state eligibility of 145% of the federal poverty level. That level leaves Ohio at what Ohio Department of Children and Youth Director Kara Wente, along with advocates like Policy Matters Ohio, said was one of the lowest eligibility levels in the country. To even get to the middle of rankings on child care eligibility, Heather Smith, a researcher with Policy Matters Ohio, said the state would need to jump their eligibility level to 225%, far above what advocates requested, which was an increase to 160%. One thing that made it to the Senate proposal at the urging of advocates was a provision that calculates payments for Publicly Funded Child Care based on enrollment numbers rather than attendance. Child care workers and leaders said the method would create more consistency in payments and would be 'critical' for parents and providers. The budget eliminates a Republican-supported measure added in the House version called the Child Care Cred Program, which would create a cost-sharing model for child care, in which employers, eligible employees, and the state all pay a portion of the cost of child care. In the most recent discussions on the model, the state would pay 20%, and employers and employees would put in 40% each. The measure came from bills in both chambers of the Ohio legislature, the GOP sponsors of which pushed the model as a way to address a state child care sector that has long been considered inaccessible, unaffordable, and without the adequate (and adequately paid) workforce to stand up to the demand. Policy Matters actually supported taking the model out of the budget, citing 'lackluster results' from comparable programs in other states. Smith said the funding 'would have a greater impact' if it was directed toward Ohio Senate Bill 177, a GOP-led bill that would create a pilot program to allow child care staff members to have Publicly Funded Child Care for free. 'This program would stabilize the sector while creating an additional 6,000 to 18,000 spots in child care facilities,' according to Smith. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The Child Care Choice Voucher program, which Republican Gov. Mike DeWine praised as an important part of the state's support for parents and the child care sector, stayed in the Senate-passed budget with eligibility at 200% of the federal poverty line to receive subsidies for child care services. But the budget took out language regarding Step Up to Quality, a set of state standards for licensed child care providers, and Smith said the payment rates for the voucher program 'are not sufficient for providers.' The voucher program would receive $25 million less over the next two years than was proposed in DeWine's executive budget. While he asked for $75 million in 2026 and $150 million in 2027, the Senate kept the House's amounts, at $100 million in each fiscal year. Early childhood education advocacy group Groundwork Ohio said the Senate proposal 'fails to meet the moment.' 'Ohio families are doing everything right,' said Lynanne Gutierrez, president and CEO of Groundwork Ohio, in testimony to the Senate Finance Committee before the proposal was passed. 'They're working hard, raising kids and keeping our economy moving. They deserve a budget that recognizes their contribution and meets them with the support they need.' Gutierrez and Groundwork pushed for restoration of the Child Tax Credit as well, which would have provided up to $1,000 per child ages 0 to 6. The credit had the support of state organizations and individuals, along with economic experts who said the credit would boost the state's financial health. Republican legislative leaders pushed back on the tax credit, partly because the money for the credit would have come from tobacco taxes, which legislative leaders said was a fading source of revenue. A Child Care Recruitment and Mentorship Grant Program was kept from the House provision, to 'help increase the number of licensed child care providers in Ohio and to assist recited entities and individuals.' The budget proposal includes $1.75 million in fiscal year 2026 and $1 million in 2027 for the program. Another grant program that survived to the Senate budget was the Early Childhood Education Grant Program, to 'support and invest in Ohio's early learning and development programs,' including licensed child care centers, licensed family child care homes and licensed preschools. The Ohio House and Ohio Senate are now working in closed-door discussions to combine their two versions into a final budget draft, set to be sent to the governor for signature, and possible line-item vetoes, by July 1. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
National, Ohio Republican budgets prioritize corporate welfare and donor handouts over Ohio families
The Ohio Statehouse. (Photo by David DeWitt, Ohio Capital Journal.) Budget bills being shepherded through Congress and the Ohio Statehouse by Republican majorities are a reflection of priorities. Not mine and maybe not yours, but they are an explicit manifesto of the 'values' most prized by the controlling party. The federal budget bill and the one being hammered out in Ohio both put a premium on corporate welfare, as opposed to social safety nets, and the continued prosperity of fat cats who write big campaign checks, as opposed to everyone else. Federal lawmakers — more fearful of upsetting their Dear Leader than screwing their constituents out of healthcare and food aid — are doubling-down to enact a $2.4 trillion-dollar operating budget with unpaid tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the ultra-wealthy and corporations while millions go hungry and lose medical insurance. Besides the moral depravity of kicking the working-class poor to the curb to reward multi-millionaires and billionaires with lavish tax breaks, this deficit-ballooning monstrosity is predicted to explode the national debt to more than $50 trillion within ten years. The so-called deficit hawks who howl about paid-for spending budgets that increase revenue, reduce federal deficits, and reverse the unsustainable trajectory of today's roughly $29 trillion in public debt, will ram through the Trump's country club giveaway to the rich. They will vote for what the felon-in-chief (corruptly enriching himself on an epic scale) values above all else — money and power — while bankrupting the country, leaving 11 million Americans uninsured, and forcing countless families to ration meals. Trump supporters will lose what keeps them afloat, but what matters to the congressional invertebrates who represent them is only what matters to their amoral god king. They will spurn the many who struggle to survive to indulge the few who luxuriate in multiple homes and on super yachts. While sparse food banks turn away seniors on the edge of poverty and mothers desperate to stave off their children's hunger, the richest Americans will walk away richer, thanks to one party that prioritizes the interests of zillionaires and modern-day robber barons to maintain political dominance. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Ohio Republicans are using the same playbook as their federal counterparts to hand the wealthiest Ohioans a billion-dollar handout by lowering the state income tax on those making six figures plus with a single flat rate for everybody. But less than 3% of this tax cut would go to the bottom 80% of working Ohioans, according to Policy Matters Ohio. A tax expert with the nonpartisan research group testified that the other 97% 'goes to Ohioans in the top 20% of earners, making at least $139,000' while the top 1% alone (with an average income of over $1.7 million) rakes in 40% of the tax cut benefits. So much for equity in a regressive tax code proposal that eliminates graduated brackets for the gated community to pay a higher share of its considerable income. Who cares if Ohio's general revenue fund takes a 1.1 billion hit in lost revenue as a result? State lawmakers' rational for their fiscally irresponsible tax cuts to the mega-rich is identical to the one congressional Republicans offer for the bulk of their tax cuts going to the richest households and greediest corporations. It's the old, punctured 'trickle-down theory' that pretends fat cats with fatter wallets ignite economic growth. Proof to the contrary is abundant. So is evidence that subsidizing billionaire owners of sports teams with public money to build multi-billion-dollar stadiums is a bad bet for taxpayers. But that hasn't stopped leading Republicans in the Ohio Senate and Ohio House from bending over backward to accommodate Jimmy and Dee Haslams' ask for $600 million to take the Browns out of a perfectly good stadium on the lakefront and plop a new one into a working-class suburb right next to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. The pols bow to the Haslams as deep-pocketed Republican donors and are committed to finding some way to finance the couple's private interests with public funds. But the party that engineered gerrymandered supermajorities in the legislature and exerts absolute rule in Ohio insists the state can't find any extra money for food banks (reeling from deep funding cuts under the Trump regime) and has unified around slashing food bank funding by nearly 25% despite rising demand across Ohio. Republicans also argue that fully funding public education in the state — under a bipartisan spending formula that came closest to meeting long ignored constitutional obligations — is not sustainable under a tight budget. But swelling state investments in a voucher boondoggle predicted to cost $1.25 billion by 2027, according to the Columbus Dispatch, to offset tuition costs for affluent families who can afford the private schools their darlings already attend is sustainable?? Statehouse Republicans blame budget constraints for cutbacks on opioid recovery programs, public libraries, public transit, safe drinking water initiatives, continued Medicaid coverage for kids up to age 3, and even no-cost breakfast and lunch for all Ohio students. They punted on property tax relief with clawbacks from fiscally responsible school districts yet managed to remove all elected members of the state education board in the Ohio House budget bill. But cash for brand new stadiums, a billion-dollar tax cut for the wealthy, and an open government spigot for expanded private school vouchers? Those are GOP priorities that value money and power above all else.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ohio near the top in April unemployment
Stock photo from Getty Images. Ohio had the sixth-highest unemployment of any state in April. The news comes after years of state officials spending billions on economic growth programs tilted heavily toward the wealthy. It might seem ironic, but Ohio's economy added jobs in April even as unemployment continued to grow. That's because job growth isn't keeping up with the numbers joining the workforce. And there are reasons to believe that things will get worse, according to the think tank Policy Matters Ohio. Data released last week by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services estimated that the state added 22,200 jobs in April. But statewide unemployment rose for the fifth consecutive month, to 4.9%. That's the sixth-highest of any state, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Heather Smith, a researcher at Policy Matters Ohio, said the new state data raise some questions. 'The civilian labor force has increased at about the same rate as the number of unemployed workers, suggesting that while more Ohioans are entering the job market, they are not all securing employment,' she said in a written statement. 'This raises questions around the reported increases in jobs across service-providing industries – why aren't Ohioans getting hired?' The Department of Job and Family Services conducts a monthly survey, releases its estimate of the number of new jobs, and then often revises it downward. For example, it initially estimated that 7,500 jobs were created in March, and then cut that number to 5,200. Of the jobs thought to be created in April, the great majority were in the service sector, 18,800. More than 6,500 of those were in hospitality as those businesses staff up for summer. Construction and manufacturing added 1,200 and 1,100 jobs, respectively, while the number of government jobs increased by 1,300. A separate household survey indicated that 15,000 joined the Ohio job market in April. But only 6,000 found jobs while the rest were unemployed. 'Legislators ought to pay attention to the growing unemployment rate, given its steady increase over the last five months,' Smith said. 'The last time we saw the unemployment rate in Ohio decrease was between September and October – prior to the November election.' Ohio's economy has lagged for more than a decade after the creation of billion-dollar programs mostly benefitting the well off on the promise that they would create jobs for average Ohioans. Created in 2013 under the auspices of then-Gov. John Kasich, the LLC tax loophole costs about $1 billion a year. It was sold as a way to boost small business. But an analysis showed that hiring in that sector has fallen relative to other states, while the wealthiest 7% are claiming nearly 40% of the benefit. Started around the same time, JobsOhio is funded through a state liquor franchise that used to flow into state coffers. Its well-paid staff has grown rapidly as it has doled out more than $1 billion in incentives to businesses. But it hasn't proven that those incentives have created any jobs. Controversial 'private corporation' JobsOhio gets billions more without paying more to state Even so, the Ohio Controlling Board in February extended JobsOhio's control of the state liquor franchise to 2053. The 'private' corporation paid the state $1.41 billion for its initial lease of the franchise. But the state didn't require an additional penny to extend it another 15 years. Meanwhile, Smith of Policy Matters Ohio warned that several developments at the federal level could further drag down the Ohio job market. 'A recent survey of Fourth District businesses by the Federal Reserve of Cleveland found that 22% of respondents anticipated the tariffs would force them to decrease their staff,' she wrote. 'This is already underway: Several large employers across the state have submitted mass layoff notices, including 744 manufacturing jobs in Fremont. A Chillicothe paper plant, which was set to layoff 826 union workers by the end of June, agreed to remain open until December. While this buys impacted Ohioans a bit more time, the plant closing will be a devastating hit to workers in the area.' In addition to potential harm from tariffs, the Trump administration is trying to cut hundreds of thousands of federal jobs and to slash services as it tries to fund further tax cuts. 'Ohio policymakers need to hold their federal counterparts accountable for the impact of funding cuts on the state and stop preemptively cutting critical public services with trigger language in the state budget,' Smith said. 'If federal budget hawks get their way and force the state to pick up a greater share of the Medicaid budget, proposed trigger language could cut off the health insurance of 770,000 Ohioans.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Child health programs including even pediatric cancer research see cuts in Ohio House budget draft
() From changes to Medicaid to elimination of lead abatement funding, the Ohio House budget proposal concerns many who have championed child wellbeing and improvement of metrics with which Ohio struggles, like infant mortality, as important budget priorities. 'It just felt like they had taken a hacksaw to some of these line-items without real consideration to what they did,' said Kathryn Poe, budget and health researcher for the think tank Policy Matters Ohio. Poe said it seems as though state legislators are taking cues from the federal government are trying to drastically cut spending, but that don't improve the state in the process. 'These cuts at the federal level also feel really haphazard,' Poe said. 'But the state doesn't have the amount of money or time or influence to make these sort of haphazard cuts.' Specifically, Poe sees the elimination of Ohio's Medicaid expansion as a significant change that will create struggles for low-wage workers who count on Medicaid for their health insurance, and who will be prevented from planning for the future without the ability to count on proper health insurance. As Poe put it, 'what do you do when 700,000 people lose their insurance overnight?' The House's version of the budget absorbed a proposal by Gov. Mike DeWine in his executive budget that creates a trigger effect, eliminating Group VIII, or the Medicaid expansion eligibility group, 'if the federal government sets the federal medical assistance percentage below (its current level of) 90%,' according to budget documents. The federal medical assistance percentage (or FMAP) refers to the amount of federal funding the state receives for Medicaid, based on a state's per capita income. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The expansion group is made up of Ohioans ages 19 to 64 who have household incomes of less than 138% of the federal poverty line and aren't eligible in other Medicaid categories. According to the Health Policy Institute of Ohio, the Medicaid expansion 'has been a major contributor to Ohio's uninsured rate dropping by half from 14% in 2010 to 7% in 2022.' The group said the expansion has also improved access to care, with data showing a 31% decrease in Ohioans who went without care due to cost from 2013 to 2023. According to the state, the expansion population caseload is projected to be 779,000 Ohioans in fiscal year 2026, and 772,000 in 2027. That would account for more than $13.5 billion in expenditures over the two fiscal years. Without the expansion, workers under the program would be less likely to have insurance, partly because many workers earning less than 138% of the federal poverty line are working jobs where they aren't given enough hours to receive medical benefits, such as entry-level retail jobs or customer service. Citing data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Health Policy Institute of Ohio said even workers in the skilled trades like electricians and medical assistants could lose benefits, considering the federal poverty level of 138% for a family of three represents an annual income of $36,777. 'It would be a devastating economic loss,' Poe said. 'The answers (for Ohioans who would lose the coverage) are everything from going to the emergency room, to not getting care, to letting that pain in your abdomen go on so long that you have to go to the emergency room anyway.' The budget proposal comes amid attempts by DeWine and the state to apply work requirements to that particular group of Medicaid participants. Not only will it create expensive health decisions, but the ripple effects will extend to the ability to afford groceries or have reliable transportation, according to Poe. Those effects would trickle all the way down to Ohio's children as well, according to advocates. Groundwork Ohio criticized a House measure that would end a requirement that the Medicaid department 'seek approval to provide continuous Medicaid enrollment for Medicaid-eligible children from birth through age three Budget documents say the change could create 'possible service cost savings.' Groundwork called on the legislature to take back the changes, saying nearly 48% of all Ohio children under the age of 6 'depend on Medicaid for health coverage.' 'The program covers about half of all births in the state and thousands of Ohio women rely on Medicaid to ensure a healthy pregnancy and support postpartum recovery,' according to an analysis of budgetary proposals in the House draft. The organization also criticized a provision of the budget that would limit Medicaid coverage for doulas, leaving the coverage for only the six counties with the highest infant mortality rates. The House plan also cuts pediatric cancer research by $5 million and eliminates lead abatement programs within the Ohio Department of Health. Groundwork Ohio noted the lead abatement program as part of their analysis of the budget plan, saying Ohio has 'nearly double the national rate of children with elevated blood lead levels.' 'Even small amounts of lead exposure in early childhood can harm the brain, delaying growth and development, and may cause learning, behavior, speech and other health problems,' the group stated. Advocates have already been publicly critical of the House plan to slash public education funding and drop a child tax credit proposed by DeWine in his budget plan. But adding the Medicaid changes, along with reducing funding in the areas of child development and a $1.5 million cut to 'infant vitality' programming just make things worse, advocates say. 'The House's proposal represents a step backward at a time when we can least afford it,' said Lynanne Gutierrez, president and CEO of Groundwork Ohio, in a statement. 'We urge lawmakers to fully restore these investments and prioritize Ohio's future.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Axios
29-01-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Columbus leaders troubled by federal funding threats
Columbus officials and organizations face uncertainty about the potential impacts of President Trump's attempted funding freeze that was halted by a judge. Why it matters: The directive could freeze or eliminate funding to many Central Ohio nonprofits and government programs. Catch up quick: Trump's memo seeks to pause federal grant, loan and financial assistance programs, particularly those that involve "DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal." It's created confusion across the country. A federal judge temporarily blocked the order with an administrative stay that expires next Monday. Threat level: Hannah Halbert, executive director of progressive think tank Policy Matters Ohio, tells Axios the memo is a "debacle" that threatens programs that fund opioid recovery, unemployment and cancer patient support. "The only thing certain about this memo is that it is causing a tremendous amount of uncertainty and panic." Case in point: The nonprofit LifeCare Alliance runs Columbus' Meals-on-Wheels program. Its president and CEO, Charles Gehrig, tells us the organization was happy to hear the White House's clarification that Meals-on-Wheels won't be targeted. However, he's still worried about funding for other LifeCare Alliance programs that support older adults and those with AIDS. But, he emphasized: "Don't worry, your meal is coming tomorrow." Behind the scenes: City Attorney Zach Klein's office is meeting to discuss next steps and begin identifying what may be at risk, per city spokesperson Melanie Crabill. The city will flag any federal grant awards that could be affected, particularly those related to green and DEI initiatives. What they're saying: Mayor Andrew Ginther, in his capacity as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, released a statement saying "America's mayors are deeply concerned" about the "sweeping freeze." Other Democrats are similarly uncertain. Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Columbus) called the move "thoughtless" and a "deliberate attack on our nation's democracy" in a statement Tuesday. What we're watching: A spokesperson for Klein tells Axios that "all options, including litigation, remain on the table as we navigate the impacts of this executive action."
