The Ohio Constitution requires a governor to “communicate at every session, by message, to the General Assembly, the condition of the state, and recommend such measures as he” – someday, she – “shall deem expedient.”
Until Cox delivered the 1917’s session’s message in person, Ohio governors had typically sent the General Assembly a printed message.
Cox – who became Democrats’ 1920 presidential nominee – may have been emulating another Democrat, President Woodrow Wilson. In 1913, garnering enormous publicity, Wilson became the first president to deliver an in-person State of the Union to Congress since 1801, when President Thomas Jefferson instead sent Congress a written message.
DeWine, like his predecessors, talked up accomplishments – and, in fairness, there are many, starting with Ohio’s rock-solid finances.
Still, legislators’ cheers for DeWine called to mind what Democrat John F. Kennedy said of his 1960 presidential campaign: “There is no city in the United States in which I get a warmer welcome and less votes than Columbus, Ohio.”
That is, while many legislative Republicans respect Mike DeWine personally, and likely envy his political successes, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll follow his agenda.
An obvious turn: The evident decision by House Republicans, led by new Speaker Matt Huffman, of Lima – not shy about doing just and only as he pleases – to buck DeWine’s plan help finance a new Cleveland Browns stadium.
To help pay for it, DeWine wants to boost Ohio’s sports gaming tax, now 20%, to 40%, levied on gross receipts a sports gaming company receives from Ohio bets. The 20% rate was set in mid-2023 in Ohio’s current budget; earlier, the tax rate was 10%.
House Republicans instead want Ohio taxpayers to go into debt by selling state-backed bonds to help fund a new Browns stadium.
The Browns’ owners, Jimmy and Dee Haslam, want any new stadium to be built in Brook Park. Cleveland city officials want the team to stay in Cleveland. (The Browns have deployed a squad of five lobbyists at the Statehouse.)
Meanwhile, perhaps it was practical politics on DeWine’s part – why seek what you may never get? – but there are two topics he should have raised last week but didn’t.
The first: The burden of skyrocketing real-estate taxes Ohio’s property tax set-up – more complicated than a European king’s family tree – are piling onto the shoulders of Ohio homeowners. If General Assembly Republican keeps ducking the issue, that’ll touch off a firestorm in suburban Ohio – GOP communities. Is anyone in Columbus listening?
Then there’s the peril facing Ohioans, especially in small-town and rural Ohio, also GOP bedrock, if Donald Trump and his troupe of co-presidents slash the federal-state Medicaid program, especially Ohio’s 2013 extension of Medicaid coverage to more low-income Ohioans.
Forget ifs, ands and buts: If Washington squeezes Medicaid, some smaller Ohio towns – GOP heartland – will see hospitals close, their jobs vanish.
The legislature should drop kook-wacko “issues” and focus on what to do if rural health-care providers move counties-away from pregnant, ill or aging Ohioans. In some state capitals, there’s a word for that: Leadership.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. You can reach him at tsuddes@gmail.com.
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