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The state budget process continued this week with Senate passage of Am. Sub. H.B. 96.  The House did not concur to Senate changes setting the table for conference committee that is expected to convene in the coming weeks with a targeted budget passage date of June 25 or 26.  Meanwhile, other non-fiscal legislative action continues.  OESCA continues to strive to provide its membership with the latest available information.

This June 12, 2025, Legislative e-Update is provided by OESCA to Ohio’s ESCs, their client school districts, and other key education stakeholders.  The e-Update provides information on the pending education bills of interest to Ohio’s public education community introduced during the 136^th Ohio General Assembly. Bills are organized in order by last action date (includes last 3 status).  There are also links to the state bill page for users to download any bills, analyses, or fiscal notes.  The document concludes with targeted news updates and the latest news from Capitol Square.

The downloadable reports are available to members the following link:  https://www.oesca.org/viewdocument/legislative-eupdate-for-june-12-20?CommunityKey=e25c3e7b-d192-458d-bbfc-018fe042b4c4&tab=librarydocuments

Legislative Tracking Report: 136^th General Assembly

Latest News from Capital Square

FY26-27 PROPOSED BUDGET

Senate Passes Budget Bill Mostly Along Party Lines

The Senate moved its version of biennial budget HB96 (Stewart) on a 23-10 vote Wednesday. With the House rejecting the changes (see separate story, this issue), the bill is headed for a conference committee, with Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) telling reporters that a vote on the conference report could come Wednesday, June 25, or Thursday, June 26. Sen. Lou Blessing (R-Cincinnati) was the lone Republican to vote against the bill, joining all Democrats opposing it. Senate Finance Chair Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) said the latest version is the result of months of work by staff and members of the Senate, and hundreds of in-person and written testimony submissions from members of the public and organizations to the six standing Senate committees and the Finance Committee. "This is a very exciting and bold budget," Cirino said. "It clearly displays the Senate's intent to support families, children, life, economic growth and the delivery of health care services and education." He outlined major components of the bill, including a flat tax that he said will put money in the hands of taxpayers so they can spend it and invest back into Ohio's economy. He said it is about making Ohio competitive with other states, and noted Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Kentucky as nearby states that have a flat tax. He also said that they have added almost $1 billion in funding for schools, with more than 400 schools getting increases and none getting less than they did in FY21. On the plan to help fund a new Cleveland Browns stadium by using unclaimed funds, Cirino said the Senate is tapping into "lazy money" that has sat idle for more than a decade. He said it differs from Gov. Mike DeWine's plan in not raising taxes and a House plan to use state bonding. Finance Committee Ranking Member Sen. Paula Hicks-Hudson (D-Toledo) said the debate is about the role of government and how they fund it. She criticized the school funding plan in the bill, saying the Fair School Funding Plan was created to truly reflect what it costs to educate children whether they are in public or community schools, and she said including the latest inputs into the formula would reflect the economic reality today. Instead, she said the Senate is not fully funding the formula.

She also raised concerns about the speed of some provisions of the bill, saying it is less than 24 hours since they received the latest iteration, and that many items were done without discussion. She said there are certain policy discussions that require the light of day so they don't make mistakes that they have to clean up later. Hicks-Hudson questioned whether the policies help the middle class, deal with important issues such as health care and child care, and provide meaningful tax support for all Ohioans. "We find that while there were positive changes made, it does not rise to the level to get the support of the people who sent us here," she said. "All of them are Ohioans who want the very best, and unfortunately, I do not think this bill does that." The chamber debated for about four hours on the more than 5,000-page bill. A common theme among those speaking on both sides of the aisle was that there were provisions that they like, and those that they wish were different. A number of Democrats who spoke also noted that this will be the first budget they are voting against in several General Assemblies. Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) said she always tries to find a way to get to "yes" on budget bills, but could not get there on this budget Every Senate Democrat offered an amendment that was tabled by majority Republicans. They included restoring H2Ohio funding to executive proposed levels; increasing funding for the removal of dead ash trees from Oho waterways; removing property tax provisions restricting the use of levies by districts; removing Medicaid trigger language; adding additional funds for Ohio foodbanks; offering property tax relief for those who earn less than $60,000; increasing funding for the Local Government Fund; and removing provisions related to the funding of the Browns stadium. On the Browns stadium, Democrats questioned how senators were able to "shake the couch cushions" to find money for that project, but could not fund other important areas of the budget. Sen. Kent Smith (D-Euclid) called the bill "out of balance," and noted that despite Democrats gaining two seats in this General Assembly, they did not gain any more representation on the Finance Committee. He argued that the bill underfunds schools, with all schools receiving less than they would have under a fully implemented Fair School Funding plan. He also took aim at performance measures that he said would hit poor schools harder. "We are happy to put performance metrics on high poverty school districts, but not on low performing sports teams," Smith said. Republicans in the chamber praised the flat tax provisions of the bill, with Sen. Kristina Roegner (R-Hudson) calling the funding mechanism "beautifully simple." She said the tax reform is about fairness, freedom, and unleashing the potential of all Ohioans by trusting them to spend their own money better than the government can. Sen. Andrew Brenner (R-Delaware) pushed back on the notion that tax cuts have hurt the state, noting that they have been done steadily every biennium since former Gov. John Kasich took office in 2011, and tax revenues have increased every year since then. "They've gone up because we've grown the economy." Brenner also spoke on the education portions of the bill, saying the funding plan is a 4.9 percent increase over the current biennium, saying it shows a sustained investment by the state. He called the education plan principled and data driven and said it puts students first. Antonio criticized multiple parts of the bill, and said that culture wars provisions that were put in the bill by the House were not removed by the Senate. Discussing the tax cuts, she said that the theory that cuts for the wealthy benefit everyone "has been debunked many times." She said she is concerned that it will be unsustainable for the state, and will lead to a potential fiscal cliff in the future.

Antonio said she hopes conference committee will bring about a budget that is not filled with broken promises for Ohioans. After the session, McColley told reporters that while he didn't want to reveal too much about their conference committee strategy, the chamber feels "pretty strongly" about the flat tax provisions. "Hopefully we don't get a lot of pushback, but other than that, we'll let the process play out," he said. He and Cirino also discussed the Browns stadium funding provisions, saying they came up with a good proposal using idle money. McColley said it is a good investment for Ohio that will make more money for the General Revenue Fund so they can fund other priorities for the state, "and it's a good economic development project that will create an awful lot of jobs." Cirino noted proposals to help the Browns with funding on the stadium were in the executive, House and Senate versions, showing all three concurred it was a worthwhile project. "We're very confident that the Senate's approach is the right approach," he said. "It's low risk. It doesn't put the state on the hook for debt service, $400 million plus. I think it's a very creative lower risk way to get this done and the payback will be significant in terms of incremental taxes, and it's also going to be very big win for Northeast Ohio." On the flat tax, McColley did not show concerns about having to work with less revenues in the next General Assembly, saying history has shown revenues will be higher as they have been after previous tax cuts. He also spoke on Senate budget provisions dealing with political contributions, saying they don't change anything as Ohio's current laws on independent expenditures had been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Citizens United decision. "In fact, we increased disclosure requirements on these independent expenditures in our bill, saying, now if you're going to spend that money on independent expenditures, you're required to disclose whether you're a corporation or labor union or whatever the case may be, and so to say that this is somehow political corruption and allowing it to happen -- if anything, we strengthen the laws. We didn't make them weaker," McColley said. Cirino also spoke strongly about what he said was the "disparagement of wealthy, successful business people by the other side of the aisle. This is ridiculous. These are the people who are creating jobs, creating value, buying property, hiring people, and giving to charities in a big way. Let's be careful about disparaging billionaires or highly successful people. They are an important part of our economy. They pay most of the taxes." Antonio told reporters that comments about who gets funding are not disparaging to anyone. "My caucus did not speak disparagingly about any of the wealthy or billionaires in our state, we're happy they're there. We're happy that they're investing. What we talked about was giving billionaires money from Ohioans that they don't need, frankly," she said. Hicks-Hudson said they also need to think about the fact that the source of funding for the Browns project belongs to someone, and in the past, the state has used these funds for public projects that will impact all of the state, not just one county. Both pointed to an LSC analysis they said shows it will not be the economic driver it is being promoted as. With the bill headed for conference committee, it was indicated that Senate members will be Cirino, Finance Vice Chair Brian Chavez (R-Marietta), and Hicks-Hudson. In other action, the Senate unanimously passed SB65 (Lang) to modify the law governing ancillary product protection contracts, vehicle value protection agreements, and uninsured drivers; and SB179 (Johnson), to verify the veteran status of imprisoned individuals and individuals facing imprisonment.

House Votes against HB96 Concurrence, Sending Budget to Conference Committee

The House voted 1-84 against concurrence with the Senate version of budget bill HB96 (Stewart), setting up the creation of a conference committee to work out the differences between the two chambers. Rep. Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) was the lone vote to concur with the Senate budget. The House quickly passed all the items on its agenda on Wednesday (see separate story, this issue), and then went to recess to wait on the Senate to finish debating and voting on HB96. After reconvening, House Finance Committee Chair Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) and House Finance Committee Ranking Member Bride Rose Sweeney (D-Cleveland) both spoke briefly to encourage members to vote against concurrence. After session, House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) told reporters that he is looking forward to analyzing the Senate's flat tax proposal, and as well their plan for school funding. "The number with school funding -- $100 million is a lot of money -- but it's not that much different, it was just how they got there," Huffman said. "On major things like that, we're pretty close. There are a lot of very basic policy differences. They moved some All Ohio funds money into different places." Huffman also noted that he plans to speak with Gov. Mike DeWine about the budget soon. "Of course, we do care what the governor thinks. He called me today, but I wasn't able to connect with him. What he thinks, because what he's going to do with his veto pen afterwards, of course matters to us," Huffman said. "We're going to start digging into it, and that's why we wanted to stay late tonight to get it going." Asked about the flat income tax, Huffman said, "I think the flat tax is a great idea," and that he would look into it further. On the Senate's plan to fund the new Cleveland Browns stadium, Huffman said he's not sure if he is supportive. "The specifics of that seem to be vague," Huffman said. "If we are going to use this pool of money for a different purpose than the purpose which it now is, which is it simply sits there, then I don't think it should restricted just to sports stadiums. There are a lot of other cultural and other significant things that can enhance the state of Ohio." Speaking with reporters after the House Rules and Reference Committee meeting, Huffman said he doesn't believe the Senate providing $100 million more is "irresponsible," noting it is formula-based. That reflects the 1997 DeRolph decision, he said, noting he doesn't think that ruling "has any applicability today" given how the formula has changed and money provided for building funds. He also said the Senate's plan isn't what proponents of the fair school funding plan want. "That's the whole problem with saying we decided something six years ago and we're still going to do it now. We have to make these decisions based on what we know every two years," Huffman said. He also said the Senate has smart legislators and staff. "I think the beauty of the House plan is every district receives some increase -- some districts receive substantial increases. The Senate's plan doesn't do that," Huffman said. "We're going to have a significant discussion about it over the next two weeks, and we'll see what comes out of it." On Medicaid, Huffman said there is a lot of money in Medicaid checking accounts that isn't going to providing medical care for poor people, and instead sits there from one General Assembly to the next. "We should either be spending that money or making sure that the people who paid it get that money back in the way of some sort of tax relief or something like that," Huffman said.

Asked when the conference committee vote will occur, Huffman said he hopes it will happen in the last full week of June, rather than on Monday, June 30. He suggested the vote could occur on Tuesday, June 24, Wednesday, June 25 or Thursday, June 26. House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) and Sweeney also spoke with reporters after Wednesday's House Rules and Reference Committee meeting. Sweeney said the Senate version of the budget is "not fully funding our schools." She added that as a sponsor of 135-HB10 (Callender-Sweeney), this is not what was "originally intended." "When you are using over-inflated property taxes that make our communities look more wealthy, and then the state is saying, 'We get to pick and choose what data years we want to make ourselves look less wealthy so we pay less' -- that is what the Senate version is doing. It will lead to the largest explosion of property taxes across the state, and lead to cuts in services across the state as well," Sweeney said. "We are going to continue to fight for fairly, fully funding our schools, because it's the only way we get accurate and fairly funded public education and actually getting at the root of our property tax problem." Russo said there is "a lot of debate right now" that could change the property tax system, which would "amount to additional huge cuts to our schools and our local governments in particular." "So, it's not only not fully funding the fair school funding formula, but also the impact that they will see if there are massive sea changes to how property taxes are done in this state," Russo said. On the homestead exemption changes, Sweeney said there was a change last year to automatically update the homestead exemption, so the Senate is "patting themselves on the back" for an action which would happen already. The new change is "barely anything above" the previous one and "doesn't even scratch the surface of the need in this state," she said. "I can say confidently that neither the House, Senate or governor's provision does anything that actually equates to helping Ohioans not be taxed out of their homes," Sweeney said. Russo said the $1.4 billion in lost revenue due to a flat tax could "essentially double the homestead tax exemption" instead and provide other "real direct tax property tax relief to people to actually get money back into their pockets." On Medicaid cuts in the budget, Sweeney said, "So overall, this is to have people not have health care. That is the goal of all of those changes. ... Babies whose parents forget to fill out a form ... would have had continuous health care coverage at their most vulnerable times in their life. ...These budgets in the House and Senate remove that." Regarding the $600 million cut from the Ohio Department of Medicaid (ODM) budget, she said the "direct impact" of that isn't known. "I know in the conversations I've had with the director of Medicaid, the biggest challenge she had of getting that balanced budget is the increases we did last year for home health care workers, for those who are disabled to allow them to have independence. That is what's likely at jeopardy when that last budget was on one-time funds. So this budget was stabilizing that with continuous revenue," Sweeney said. "When you cut $600 million out, you are jeopardizing the wages of nurses, home health care aides -- and actually will lead to a larger expense to the state, because by federal mandate, we have to care for these people. It is cheaper to care for them in their home ...." Russo said, "Again, we're doing all of this because of $1.4 billion less in state revenue to give the wealthiest Ohioans a tax break. Those Ohioans who make less than $100,000 won't see any income tax break. So we're taking health care away from the elderly, from our most vulnerable, to give the wealthy tax breaks, just like what we see in Washington." Asked about other Senate budget changes they are concerned about, Sweeney said, "Unfortunately, it does not seem like there was an intention to help people in the state of Ohio make housing more affordable in a real way, to give people property tax relief. ... I could be here all day." Sweeney continued, "We heard a lot of feedback after the sub bill was introduced, of Ohioans, organizations, schools, teachers being dissatisfied, and it's clear that those were not heard. ... The changes that were made in this final iteration was not hearing the people of Ohio and delivering for them. ... Millionaires and billionaires, that's who they clearly are listening to." Asked which version of the budget is best, Russo said, "Well, they're both bad." Sweeney said, "I would say the governor produced the best version of all the three budgets at this point. I don't agree with all of them, especially with the changes he made to the schools would have been devastating. However, at least he budgeted in a way with concern for the people of Ohio, saying, 'OK, we want to cut taxes. I want to cut taxes. Let's give it to families who are struggling to afford child care, who are making having a hard time making ends meet. Let's make sure that kids can actually afford glasses so that they can learn to read in school.' Those are where he put the majority of his priorities. "Both the House and Senate practically gutted a lot of the things that help people in the name of giving a tax giveaway to the wealthiest in the state, and so that's the fundamental difference," Sweeney continued. "I would just say the House laid the foundation for the Senate budget. The Senate budget has the most cuts to current programs. So a lot of the House was flat funding, which is still a cut given inflation, but the Senate is where we're seeing real, actual programs taking away dollars from existing programs; giving less access; hurting families today with no real relief in terms of getting a tax break for people who are taking care of a sick loved one; the child care tax credit ... all of that, at least, was thoughtful, was considerate, and with a few changes, I likely, as a Democrat, could have supported [it] -- with changes to the education." She added that Democrats have voted for Republican budgets in the past. The governor's budget tried "to put the people of Ohio first, and I think the House and Senate versions both failed to do that." Sweeney further said she would rank the budgets, in order, 1.) executive, 2.) House and 3.) Senate.

CHILDREN/FAMILIES

The time period between Mother's Day and Father's Day would be known as "Natural Family Month" under legislation proposed by Reps. Beth Lear (R-Galena) and Josh Williams (R-Oregon). "The natural family -- a man and a woman united in marriage, raising their biological and/or adopted children -- is the foundational institution in our free society," Lear told the House Community Revitalization Committee during sponsor testimony on HB262. "For generations, this family structure has provided stability, nurtured moral and civic virtues, and ensured the overall health and prosperity of our communities." Lear said the legislation uses the "bully pulpit" of the state to encourage more Ohioans to get married and have children, noting she believes Ohio's birth rate is too low.

EDUCATION

The Ohio School Safety Center (OSSC) announced Thursday that 16 Ohio high school students have been selected for the 2025-2026 Ohio Student Safety Advisory Council. Gov. Mike DeWine created the council in 2022 to help OSSC leadership identify school safety concerns and develop innovative solutions to address them. Students from last year's council will be presenting their capstone projects at the 2025 School Safety Summit in June.

The Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) recently announced the winners of the OHSAA Sportsmanship, Ethics and Integrity Awards for the 2024-2025 school year. "Throughout the 2024-2025 school year, the coaches associations of the sports sanctioned by the OHSAA selected one of their own for an OHSAA Sportsmanship, Ethics and Integrity Award. Individuals selected reflect the values of sportsmanship, ethics and integrity through their professional responsibilities and are role models for student-athletes and others," OHSAA said in a news release.

Recently retired Marysville Schools Superintendent Diane Allen is the DeWine administration's nominee to serve as deputy director for the Division of Primary and Secondary Education at the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (DEW).

Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) founder William Lager has turned to the 10th District Court of Appeals to halt an asset freeze imposed at the trial court, but the state argues the decision isn't ripe for appeal. Judge Kimberly Cocroft of Franklin County Common Pleas Court agreed this spring with her magistrate's recommendation to freeze Lager's assets. Cocroft previously found Lager and affiliated companies liable for more than $100 million in state funding to ECOT, ruling he had violated the law against public officials' profiting from contracts.

ELECTIONS

An investigation into an electronic poll book in Perry County that had been "exhibiting odd behavior" found no evidence of malicious intrusion or compromise of the device, the secretary of state's office. Secretary of State Frank LaRose had ordered all counties that used the type of poll book, which had been newly purchased by Perry County but never used in an election, to switch to paper ballots for the May primary election. LaRose provided the update on the device as he issued his sixth cybersecurity directive to county boards of elections. The secretary of state's office said an investigation into the device by its Integrity Unit and cybersecurity team found that while there was no evidence that the poll book had been tampered with, "noncompliant configurations and storage protocols were uncovered that require correction in order to be fully compliant ahead of the November general election." The cybersecurity directive includes those remedial actions, as well as a number of other updates that county boards of elections must comply with ahead of the November election.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose Tuesday said his office is formally referring potential cases of fraudulent noncitizen registration and double-votes to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and attorneys general of seven states and the District of Columbia for further review and potential prosecution.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose Thursday announced he has certified the May 6 primary election official results, marking the completion of the statewide canvass by Ohio's 88 county boards of elections and formally affirming the winners. "Election officials throughout Ohio stepped up once again to deliver a smooth and accountable election for the people of Ohio," said LaRose. "Our continued focus on readiness and high standards are a model for other states to follow, and everyone involved should take pride in being a part of that." He also highlighted 11 local races that triggered automatic recounts and two that resulted in tie votes in order to stress the importance of participation in elections.

ELECTIONS 2026

Fifth District Court of Appeals Judge Andrew King Monday officially threw his hat into the ring for the Ohio Supreme Court in 2026, setting up a potential primary with current Justice Pat Fischer as they look to unseat Justice Jennifer Brunner, the last statewide-elected Democrat in office.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton announced a four-day, 15 stop listening tour across Ohio "to continue her work of listening to Ohioans about how our leaders can best empower them to succeed and make their community stronger." The tour kicked off on Wednesday with stops in Akron, Kent and Youngstown.

The following endorsements were made over the week:

- The congressional campaign of Republican Kevin Coughlin announced the endorsements of U.S. Sens. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) and Jon Husted (R-OH), Secretary of State Frank LaRose, and U.S. Rep. Max Miller (R-Rocky River).

GAMING/GAMBLING

The House bill legalizing Internet casino gambling would directly harm the horse racing industry and would lead to significant job losses at brick-and-mortar gambling facilities, Ohio Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (OHBPA) Executive Director Dave Basler said Tuesday. "The bill upsets the balance this General Assembly wisely created when video lottery terminals (VLTs) were legalized in 2013, undercutting an essential source of funding for the horse racing industry," Basler told the House Finance Committee during opponent testimony on HB298 (Stewart-John).

GENERAL ASSEMBLY/STATEHOUSE

All Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR) agenda items cleared at Monday's meeting without legislator questions or public testimony, including a set of Ohio Department of Public Safety (DPS) rules on school bus construction standards. While there was little fanfare to those items, House Chair Jamie Callender (R-Concord) and Sen. Andrew Brenner (R-Delaware) remarked on the Ohio Athletic Commission's (OAC) having not performed a five-year rule review since 2019. Callender said OAC was a "frustrating" example of not completing that and had not returned phone calls from JCARR Director Ashley Frustaci, so he made a "special request" for their leaders to appear at the next JCARR meeting on Tuesday, June 24 "to explain why they have gone six consecutive years without filing for their five-year review rules and explain to us why they are not returning phone calls from JCARR."

Rep. Roy Klopfenstein (R-Haviland) was named as the new House Agriculture Committee chair Tuesday, following the resignation of former Rep. Don Jones (R-Freeport). In addition, Rep. Adam Mathews (R-Lebanon) became vice chair of the House Energy Committee and Rep. D.J. Swearingen (R-Huron) was named vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

Palo Alto Networks Director of Government Affairs and Policy Thomas MacLellan gave a presentation on cybersecurity to the House Technology and Innovation Committee Tuesday, detailing how cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated, faster and more complex. The median amount of time between when attackers compromise a system and complete their attack has shortened from nine days in 2021 to two in 2023 and just hours in the latest attacks, while it takes an average of six days to resolve these incidents.

House members took the advice of several colleagues Tuesday and adopted "one big beautiful" dangerous dog bill incorporating the consensus best of HB240 (Lawson-Rowe-C. Thomas), HB241 (C. Thomas-Lawson-Rowe) and HB247 (K. Miller) -- now the legislative vehicle by way of an omnibus substitute bill. The House Public Utilities Committee confined testimony to HB247 and heard from Avery Russell, after whom "Avery's Bill" is named, her mom, the American Kennel Club, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Reynoldsburg City Attorney's Office, Ohio County Dog Warden Association, and postman Michael Schneider.

Wednesday’s House session included passage of SB100 (Manchester), allowing Ohio Farm Bureau to offer health plans to its members; HB47 (Williams-Santucci), regarding human trafficking penalties; HB124 (D. Thomas-T. Hall), regarding property valuations; HB48 (A. Mathews-Santucci), increasing tax deductions for ABLE and 529 accounts; HB133 (Craig), providing a tax credit for small employers providing individual coverage via health reimbursement; SB27 (Johnson), designating March 20 as “Ameloblastoma Awareness Day”; and HB210 (Roemer-Plummer), regarding catalytic converter theft.

Wednesday’s Senate session included passage of SB60 (Wilkin-Huffman), regarding veterinary telemedicine; and SB155 (Brenner-Ingram), regarding real estate wholesaling.

Reps. Bill Roemer (R-Richfield) and David Thomas (R-Jefferson) announced plans Wednesday for sweeping property tax legislation that incorporates pending bills and makes new proposals including elimination on levying inside millage by all jurisdictions but townships and authority for local governments to provide supplemental homestead exemptions, among other ideas.

House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) will resign her caucus leadership position at the end of June, she announced Thursday. Russo's announcement said decisions about her "political future" will come later; she's previously acknowledged the possibility of seeking another office. She will be term-limited in the House at the end of 2026.

Rep. Jodi Salvo (R-Bolivar) recently participated in the 2025 White House Leadership Conference, according to her office. The conference, hosted by the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs in partnership with the National Association of Counties, aims to support county leaders and strengthen the relationship between federal and local governments.

In other legislative action, House Education Committee reported out HCR7 (Ghanbari-J. Miller), expressing support for Buckeye Boys State and Buckeye Girls State; House General Government Committee reported out HB244 (Grim-Piccolantonio), to designate March as Women’s History Month; House Government Oversight Committee reported out HB31 (Humphrey-Stewart), regarding recording of parole board hearings; and HCR8 (Williams), encouraging congressional renewal of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act; Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee reported out HB64 (Thomas-Deeter), regarding hunting and fishing licensee discounts for seniors; Senate Financial Institutions and Technology Committee reported out SB65 (Lang), regarding ancillary product protection contracts and other vehicle laws; House Development Committee reported out SB6 (Roegner), regarding building inspections; House Veterans and Military Development Committee reported out SB39 (Johnson-Craig), regarding display of posters on benefits and services for veterans; Senate Armed Services, Veterans Affairs and Public Safety Committee reported out SR69 (Reynolds), regarding repression by the government of Bhutan; and SB179 (Johnson), regarding verification of the veteran status of imprisoned people.

HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently updated their vaccine schedule for children ages six months to 17 years, adding a note about "shared clinical decision-making" between a patient or parent/guardian and the health care provider. This followed a video where U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the COVID vaccine "for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from the CDC recommended immunization schedule."

MEDICAID/MEDICAID REFORM

Experts in behavioral health gave dire warnings this week about the potential fallout if lawmakers enact and federal action trips a "kill switch" to terminate Medicaid expansion coverage. A Columbus Metropolitan Club forum focused on that topic Wednesday, featuring Maryhaven President and CEO Oyauma Garrison, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Franklin County Executive Director Rachelle Martin, and health policy consultant Amy Bush Stevens, who works with the Health Policy Institute of Ohio (HPIO). Moderating the discussion was Greg Moody, director of professional development for Ohio State University's Glenn College of Public Affairs, who served as top health policy adviser to former Gov. John Kasich when Ohio implemented expansion coverage. Gov. Mike DeWine proposed at the outset of HB96 (Stewart) budget deliberations a trigger provision that will automatically cease expansion coverage should the federal government's matching funds rate drop below 90 percent. House and Senate Republicans so far have kept the provision in their versions of the budget bill.

PENSIONS

The decision by two State Teachers Retirement System (STRS) trustees to forego written discovery requests in a case seeking their removal but then asking for re-opening of discovery is "inexcusable neglect," a judge ruled recently in rejecting the trustees' request to extend case deadlines. Former STRS Trustee Wade Steen and current STRS Board Chair Rudy Fichtenbaum face allegations from Attorney General Dave Yost that they breached their fiduciary duty to the pension fund, something they have disputed strongly. The allegations focus on their conduct related to potential STRS work with investment firm QED.

Pension contribution rates for police officers would rise to match those of firefighters, but rates could float based on actuarial requirements after parity is achieved under new legislation on the Ohio Police & Fire (OP&F) Pension Fund. Reps. Cindy Abrams (R-Harrison) and Thomas Hall (R-Middletown) testified Wednesday to the House Public Insurance and Pensions Committee on HB280, the latest OP&F funding proposal.

TAXATION

Gov. Mike DeWine announced Friday that the state's 2025 Sales Tax Holiday will run from Friday, Aug. 1 through Thursday, Aug. 14. The holiday sales tax exemption will apply to items priced at $500 or less, purchased in-person or online, with some exceptions including purchases of services, watercraft, outboard motors, motor vehicles, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, vapor products or any item that contains marijuana.