Rotunda Rumblings

Springfield on edge: Gov. Mike DeWine and Springfield’s mayor say they are preparing in case federal immigration enforcement occurs, stressing that any agents coming to the city should follow local policing protocols. Anna Staver reports local residents say uncertainty — and what they’ve seen happen in Minneapolis — has left the community on edge.

Let me go: Youngstown City School District was the first to be taken over by the state in 2010. It’s now the last to remain under state control, as East Cleveland was released in December and legislation removed Lorain from academic distress in 2023. It wants to be released from state control but hasn’t met benchmarks in an improvement plan designed with the state. Meantime, education experts sound off on how to ensure students from lower-performing districts with high poverty can turn around, Laura Hancock reports.

Don’t tell the drugmakers: Gov. Mike DeWine says that even if he wanted Ohio executions to resume after a years-long moratorium, they couldn’t unless lawmakers pass a “shield law” concealing where the state gets its lethal-injection drugs. As Jeremy Pelzer reports, many other states have such laws – as did Ohio between 2015 and 2017 – as drugmakers have increasingly refused to sell them drugs for use in lethal injections. Unlike the usual argument made in favor of such laws (that they make drugmakers more willing to sell drugs for executions), a DeWine spokesman said a new Ohio “shield law” would keep pharmaceutical companies from finding out that drugs they sell to the state are for putting people to death. DeWine is expected to announce his personal opposition to capital punishment in a few weeks, but it’s an issue future Ohio governors may have to face if they want to resume executions.

Looming health crisis: The expiration of enhanced tax credits that helped hundreds of thousands of Ohioans afford health insurance has the health care industry bracing for the possibility that already challenged resources could be further stressed and public health could decline long term, Mary Frances McGowan reports. The concern is that as more Ohioans go without insurance, they will be prompted to rely on local emergency departments when they need health care, adding further stress to hospital systems that are already absorbing the rising costs on uncompensated care. Beyond that is the question of whether people needing medical care will get the treatment they need at all.

Church disruptions: After protestors disrupted a church service in Minnesota, an Ohio Republican lawmaker wants to make interrupting religious services here a felony. Staver reports that House Bill 662 would raise the penalty for disrupting lawful public meetings from a first-degree misdemeanor to a fifth-degree felony.

Welfare exports: U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno introduced legislation on Thursday that would prohibit individuals receiving public assistance from sending money overseas, imposing steep fines on those who violate the restriction, Sabrina Eaton writes. The bill, titled the “Stopping Transfers of Public Funds Abroad Act,” was referred to the Senate Finance Committee on January 29. “Criminal fraudsters are ripping American taxpayers off, siphoning millions in taxpayer dollars and sending it overseas,” said a Friday social media post from the Westlake Republican. “We’ve had enough, it’s time for Congress to get serious.

Taking credits: Talks to revive the Affordable Care Act tax credits may have hit an impasse as Democrats turn their attention toward negotiating reforms in the Department of Homeland Security funding bill, NOTUS reports. A bipartisan Senate group, led by Sens. Moreno and Susan Collins, has been working to draft a framework of a deal to renew the ACA subsidies since the debate over the health care tax credits resulted in the longest government shutdown in history. “The time’s not on our side,” Moreno told reporters of reviving the credits on Wednesday.

Lobbying Lineup

Five organizations that were registered to lobby on House Bill 77 through December, which would require the Ohio Department of Health to develop Type 1 diabetes informational materials for parents and guardians of elementary school students.

Cleveland Metropolitan School DistrictOhio Ophthalmological SocietyDepartment of HealthOhio State Medical AssociationOrange City School DistrictOn the Move

Evan Machan has been named press secretary for Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign for governor. Machan previously served as communications director for the Ohio Republican Party, among other things.

U.S. Sen. Jon Husted has been endorsed by U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson, a Southeast Ohio Republican.

Birthdays

Jeff McClain, ex-state representative and former Ohio tax commissioner

Steven Wolfe, Marysville City Council member and 2026 Ohio House candidate

Straight from the Source

“Everybody always knew the date, so we shouldn’t have to surge a force in there, to forcibly deport people who knew for a long time that they have to do that on their own.”

– U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno telling Sarah Donaldson of Ohio Public Media last week that he wants potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement action against the Haitian population in Springfield, Ohio, to be unnecessary because the Haitians should have self-deported already. Moreno said he wasn’t aware that there have been mass self-deportations. “We don’t know that level of detail,“ he said.

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