COLUMBUS — After a year of talks, 2020 could see Ohio join neighbors like Michigan in offering sports betting.
It’s one of several legislative matters likely to dominate activity at the Statehouse in Columbus this year. Along with settling the sports betting question, lawmakers also remain intent on sentencing reform to divert lower-level drug offenders from state prison, pursuing a measure to free up beds for mental health treatment, and again overhauling how the state scores and treats schools seen as academically failing.
And 2020, the halfway point of the current two-year legislative session, will see passage of what is expected to be a $2.6 billion capital budget of taxpayer-funded building, renovation, and equipment projects across the state, including an estimated $150 million for local community wish lists.
Senate President Larry Obhof (R., Medina) said his chamber will continue its focus to “put people over paperwork,” reducing government red tape, particularly when it comes to professional licensing and reciprocity between states on recognizing such licenses.
The current session in both chambers has been marked generally by bipartisan cooperation. That is particularly true in the House where Speaker Larry Householder (R., Glenford) needed Democratic votes to put the speaker's gavel in this hand after an internal fight within his own caucus.
“As we close out the first half of the 133rd General Assembly, we know Ohioans want us to work across the aisle on the issues that matter most to them,” said House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes (D., Akron).
“That’s why we are proud to have passed more Democrat-sponsored bills halfway through this GA than in either of the previous two complete GAs,” she said. “ As we head into 2020, we will continue to work across the aisle to deliver results that put people first.”
Sports betting
In May, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court opened the door for states to allow wagering on professional and collegiate games and events, point spreads, and individual player performance. But Ohio lawmakers have been stuck on who should watch over such betting.
“The House feels pretty strongly that the Ohio Lottery has the ability to do [sports betting], and it’s the right place to have it,” Mr. Householder said. “All the security that we need is right there with the Ohio Lottery. It also gives the governor pretty widespread authority to be able to calm things down if things get too out of kilter.”
Mr. Obhof seemed a bit less confident.
“I think that most members of the Senate believe that any expansions of gaming should be narrow, tightly regulated, and overseen by the Ohio Casino Control Commission,” he said. “I’m not sure that that’s the perspective of the other chamber. ... I’m not sure if we don’t end up in a place that we’re happy with as policy that we feel a sense of urgency to get there.”
With the recent addition of Michigan, all of Ohio’s neighbors save one now have or will soon offer some form of sports betting. The sole exception is Kentucky.
Drug law reforms
The Senate, in particular, had been intent on moving a bill that would have reclassified lower-level drug offenses as misdemeanors instead of felonies, allowing such offenders to bypass state prison time. But controversies over last-minute amendments derailed the upper chamber’s likelihood of acting on Senate Bill 3 before year’s end.
Mr. Obhof is confident passage will happen this year.
“It’s more important to all of us when you’re making substantial changes to criminal law that you take the time to make sure that you’re comfortable with the finished product and you feel like you got it right, more important than meeting arbitrary deadlines,” he said. “I feel good about where we’re at.”
Mr. Householder said that prisons contain some people who’ve committed a crime but aren’t really criminals.
“We have a tremendous amount of people in our prison system right now that have mental health issues,” he said. “Where they ought to be is someplace getting care and getting well, not being incarcerated like they are.”
School funding, grades
A House committee is working on the perennial issue of K-12 school funding. A new formula proposed by Reps. Bob Cupp (R., Lima) and John Patterson (D., Jefferson) will continue to be reworked in coming months, although few think a finished product will be ready to roll out before passage of the next two-year budget in 2021.
Meanwhile, discussions continue over changing how the state grades school districts and whether the controversial Academic Distress Commissions that were created to take over academically struggling schools will continue in some form.
“We have failed badly as far as our report card system and testing system in the state,” Mr. Householder said. “And that’s what leads to all these problems that we have in regards to our education system. We’ve got a school funding issue certainly, but everything has to be based off those report cards.”
One of those issues tied to report cards is the broad expansion in the current budget of schools for which students would be eligible for EdChoice scholarship vouchers. Mr. Householder said lawmakers want to reduce the number of schools affected, although it’s unclear so far how that would be accomplished.
Odds and ends
The Senate recently passed Senate Bill 58, sponsored by Sen. Theresa Gavarone (R., Bowling Green), that is designed to ensure that beds in state psychiatric hospitals are available for those considered severely mentally ill and not taken up by temporary placements by courts of criminal defendants undergoing competency evaluations.
That bill is now pending in the House.
Mr. Householder said his chamber is also looking at the possibility of converting some existing nursing homes with a lot of empty beds into mental health facilities.
Don’t expect quick action on Gov. Mike DeWine’s call for a ban on flavored vaping products. Mr. Householder said there isn’t support for a ban in his caucus.
Mr. DeWine has identified gun-violence reform as a top priority for the executive branch after a mass shooting in Dayton last year.
Debate continues in both chambers over several measures related to gun violence, although it’s unclear what might ultimately reach the governor’s desk.
First Published January 2, 2020, 10:48 p.m.
