Lawmakers held a marathon legislative session at the Statehouse on Wednesday. They met – and waited – for hours as they attempted to clear their to-do lists before heading home for the holidays.
As of the time of this writing, approximately 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Andrew Tobias is at the Statehouse covering the action. (Jake is on vacation.) Watch for a special edition of State Signals Friday morning with a wrap-up of the late-night news out of Columbus.
Ohio legislature approves major property tax cut
Between the House and Senate, lawmakers approved more than 30 bills Wednesday.
Among them: the House and Senate approved a pair of bills that deliver a major property tax cut by limiting how much taxes can increase solely due to rising property values. The nonpartisan Legislative Service Commission estimates the bills will cut taxes by more than $2 billion over three years – which will be reflected in future property tax bills.
The bill now is headed to Gov. Mike DeWine for his signature.
Before a final vote on Wednesday, the Senate tweaked one of the bills to increase a tax discount for homeowners. In doing so, they eliminated another discount that benefited landlords and other money-making properties, carrying out a recommendation from the County Auditors’ Association of Ohio.
The cuts, along with two other bills that further tweak the state’s property tax system, deliver a major legislative priority for Republicans, who have called addressing the recent spike in property taxes their number one issue. The House approved similar versions of the bills last month and quickly signed off on the Senate’s changes.
All four bills received significant bipartisan support. But the cuts to property taxes will result in a corresponding loss in future revenue for schools and other local governments – which is why some Democrats, despite agreeing that property taxes are too high, voted against the bills.
Ohio GOP votes to end grace period for mail ballots
Ohioans will face an earlier deadline to return their mail ballots in future elections, under a fast-tracked law Republican lawmakers approved
Senate Bill 293 requires absentee ballots to arrive at county elections offices by Election Day in order to count. Ohio law for years has allowed straggling mail ballots up to four days after the election – as long as they have a pre-Election Day postmark.
As Andrew writes, the law change comes in response to pressure from national Republicans. President Donald Trump’s Justice Department threatened to sue Ohio if state officials didn’t change the law.
Republicans in the House approved the bill on Wednesday over Democratic objections. The Senate seemed set to quickly sign off on the House’s changes and send the final version to DeWIne’s desk.
Burning the midnight oil
Lawmakers have been unable to decide what to do about intoxicating hemp beverages and other increasingly ubiquitous THC products for nearly two years now.
A deal remained elusive on Wednesday, at least as of the deadline for this newsletter.
GOP leaders optimistically scheduled a hearing to unveil compromise legislation at noon on Wednesday. But it was delayed indefinitely to allow negotiations to continue.
(Update: the House approved a compromise bill overnight, but it still needs approval from the Senate, which isn’t necessarily scheduled to meet soon. Look for another update to this story on Friday.)
House Speaker Matt Huffman told reporters that lawmakers were stuck on what to do about THC beverages that are widely available at bars, restaurants and carryout shops. The House voted last month to allow them to remain available at bars as part of a bill that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. But Congress pulled the rug out from under Ohio lawmakers a couple weeks ago after passing federal legislation that would ban the products completely by the end of 2026.
“I’m hopeful before the clock strikes 12 [midnight], we’ll have a conference committee report for everybody to vote for,” Huffman said Wednesday morning. “But I don’t think it’s a sure thing.”
FirstEnergy punished over House Bill 6 scandal
Ohio regulators have ordered FirstEnergy to pay $250 million over the company’s actions in the House Bill 6 bribery scandal.
The payment ordered by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio on Wednesday includes $186 million in refunds to customers. The number is triple the nearly $60 million the company paid to pass House Bill 6 as part of a corruption scheme that landed former House Speaker Larry Householder in prison, plus another $6.5 million for transactions that a PUCO audit flagged as lacking adequate supporting documentation.
FirstEnergy must pay another $45 million after the commission found the company failed to follow state laws that require electricity generation companies to remain separate from affiliated companies that transmit electricity through the power grid.
The order ends three of the four investigations the PUCO launched shortly after Householder and others were arrested in 2020 as a result of the federal corruption probe. The fourth involves a review of the company’s charitable and political spending.
HB6 was a 2019 energy law that, among other provisions, charged Ohio electricity users an extra $1.3 billion to subsidize two Ohio nuclear plants owned by a former FirstEnergy subsidiary.
Separately, the PUCO also gave permission to FirstEnergy and its affiliates to charge its customers an extra $34 million, not the $190 million the companies had sought.
Ohio Supreme Court mulls a gun case
The Ohio Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday on a gun case that could push the limits of Ohio’s self-defense laws.
Jake Zuckerman broke down the legal implications of a dispute between two contractors, both carrying pistols, that escalated into gunfire. One man was hit three times, requiring a life-flight. Bullets also struck two nearby houses.
Under Ohio’s self-defense laws, the shooter was found not guilty for firing on the other man. But the jury found him guilty of shooting into the neighbors’ houses. The case could allow the seven Ohio Supreme Court justices to set a new legal standard for what happens when bullets shot in self-defense wind up in the path of unsuspecting bystanders.
PAC backing AI industry goes above the radar
In August, figures in the artificial intelligence business announced plans to spend at least $100 million to help secure industry-friendly legislation.
Ohio is among the states where the Leading the Future PAC plans to launch “targeted political and policy campaigns” in 2025, the group announced at the time.
It remains unclear what that means, exactly. The group didn’t respond to an email this week.
But this week, the PAC announced its first target: a Democratic congressional candidate in New York who backed AI regulations as a state legislator. The group told Politico it plans to spend millions of dollars defeating Alex Bores over what it called “politically and ideologically motivated legislation.”
The group’s plans are worth watching after the cryptocurrency industry formed a similar PAC ahead of the 2024 elections and spent tens of millions of dollars on ads in Ohio, contributing to the defeat of Democratic then-Sen. Sherrod Brown.
In the news
Tariffs and Ohio: Tariffs have affected the sales of one-third of Ohio manufacturers, with a higher percentage of companies being hurt by the tax than benefitting from it, according to a report released today by MAGNET, a Cleveland-based nonprofit focused on strengthening the industry. Read more from Olivera Perkins.
An Ohio Supreme Court case of a contractor who shot his colleague could test self-defense laws. The contractor shot his coworker three times and hit two neighbors’ houses in the process. The justices will consider what Ohio’s self-defense laws mean for bystanders whose persons or property get caught in the crossfire. Read more from Jake Zuckerman.
State regulators relied on outdated laws when they allowed a company to drill 6,000-foot-deep wells to hold industrial waste in Washington County, a lawsuit says. The filing marks an escalation of a fight between a small city and the state over the natural gas industry and its perceived threat to safe drinking water. Read more from Jake Zuckerman.