Ohio’s 10th District Court of Appeals ruled that a state law prohibiting about 20 cities in Ohio – including Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Toledo – from imposing tobacco laws stricter than those of the state was unconstitutional. Specifically, the court said the law violated their constitutional right to “home rule” authority. 

The cities had passed flavored tobacco bans, especially on e-cigarettes and similar products, citing an interest in curbing youth smoking and vaping rates and related health care costs. 

Judge Dave Leland, himself a former statehouse Democrat, said lawmakers showed “blatant disregard” for cities’ constitutional rights of self-governance.

“By prohibiting cities from protecting their residents from the lethal scourge of tobacco use, the statute here undermines the fundamental principle of the Home Rule Amendment that the government closest to the people serves the people best,” Leland wrote.

Republicans at the Statehouse muscled the rule into law last year, overriding DeWine’s veto. A fellow Republican, DeWine has a decades-old history of fighting for stricter tobacco laws in Ohio and the nation. (And in case you missed it, another veto override vote could be happening later this month.)

Statehouse Republicans have passed many such “preemption” policies, prohibiting Ohio’s generally liberal cities from more strictly regulating things like guns, knives, single-use plastic bags, pet stores, natural gas hookups, ballot drop boxes, pesticides and more. 

The case could go to the Ohio Supreme Court, where Republicans hold a 6-1 majority, though a spokesman for Attorney General Dave Yost said the office is considering its next steps. 

Husted on $3 trillion in new national debt: ‘A bit of a disappointment

U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, an Ohio Republican appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine to fill the seat of Vice President JD Vance, has had some big praise for President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” which narrowly passed with his support last week by a vote of 51-50.

Speaking to Cleveland-area conservative talk radio host Bob Frantz this week, Husted, Ohio’s former lieutenant governor, talked up the bill’s tax cuts and Medicaid work requirements. But when asked what he didn’t like about the controversial legislation, he said that it “could have done better” on the deficit. 

“I was hopeful that we would do more in terms of deficit reduction,” Husted said, echoing the sentiment of many Republicans who nonetheless voted for the bill. “That was a bit of a disappointment for me.”

Husted didn’t mention how much the bill adds to the national deficit. But congressional and outside economists estimate it adds between $3.3 trillion and $6 trillion by 2034. Trump administration officials and Republicans generally have claimed the varying analyses underestimate the economic growth they say tax cuts in the bill will generate.

Ohio’s $416 million food stamp problem

The cuts in the “Big Beautiful Bill” to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the coming years are going to pin the state with an estimated $318 million in new costs for program benefits and about $98 million in administration.

Plus, work requirements under the bill now extend to those aged 55 to 64, including some with children. They will also require homeless people and veterans to comply while ending SNAP benefits for refugees and asylees. 

Cuyahoga County, the state’s most SNAP-reliant population center, expects millions in new costs. Franklin County expects 9,000 more adults aged 55 to 64 will need to meet the new work requirements, as will 4,000 households receiving SNAP benefits with children in the 14-17 range. 

Jake Zuckerman talked to experts who say that while some people may lose eligibility, no one’s monthly benefits will be reduced in the short term. However, unless the state finds new money for the program, there will likely be cuts to services and benefits down the line. 

Also looming is the move by state lawmakers to cut by 25% a wholesale food purchasing program run by the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, another backstop against hunger, according to its executive director. 

Free article limit reached — call legislature

State employees who hit a paywall while reading online news may have to ask lawmakers for help getting around it.

A provision in the new state budget bill now requires state agencies to get approval from the Controlling Board, a panel controlled by state lawmakers that approves certain spending requests, before buying a news subscription that costs more than $500. 

Republican State Rep. Brian Stewart, a lead budget bill negotiator in the House, said the idea was inspired by the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency’s move earlier this year to swiftly cancel millions of dollars of subscriptions by the federal government. Freshman lawmakers this year started an informal DOGE caucus back when the federal department was more of a hot political buzzword among Republicans.

Stewart said House members got the idea when they plugged the names of various publications into Ohio Checkbook, the state’s public spending portal. A simple search shows various state agencies have paid $300,000 to Politico over the past decade, for instance. Filtering results to only include last year drops the number to $70,000, paid by five different state agencies. 

“I think clearly these bills have gotten a little out of hand with no oversight,” Stewart said. 

The House originally requested the language. The Senate removed it before it got added back in the final phase of negotiations, with new language that exempts in-state publications from the new rule. 

That excludes some of the largest amounts the state pays for news subscriptions, including the $555,000 it paid annually to Gongwer and the $311,000 it paid to Hannah News – two private Statehouse news services. Subscriptions for state newspapers, meanwhile, tend to be more in the five-figure range, according to Ohio Checkbook. 

Local newspaper subscriptions dodged another bullet in the budget bill earlier this month after DeWine vetoed a measure that would have ended a tax break for newspapers. 

Another amendment in the pipeline

A proposed LGBTQ rights amendment hit a snag on Wednesday when the Ohio Ballot Board ruled it actually contained two separate proposals, violating the state’s single subject law for amendments. 

Click here to read more about the proposal and what the Ballot Board’s move means for its prospects