Ohio’s political leadership has promised “property tax relief.” But so far, all we’ve gotten is two study committees of the issue and the likely passage of a relatively minor bill ending “replacement” property tax levies.
The tax relief issue exposed a rare political weakness by Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, who some see as the big man on the Statehouse campus. The House passed four measures billed as property tax relief in this year’s budget, but Gov. Mike DeWine vetoed them. In an attempt to override three of the four DeWine vetoes in a rare summer session, Huffman summoned lawmakers last week, including two members who canceled or delayed vacations to Italy and Thailand, respectively. But in the end, Huffman could only muster the 60 votes needed to override the veto of budget language that would end replacement levies.
After the vote, Huffman offered barbed remarks about DeWine and predicted more veto overrides would succeed when lawmakers return this fall. Jake Zuckerman said it was the angriest he has seen the usually disciplined and monotone Huffman since the failure of 2023’s Issue 1, which would have made it much harder for citizens to amend Ohio’s constitution.
Readers ask us all the time whether certain bills will pass when they’re up for a final vote. The default answer: Leaders don’t schedule votes unless they’re darn sure they have the numbers. Maybe we’ll rethink that one.
— Jake and Andrew
Throwback Thursday
Ed FitzGerald is trying to re-enter the political arena a decade after his last campaign ended in a high-profile election loss.
FitzGerald, a Democrat, announced last week that he’s challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Max Miller, ofBay Village.
The race already is bringing FitzGerald together with another vintage player from Ohio’s political annals: Cuyahoga County Republican Party Chair Jim Trakas.
Click here to find out more about why Trakas filed an elections complaint against FitzGerald and what prompted FitzGerald to file his own complaint against Miller. You also can read what FitzGerald is saying about his attempted return to politics.
— Andrew
Overachiever alert
I’m a working parent who’s just trying to keep the lights on, mentally speaking, while keeping my children alive and happy. So, I took note of Second Lady Usha Vance’s appearance at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus on Monday, which made me wonder if I’m falling short when it comes to my bedtime reading game.
Vance was accompanying Ohio First Lady Fran DeWine as Vance promoted her children’s summer reading initiative. Vance told the audience that she’s started a book club with her and Vice President JD Vance’s eight-year-old son, Ewan.
Ewan, Vance said, picked “The Neverending Story,” best known from its 1984 film adaptation. Vance said that she is reading the book, which was originally written in German, along with her son.
“I am trying to keep up with him while reading it in a different language, the language in which it was written,” she said. “And he’s beating me by a lot.”
The literary choice for Monday’s event was “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” which Vance and DeWine read to an amphitheater full of children. The audience also included a familiar-looking photographer.
— Andrew
White House road show
The other Vance made a public appearance in Ohio on Monday, too. Vice President JD Vance was in Canton to promote the president’s signature spending legislation, known as the Big Beautiful Bill. There, he called out Democratic U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes for not voting for the bill and for not attending the event.
Sykes used the criticism to get time with national and local reporters. She told Signal that Vance misrepresented her willingness to work across the aisle and that Republicans rejected Democratic committee amendments. She also made a key point – she wasn’t invited to the event.
“I am not really shocked that I wasn’t [invited] because I would not have been able to sit quietly while he lied to my constituents,” Sykes said.
Vance’s presence in Sykes’ 13th Congressional District, which had the closest presidential election margin in 2024 of any district in the country, underscores how winning the seat is a top priority for both parties.
Sykes stopped just short of an unequivocal commitment to run for reelection as Republicans consider redrawing her district later this year.
“I don’t know what the Republicans are going to do,” Sykes said. “I don’t know what tricks they have up their sleeves, but my goal right now is running for reelection.”
— Andrew
The electric bill is too damn high
In Columbus and Cincinnati, electric bills jumped by about $50 over the past decade. In Toledo and Cleveland, the figure is closer to $25.
Jake analyzed customer bill data dating back to 2007 and sheds light on why Ohioans are paying hundreds more to power companies this year than at the same time in 2015.
Experts agree that the biggest (or at least one of the biggest) culprits are data centers, sucking up more and more of the available energy on the electric grid, which drives prices upward. To address the problem, some of those data centers are building their own private natural gas-fired power plants. And like the data centers themselves, those new “behind-the-meter” gas plants can claim huge sales and property tax breaks, costing the state millions.
— Jake
They’re listening
Ohio’s newly passed state budget allocates $1 million for Ohio to buy AI software that can transcribe and analyze “all” phone calls from inmates in state prisons.
Those transcripts can be used as criminal evidence, for inmate discipline, and to analyze communication networks. Lawmakers (and the vendors who lobbied for it) called it a public safety measure after spates of violence and illicit drug use in state facilities. Others say it’s a tech-enabled invasion of privacy, even if the state could already listen in on inmate calls the old-fashioned way.
— Jake
Big billionaire bucks
A pair of campaign finance deadlines fall today: one for all candidates for state office, and another for federal political action committees.
A filing from a federal political group backing Vivek Ramaswamy in next year’s Ohio governor’s race included an eye-popping disclosure.
The report from V:Pac: Victors not Victims, showed that Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass wrote the group a $10 million check in March. The donation is reminiscent of the $15 million that billionaire Peter Thiel gave to JD Vance’s successful U.S. Senate campaign in 2022.
Click here to read more about the financial picture for the governor’s race, and stay tuned for more Signal stories as the reports trickle in.
— Andrew
