Government Insider | June 7, 2022

FY23-24 Capital Appropriations

Both chambers of the General Assembly voted to pass HB687 (Oelslager) last Wednesday, sending the capital budget to Gov. Mike DeWine for his signature. The House approved the legislation by a vote of 82-8, while the Senate passed it 32-0. On Tuesday, both House and Senate finance committees accepted identical sub bills to their respective capital appropriations bills, HB687 (Oelslager) and SB343 (Dolan).

The bill itself totals $3.514 billion—up from the $3.3 billion total of the proposal outlined May 24 by Office of Budget and Management Director Kimberly Murnieks. Other appropriations are as follows:

• $703.4 million for K-12 schools, including $600 million for school facilities; $100 million ARPA funds for school safety grants; and $3.4 million for the schools for the blind and deaf.
• $400 million for higher education facilities.
• $557 million for the Public Works Commission.
• $403.8 million for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction and $103.3 million for the Department of Youth Services.
• $50 million for local jail grants.
• $191 million in community projects. These are the projects that legislators propose for inclusion in the capital appropriations bill.
• $500 million for the Department of Natural Resources.

Intel Selects Company Manage Excavation Work

Intel announced Thursday that Gilbane Building Company had been selected to manage early excavation work for its two chip factories, with McDaniel’s Construction Corp., Inc. (MCCI), Northstar Contracting Inc. and GTSA Construction Consulting serving as partners. The project is expected to involve 7,000 construction jobs in Central Ohio, along with tens of thousands in indirect and support jobs.

Brent Spence Bridge: OH and KY Submit Joint Federal Funding Request

Ohio and Kentucky officials said Tuesday that they officially submitted a joint application to the federal government that requests nearly $2 billion in federal funding to fix the Brent Spence Bridge and improve the corridor that runs through Northern Kentucky and the city of Cincinnati. Ohio and Kentucky are seeking $1.66 billion in federal grant funding through the Multimodal Projects Discretionary Grant. The grant request represents approximately 60 percent of the $2.77 billion project cost. Each state will also allocate significant state and other federal dollars toward the project. The states will split the cost of the new bridge 50/50, and each state will be responsible for the needed work on its side of the border.

Ohio EPA Offers Webinars for Small Businesses

Ohio EPA is offering several webinars that may be of interest to business owners this month. The first will be June 9th and offers information on the Regulation and Funding of Household Sewage Treatment Systems. The second webinar will be a Storm water Permitting Requirements for Industrial Activity and will be held on June 21st. 

The Ohio BWC and will be held in July.  The webinar will cover Ohio EPA’s Regulations, and what you need to know to stay out of trouble with environmental regulations.

Information on the webinars and how to sign up here:

Regulation and Funding of Household Sewage Treatment Systems

Stormwater Permitting Requirements for Industrial Activity

Ohio EPA Regulations

Economic Mobility and Responsible Parenting Program

The Franklin County commissioners voted to accept a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to operate a three-year program to address economic mobility and responsible parenting with teens and young adults.  The county’s Child Support Enforcement Agency (CSEA) will administer the grant and provide instruction using the No Kidding Ohio curriculum to promote economic mobility, build parenting and healthy relationship skills, reduce unplanned pregnancies, and prevent relationship violence.

In addition to material from child support experts, the program will use a peer-to-peer approach, employing young parents to augment its lessons with their own first-hand experience.  It will include a social media and digital marketing campaign to further the message and reach teens and young adults with the knowledge, skills, and resources that will help them achieve their goals, move up the ladder of economic mobility, and to be successful, responsible parents.

The new program will be stood up over the course of the next year, with programing set to begin in the fall of 2023. 

Gov. DeWine’s Seeks Funding to Harden Schools

Gov. Mike DeWine said he will ask lawmakers to put up substantial sums to increase the security of facilities at all public and private school buildings in Ohio, among other efforts to address school safety and gun violence generally in the wake of the Texas elementary school shooting. But he said he will not spend time or energy advocating to generally address the supply of guns or ease of access to guns because he knows lawmakers won’t act on those topics.

Gov. DeWine said he will make another run at pushing for enactment of “public safety orders” for people with serious mental illness deemed a serious threat to themselves or others, assuming adequate due process can be provided. And he outlined past and continuing efforts for warrants and records to be properly logged so the background check system can effectively halt purchases of guns by those who are barred from having them. But DeWine said steps to address the sheer number of guns in society and the general ease of access in obtaining them are not among his plans. DeWine said state leaders must do more to address the threat in the wake of the Texas shooting.

Dez Bryant
Vice President of Government Relations
dezbryant@columbus.org