Saturday Stats

Numeric news from Policy Matters

19: Number of weeks Ohio legislators spent on recess this summer and fall (except to briefly reconvene to pass a bill that will spend $725 million to save the average Ohio driver between $33 and $55 over three months). As Molly Bryden notes in a recent Cleveland.com op-ed, the committee heard testimony from industry stakeholders and other interested parties; proposed a big, mediocre bill; then headed home without taking meaningful action. Meanwhile, communities across Ohio face rising energy costs, opaque development deals, and funding shortfalls due to data center subsidies.

18: Number of communities in which Ohio voters stepped up when the GA failed to do so, voting to restrict, regulate, or oppose data-center development. It’s a clear-as-day message that Ohioans want stronger oversight — but local regulations can only go so far. In the lame duck session, legislators should start by strengthening HB 646, their inadequate data center bill. Of course, they will also have to not tie the hands of the incoming Acton administration, which would be responsible for executing that legislation. As we noted in our post-election statement, active bills such as HB 11, HB 775, and HB 1024 could do just that, preventing the new administration from enacting the will of the voters — on data centers and a variety of other issues. (Now is a perfect time to welcome your reps back to the office with a voicemail or two, telling them to focus on solving problems, not creating obstacles.)

$1.4B: Amount by which legislators chose to underfund Ohio’s public schools last year. (That’s slightly more than half the 2.75-billion-dollar gap they created by abandoning the Fair School Funding Plan for at least two years.)

$1.6B: Cost of Ohio’s data-center sales tax break last year — more than enough to have filled the funding gap for Ohio’s public schools in 2025. Our new report with Good Jobs First includes estimated state funding losses for every traditional public school district in Ohio. Want to learn more? Join this virtual briefing, hosted by our friends at Parents United for Public Schools, this Monday, November 16th, at 6pm. We’ll be there with Good Jobs First to discuss the report, and learn from local leaders and experts who have won recent ballot measures fighting data center expansion in their communities. Register here: https://www.mobilize.us/ooc/event/1079845/

Action items:

NE Ohio friends: Stand with Cleveland REI Union workers to support their long and ongoing fight for a contract. Today (November 14) from 12pm to 2pm at the Beechwood store: 411 Park Ave. Ste. 143. Get the info here.

Youngstown-area friends: There’s still time to register for the SOWO Roadshow at Westside Bowl this Monday at 6:00! Join us for free pizza and discussion about making the Mahoning Valley’s economy work for working people!