Yesterday’s election included local ballot measures related to data centers in 18 Ohio communities. In all 18 of them, a majority of voters opted to restrict, regulate, or oppose data centers. Policy Matters Ohio Executive Director Hannah Halbert issued the following statement: “Ohioans used yesterday’s local ballot measures to weigh
$4B: Amount of state revenue that could be generated annually with any one of the Fair Share tax proposals included in our recent report. With help from our friends at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, we analyzed three different models of a progressive state income tax — none
23: Number of days until Ohio’s 136th General Assembly reconvenes for one last opportunity to make policy before the end of term. With pending legislation set to expire, the lame duck session is often a scramble to pass last-minute bills — and sometimes to sneak them through without drawing attention.
Numeric news from Policy Matters $3 to $5: Estimated average weekly savings per driver during the 12-week “Gas Tax Holiday” that was rushed through the legislature and signed by Gov. DeWine this week. That’s roughly enough to cover an additional gallon of gas per week, or potentially enough for one
124,876: Number of additional childcare slots Ohio could make available if providers had enough staff to operate at full capacity. Three-quarters of Ohio’s childcare centers are below full enrollment, not because they lack space, but because they cannot recruit and retain enough workers. (Our new factsheets show the share of
For the 26th Labor Day in a row, Policy Matters is releasing our State of Working Ohio report (fondly known as SOWO around the office). This year’s theme is The Costs of Inaction — as in, the consequences of legislators’ ongoing failure to act in the best interests of working
Numeric news from Policy Matters $7,395: Maximum value of a federal Pell Grant for the 2026-27 school year. That money can be used to pay for college tuition and related costs, and is awarded depending on students’ financial need. It’s an important tool for making college more affordable, though it’s
84.5%: Share of Ohio jobs that are in occupations for which the 2025 median wage was less than the cost of living for a family of three. (The median wage is in the middle: Half the workers in those occupations are paid more; half are paid less.) As noted in
As this issue of Saturday Stats was going to print, we learned that federal agents had raided the offices of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative and attempted to question and intimidate OOC staff, board, and leaders around the state. Above all, we are grateful that our friends, allies, and partners in
$1.6B: Amount of revenue lost to Ohio’s data center sales tax exemption last year — about 11 times the originally projected cost. Back in January of 2025, we called that original number a lowball estimate, but we didn’t know it would be that low. This billion-and-a-half-dollar subsidy for some of
34.2%: Share of the American workforce who were members of a union back in 1945. That’s more than 1 in 3, and it has never been that high again. In 2024, it was fewer than 1 in 10. Last year it ticked up to an even 10%. And although union
Numeric news from Policy Matters $19.4M: Annual cost of Ohio’s tax break for people with timeshares on private jets. That’s one of the more absurd (but less expensive) tax breaks Aditi Srivastava recommends reevaluating in her recent op-ed for Cleveland.com. A couple others — the Commercial Activity Tax and an
