Welcome to the Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable from Ideastream Public Media.

I'm Mike McIntyre, and I'm glad you're with us.

The Ohio Department of Taxation missed big time when it estimated the cost of a sales tax exemption for data centers in Ohio at $136 million for 2025.

It actually cost $1.6 billion, more than 11 times the estimate.

The tax break is now on pause.

Cleveland is looking to invest in housing and development in East Side neighborhoods, combining public funds and foundation money.

In Akron, a group of local delegates has delivered nine recommendations to improve housing there.

The Senior Players Championship will play its last round at Akron's Firestone Country Club in July.

The tournament is moving to California.

And swarms of midges are now showing up on Doppler radar.

Close your eyes.

Hold your breath.

Close your car door fast.

They'll be here and gone before you know it.

And joining me for today's conversation from Ideastream Public Media, education reporter Conor Morris and Akron- Canton reporter Anna Huntsman.

Welcome, both of you.

Happy to be here.

Glad to be here.

And do I get a Happy Friday out of it?

Happy Friday.

No.

Very good.

And it's a happy day today.

But it was even happier yesterday because congratulations to you, Anna, on your regional Edward R. Murrow Award that was announced yesterday for your story on the search for a new Akron Rubber Ducks in-stadium announcer.

Well done.

Thank you so much.

Really a fun story.

Excited?

Yeah.

Terrific.

And joining us from Columbus, a woman who trains midges and unleashes them.

She did in 2007 on New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain.

Ideastream's Statehouse News Bureau Chief Karen Kasler.

Hey, Karen.

Yeah, but it didn't help that as they were, they were your little your little pets, right?

You had your little midges and you said, go get that pitcher.

The question I have is why you did not unleash them in 2016 on Aroldis Chapman.

Why did you not do that?

An error.

You know, it was the rain.

It was the rain delay.

I mean, that actually was rain.

It wasn't just midges on the Doppler radar.

All right, let's get down to business.

You can talk to us about any topic by sending an email to SOI@Ideastream.org.

And let's get ready to roundtable.

Governor Mike DeWine hit pause on a sales tax break for data centers.

No new requests while lawmakers look into the impact of the tax break, which has cost the state a ton more than estimated when lawmakers passed it.

Karen, the forecast wasn't just a bit outside, as Bob Uecker would say.

I mean, it was low by a factor of 11.

Yeah.

And I think that comes from the fact that people who are analyzing budgets for the Office of Budget and Management, who do it for state lawmakers, are really just budget analysts.

They crunched the numbers.

They're not looking at policy.

And so they were looking at historical data and just kind of estimating.

But boy, were they off.

Because Ohio's data center industry has been growing dramatically.

And so this tax break really grew dramatically as well.

And it's part of the reason why state lawmakers had wanted to eliminate that tax break.

It's a sales tax break on construction materials that data centers can use when they're under construction.

And governor Mike DeWine vetoed that, which restored the tax break.

Now he's suspending the tax tax break starting on Monday.

So, he originally, though, was the one that wanted it to stay in.

The lawmakers wanted to repeal that.

He vetoed that.

Right.

And so would there be an effort now to override that veto?

Oh, I can imagine that there would be.

If lawmakers are concerned that this is going to be a temporary situation because there's a lot of discussion about data centers and what kind of incentives they should get going on here at the statehouse.

There's a select committee on data centers that met for the first time this week.

There are several bills that would kind of put some guardrails on data centers.

And so the discussion about what data centers get versus what they bring has been going on for quite a while here.

So there could be an effort to override that veto.

And they have until the end of this year to do that.

They're going to be leaving in mid-June.

So it may not happen till later if it happens at all.

We should note that there's a pause now.

But those who already got it and I mentioned, before the program on our tease to the show, that Meta got which is Facebook and Alphabet, which is Google, and Amazon.

They don't give those back.

Those those tax breaks are already given.

And it was a sales tax.

So it's basically for all the materials that they use to build these places.

Right.

And in this select Committee on Data centers that met this week, which I had talked to the Republican co-chairs who brought this idea forward, they said that this did not come from the data center industry.

They said the idea came from state lawmakers.

The first person to speak at this committee was a representative from the data center industry.

He talked specifically about the sales tax, saying that this is something that allows data centers and the companies behind them to invest in other higher technology things and to keep data centers moving forward because they don't have to pay the sales tax.

And as we found out this week, there's a lot of sales tax they didn't have to pay.

Indeed.

And I got a note from Nancy.

She sends an email and she's doing some of the math here.

And she said, if you talk about the sales tax rate at 5.75% and the number that we talked about, which is close to $1.6 billion on a sales tax loss for the state, that it would mean that builder, that they bought over $26 billion of building materials in one year.

That's a lot of that's a lot of spending.

Well, we have a lot of data centers that are being built and are coming online.

So yeah, it is a lot of spending, but it really shows how big the data center industry is getting in Ohio.

We are like, I think one of the top five states in terms of siting data centers, though that could change depending on the moratoriums that some communities have issued on data centers.

And of course, there's this ballot issue attempt to try to put a constitutional amendment before voters this fall that would ban data centers that are larger than 25MW monthly in terms of their use, their, power usage.

And when you said that there are some lawmakers that are looking at this and don't like the idea that it isn't just one party or the other, this is kind of a bipartisan thing I saw in Danni Isaacsohn, who's a Democrat, have some comments about that.

And Bill Blessing, who's a Republican, also say that these things aren't necessary.

Right.

And it really does kind of cross party lines, kind of like the traffic camera issue kind of crosses party lines here.

You have Democrats who are concerned about the environmental damage that has been reported and the concerns about that, but also look at the good union jobs that can be part of data center construction.

And then Republicans, of course, talking about business development and that sort of thing.

But they're hearing from their community and their residents that they don't like these things coming and taking up huge swaths of farmland and rural areas.

Got a note from Steve in an email.

And by the way, you can send email to SOI@ Ideastream.org on anything we're talking about today.

Stephen says the big tech companies don't need financial assistance.

Sports teams don't need financial assistance either.

Can we please stop giving public money and tax breaks to wealthy businesses and individuals, at least until we don't have any homeless or poor people?

And that's Stephen's point of view.

We'd love to have your thoughts as well.

Again.

SOI@Ideastream.org And you mentioned that there are a lot of communities, Karen, that are pushing back against data centers.

One of those, is in Ohio.

It's Shalersville, where a developer plans to talk with residents and officials today about a proposed data center there.

It's in Portage County.

Like many such proposals, it has vocal opposition.

And let me turn to you, Anna, on this.

It's at noon today and the time of it is actually one of the things that's making people angry, right?

Because the the meeting is advertised as being for the community, for residents to show up and learn more about this and ask questions.

But if you think about noon, a lot of residents are probably going to be working.

You know, maybe they're at work, they don't.

They're not able to show up for this.

So that is one of the concerns of why would you have it from noon to three, when a lot of folks who want to be there probably can't because they have work obligations?

There's a moratorium at the moment in Shalersville on these data centers.

So what would this meeting seek to accomplish, given that there already is a moratorium on?

Yeah, the the moratorium was just recently renewed for six months.

So it's going to be probably expiring around November.

And so, they the, the people, the developer, the construction company, the local construction company, they want to be able to answer questions, talk a little bit more about the proposal.

Residents want to be there, too, many of them, to express their opposition to this.

So it's kind of just to let everybody know what they're really planning.

And also, elected officials want to be there, the trustees, because there they've said we haven't made a decision yet on this.

So we want to learn more just in case down the line, we don't renew the moratorium and they'll likely be asking again.

It's pretty massive site.

It's 257 acres.

It's right by the Turnpike, Shalersvilee, east of Streetsboro.

So you can kind of visualize where that's at.

I think I believe I saw 750MW, 15 buildings.

So, yeah, it's a pretty, pretty big scale, data center that's proposed at the moment.

And so a lot of residents have expressed concerns about the, the power generated, the, the water, you know, the, the environmental concerns and also noise, although the developer has said they're going to do everything they can to make sure that it's not too noisy.

All right.

We'll see how the how that meeting I do want to point out that the trustees have scheduled a meeting that's in the evening, later in June.

So there will hopefully be an opportunity for residents who aren't able to make this one today.

Okay.

And continuing on with data centers.

Cleveland is taking a harder stance on these big hyperscale data centers.

Earlier this month, the city rejected a permit for 150 megawatt data center in Slavic Village.

And then this week, Mayor Justin Bibb took a much harder tone against them during a City Club of Cleveland interview.

Connor, what did the mayor say?

He basically said that these hyperscale data centers, as they're known, have no future in dense city neighborhoods.

You know, he said, what we can't do is engage in a conversation about data centers without talking about the material risk and fears that residents have.

So, and we're hearing from residents tied to concerns about, again, water usage, but also the pollution, and the impact on the grid itself.

So, like, how reliable will the power grid be if one of these huge centers is using up just tons of energy every, every day and the water concerns are interesting to.

I just looked this up briefly.

A mid-sized facility consumes about 300,000 to 500,000 gallons per day, and these large hyperscale ones can consume up to 5 million gallons daily, which is equivalent to a small town of 50,000 people.

So, relatively common to, you know, like larger neighborhood here in Cleveland.

It's interesting.

We heard about Charlottesville, which is kind of suburban and rural, and now Cleveland, which is saying dense neighborhoods are not a place for this.

More and more throughout the state.

It seems like no matter where people live, they at least want some really serious vetting of these proposals.

Yeah, we've seen over the last couple of weeks alone, Twinsburg, Ravenna, Avon and Painesville out in kind of the suburbs ish are all looking at, or have passed short term prohibitions on data centers.

So they're, they're kind of pumping the brakes for six months.

A lot of cities are looking right now, including Cleveland at, Should we look very carefully at zoning?

So where are these allowed?

How big can they be.

What are we allowing them to to do in terms of like using city services?

And so cities are really looking at should there be regulations on like are they having to pay for all of their water usage at, at, you know, at, at a significant rate, electric usage, etc.. Because it could be a big burden on city services.

Sure could.

The mayor's comments kind of put him at odds in some ways with the chamber of commerce, the Greater Cleveland Partnership, which doesn't say a blanket yes to those, but yeah, we shouldn't have a moratorium.

We should look them on on a case by case basis.

And the mayor may say he'd look at them on a case by case basis.

But if he says there's no future for them in our neighborhoods, that that seems to be at odds with what we heard from the Greater Cleveland Partnership.

Yeah, there's a lot that we could read into with these statements because the mayor said, you know, in in dense urban neighborhoods, but that could still mean that could happen in city limits still, maybe in an industrial area or something of that nature.

But yeah, the Greater Cleveland Partnership said, which is, you know, the regions, the, chamber of commerce, they said, these bands and moratoriums are not really protecting communities.

They're actually shifting economic development away from us, which we really desperately need.

Actually, the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades union also said that, they put out a pretty similar statement that said we want sensible regulations.

Yes, but, we don't want to completely, you know, remove these from our neighborhoods because there's a lot of good, good paying jobs that are created from construction.

And then also the, Greater Cleveland Partnership's point is that, there's jobs that that would be happening at these, these data centers as well after their construct, but not a lot of them.

And that's been the big argument.

If I was a construction trades union, I would certainly say, yeah, we want more things to build.

Yeah.

Then the question is how many people are working there once they are built.

And I think that's where a lot of the criticism comes.

One last thing about this is that there would be a carve out specifically for large employers in Cleveland, and we've got some big ones, Sherwin-Williams, etc., for their needs.

The Clinic, other places.

The mayor is saying we we can look at how we can accommodate their needs in terms of data center.

Sure.

For for yeah, for data cloud facilities, they said for those big, partners in the city.

And so these would just be, you know, likely near those sites that are already in the city limits.

Okay.

Cleveland plans big investments to increase housing stock in Hough, Central and Saint Clair Superior.

Those neighborhoods.

And it ties into our previous topic.

in some way, we'll start with that, because one of the things they said in announcing all the things they do want is they don't want data centers.

Yeah.

In this announcement, they specifically have an amendment prohibiting the construction of data centers within this 1500 acre area.

So data centers are just kind of seeping into everything we talk about now.

It's the story of the year.

Yeah.

For sure.

Well, let's talk about what it is that they're planning and the what they call the housing Innovation District in these neighborhoods on the East Side.

Yeah.

So this is a mix of public funding, but also, an investment from the Jack Joseph and Morton Mandel and Cleveland foundations.

So this is $750,000 to basically promote all sorts of things, including new housing, but also home repairs for existing houses.

It's looking at this historically disinvested area and trying to do something better.

So there's other, kind of economic development tools in use here.

So waiving some permit fees for new construction, looking at modernizing the zoning code.

So just really seeing what they can do here in these three, you know, neighborhoods that have gone through a lot in history.

Another big part of that is this tax increment financing district, which we've seen used in downtown neighborhoods, waterfront specifically.

But here we're talking about a neighborhood, as you said, it's been historically disinvested red lined neighborhoods and will create a district where there will be a funding source through tax increment.

financing.

Yeah.

I'm glad you said it.

So that I don't have to.

The TIF.

So TIF financing here.

So kind of putting millions toward, you know, new housing and allowing for this kind of financing to help pave the way for that.

So this sounds great that you're going to invest finally, in neighborhoods that haven't been invested in enough.

And yet if you live in those neighborhoods already, there is concern.

And you can imagine that if you invest in a certain way, you're you're going to price people out of where they are, you're going to raise the tax rates, all of those kind of things.

Are there concerns in those neighborhoods?

Yeah.

A few residents have kind of already spoken out about kind of what you just said about displacement.

But also, you know, can I stay in my home and just make the repairs needed, or am I going to have to move because of these, you know, new this new housing development that's been proposed?

But officials assured them that they don't want to push out any people.

They don't want to demolish any existing homes.

They did note, there is money set aside for these home repairs.

So at this point, it seems like that's kind of what they're saying.

All right.

And Conor, Council has a lot of questions about it, Oh sure.

And well, even just to back up just for a second, I mean, redlining when we say redlining, you know, those are majority Black areas of the city.

You know, where poverty rates are in Cleveland, at least, have been very high historically.

And redlining this the concept of like, you know, folks couldn't get housing loans for a long time, right?

Minority folks, you know, could not get housing loans for a long time.

And so they were pushed to live in certain areas where the housing stock was poor.

So but even still, a lot of folks still own their homes.

And so that's where that concern really is, like, okay, you may not like how my house looks, but I still own it.

It's my one of my main sources of wealth.

So that's where the concerns are coming from.

Really.

Sure.

And Councilmember Charles Slife said he's not sold on the plan.

He said he's really wary of the city's partnership with philanthropic organizations.

He even alleged they plan to kind of cannibalize the neighborhood community development corporations, which are the ones where flow of funds flow through them to local residents.

And often that's where a lot of these home repair programs are kind of housed out of.

And so he was really concerned about this relationship between big nonprofits and the smaller nonprofits and the residents in the neighborhoods as well, that that the idea of giving them more power over these residents, who might not be very trustful of these organizations anyway.

Right, definitely.

Well, let's transition now to another thing Council been working on, because we talked about this in the past.

And that is parking.

We've talked about how parking rates in Cleveland beginning of this year went up to as much as $4 per hour that you were charged on weekends as well, including Sundays, and that most of the time you could pay only through an app.

Council has been talking about this, hearing a lot about it.

Yes.

And now we see the Municipal Services and Properties Committee vote on some changes, which I think they're going to make permanent, or are going to make official at Monday night's council meeting.

Can you tell me a little bit about what's changing?

Yeah.

So parking still going to be more expensive than it was in 2025.

The higher rates and expanded enforcement hours that started this January will be rolled back though.

So parking now maxes out at about $3 an hour per, per hour downtown, and a dollar per hour in neighborhoods.

In most cases, it's going to be in for 7 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

Monday through Saturday.

Saturday, Sundays will now be free again.

And then in neighborhoods, charges are only going to occur from 7 a.m.

to 8 p.m.

Monday through Friday.

And weekends are going to be going to be free again.

Cleveland can still create these kind of special event zones where they're going to charge more, up to $8 an hour, even on Sundays during sporting events and large concerts.

In terms of cash, they're going to be installing more of those pay stations that people have kind of seen around.

They're going to be trying to place them every like 600ft or so, near like parking spaces.

And so they're also going to be kind of capping things, but still, parking rates are still going to be escalating.

So that change is still going to remain in place.

So, it's going to be up to $4.50.

That's what it used to be.

Now it's going to be up to $3.

Yes.

Yes, exactly.

And they changed it and we were paying up to this $4 number.

Now the cap is going to be three bucks, but still make no mistake it's expensive.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Exactly.

You know, for our parking session that used to cost $4, you know, at least now costs like ten, $10.50.

So it regardless, it's expanded quite a bit.

All right, well, council is taking some action and then we'll see if there's still feedback on the cost of parking.

Sure.

Going to be different by the way in the neighborhoods than it is going to be downtown as well.

And we'll keep an eye on all of that and continue to report it here.

Let's talk about Akron.

Its first ever civic assembly convened to study the city's housing needs, delivered nine recommendations to city leaders.

65 delegates spent ten weeks looking at and debating a bunch of proposals.

And Anna, so what did they end up saying?

What do you need to do to fix housing in Akron?

Well, they have these nine, recommendations that were approved by a two thirds vote.

So if it didn't receive that, it was not on the final slate of recommendations.

And that's what kind of makes this unique.

So they spent, you know, ten weeks debating and looking at studies and research that have already been done on the housing issues in Akron.

So it's different than just any old, you know, regular effort, they say, because they've spent the time, you know, in committing to this.

So one of the recommendations well, I'll, I'll go through the nine kind of briefly, but the one that received a lot of support is to create a specific housing docket in the Akron Municipal Court.

So they say that would help streamline the process, because right now you might go in for an eviction hearing, and you might have one judge and you might have these people.

And then the next time around, it's different people and they're not going to know your situation.

So they said that they felt like this would really help streamline the process.

Right.

They've got that in Cleveland.

Okay.

Yeah.

Well maybe that's what they looked at.

I'm sure that came up during the conversation.

They also talked about changing the zoning.

So to allow for tiny homes, but also just this comprehensive zoning reform they say is needed.

They also looked at repair loans for local homeowners, and one that has been called for from some activist groups in the city is making sure that criminal history is a, quote, protected class in housing applications.

Now, they they say this would be on a case by case basis.

So a lot of times, folks, when they come out of prison, they're trying to, you know, make their life better, but unfortunately they can't find housing because they have that in their record.

And so they're saying, we need to take a look at this and make sure landlords are looking at it on a case by case basis and providing guidance for landlords on how to look at that.

What seems really cool about this, is it isn't just elected officials or bureaucrats saying, here are ways that we can solve the problem.

And throwing them out there.

It's this contingent of people, this civic exercise, that they were engaged in.

The question, though, then becomes, does anything come of it?

Or is it just nine recommendations that go fallow?

Right.

Where are we with that?

Well, because as I said before, they were looking at studies and recommendations that have already been, you know, that have come out in previous years that never came to fruition.

So, you know, as you said, how does how do we make these come to fruition?

But, Mayor Shammas Malik and Akron City Council unanimously have already committed to reviewing the recommendations and implementing them in some way.

So, Mayor Shammas Malik has said, actually, one of the things that they propose this, down payment assistance, he actually just proposed that himself.

So he's already I'm I'm, you know, aligning with a lot of these and we're going to take a look.

And as part of that commitment, they have to he has to check in every six months for two and a half years with Unify Akron, the Civic Assembly, just to give a status update of where we are with these recommendations.

And this Unify Akron group, are they picking another topic now or are they moving on to the next thing?

So that's a good question.

That's something I'm looking into as well, because previously I had asked the organizers of that and they said, yes, we would love to do another topic.

They would also love to expand this to outside of Akron.

I mean, Akron was kind of the pilot for this, and they have said that they would love to do it in other cities in Ohio.

It's, a branch of this national organization called Unify America.

So they have said before that they would love to do it again.

I will be looking into that soon.

That's actually something I want to tackle, is what happens next here.

Are you going to, what's the next topic all right there?

The Senior Players Championship will be played on the South Course at Akron's Firestone Country Club for the final time in July.

Just in time.

My game's getting good.

I'm a senior.

I could have gotten onto the tour.

The Professional Golfers Association announced this week that the event, which is now sponsored by the Kaulig Companies, will get a new title sponsor.

It'll be moved to Newport, California, next year.

And Anna it's a real big blow for Akron.

It's hosted professional level golf events at Firestone since the 50s.

Yeah, it was, 65 straight years on the PGA tour.

And then since I think 2018 or 2019, it's it's hosted the Senior Players Championship.

And now as far as we know, there's there's going to be nothing.

Unless, you know, city leaders work on that or somebody steps up.

But yeah, basically it was a sponsorship change.

And with that, the health care company that's now sponsoring this event, is based in California.

So they're moving to the Newport Beach Country Club starting next year.

It, by the way, is a very tough course.

The Akron yes, Firestone Country Club called the Monster or something is like the last hole.

Yeah, it's it's a lot of things to me.

But monster was one of them.

The whole place.

I was looking into this because I'm.

I'm becoming a golf reporter.

I just had a story come out today about some Akron history with golf.

And so while working on that story, I learned about the Firestone Country Club.

And Tiger Woods actually said it was one of his favorite courses.

So yeah, it is it is fabulous.

It also is great for the community.

When they had this tournament, it brought in a lot of money and that's a concern.

It's not just the pride of having a tournament.

Yeah, but the financial windfall.

Yeah it's it's twofold.

There's the economic, just you know, it was good for the city, good for tourism.

Also charitable giving.

The Northern Ohio Golf Charities and Foundation, spent $34 million into the community through the years, partnering with Firestone Country Club and all of these golf events.

Professional golf in Akron has driven that.

And so this they released a statement the other day saying, you know, we're we're grateful and and we're, we're not going anywhere, but our, our operational focus is going to be changing.

And then it also drew a lot of volunteers.

There's a huge network of folks who would work the tournament.

And so now they're going to be looking at different initiatives for them to do.

So.

There's a lot still kind of up in the air at this point.

But that's what we know so far okay.

And the last event is in July.

So if you want to go to an event at Firestone Country Club, get your tickets for July.

Yeah.

Because that'll be maybe your last chance.

We'll see if something else comes in to replace it.

Yeah.

All right.

Plenty of more stories to talk about here on The Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable, including one heck of a graduation gift for everyone graduating from Cleveland public schools.

First, though, here's Stephanie Haney with a look at what's planned for next week on The Sound of Ideas.

Hi there, Mike.

Here's what we have coming up next week on The Sound of Ideas.

On Monday, we're talking about development.

We'll be looking at the University Circle plan to reconfigure that space and make it feel more like a shared, connected space in general.

We'll also look at the Cleveland Midline Project, a plan to bring investment and jobs to the city's Near East Side.

On Tuesday, we'll look at the city of Cleveland's summer safety plan.

This is focused on keeping kids engaged in positive activities while they're out of school for summer break, and also looking at public gatherings and how to make people comfortable and control crowds at those events that people love to go to over the summer months.

Then on Wednesday, we're talking about gun safety and ways to keep weapons out of the hands of young people in the Northeast Ohio area.

We'll wrap things up on Thursday talking about data centers.

There's been a lot of conversations about bans and moratoriums on data centers in Northeast Ohio, so we'll look at that in light of smart growth principles that have been released by the Greater Cleveland Partnership, which has been designed as sort of a template that they're offering up for communities to possibly consider whether a data center in any form might be right for them.

This is all subject to change with breaking news.

Back to you in the studio.

Thank you Steph, and thanks for digging in even deeper on data centers.

We had some discussion about that today, and now you can really geek out on it on Thursday and get all those details.

So set your alarm for 9:00 on Thursday.

And you can also on the Sound of Ideas, call in and ask your questions on the weekday show.

So you're back now with The Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable from Ideastream Public Media.

I'm Executive Editor Mike McIntyre, host of this show, along with Conor Morris and Anna Huntsman from Ideastream and Statehouse News Bureau Chief Karen Kasler is with us in Columbus.

As we do every week, we encourage you to try our Ideastream news quiz.

You can find it right on the homepage at Ideastream.org.

Travis Kelsey is a new minority owner of the Cleveland Guardians.

The Cleveland Heights native will be in town June 14th when the Guardians host the Tigers to celebrate his new role with the club and Anna I wonder who will sing the national anthem that day.

Do you think he knows anybody?

I checked the schedule and there was a blank space.

That was a Taylor Swift pun.

Yeah, I hear you.

I don't understand it though, but I'm sure it was a pun.

It's some sort.

It's a very popular song by Taylor Swift.

Okay, so Swifties out there, I apologize.

I'm just not up with that.

What a cool thing though, that, Travis Kelsey who a lot of people said, boy, I hope he becomes a tight end for the Browns at the end of his career.

This is something a little bit more permanent, being an investor in one of our major sports franchises.

Yeah, he says, we're going to bring a World Series to Cleveland, so I'm going to hold him to that.

But yeah, it actually, according to Forbes, the Guardians are valued at approximately 1.7 billion as part of this transaction of him becoming of having a minority stake in the team.

And so he said he's always wanted to do this for his hometown.

So we'll see how that goes.

They're worth about a data center tax break, right?

That was good call back.

Yeah.

And it's been a whole lot of Major League Baseball, team investment and other.

Where athletes are buying stakes.

Yeah.

His colleague, Patrick Mahomes colleague, his colleague, his teammate, I don't know, I think their offices are next to.

Each other.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

His teammate.

Well, it's interesting though because Mahomes owns, has a stake in the Royals, division rival of us.

So that's kind of interesting there.

But yeah, lots of, other athletes getting in on this and so I also wanted to mention that Travis Kelce has a stake in Cedar Point as well.

So I wonder what could be next.

It sounds to me like he's he's buying up everything from his childhood.

Right.

It was Cedar Point.

It was ... I'm surprised he didn buy the Memphis Kiddie Park.

What about the IX Center, maybe he could have saved that.

I had said there's all kinds of things right?

All right.

But it's good.

It's good to see people are coming back home and investing in their hometown.

Allegations of Medicaid fraud by home health care providers in Ohio continue to swirl, and state lawmakers are tightening up loopholes they see in the system.

They claim scammers are exploiting those.

Karen.

The Housing Medicaid Committee met this week in a lengthy session, made changes to a bill already under consideration.

Let's talk about what some of those additions are.

But also, is there evidence there, there is this kind of Medicaid fraud, or is it just rumors swirling?

Well, that last question there, the reports of alleged Medicaid fraud come from a conservative outlet called the Daily Wire, which noted that Ohio billed about $1 billion in home health care providers in Medicaid costs in 2024 and really kind of casting suspicion on some of those health care providers.

We haven't seen any sort of a detailing of how much fraud there is in the program.

And, you know, it's it's acknowledged by people all across the board that there is fraud in some of these huge government run programs.

And certainly there's an investigation, there are investigations going on of businesses that are considered suspect, even some of those that were mentioned in the Daily Wire article.

But as for hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud, we just still haven't seen that yet.

But that hasn't stopped state lawmakers and Republican candidate for governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, talking about changes they want to make in the program that they think will allow the closure of these loopholes these scammers are using to bilk Medicaid.

And so, in a House committee this week, there was a bill that was considered that would increase penalties for Medicaid fraud, require in-person inspections prior to a provider being enrolled, suspending payments to suspect providers, requiring electronic visit verification.

Or.

EVV, I know you love the acronyms, for validation of claims and payment.

Just trying to really bring a lot more rules and regulations into the program.

And one other thing it does, it rewards tipsters who bring information that actually turns into something forward about Medicaid fraud.

Up to $10,000.

By the way, I love acronyms as long as you tell me what they mean.

And you did.

So thank you so much for that.

Here's a question about sort of the line that is being walked here.

You have folks that are saying there really there could be Medicaid fraud.

We need to institute these things to avoid Medicaid fraud.

But if there was a lot of Medicaid fraud, wouldn't the blame go on the party that's been in control for a long time, which is the Republican Party, which is also the one pushing for these changes?

Yeah, Republicans have run state government in terms of the executive branch and the legislative branch and even the judicial branch since 2011.

And so, yeah, that's a question that we've asked several times.

And quite often you hear legislative leaders point the finger at governor Mike DeWine saying that he hasn't taken it seriously enough that he appointed his former Medicaid director, Maureen Corcoran, who didn't take it seriously enough.

Now he's pushed back, saying Ohio has always taken it seriously and gave several examples of of convictions and other things that have happened in that Medicaid fraud space.

He also put some new initiatives in place, including a six month moratorium on new home health care providers for Medicaid.

So there's a lot of finger pointing going on here.

But there still is the acknowledgment that there is fraud in the Medicaid program.

But we still have yet to see exactly how much.

Now, the state auditor will say he's done multiple audits that show hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud.

And that's over several years.

So we're still looking for kind of more of a detail that really backs up the information that the Daily Wire was reporting.

That information came from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, as you might recall from last year, we're seeing this become a campaign issue not only in Ohio, as you mentioned, Vivek Ramaswamy, but it started with Minnesota, and then becomes it's a national talking point now.

And the administrator for the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services, Doctor Mehmet Oz, came to Ohio this week, called on the state to put more guardrails in place.

So he's coming from a more national perspective, coming into Ohio and saying you need to do more.

Yeah, it was interesting because he came to Ohio to look in on this OhioSEE program, which is a program that governor Mike DeWine has championed to bring vision services to kids in elementary schools.

And that really kind of got pushed to the backburner because of two things.

First of all, the Medicaid fraud reports and his comments about what he thought of them.

For instance, he said that he trusts governor DeWine to run the program in Ohio.

He wants to do some more national work on Medicaid to try to get data sharing among states, because, you know, if there's a scammer in one state, they're probably doing a scam in another state, or at least the idea is spreading.

And then, of course, there was the snake video.

Yeah, I guess we do have to talk about that just because he was asked about it.

But, Robert F Kennedy, it was his first.

That was the first question asked him.

There is Robert F Kennedy apparently grabbing a couple of non-venomous snakes, and I don't know if that's the best way, by the way, to grab a snake, because they kept just kind of curling around and biting him.

See right here, you might want to grab it.

We're seeing a video here as we're talking.

You might want to grab it by the back of the head, but at any rate, what did he say about that?

How did you make light of that whole situation to something about the, about all of these tie.

Yeah.

And he also said that they were on their way to the airport, that these two snakes were mating and that, Yeah, RFK Jr thought he might rustle them.

He grabbed these snakes.

They're black razor snakes, which apparently are not venomous, but they didn't really like being grabbed.

They didn't like his tie, and they started attacking it.

So.

And he said there was a lot of blood.

So this whole experience just sounds really.

I'm not a fan of snakes anyway, so.

But once again, it kind of drew attention away from the very serious issue of Medicaid fraud and the reports still trying to verify some of the information and trying to really crack down on people who are scamming the system, because that's money that is not going into the system to help people who really need it.

And I got to say, if that's the first question and we're talking about Medicaid and Medicare, that's ... Let's do better.

Reporters.

All right.

Next week will be Attorney General Dave Yost's final days in office as he leaves June 7th, take a job at a conservative law and advocacy firm, Ohio Department of Public Safety Director Andy Wilson will then take over as the A.G.

and Karen, you sat down with Yost for your State of Ohio show to talk about him and having a little bit of an exit interview.

He clearly intended to try for the governor's office.

I talked to him at the City Club about that, in which he said he thought the the Republican Party, made the wrong decision, made a mistake in endorsing the Vivek Ramaswamy so early, which got him out of the race.

What did he say to you about that topic?

Yeah, he said he thought that the Republican Party could have benefited from a primary.

And I think he's still a little raw about the fact that he wanted to run for governor.

And then there was these these very early endorsements.

I mean, President Trump endorsed Vivek Ramaswamy the day he kicked off his campaign in February 2025.

Yost was already in the race then, but they grimaced when they got that endorsement right away.

And then the Ohio Republican Party met in May, which is pretty early for them to endorse a candidate more than a year away from the election.

And so I think Yost is still a little frustrated with that.

I thought his answer to a question that I asked about his legacy was interesting because he said that, yeah, he feels like that lawmakers have focus too much on aggrandizing themselves and thinking about their legacies and not thinking about public service.

And he kind of had a really interesting answer to that.

And, did he talk at all about his own legacy?

Well, that's the thing.

He said he didn't want to talk about it because he he didn't feel that that is what public servants should be doing.

But he does have a legacy in the sense of he's been in elected office for 25 years at the county level, and then state auditor and then state attorney general.

He had wanted to run for attorney general in 2018, got out of the way so Mike DeWine could run for attorney general.

And since he's been in office the last couple of years, he went from being a Never Trumper, really strongly opposed to President Trump early in 2015 and then came on board and has become really such a champion for conservative issues.

With regard to LGBTQ plus rights.

And he sued the Biden administration several times.

He backed up the Trump administration with that filing friend of the court briefs several times.

He's really been an advocate for very conservative issues.

And that's why he got hired by a conservative Christian law firm.

Right.

One more topic for you.

As we discussed last week, Ohio lawmakers are pushing to put an amendment requiring photo IDs for voters before voters in November.

It's already law, but they want it in the Constitution.

The public had its first chance to weigh in on this proposal this week.

The opposition speakers against were many, what did they have to say?

Well, there were about 80 pieces of testimony that were filed before the committee meeting, and all but two were against this amendment.

And this this opposition was really interesting because it brought people together who don't normally agree on anything.

I mean, the ACLU agreeing with Marcel Strbich, who ran to the right of Robert Sprague in the Republican nomination for secretary of state.

So you've got quite a spectrum here of people saying that this is not necessary, that this feels like it's very quickly put together.

And I will give them that, because we went from Vivek Ramaswamy writing an op ed on a Monday to this being proposed on a Thursday.

Now, lawmakers have talked about the idea of putting these kinds of things into the Constitution before, but the timing of this is really interesting, and this was pointed out several times in the meeting, is that there have been times in 2004 when it was an election year, presidential election, and Ohioans were asked to put the ban on same sex marriage that was in law into the Constitution in 2022, which was a year that Ohioans elected a governor and U.S.

senator.

Ohioans were asked to put in.

That was something that was already in state law, a ban on non-citizens voting into the Constitution.

And here we are again.

There is already a law that requires voter photo ID if you're voting in person.

And now voters will potentially be asked to put that into the Constitution.

What was the concern of those who oppose what specifically did they list off points about how this would disenfranchise voters or open up the avenues for challenge, or what were their what were their opposition concerns?

I think some of the specifics of the amendment are the concerns here.

I mean, you've got some people like Marcel Strbich saying that this doesn't cover Mail-In voting, that people who are absentee voting by mail don't have to show photo ID, that there's other protections, they have to sign something, and then they have their Social Security number, you know, there's other protections for that.

But he said that he feels like is a loophole.

A lot of the concerns, though, were about how this amendment it's only the resolution to create the amendment is only three pages long.

It leaves a lot of doors open.

And I think one of the biggest worries here for, some advocates of Mail-In voting and absentee voting is that this could lead the way toward the elimination of early voting.

And that's something that they're very, very worried about.

And is the legislature listening to that at all?

Well, according to Speaker Matt Huffman, the legislature gets information from about bills, not just from committee members, because obviously, people who show up at committee, a lot of most Ohioans can't show up at committee hearings.

So he says that, lawmakers get their information in other places.

But I think you know, these comments about, the the unneeded ness of this proposal and how it doesn't even address some technological advances on what kind of IDs will be using down the road.

Because this is a constitutional amendment, you can't change it, except when you go back to the voters.

There's some some concerns about the longevity of this thing versus where we are now.

Thanks for the updates from the statehouse.

For sure.

Let's go a little more local.

Stow Monroe Falls City School District may need to close schools as enrollment drops and a potential budget crisis looms.

Conor, I feel like you can just take the template and go from the last ten stories you've done to our new district, but here's yet another one that's talking about serious budget crunch.

Yeah.

Of course.

So they've got nine schools and they're just discussing it right now, but they're talking about reducing the total number of buildings.

We're hearing this across the region.

Really.

So we've got, birth rates that have declined significantly since, you know, you know, probably about the last 20 years or so in the country in general, a lot of schools are saying school funding is not kept up with costs.

There have been long been concerns about how Ohio is funded.

Schools, you know, mainly through property taxes, was declared unconstitutional years ago.

And, a lot of schools are arguing we still really haven't ever truly fix the formula.

But yeah, I mean, also enrollments drop significantly there.

As we mentioned.

It's it's, you know, maybe about a decade ago it was about 6000.

And now we're down to about 5000.

But we're hearing this across the region, Cleveland schools that reducing the number of buildings they've got, they're laying off staff.

Akron's discussing this as well.

You know, hundreds, more than 100 layoffs in in Lorain, Elyria, just across the region, in the state.

And some of that is pinned on school funding as well.

But but clearly, the big demographic is fewer students.

We're going to see shrinkage in these school districts.

Yeah, yeah.

And some, folks who study school finance have said this has been kind of needed for a long time that schools have needed to cut back for a while.

They've really only kind of known how to grow.

And advocates would say, we we've really wanted to expand services for kids.

We want counselors for them.

We want because they're going through a lot.

But at the same time, you know, the financial reality is still there.

Well, let's talk about a happy education story.

Are you okay with that?

Yes.

Okay.

Absolutely.

Here's a good one.

500 bucks per kid.

That's not a bad graduation gift, especially considering the envelope isn't from your grandparents or your favorite uncle.

Conor, where is this money coming from for Cleveland Metropolitan School District grads?

All of them are going to open up their envelope and get 500 bucks cash.

Where does that come from?

Yeah.

So a businessman and, 1978, James Ford Rhodes High School graduate.

Mark Stepowoy.

He's the largest private owner of Roto-Rooter plumbing franchises in the US.

And he's a Cleveland guy.

He gave almost $1 million to cover these gifts.

So all 2000 graduating, almost 2000 graduating seniors this year in Cleveland are getting 500 bucks.

And I was thinking about this the other day, like, if I was graduating from high school right now, what would I spend $500?

It'd probably be a switch to a Nintendo Switch 2.

But you know, that'll further your education.

If my parents had had anything to say about it.

They'd be like, no, this is going toward your college tuition.

Or did he said they can use it however they could use it however you like and so this a lot of people are really cheering this as like an unrestricted gift for these kids, you know, and he was saying he had talked to he's given to the district before he gave, some money to all graduating Rhodes High School seniors last year.

And, you know, a young girl came up to him and said, you don't know how much this means to me.

She was crying.

And, you know, just saying, you know, a lot of these kids, it could be, you know, even just food for the family, you know, you know, helping.

But but, you know, some some kids may be going to college, but some kids might not.

You know, a lot of kids nowadays are considering trade schools or maybe just going right into the workforce.

So, you know, it could be paying for a lot.

Yeah.

You you bring up a really good point.

It could be something like you noted fun if you have the privilege to do that, like getting a Switch 2 or something of that nature.

Or it could be that we need to feed the family and this is going to help us at this time.

Yeah, sure.

Or an investment in something like, maybe getting a car so they can get to work, things like that, you know.

So yeah, a lot of folks were really, stoked to hear about this.

Really, really cool.

This summer, the world's largest operating steam locomotive, fittingly named Big Boy, will pass through Ohio on it's coast to coast tour celebrating America's 250th anniversary.

Anna, How big is it?

I mean, is that what makes it special?

It is the largest operating steam locomotive, Mike.

It's very I mean, I don't know, I'm a train.

I kind of like trains are you?

Yeah.

I actually love trains.

Like, because you.

I mean, this is what people are saying.

Like, you don't see anything like that anymore.

Really?

Unless you go to a special event like this or you go to a museum.

But it's it's really big.

There's eight of its kind left.

These were, manufactured for, hauling materials in World War II.

So there's only eight in existence left, and this is the only one that's operating.

And so it's making a journey from all the way.

I think Wyoming is where it's going to be heading back to.

But it's it's on its way and it's going to be stopping, in several states, including Ohio, in June and July.

That's really cool.

And you can catch it here in a number of different places.

I'm seeing, Lorain on June 8th, right at, Euclid.

Struthers, Rocky River.

Mike.

Oh, yeah.

We better set up a launch.

I wonder where they're going to be on my street.

I have a I don't know how it's going to go right through your house, Mike.

I'm not that close.

I will say you can, I mean, you'll hear it before you see it, which is also cool.

And you'll feel the heat as well, so it's free.

I am looking forward to it.

I once did a story when I was with the Plain Dealer Sunday magazine on train chasers, and these are folks that there's a certain kind of engine they haven't seen in forever, and it's coming through Ohio, and they will get in the car and go to wherever it needs to be, and take pictures of it as it goes by.

I would imagine folks like that are going to be really excited about this.

Absolutely.

I don't remember the name of it now, but there was a steam locomotive that came through, the Steam in the Valley last year with the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and that goes right behind my house in Akron, and I heard it like I was just sitting in my living room and my fiance and I, we were like, we have to go.

So we just we drove over.

We got to see it.

It's it's just neat because again, you really don't see anything like it anymore.

And it just makes you feel, you know, I love history so it makes you feel like you're back in the olden days.

Well, having grown up 12 houses from the tracks in Lakewood, Ohio, I was a big train fan as well.

And, really cool.

So we'll see that, in Rocky River, a number of other locales coming up sometime very soon.

The National Spelling Bee, the Scripps National Spelling Bee, crowned a champion last night and the three day competition came down to a spell off.

I didn't know there was such a thing.

Oh, yeah.

Just started in 2022.

You know, I was the announcer for the Scripps be in Cleveland for a number of years.

Back when I worked for The Plain Dealer and amazing kids on the local level.

And then you get them to the national level, and then you saw this group of kids last night.

I watch it like a sporting event.

It was on.

You can get it through Peacock.

I think it was on Ion.

It used to be ESPN, but what an amazing, competition.

The spelling bee.

And I wonder, if, Anna, you would have been able to beat Shrey Parikh?

He's 14 years old, from California.

He spelled 32 words in 90 second I knew none of them.

Oh, if you didn't know them, I didn't know.

I mean, there probably.

And it was cool because usually in the spelling, competitions, they say, give me the part of speech where now they just say, give me all the information and they'll tell you, use it in a sentence, they'll give you the and they'll do all that stuff.

And you can ask them several times.

You got about a minute to do that.

In the speed round, which I again had never experienced before.

They have no time to ask a question it's answer right now And he ripped through 32 of them.

By the way, he went so fast I didn't know he was even spelling it like the those spelling was going.

So I think they must have slowed it down to count.

But he got them correct.

It was just an amazing thing.

Karen, your, your, your spelling is, right up there.

You've never used spell check, have you?

Oh, well, you know, I mean, when, when you write emails correctly, but I am, I won my eighth grade spelling bee with the word endeavor, so I'll just hand that out there.

He won with the word bromocriptine, which.

Okay.

You know, I was like, know.

It's pretty impressive term.

Yeah, exactly.

It's like somebody made that up.

Yeah, in sixth grade.

Like I got out and at the regionals, the word was luminescence, which is pretty tough for sixth grade.

I feel like that's a tough one.

Yeah.

Anyone want to take a shot at that right now?

L-u-m-i-n-e-s-c-e-n-c-e.

Very good.

I'm going to say yes.

That's correct.

And someone can correct me if that's not correct.

It's weird, but they do.

There's a online tool on unscramblerer.com came up with a list of words people struggle to spell, basically based on search engines where people are asking nationwide.

The hardest word to spell was bougie ... You know, spell it.

I've not been spelling it the way, but is it?

It is.

Is it Bougie?

That's it.

It's okay.

It's like sixth grade all over again.

Yeah, but I think it's a bunch of bull though.

They said in Ohio the hardest word was because I mean I'm sorry about that.

Yeah I'm come on guys.

That is absolutely not true.

All right.

Anyway, let's get out of spelling mode and into midge mode.

And that is that if you look at the clouds above, they might not be clouds.

They might be midges swarming.

S right around the corner.

Warmer, sunnier days bring the return of midge season.

One thing to talk about, I was mentioning this yesterday to a group of students from not Ohio who are touring through the newsroom.

And I mentioned we're going to talk about midges.

And they said, what are those?

We've never heard of them.

Here We know a whole lot about them.

But if you come from other parts of the country, you might not even know.

So tell me about like the midge is not a not going to hurt you.

No, no.

They're non biting small little little flying insects.

They're not the same as mayflies as well which are much larger and also aquatic based.

But, they only live for a few days and then they die.

But there are just so many of them, and, they don't have mouths when they're adults, which basically means they're, like, starving while they're waiting to mate, which sounds like a horrible existence.

So that's all they do.

They wake up, they are birthed, or however, they hatch, and then they just have like 3 to 10 days to mate and then they die.

Okay.

But it's also great for all the other animals that want to eat them.

So again, just a brutal the most meta existence possible.

All right.

So give them a break when we're complaining about them coating our cars, which today I had some on my car.

I know by Monday it's going to be just, I'd need a squeegee.

Give them a break.

These guys have a tough life.

Can you spell squeegee, and I think I see it.

Karen, we talked about this a little bit earlier, but, Michael sent us an email.

He says maybe the midges will stick around next week and help us beat the Yankees again, like they did in 2007.

I certainly hope so, because I'm coming to one of those games.

But I wanted to add that, I stayed in the former Renaissance Hotel on Public Square one time, and the room that I was staying, and there was actually a sign on the window that said that if you didn't want midges, you had to close the window because it kind of opened fully and it specifically mentioned the 2007 ALDS series when a swarm unnerved Yankees picture pitcher Joba Chamberlain.

So, you know, they're still remembered paid actors.

Your little trained midges did a good job that I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Karen, good to talk with you again.

Great to be here.

Happy Friday.

All right.

And happy Friday to you and Anna and Conor.

Thanks for being here with me in studio.

Appreciate it.

Looking forward to a hot midge summer.

Yes indeed.

To get the last word on today's topics, you can go ahead and send us an email.

SOI@Ideastream.org is the way to You can find us on Instagram at Sound of Ideas and Monday on The Sound of Ideas, Stephanie leads a discussion about big plans for University Circle, as well as the transformative Midline project in Cleveland.

If you missed any part of today's show we'll air a rebroadcast tonight at nine on 89.7 WKSU.

You can watch the television version of this show tonight at five on WVIZ-PBS.

You can also catch us on YouTube or the podcast platform of your choice.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for watching and stay safe.

And we do a song at the end of every show and often it just comes to us.

Yesterday I was talking it over with Drew Maziasz.

Has anyone ever written a song about midges?

And.

Well, yeah.

A man named Kenneth McKellar sang this one wearing a kilt.

Replace Scotland with Cleveland in this song and it applies to us over the next week or so.

Singing.