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

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Happy you're with us.

The legislature has been busy this week.

They put a voter photo ID amendment on the ballot, passed, stripped down legislation aimed at guarding against Medicaid fraud, and failed to reach an agreement on tax breaks for data centers.

Should residents get a vote on whether their community deploys cameras to ticket speeders and red light runners?

It's the latest idea from a local lawmaker who has spent his career battling the cameras.

The Cleveland Clinic struck a deal with the U.S.

Department of Justice agreeing to provide no gender affirming care for minors, something already outlawed in Ohio, and promising millions to care for those who detransition.

The Cuyahoga County sin tax that funds upkeep of three sports venues isn't raising enough money.

And now a fourth stadium being built for a women's pro soccer franchise wants a cut.

And what would you do if you threw away a winning lottery ticket?

A Huron County man Dumpster dived his way to $100,000.

Yeah, I do that.

And so would Abbey Marshall and Conor Morris, both Oh, yeah, 100, 100, 100 K. Yeah.

All right.

Dumpster dive for anything.

Yeah.

He's a raccoon.

Yeah.

Conor Morris is our education reporter.

Abbey Marshall is our local government reporter.

And they join me today right here in studio for the roundtable.

And we're joined in Columbus from a woman who would Dumpster dive for lost Guardians tickets, Ideastream's Statehouse News Bureau Chief Karen Kasler.

Hey, Karen.

Right now, I don't know what.

Oh, your faith is wavering.

Not good.

No, I'm still here.

But Dumpster diving right now.

I know these temperatures.

There's always one wise one in the room.

Right.

All right.

You can join us.

You can give us your wisdom as well by sending an email during the show to SOI@Ideastream.org about any of the topics that we're talking about.

And right now let's get ready to roundtable.

A marathon legislative session this week in Columbus produced several measures that we'll be unpacking here with Karen.

Let's start with what didn't get done, though.

New rules for data centers.

That legislation went off the rails over tax abatement.

Currently they get 100% break on sales taxes.

Proposed legislation would have cut that somewhere between 50 and 75%.

But many lawmakers, reflecting angry constituents, want it to be zero.

Karen, it's like the prelude to a lame duck session in Columbus this week.

Let's talk about that particular bit of legislation.

It looked like it was going down the rails.

There were people that were complaining about it, but then it just didn't have enough to pass.

Even at a supermajority.

Well, it looked like it was going down the rail really fast because we really had not heard about anything moving on data centers until Speaker Matt Huffman said a couple like last week, I think it was that he wanted to move something on data centers before lawmakers left for summer break.

I mean, there's been legislation about data centers, but this was the first time we really saw something pushed forward, the leadership talking about it.

And a lot of this seems to be connected to the Joint Committee on Data Centers that was formed by Republicans.

And there's two Democrats on the panel as well to to get more information out about data centers and to really hear not only from opponents, but also from supporters of data centers in general.

So this was something that was expected.

We we had heard that this bill that you just described was being proposed.

And then just back and forth over the course of an evening, and then finally when the dust settled, it was dead.

So where does that leave us?

I understand that they think they can come back in a couple of weeks and do something, but what would need to be different if that were to be the case?

Coming back from break?

That's a good question.

I mean, I think that there's some concern about that tax break, that tax break the data centers have gotten, because, I mean, lawmakers have wanted to get rid of it, or at least they tried to in the budget.

Governor Mike DeWine overrode that and vetoed it.

They have not yet overridden him, but they've talked about it.

But there's still a split there on whether that tax break is something that data centers really still want and need.

And we found out this week with some contracts that were leaked that were leaked to the Statehouse News Bureau that some of the biggest companies that are building data centers, Meta, Amazon, Google, they have this tax break going for 30 years.

These were negotiated years ago under the Kasich administration.

So there's really nothing that can be done about those other than going back to those companies and saying, hey, can can you pay the taxes on this now?

So that's been, I think, a concern for some folks of, of why wasn't there more attention on that?

And so in the Joint Committee on Data Centers this week, the day after the bill died, Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik came in and testified, and she broke from DeWine, who appointed her, in saying that this data center tax break is not needed and that we, the lawmakers, should indeed get rid of it.

The House is planning to come back later this month, but the Senate's not planning to come back until after the election, so nothing may move there.

Other parts of that bill, though that seemed rather important: Water usage and creating your own electricity if you're a huge megawatt user.

What happens to those provisions?

I think that those were less controversial, and those ones that lawmakers wanted to see some movement on, because those are the ones that people who opposed data centers have talked about the most.

And, I think those were the least controversial.

It's this data center tax break, because there is still the question of whether, if you get rid of that tax break, will Ohio still draw data centers to the state?

And then, of course, the other part of that question is, does Ohio want to continue to draw data centers to the state?

Organizers and activists said, no, we're we're full up.

Thanks.

We're we're done with this.

And there's that constitutional amendment effort to try to ban large data centers.

But you've got, especially Republicans saying that data centers are important to national security, that if data centers don't come here, that the there will be an effect on economic development around the state.

Yeah.

Governor Mike DeWine made that reference.

Like, don't ban them all.

We need some.

So, interesting.

Well, moving on from data centers, let's talk about property tax.

This is, by the way, the two biggest news items in Ohio in the last several months.

Now.

Yeah, certainly property tax relief remains a priority for Ohioans.

Lawmakers took action during their marathon session to provide help qualifying senior and disabled homeowners.

More than 700,000 homestead exemption recipients will receive nearly $500 of credit toward their tax bill in January.

Where's that money coming from?

Karen?

Well, this is a this is part of a bill that really looks at $1 billion in tax surplus that the state has collected.

And I have to say, and of all the things that passed this week, this one is like way down on the list because it was a part of a big bill that kind of divvied up some of that money.

It put, you know, it created a 15 day sales tax holiday.

It deposited money into the rainy day fund.

So it split up that money and put $350 million toward property tax relief for people who are getting that homestead tax exemption, about 700,000 people, as you said.

But this is one-time relief, and it's $500.

And for some people, that's not the kind of relief that they were wanting.

And certainly people who have been complaining about property taxes all along have said they wanted real continuing property tax relief.

That goes on more than just for one specific time frame.

And so, yeah, this is one that it affects a relatively smaller number of people in the sense that this is 700,000 homeowners for this one period, January 2027 will not see a tax credit, but it doesn't go beyond that.

So that's the one time thing.

What about the beyond that?

Is there is a legislature getting serious, given that there is this move to abolish property taxes.

That is not going to happen this year, but looks like it's moving toward 2027.

Will there be serious efforts at reform in the next year before that would make the ballot?

Well, as I we talked about on the show previously, the group that's been mobilized to collect signatures to try to abolish property taxes in Ohio did not come near their goal of 600,000 signatures to get on this year's ballot.

So they say they'd given lawmakers kind of a reprieve here to do something about property taxes, but they still intend to continue with that drive.

I don't know how serious lawmakers are taking that particular effort, but they definitely are taking property tax concerns seriously.

But the question is, what are they going to do about it?

I mean, you hear a lot of lawmakers talk about abolishing the property or the income tax, abolishing, capital gains taxes, but that money could also be used to give property tax relief.

And we hear a lot less about that.

Or if the property tax relief is out there, it's it's kind of incremental and it's not this wide swath of property tax relief.

And a lot of people say they want.

Nancy sends us an email on both of our opening segments here, the property taxes on the data centers.

She says, "So property taxes have to remain high, but data centers get tax breaks?

She said, "We want libraries, not data centers."

And that's Nancy's point of view.

You can share yours.

SOI@Ideastream.org.

Voters will decide whether to put photo identification requirements for in-person voters, already a law in Ohio, into the Constitution after lawmakers approved a constitutional amendment for the fall ballot.

So voters will get a chance to see if they agree with lawmakers that this should happen.

There were some Republicans who had some reservations on this, though.

Karen, tell me about that.

Yeah, this has been an interesting discussion here because this moved really, really fast.

We saw an op-ed from Republican candidate for governor of the state, Vivek Ramaswamy, saying that that needs to be in the Constitution.

It's already state law that in-person voters have to show photo ID, he said it ought to be in the Constitution and just within a couple of days, that constitutional amendment was proposed by state lawmakers.

And as they moved through the process, there were some Republicans who said they were concerned that it would affect only in-person voters.

And so you've got still some Republicans who raised these questions of election integrity, even though voter fraud, widespread voter fraud is not is not a thing.

Who have said that if you don't address mail in voters, then that's a problem.

And so that's where some Republicans had split on that, saying that they felt like the amendment didn't go far enough or that it moved too quickly without covering all the bases.

And one of those Republicans actually is Republican Secretary of State Frank Larose, who was concerned about the mail in voter.

He he is he likes the constitutional amendment proposal.

But the other thing that we're just going to talk about, I think now a bill on mail in voters, he was concerned about that part.

Yeah.

Tell me about that.

So a new bill that would require a photo ID for mail in voters who I guess you'd, photocopy it and send that along.

Yeah.

A photocopy of your photo ID, or you have to go to the Board of Elections when you request your absentee ballot or when you return it and show photo ID.

Now, this affects a huge number of people.

I mean, in 2024, you had about 2.6 million Ohioans who voted early and 59% of those, I'm sorry, 31% of those voted by mail.

So you have a lot of people who return ballots by mail.

Not a lot of people have a photocopier in their home that they can go ahead and take a copy of their ID, so that's kind of a problem here.

And that's the thing that LaRose talked about having some concerns with.

And also, Jen Miller from the League of Women Voters of Ohio has concerns about that as well.

Those two people don't agree on really anything.

And here they both said that this bill moving forward as quickly as it has is concerning because they feel it's not well written to really address what might happen to all those voters who vote by mail if they have to somehow show photo ID right now, we know this is already a state requirement.

They're talking about putting it into the Constitution.

Got a note from Barb in Kent.

She says she believes once a sta photo ID is required and in the Constitution, without then they will, on their own, change state voter ID to require proof of citizenship to obtain or renew a state ID, and therefore you basically have a citizenship test for voting.

Well, first of all, the constitutional amendment does need to go to voters now that state lawmakers have approved it.

DeWine doesn't have to sign it, but it does need to go to voters to be approved, and it's going to be on the ballot this fall alongside the races for governor and U.S.

senator.

This is not the first time we've seen something like this where something was already in state law, and Republicans wanted to put it in the Constitution.

In 2022, there's a law that bans non-citizens from voting.

They put that in on a as a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2022, alongside races for governor and U.S.

senator.

So this is kind of something we've seen before, but that's another thing that there's been some concern about is what is ID?

And as technology improves, what does ID mean?

And they there's those who feel that this constitutional amendment doesn't really address that and could potentially lock some things out of that in the future.

I think her concern was a citizenship test.

That's what a photo ID would eventually be.

But with non-citizens already can't vote in Ohio either, by state law or by constitutional amendment.

Ohio Republicans who say they're concerned about fraud in Medicaid in Ohio passed new regulations.

But first, they stripped out a provision that would have denied funding for those who care for sick family members.

That provision had sparked spirited protest at the statehouse.

Karen, the legislature listened?

This was another kind of sudden thing that happened.

We had been hearing about this Medicaid anti-fraud bill that was aimed specifically at home health care providers.

Following a report from the conservative IT conservative outlet The Daily Wire, about hundreds of millions of dollars allegedly paid out by Ohio Medicaid to home health care providers in 2024.

The state has yet to confirm that fully, but that really pushed forward this Medicaid anti-fraud bill.

But then all of a sudden, the Ohio House Medicaid Committee proposed this ban on Medicaid paying family caregivers.

And you got about 7000 people in Ohio who are paid family caregivers.

Most family caregivers are not paid.

But these folks, they would lose that payment.

And so there was just outrage over this.

I mean, I got a lot of phone calls and emails.

There were people who showed up here at the state House to demonstrate that these are disabled Ohioans and their advocates, their family members, those folks who were saying without paid family caregivers, in many cases, those folks will end up in institutions, which is much more expensive than paying a family caregiver.

Well, that was removed from the bill, and then the whole bill was rolled over into another anti-fraud bill, this one specifically aimed at people in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

So there are other reforms to Medicaid, though, and it really stems from a, a report from a conservative media outlet that alleged widespread fraud.

What is so what are the new provisions and what do they hope to guard against?

Are they saying there is fraud or they're saying this is just a better, sandbag defense to build up against possible fraud?

Well, I think everybody's acknowledged there is fraud in government programs in general and in Medicaid.

And even the state has talked about all the prosecutions they've gone forward on Medicaid fraud.

So there's an acknowledgment there is Medicaid fraud.

But what the extent of that is, is really the question.

And this particular the provisions of this bill that were rolled into the bill that dealt with SNAP cards and putting electronic chips in snap cards, which a lot of people support, these provisions would specifically target home health care providers, requiring them to do electronic visit verification to to prove that they're doing what they say they're doing, to have more inspections would increase penalties on Medicaid fraud.

Other things that are specifically related to Medicaid fraud.

There are those who are concerned that it's still going to stand in the way of care for people who do get those personal care services provided by caregivers.

And these are as basic as, you know, helping people get dressed and showering.

Without that, they wouldn't be able to function.

They wouldn't be able to do the things that they can do and do do every day.

So this is I can't imagine this isn't going to, be signed, but at least it does get there without that ban on paid family caregivers.

All right.

And before I get to the last topic that I wanted to talk to you about on the state round up and I promised it was going to be a long one because there was a lot of stuff going on.

I need to ask Conor and Abbey to get out of the garbage.

You know, there is no $100,000 in there.

Get ready now because we're going to be talking to you in just a minute about some more local news.

But, Karen, the last question for you is about the lawmakers who approved $3.7 billion in capital budget expenditures this week.

It's going to the governor.

There are big and small projects across the region, across the state.

A couple of notes, $10 million for East Cleveland Business District road and infrastructure improvements, $1.7 million for Cuyahoga County Behavioral Health Crisis Center, $150,000 to Birthing Beautiful Communities birth center.

It goes from small investments to big ones to big organizations to to local governments.

This, and the thing, Karen, what I saw yesterday was about nine press releases from legislators saying how much money they got for their people.

You probably saw about 900 of them.

Well, that's the thing is, this is the budget that allows for local community projects.

About 850, there were there I can't remember $208 million for 815 community projects.

There we go.

So this is where the money comes from.

That goes to projects that help, zoos and libraries, museums, historical sites, sports complexes, not professional sports complexes, but sports complexes.

So this is their chance to gloat and say, hey, we got what the community told us they wanted.

And it's interesting that a $3.7 billion budget bill is the fourth story that we've been talking about.

Not higher up than that.

Yeah, for sure.

And, and it's so bipartisan in terms of the press releases, you got for sure.

All right.

Let's go to some local news.

And that is that the Cleveland Clinic agreed to a deal with the Department of Justice this week that will end gender affirming care for minors for at least the next 20 years.

Prompted by an investigation into billing irregularities for such care, the agreement would remain in effect even if the current state law prohibiting gender affirming care would be overturned.

And Abbey, they are also committing money for detransitioning funding.

It's a it's like reverse treatment funding.

Yeah.

So the Cleveland Clinic agreed to pay $308,000 for these accusations of false billings to secure insurance coverage for gender affirming care.

And part of that also includes $2 million for what they are calling, you know, the detransitioning treatment.

But it is worth noting, especially because, in relation to the DOJ and the Trump administration and state lawmakers, this whole transgender and trans detransitioning narrative is really important to them.

So I do want to note that it is very rare to detransition, right only about 1% of Americans are transgender.

Of those, only about 60 to 75% transition publicly.

And that doesn't necessarily mean medically.

It could be socially, legally, like a name change.

And while research on detransitioning is pretty limited, the existing studies show that very few people of that very small percentage of Americans actually detransition.

And when it comes to a promise to not do gender affirming care, currently it's not done in many cases.

So the question is because the state law bands it, if the state law changed, they would still be bound by this for the next 20 years.

To me, it seemed like as I read it, as you mentioned, it's important to the Department of Justice.

It calls it protecting kids.

Yeah.

And so that's an important issue here for the clinic.

It may, it may be a publicity thing, but basically it's not a change.

Yeah.

And and that's something the Clinic did say, as I mentioned, you know, it's a very small amount of people and they want to continue to serve their patients and things like that.

But when you talk about protecting children, a lot of the medical professionals say that, you know, this actually is something that protects children having access to gender affirming care.

When you talk about, trans youth, they have a very high suicide ideation rate, or attempt rate.

A 2022 study from the National Institutes of Health found that 82% of transgender individuals have considered, you know, killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide.

So that is a very staggeringly high rate.

So they're saying mentally, when it comes to mental health challenges facing the transgender community, having access to gender affirming care actually is really beneficial to the youth.

But yeah, as you mentioned, it's not something that's, you know, happening.

As we see too, with a lot of research universities, the Cleveland Clinic gets a lot of money and there's federal money that's involved in that too.

There's motivation here, not just the case itself, which is a billing issue as the clinic said, they worked collaboratively toward a resolution related to an unintentional coding issue involving a small number of patients.

But besides that, maybe it's a thing where if you're in good graces with the government, you're going to get your research money.

Yeah.

And that's something that, LGBTQ plus advocates have said.

Trans Ohio called it a sad farce that the Cleveland Clinic is participating in.

They were really obviously against this decision.

Yeah.

I guess virtue signaling is maybe a good way to put it, because it is like you said, perhaps being in good graces with the government, but it's not something that we're just seeing in in Cleveland, in Texas, there was a similar agreement that happened with the Texas Children's Hospital that included an eight or, sorry, $10 million penalty and the creation of a clinic dedicated to treating people who decide to detransition as well.

All right.

Before we move on to our next story, Karen, whenever someone corrects something that they think I made a mistake on, it usually starts with you ignorant fool.

In this case, someone's correcting you, saying, I hate to correct our amazing Statehouse Bureau chief, but public libraries aren't eligible for capital budget funding.

That's what, our our library science master says in an email.

So there you go.

The nicest correction you could ever possibly have.

The MetroHealth system will not seek recertification with Level II Pediatric Trauma Center in 2027, though it will still treat children through its broader level one trauma center for adults, which also can treat minors.

It will transfer pediatric cases, the most severe ones, to University Hospitals after stabilization.

University hospitals runs the region's only level one pediatric trauma center, they said it's better for the broader system not to duplicate efforts.

And Conor, let's talk about that.

And MetroHealth, of course, right now is in a position where it's a level one trauma center.

The Cleveland Clinic is building one.

MetroHealth says, hey, let's think about the whole system and whether we need all that.

And then when it comes to child trauma centers, they seem to be walking that walk.

Yeah.

And in terms of reasons for closing this, MetroHealth says, you know, there's declining pediatric trauma cases, there's a nationwide shortage of pediatric neurosurgeons that make it difficult to sustain staffing levels.

And that staffing levels thing is a recurring theme in this discussion right now.

And that's why some folks are concerned about, the Cleveland Clinic building its own, you know, trauma center.

They said you know, how are we gonna have enough staffing to staff all of these centers in the region?

And Metro Health has also said, you know, we're going to continue to keep serving, you know, pediatric cases, of course, but it might be better since we've already got one at University Hospitals to to, you know, not duplicate resources.

And MetroHealth, as some listeners might remember they've gone through some staff cuts recently.

They've, you know talked a lot about uncompensated charity care.

And so they're, they're already kind of in a bit of a tight financial situation, it seems externally.

Anyway.

But then also MetroHealth is saying this change that we're doing right now to, to get rid of this, level two pediatric center, trauma center, it's not going to result in any layoffs or anything like that.

So there's it seems like they're trying to walk a very tight, tightrope right now.

And I want to make it clear when we say close that nothing's closing, there isn't a building that's closing, an office that's closing.

There isn't care that's not going to be provided if someone comes in an emergency.

What they're saying is we're not going to seek recertification as a level two, which is how many surgeons you have and how you can handle these types of things without having to transfer to a, more skilled or more equipped facility.

What they're saying is we're not going to we don't want that certification.

We think that that's fine for us will transfer people there, but we'll still do all the emergency care we did before.

And it brings up a question to what's the difference between an emergency room and a trauma center.

Yeah.

So, a level one pediatric trauma center is like a specialized hospital facility, that provides the highest level of care, 24-7, you know, for, for children and adolescents.

And it's verified by this certification.

You, as you mentioned, the first, but they basically got advanced resources and specialists who really focus on this very explicitly.

And so it's kind of a very specialized level of care that they say we can still provide a good care experience for, for children who come to our hospital, but those are that need higher care, very intensive for the most serious cases.

It's going to be at University Hospitals now.

For now Akron police are working with businesses in the Highland Square neighborhood to address concerns following a shooting last weekend that left two people injured.

And Abbey, let's talk about the plans starting for this weekend and whether they might go forward.

But essentially curfews kind of thing.

Yeah.

So all of the bars, except for one, the Highland Tavern, agreed voluntarily to a midnight closure.

This has been a problem for years.

I used to live in Akron.

I used to live in this neighborhood, Highland Square.

And I remember every summer, there was always something problematic happening with this block of bars.

They closed, and they will this weekend as well.

They closed the, parking lot behind the Chipotle, which has a lot of car parties.

In the past, a lot of residents were concerned because, you know, there were all sorts of problems happening there with drinking and that led to violence.

People drag race down that street.

And cars have flipped over.

So it is, you know, a site of a lot of potential violence.

So it's something that a lot of residents and business owners are concerned about, because obviously, you don't want to be the site of a shooting.

You don't want people shot, of course.

So yeah, that midnight curfew for most bars.

So last call at midnight, but then also at 11, that's when no more parking.

The car is here.

You're getting towed.

Yeah.

I think they used to do it a little bit earlier.

I was actually telling Conor before the show.

I think my car got stuck there once when I was seeing a movie.

But.

Yeah.

So the, you know, last call at midnight, but you can't be in the parking lot past 11.

All right, well, that's, the summer.

It always sees an uptick in crime.

True to form the Akron incident we just talked about last weekend.

Also a mass shooting at a Toledo festival Thursday, Thursday, a multiple shooting on a street near Fleet Avenue in Cleveland that extended out to the highway.

Many communities are talking about what we're going to do.

We heard this is Akron's plan, at least for that particular neighborhood.

Let's talk about Cleveland.

What is it doing to keep its streets safe this summer?

Right.

So every summer, Mayor Justin Bibb talks about this whole government approach.

It's working with state and federal safety forces as well.

And in addition to some of this proactive stuff of like, let's make sure the kids have something to do.

They make sure that they have this whole government approach to really tackle crime, making sure that the cops are in the neighborhood, all of all of those things that we typically see every year.

All right.

The Cleveland Foundation has received $10 million from the family of steel magnate Samuel T Wellman, which will be added to a fund aimed at preparing historic industrial sites for new jobs and redevelopment.

So who manages that fund?

And this money is coming as a legacy, I suppose, from the magnate.

Yeah.

So this was a fund that was established back in 2023 with, rescue plan dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act.

So remember, that is, the Covid pandemic relief dollars that cities got.

And it was something that council and the mayor established, citing a need for remediating a lot of these brownfields.

So the idea is, is that if, manufacturer is coming in and wants to create all these new jobs in a city, are they going to pick a place that needs all this environmental remediation, or are they going to go to a site ready, shovel ready place?

So we just had a discussion a few weeks ago about how they're really ramping up on the East Side.

Absolutely.

With this site readiness.

Yeah.

So the mayor's goal is to have $100 million in that fund.

They put in about $50 million back then.

It is now up to $83 million.

And that includes that 10 million from the, the, the Wellman family and the Cleveland Foundation has long- term management of that fund.

Let's talk about another announcement made at the Rockefeller Foundation's conference on Tuesday.

This all was part of a Rockefeller Foundation.

Yeah, I was there when you were that.

You were there and our Steve Litt was there as well.

The state economic development corporation JobsOhio.

is investing 300 million into a job readiness fund, not site readiness, but job readiness.

Yeah, yeah.

And so that was something that was announced with Governor Mike DeWine.

And DeWine held a gaggle for us press reporters afterward to talk a little bit more about that.

But basically, the idea is talking to existing or potential business partners of, hey, what do you need?

Like when you come in, like I said, people want to come in and they want to have sites ready.

They want to have workers ready because it's it's difficult to have that lapse in between when you won't hit the ground running.

So, hey, how many workers do you need?

What do you need them to be trained, and do you need technicians?

What do you need?

And then the idea is to partner with community colleges, technical schools, trade schools, whatever it may be, to really train people up to have those workers ready.

So DeWine calls it a win win win because the businesses get skilled workers.

And all these people get jobs.

Hypothetically.

And when we were talking to DeWine, he did not have any business partners lined up yet.

But the idea is, is that this will start later this summer, early fall, to coincide with the school year.

Okay, great.

We're going to take a quick break right now.

Plenty more stories to go, including a story revolving around this topic: Should you get a vote on whether your community deploys red light and speed cameras?

First, though, here's Stephanie Haney to tell us about what's in the works for next week on the Sound of Ideas.

Hi, Mike, here's what we have coming up next week on the Sound of Ideas.

We're kicking things off on Monday with our Law of the Land series, talking about the use of artificial intelligence in the legal world.

We'll also talk about claims that can come up when other people use artificial intelligence.

On Tuesday, we're looking at the water health of Lake Erie, and we'll learn about technology that will tell us about that water quality in real time.

On Wednesday, we're going to Cleveland Heights.

We'll be looking at 100 years of Cleveland Heights High School and the role that that school has played in the community over time.

They're having a celebration next week in honor of this milestone that will draw alumni from around the world.

And we'll talk with some of those alumni next week.

And on Thursday, we are looking at the intersection of religion and the LGBTQ plus community.

We'll talk with religious leaders from around Northeast Ohio who are holding pride celebrations this month, and we'll finish things up with our Easy Day Away segment.

This is a brand new series we're looking at that can show you things that you can do close to Northeast Ohio over the summer for a quick trip away.

We're starting with Chautauqua and Jamestown in New York.

Everything is subject to change, of course, with breaking news back to you in the studio.

Mike.

That's awesome.

Thank you.

Stephanie, I do want to go to Jamestown.

Lucille Ball comedy museum is there.

We've got to go check that out sometime.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, you're our back with the Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable from Ideast Public Media.

I'm Mike McIntyre, the executive editor here at Ideastream, joined this week by Ideastream's Conor Morris and Abbey Marshall.

And in Columbus from the Ideastr Statehouse News Bureau, Karen Kasler.

Question here now is did you take the Ideastream news quiz yet today?

Probably not.

Probably haven't taken it yet.

No.

Yeah.

Each week, hundreds of people join me testing their knowledge of the week's news.

I got eight out of eight last week.

You can find it on our homepage at ideastream.org.

Send me a note to tell me how you did.

And by the way, I just opened up today's because it came in this morning.

First question is not one we have on our list today, but I want to ask you, OSU is leading the charge in the testing and monitoring of blank, whose population is exploding in Ohio Is it Canada Geese?

Ticks?

Emerald ash borers?

Or co Ooh, that's a challenging one.

It could be a number.

A number of them.

And I've got my pick.

Are you ready?

I'm going.

I'm gonna take.

The three of us are going with ticks, and we are correct.

Oh, yeah.

You all have answer one out of the way.

Ticks is your first answer, but I'd love to hear if you get the other the other seven answers.

And you can let us know by sending me an email at SOI@ideastream.org.

State Senator Tom Patton has long had it in for traffic cameras, the kind that send you a ticket for speeding or running red lights.

He spent years trying to sap the profit motive for communities like tiny Linndale, south of Cleveland.

His latest idea: No traffic cameras in a community unless first approved by voters.

Karen bills in the House and Senate have been in committee for a while.

This is something we could talk about every week.

There's always some traffic camera thing laying around, so no guarantee it'll make it through the process.

But Patton is no quitter.

Yeah, he's been doing this for a long time.

In fact, I first talked to him about this particular bill right after he introduced it.

He introduced it in January.

I talked to him in February about this.

And yeah, he feels like the opportunity for voters to decide whether traffic cameras should be used in their community is what needs to happen.

Rather than maybe the legislature making rules or a city council deciding or whatever.

So he is arguing that really voters should get to decide now?

Of course, most of the time the traffic cameras are brought up for a municipal election.

They lose.

And so I think that that may also be a little bit of a motivating factor because like you said, he is not a fan of traffic cameras.

Yeah.

And in fact, Susan in Willowick says, I see how fast people are driving and requiring people to vote on traffic cameras will probably result in failure of that, because people don't want to have something that will catch them speeding.

Obviously, that's exactly what Patten is thinking too.

And I remember one of the things he tried, Karen, was that you had to have a police officer present when the traffic camera spewed out the ticket or took the picture.

And I remember doing a story in Linndale, that famous speed trap, south of Cleveland.

And there was a little shack that was built for the officer to be there.

And in that little shack, the officer was there with like, legs were up, like wasn't looking at, and they just had to be present.

And, and so he's then, you know, refined it with every other kind of thing taken away, the profit motive that it comes out of your general fund and those types of things, the money that comes in.

But there are still communities that do, traffic cameras.

I know, Cuyahoga Heights, has traffic cameras as well as well.

And there's a particular spot in Cuyahoga Heights that I'm friends with.

They like to take my picture, and I wasn't going that fast, but, Yeah.

Well, we'll we'll keep an eye on his efforts there for sure.

Home rule, is an issue that we're dealing with here.

And the Supreme Court will decide whether cities can enact bans rather than having to follow state policy.

A lawsuit filed by 21 cities, including Cleveland, is heading to the High Court over the state's ban on local efforts to bar the sale of flavored tobacco and vapes.

So let's talk about that.

We now get to the Supreme Court on this, and this should be a ruling, Karen, about Home Rule.

Yeah.

And I was just going to say on home rule traffic cameras are part of that whole discussion about home rule and patents.

Bill has not moved since last hearing in March, so I don't know what chances it has, as we go through the rest of the year.

But this particular case, it involves a ban that bans that local communities wanted to have on flavored tobacco sales and flavored vapes and things like that.

The legislature at one point said, no, you can't locally ban those sales.

DeWine vetoed it.

Then they tried it again.

DeWine vetoed it again.

They overrode him.

And that's how it's in state law right now, that there is this ban on local communities making rules on selling flavored tobacco and vapes.

Now, the state says we want some sort of uniformity here and there.

That's why we passed this general law that affects everybody that will say you can't ban things at the local level, like flavored vapes, but cities say, hey, wait a minute.

This is not a general law.

It applies only to us.

And that's not fair.

And on and it's unconstitutional.

We have the right to ban certain things or make legislation that relates to public safety in our communities.

So it'll be interesting to see where the justices fall on this, because like I said, this issue of home rule has come before them before, and lawmakers have gone back and forth on what is home rule, what is covered by home rule and what's not.

And so it's this constant struggle between the state and especially the cities on what the power of cities have, what they have the power to do and not do.

So this isn't just about flavored tobacco and vapes.

This you would think, would then extend to many of the other issues.

I think that's the the argument and the idea.

I mean, I know I talked to you now, former, Attorney General Dave Yost, kind of about the idea of home Rule.

He says he'd really love to see something from the Supreme Court kind of settling the issue.

There was a case in 2022 that created this four part test that was designed to try to settle the issue, but, the issue was not settled, obviously.

All right.

Akron Metro, RTA and its largest union still have no deal after more than two years of contract negotiations.

While Metro RTA's board accepted recommendations from a state appointed fact finder, members of the Transportation Workers Union Local One rejected the proposal.

They're now considering a strike and counter.

I heard some of the quotes that we had on our air from the union representative, who was pretty firm.

So what exactly did the board accept and the union reject?

Sure.

So the recommendation from the fact finder was, a 4% raise for this year and then a $3,500 lump sum payment to the workers.

But then the union's big sticking point is that it doesn't include a retroactive raise for 2024 and 2025.

And that was kind of their biggest sticking point.

they said, you know, keep in min they're offering us 0% for years 24 and 0% for 25.

Yeah, we did we did the work.

Yeah.

They said we do believe we're worth more than zero is basically what the union leader said.

Yeah, I heard him say I think we did the work.

How come we're not getting the pay?

If you agree, there should be a pay raise.

Let's make it retroactive.

This be going on for a couple of years without a strike.

Does this action now mean a strike is imminent?

Yeah.

We've reported on these these strike negotiations.

There are these union negotiations before, just in general with schools and other entities.

And just because they authorize a strike doesn't mean that there is going to be one.

But it does put a little bit more pressure and heat under, you know, the, the other side to basically say, well, we could strike at any time if we, if we all want to.

So I, it means that it could happen.

It doesn't mean that it will though.

All right.

Karen and Abbey, you can go ahead and look for that $100,000 in the trash, because I got a couple more topics to address with Conor.

Our education official, our our education expert here.

Elected officials and school leaders are considering major changes to our school transportation system as district struggle with bus driver shortages, rising costs, and debates over how transportation should be provided for public, private and charter school students.

So tell us more about the working group that the state has created and what their job is.

Yeah.

This was formed last year into the state budget bill.

It's a group of legislators and charter school representatives and public school representatives, and they're trying to address this really thorny issue.

And one thing that viewers might our listeners might not know is that, public schools have to provide transportation for private and charter schools that are within their boundary, essentially that, of with families that live within their boundaries, essentially.

And so this means that sometimes schools are providing transportation for, kids that live, that go to school up to 30 minutes away from, from where they live.

And so there and schools are saying with the proliferation of school vouchers now, private school vouchers now, we are having to provide hundreds, even thousands of more transports for these, these students than, than we had in the past.

And so right now what we're seeing is a bus driver shortage, a lot of families that are sending their kids to private schools and charter schools, they're receiving these PILO's, which are payments in lieu of.

So that's $1,200 or so per year per student.

And the state and this working group and others are saying that's not enough money for poor families.

But then also schools are saying we're not getting enough money from the state in general to, to pay for all this transportation that we're providing.

So one of their recommendations is to fully fund schools for transportation.

They continue to honor local control but establish regional transportation authorities.

Basically, we need more money and a better system.

Yeah.

And so these hubs could be a way to kind of solve that, because currently it's creating a lot of tension between public schools and these private schools.

And the state has been in the business for a long time of wanting them to collaborate more, even though it's been this kind of tense situation.

There is some stuff that's been slipped in there that will really benefit these private schools.

And which is really concerned some of the public school advocates, maximum ride time for some of these private school students could be up to 90 minutes.

Wow.

Which would, really cause trouble for these public school transports.

Okay.

One other education issue Clevelanders upset over teacher layoffs and school closures have launched an effort to restore an elected school board in the city.

For years, Cleveland's board has been appointed by the mayor.

Conor, you've been working on this.

You talked, to a number of folks.

Yeah.

Schools have been under mayoral control, as I mentioned, for decades.

So what's the reasoning behind having an elected school board, which, by the way, it wasn't great.

One of the reasons why they went to this appointed board is because the school board was deemed very dysfunctional back in the day.

What would make it better?

Yeah, sure.

So yeah, as you mentioned in the 90s, there were just years of like turnover of the superintendent at the school district board, tons of turnover on the board.

People couldn't agree on much deficits, state, you know, kind of stepping in and saying that you're dysfunctional.

So they gave control.

The legislature gave control to the Cleveland's mayor at the time, Mayor Michael White.

And, you know, in the time since, there's been still plenty of problems with the school system, right?

Some stability, some problems.

The mayor, has control, essentially, of who is appointed to the school board, although there's a nominating board of community members that gives him the mayor recommendations.

So and also, the mayor does have a say in who the CEO is, who the leader of the school district is.

So no other city in Ohio has this.

The residents now are saying we've just had all these more than 300 educator layoffs.

We're closing almost 30 schools.

The district says we need to do this to right size ourselves after years of enrollment loss.

And meanwhile, these Clevelanders who parents, teachers, they are upset about this, but also plenty of other past decisions.

They say the district's spending too much on administrators.

There were all these issues with, school books last year and bus transportation and also in general, they told me, these advocates told me there are so many issues with the school system.

There have been for a long time.

This has been a long time and coming.

And they think the pendulum needs to swing back.

Now, an elected board will give us more accountability.

Where that stands then is they need to gather a good number of petitions.

That's, that's laid out in the law.

What do they need to get in order to get on a ballot?

Yeah, there's a couple of portions of the law.

So the one that they're citing suggests they would need about 3400 signatures.

Then it would go to the school board.

They need to approve creating a commission to suggest a new version of the school board.

So it's very confusing.

But their hope is that it will be on the ballot this November, but it might not be until the next municipal election.

And I think because it has to be equal to 10% of the turnout in the last municipal election, it would be 4200 signatures.

Excuse me.

Yes, yes, 4,200.

So that's what their goal is.

That's what they'll need to get.

And I know you talk to people that out there circulating petitions already.

So we'll certainly get an answer on that.

Cuyahoga County voters may be deciding on a number of charter amendments in November, including a clarification of the division of power between a county law director appointed by the executive and the elected county prosecutor.

It's a power struggle that's been going on, Abbey, now for months with Chris Ronayn and Mike O'Malley.

That's just one part of the number of, of, amendments that are possible.

But let's talk about that one in particular.

Yeah, it sounds kind of mundane, maybe to people that don't pay super close attention to local government, a fight over who gets legal control and has these powers.

But it has turned into a pretty fierce debate, with O'Malley accusing Ronayne of a power grab for the executive branch for what he believes.

According to state law in the charter, are his his, you know, duties as as the prosecutor's office.

So, in addition to to that and that fight over who should do it.

Well, should it be the law director who's appointed by the executive?

Should the the should the county prosecutor have more role in some of these things that aren't necessarily criminal type things, but advice to the board, etc.?

That's one issue, but there are a number of other of these amendments that are put up that really are also related to disputes that have happened.

Yeah.

Our colleague Matt Richmond is reporting on this, and we'll continue to follow it.

But they are going to spend the summer considering a half dozen amendments.

And five of those, five of the six amendments are focused on recent controversies in county government, two of which are an ongoing legal dispute over authority between the county executive and the sheriff.

So it seems like there's a lot of controversy about who is in charge of what.

So they're going to hopefully clear that up this summer.

Okay.

The group behind a bid to build a women's pro soccer stadium in Cleveland wants a piece of the sin tax that smokers and drinkers pay for upkeep of other stadiums.

That tax has fallen short of maintenance needs for Browns, Guardians and Cavaliers venues, and a hike in the tax is being discussed.

There's all kinds of ideas being discussed about.

One of them is even tripling that tax.

The question is, can an $80 million soccer soccer stadium be added to that list?

That's what the Cleveland Soccer Group wants to have happen.

Yeah.

And it's something that, you know, the city really struggles to keep up with, with how many pro stadiums we have here, especially with a decline in the smoking rate, which is, according health officials, of course, a good thing, but, it's it's making this sin tax really difficult to keep up with the demands on it.

And I want to remind people that back in 2024, the nonprofit that owns the Guardians stadium and the Cavs arena, they came asking for $40 million because from the city, because they were they needed it.

And it's something that is puts the city in a tight spot, because if they have to default on those stadiums, it goes back to the city and the county and then they're responsible for maintaining these.

So the city's point is we can't continue to bail out, these public stadiums.

But what are what are you going to do?

Right.

Yeah.

The stadiums are owned by the public.

The agreement is that the city and county pay for the upkeep of those.

And in some cases, the teams have fronted the bill and they're supposed to be paid back.

And that's obviously not sustainable.

The question is, what will the funding mechanism be?

Could it be more of a sin tax, could it be some other kind of tax?

And then can you add another stadium?

Right.

And the Cleveland Soccer Group commissioned a poll that said that, you know, voters are more likely to approve a sin tax if women's soccer was included.

Mayor Justin Bibb said, you know, no, we're not going to we're not going to give more money.

But Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin has said, you know, we should make sure that we are supporting women's sports as much as men sports.

But again, the question is, where's the money going to come from?

And Karen, increasing that tax would need approval from the state.

It's is that something that's an uphill battle for now?

No, Speaker Matt Hoffman has said that that's not going to happen.

And also, Senator Senate President Rob McColley has agreed.

Apparently there were meetings with, those folks and with governor Mike DeWine.

But that's not going to go forward.

All right.

Geauga County Probate and Juvenile Court Judge Tim Grendell returned to the bench this week after serving a six month law license suspension issued by the Ohio Supreme Court after he jailed two teenagers who refused to visit their father during the Covid 19 pandemic.

Karen, it was suspended.

Let's talk about that.

And then why the Supreme Court said you can return.

So let's start with what happened that got his suspension.

Well, he like you said, he, had been he his law license was suspended after a controversial decision involving, two kids during Covid 19.

And, whether they wanted to see their father, they said they didn't.

And he pretty much ordered that to happen.

And so there was this disciplinary council hearing, and and there were a lot of descriptions of Grendel that were not flattering, calling him a bully, saying he abused his power.

And so the six month suspension was the result of that.

And now because the suspension is lifted, lifted.

He gets back onto the bench.

He's 73 years old, though, and cannot run for reelection.

His term ends February 2027.

So who knows?

But that should be the end of, of his judgeship.

Well, and I think it's interesting, he definitely wanted to get back on the bench, I think, because when he filed, the paperwork to, to make this happen, he had, a certificate showing completion of legal education and also a receipt for almost $24,000 in court fees.

So he really wanted to get back on the bench for the limited time he does have there.

Okay.

Let me share some feedback we've had from our listeners throughout the program.

And this one comes from Rev.

Craig, with the United Church of Christ.

He says, "I'm outraged that the Cleveland Clinic has compromised its medical integrity as a world class medical provider by capitulating to pressure from the Trump administration's attack on the transgender community."

He said "there are many faith communities in Greater Cleveland that welcome and affirm transgender persons deeply care for their health and well-being.

Some, including UCC, which is headquartered in Cleveland, have ordained clergy who are transgender.

This action of the clinic has added insult to injury by accepting money to support a bogus claim of detransitioning and doing so just days after thousands gathered Downtown on Saturday for Pride in the CLE.

That's Craig's point of view.

We'd love to have yours as well.

Whatever it may be.

We also had a thought here from Michael.

You know him?

Michael Quinn.

He's always throwing jokes our way.

He says ... this one's not a joke.

No .. He said When Shaker Square had a camera, everyone went the speed limit.

Without one, they're going nearl 50 to try to make the light there.

So, sometimes maybe cameras aren't such a bad thing.

Union Pacific's Big Boy, the world's biggest and most powerful operating steam locomotive, chugged through Ohio on its coast to coast America 250 tour earlier this week.

If you missed it, don't worry, it'll be back next month.

We have many train fans here.

Abbey.

Conor, did you guys see it at all?

Did you partake in?

Who do you think was driving the train?

Casey Jones.

I was doing my job.

I didn't see it.

I was at the Big Boy, but I didn't see the Big Boy.

I'll tell you what, our Ygal Kaufman was there.

Had a wonderful video, an overhead video with the drone and everything else and all of these people.

It brought crowds when it stopped, in, Lorain and in Euclid, as well.

It went through my neighborhood.

I was working out on the back.

Drove through your house?

My neighborhood.

Oh, my God, I'm sorry.

I was working At my, back deck desk, and I could hear the whistle, and it's a different whistle.

But anyway, what a cool thing I mentioned.

It's going to be back, so it's scheduled to depart Conneaut at 9 a.m.

on July 13th before making a whistle stop in Rocky River.

Not my house, but in Rocky River from 1 to 1:30 p.m.. Ten ... 19060 Depot Street.

So there are opportunities to check it out.

I'm sure you can look for, Union Pacific's Big Boy online.

It's got a whole website with all of that information.

And finally, the ticket.

We already talked about this lottery ticket.

It's, it was the Bingo Times 25 scratch off ticket.

This guy won it in, in, Huron County, threw it in the garbage and realized he'd done that.

And apparently dumpster dived to get it.

73 grand after taxes.

We agree we'd do that.

Oh, well, while we were, you know, all that time talking to care.

And I actually found it.

So I'm out of here.

Fair.

Karen, would you ever throw away a lottery ticket?

I mean, I can't, you know, the guy made a mistake, but come on, this is why.

This is why you you, you have to hoard, I guess.

I don't know.

Yeah.

This is why I don't play the lottery.

Because I'd be the guy.

Well, I do, I do exactly.

All right, there's seven more $100,000 winners in the Bingo Times 25 scratch off.

So just hold on to your ticket, please.

And my thanks to you, Karen.

Really good to talk with you.

Thank you.

To you as well, Conor Morris.

Appreciate you being here.

It's the epitome of bittersweet news to deliver.

Now it's Abbey's last day as the local government reporter for Ideastream.

Her former boss here, Stephanie Czeckalinski is the executive editor of Crain's Cleveland Business.

And she knew where to look to find the best reporter in Cleveland for her new opening, covering power and influence in the city.

So thanks a lot, Steph.

Appreciate that.

But seriously Abbey, what a great three-year ride with you here.

So many memorable stories, among them the recent Ohio Excellence in Journalism first place award winner for government and politics reporting this year, a story about unopposed candidates campaigning hard to increase voter turnout.

And a first place for history.

reporting on the haunting of Cleveland's Fire Engine House 6.

And I just want to say you're a journalist who stands on facts and absolutely reports standing up.

Thank you.

A little bit of an inside joke there.

Yes, I appreciate it.

I've loved my time here.

I've loved working with you guys.

I'm not going to be going far, but, it has been a great opportunity, and we'll definitely miss being here every day.

Thank you so much to you.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Stay safe.

Have a great weekend.

And say hi if you see me tomorrow at Larchm Porchfest.

We leave you this week with the headliner, Cleveland's Hello 3D with "Thin Air and Alcohol."