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A roadblock for vaccine rollouts as one of the three shots is sidelined.

The House budget includes a tax cut, more money for schools and some big changes to Gov.. Mike DeWine, plans for gun laws and covid violations for Barbes, the Democratic leader.

On the committee hearing, the budget sounds off.

Also in the budget is help for an industry paralyzed by the pandemic arts and entertainment.

More on the plans to save Ohio's stageit cinemas, museums and creators all this week in the state of Ohio.

Welcome to The State of Ohio, I'm Karen Kasler this week, a setback for clinics that were hoping to use the single dose Johnson and Johnson Johnson covid vaccine as federal authorities called for a pause while they examined six cases of rare blood clots in women among the nearly seven million people who got that shot.

Ohio, stop the use of the vaccine, though the state had already started vaccinating college students with it.

State House correspondent Jo Ingles reports on the impact.

College students started getting JMJ vaccines last week with more vaccine clinics set for this week.

But Governor Mike DeWine ordered a pause in using that shot Tuesday morning that will give federal officials time to recognize, report and manage the six cases of rare blood clots in women 18 to 48 years old who had recently received the vaccine.

The adverse reactions that they had been seeing or very rare.

They have six known cases among six point eight million Americans who have received this type of vaccine.

For some perspective, that's a one in seven million chance of death and a one in a million chance of complications.

That GE vaccine is the same one Lieutenant Governor John Houston got about a month ago and he said he would still recommend it to friends and family members.

I had no complications or side effects whatsoever.

We had a number of members of staff here who had the vaccine.

None of them had complications or symptoms that were negative.

DeWine says many college students were able to get the JMJ variety at 63 public and private universities before the pause.

Many of these colleges and universities do report that last week any student who won the vaccine was in fact able to get at the larger universities are the ones who could not complete that last week.

DeWine says those colleges and mass vaccination clinics who have the JMJ vaccine are being asked to store them until they're given further notice.

He says those clinics that want to continue vaccinations can do so with the other two options.

We have tried to work with the providers and to enable as many providers as possible to make a very quick switch over from Johnson and Johnson to Maduna or to Pfizer and to Wayne says.

For the most part, many are doing just that, with only eight clinics deciding to pause all shots this week while federal officials look into the problem.

For people who are already hesitant about getting vaccines, this pause provides cause for concern.

But the Ohio Department of Health, Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, says it shouldn't really.

I think that for those whose hesitancy is built off of fear regarding the safety and the safety practices, this should be reassuring that that the scientific and medical community is really on this and is watching very closely to ensure that what people are receiving is, in fact, safe.

Vanderhoff says anyone who received the JMJ vaccine in the past few weeks should be alert for a bad headache, aches and lower extremities, nausea and vomiting.

And if those symptoms occur, he says, patients should consult their doctors.

Jo Ingles Statehouse News Bureau.

There were more than 90 deaths reported this week before Friday, and daily case numbers have averaged about fifteen hundred per day for the last 10 days.

But cases per 100000 Ohioans is now at two hundred, four times the level Governor Mike DeWine has said needs to be in place for two weeks for the mask mandate and other restrictions to fall off Republicans of the Ohio House and unveiled their version of Darwin's two year state budget, adding a tax cut and more money to school funding.

The House is seventy four point seven dollars billion.

Budget increases spending by nearly four hundred and ten million dollars over divines plan.

It includes a two percent income tax cut totaling three hundred and eighty million dollars over two years.

It starts at one point eight dollars billion increase to K through 12 education over six years, boosting it by one hundred and fifty million dollars in the second year of the budget and leaving the rest to future budgets.

And no district will lose funding during the Faizan.

There's also one hundred and fifty five million dollars in covid relief aid for restaurants and bars, hotels, entertainment venues and new businesses.

But the house cut Dwina gun law changes that he put in from the bill he wanted lawmakers to pass after the twenty nineteen Dayton mass shootings, expanding the ability to perform background checks on gun sales, increasing the ability for courts to confiscate firearms, and upping penalties for people who commit violent crimes with a gun.

House Republicans also eliminated a 50 million dollar ad campaign to keep people in Ohio or lure them back.

A campaign the DeWine ad said would showcase how Ohio is a progressive state and a provision of the budget would also erase violations of health orders committed by bars and taverns starting March 14th of twenty twenty and refunding at least one hundred thousand dollars in fines paid by those liquor permit holders.

Representative Eric Crawley is the ranking Democrat on the House Finance Committee.

She notes Democrats were able to get some funding for rape crisis centers, domestic violence programs, the state legal defense fund, adult protective services and infant mortality.

But she wanted more money for housing and homelessness and not for an income tax cut.

I would say it's a mixed bag because there are, of course, some things that are of concern for Democrats.

But then there are also things in this still bill that are Democratic wins.

And so that's why I say it's a mixed bag.

When you talk about the Democratic wins, you've talked about increases of two and a half million dollars in each of the next two years for rape crisis centers, one and a half million dollars for domestic violence programs, a total of six million dollars in funding for the state legal defense fund, nearly 12 million dollars for adult protective services, almost seven million dollars for the Commission on Minority Health, where infant mortality grants.

Was there anything else you really wanted to see besides that?

Yes.

So I want really want to see more significant investment in housing and homelessness.

Now, there are some appropriations in there for youth homelessness, but we know that during this devastating crisis, people have been displaced.

They're on the verge of being displaced.

Even people who own a home and are barely getting by keeping a roof over their head and food on the table.

We do not want people to have to make hard choices between having to eat and remaining in their homes.

And so we would have liked to see way more money invested in the housing trust, as well as there are programs and programs and pilot projects that would help with women who are pregnant with housing and help them get up on the economic mobility ladder.

And so those are some of the things that we would like to see more investment in.

One thing that did come into the House version of the budget that was not in Gov.

Mike Divines original budget was a two percent income tax cut.

Three hundred eighty million dollars in total.

What are your thoughts on that?

So as I have said ever since this bill came out, or even right before then, I knew that a tax cut was coming.

We just didn't know what form.

And so here we see a two percent tax cut.

And I think it's irresponsible of us in the legislature right now to be giving a tax cut when we know so many people are struggling and we know that this two percent tax cut that's across the board will benefit those in higher income bracket.

So we save the millionaires and billionaires and we are elected to work for the people and try to do the most good for the most amount of people.

And we know that the people who are on the lower income tax bracket, income bracket are going to suffer the most.

What I would have liked to see if we are talking about taxes is a refundable earned income tax credit.

This is something that I have been championing since I came into the legislature in twenty nineteen with my colleague, Representative Scandal.

We know that higher general assemblies were really trying to make the earned income tax.

Refundable because that money goes right back into our economy.

We know that when there is a refundable ITC that people tend to use it on those everyday items, paying their rent, putting gas in their car, getting their car fixed, putting food on the table.

We also know that when we have a refundable ITC that it directly correlates with preterm birth and decreasing infant mortality because families are able to buy those necessities, are able to get to doctor's appointments and things of that nature.

So we see a benefit with it, see if we were to make it refundable.

And so because that wasn't in this bill and was not in the governor's proposed version is really disheartening because that would help a lot of people in the impact to the state fiscally is minimal.

One of the things that this budget also does is it incorporates the fair school funding plan to cut Patterson plan from last session at one point, eight billion dollar plan phased in over six years.

But this one only starts that next in the second year of the budget with one hundred and fifty million dollars.

Do you think that that's enough to really get this plan going?

And it seems like it pushes a lot of it onto future budgets of future legislators.

Right.

And that's a good point.

When you say future budget is, we know that it's hard to tie the hands of future general assemblies, but we know that this plan will really get us to a point where we have a constitutional funding formula.

And I think at the end of the day, that's what we all want.

We have a draft decision.

We have been unconstitutional for around twenty four, twenty five years, and that's unacceptable.

We know that the students who are economically disadvantaged, which is almost fifty one percent of the students who are enrolled, really need more resources.

And so this but I mean, this funding formula gets us there.

It's not perfect, just like any piece of legislation is not perfect.

And even though we can see it starting to phase in next year, we see that the plan is solid.

So over the course of six, six years.

And so for us in my pocket is we are really grateful that this got rolled into the budget, as you said, in Patterson and worked on last General Assembly.

And so we need to really hunker down and get this thing passed, whether it's in the budget or stand alone.

We cannot wait any longer for us to get a fair school funding plan.

Our students are counting on us to get this done.

It's often said that budgets are documents listing priorities.

There are a couple of things in this budget that are kind of policy related.

The governor had put in some elements of his plan for gun law changes.

Those were all taken out.

There was also a 50 million dollar ad campaign that try to lure people to Ohio that's been removed.

There's also a proposal that would refund bar owners who have violated covid orders their money back about one hundred thousand dollars there.

Let me ask you about those things.

Those are obviously policy issues and priorities that Republicans have said.

Do you agree with those?

I don't.

So I do feel like we need to do everything that we can to make sure that we are reining in guns and the access to them and when it comes to our fifteens and those types of magazines.

And so I think any opportunity that there is to pass meaningful gun legislation, we should be doing that.

I also know that when it comes to policy or putting bills into operating budget, my colleagues across the aisle prefer not to do that.

And I can understand that one of my colleagues said that they would rather have these go through as stand alone bills.

And I would agree with that if we had some reassurance that it would get done.

We saw the last General Assembly where the governor put forward his proposal, and people in my caucus put forward a lot of different pieces of legislation that would make our community safer.

And it didn't get done in the last year assembly.

So I don't really have a lot of hope that if it was a standalone bill that these measures would pass.

I do understand that restaurant and bar owners were fine during the pandemic's for not following the guidelines when the governor and CDC guidelines.

And that's unfortunate.

Do I think that this is the place to do it right now?

I'm not sure, but I can understand wanting to supplement the bars and restaurants more fine.

But they were also fined for good reason because we were looking at and the governor wanted to make sure that the health and wellness of our neighbors were first and had priority.

We also saw when people were not following the guidelines with social distancing or wearing a mask, we had increased cases of the coronavirus.

And so I think we have to balance that.

I don't know that it was significant.

I don't remember bars and restaurants being fined significantly during this pandemic.

But I also understand that my colleagues want to do that within this budget.

They have the votes to do it if they want to.

And so I can understand on that note, in previous budget years and actually with a lot of big pieces of legislation, minority Democrats have often said that they haven't seen these bills until they're presented to everybody.

They're not part of a negotiation process.

Were you I know you had met with representative, also the chair of the committee before the bill was released.

Do you feel like Democrats were part of this negotiation process, that you were really brought into the whole talks about the budget bill?

So, yes, to an extent.

I think there could have been more conversation around things like Medicaid, which there are Medicaid concerns, and there significantly there are some things when it comes to our aging population in nursing homes, and these have been ongoing conversations that our concern is that we did not have an opportunity to engage in meaningful conversation around.

And that's concerning because we are trying to provide more oversight and accountability when it comes to the Cures Act as well as Medicaid expansion.

And I know there were some concerns in previous general assemblies about spending on Medicaid, but I think those were these are the types of conversations we should have around health access.

And we were not part of that conversation.

And I've made those concerns known.

I think when it comes to the tax cut, we had been asking, are you thinking about a tax?

And if so, what is that going to look like in there was people were tight lipped and were not willing to give a little bit more information on that, given they may have been trying to work it out themselves, because we know that the federal dollars that have come down prohibits a tax cut being used with those funds.

And so we have been asking and we didn't get any solid answer until we saw this bill.

And so it's unfortunate there were opportunities where more conversation and more dialog and negotiations and that didn't happen.

But I can say with my conversations with representative later, whenever I hear that he has made an effort to really address them.

And so I appreciate that Representative Scott Olsen or the Republican chair of the House Finance Committee was offered an opportunity to be on this week's show and was not available.

As mentioned, there's one hundred and fifty five million dollars and covid relief aid in the House budget for restaurants and bars, hotels, entertainment venues and new businesses.

That's in addition to a covid relief bill that passed the House this week, specifically aimed grants for entertainment venues, small businesses and new businesses, child care, veterans homes and fairs.

The impact of the pandemic on the arts has been, as with many other industries, devastating.

And it's not just that way for live performance venues such as theaters, facilities with stages and other spaces for concerts and plays, but also cinemas showing films, museums and also people working in the arts, such as artists, performers, crew members and even bookers, promoters, talent agents and security.

Chad Whitington is with the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts.

Just to give you some perspective, and again, this is similar for Playhouse Square in Cleveland.

Our orchestras around the state, our normal budget size is 20 to 25 million dollars a year.

That's two million dollars a month we spend.

We've been able to cut it back significantly during covid, but we're still at about a six million dollar budget.

So a half million dollars a month to keep our theaters ready because people want to come back.

Right.

So we've got to keep things ready.

We've got to be scheduling acts into the future.

And so five hundred thousand dollars a month goes out the door.

So thirty thousand dollars.

We're appreciative for every dollar we can get.

But for a lot of our large organizations, it's just not really going to make a huge difference in our ability to continue to survive.

I just wanted to build on that idea of why do the arts need so much money?

I mean, you know, there might be people out there who look at their tickets, season tickets or tickets to the orchestra, tickets to a particular performance and say this is not cheap.

Why do you need so much money?

And didn't you weren't you able to bank some of that money from the expensive tickets that I paid for before the pandemic?

Well, I understand live performances that there's there's you know, it's fair to say that.

But I think maybe something people don't understand is a large percentage of the cost of that ticket goes out to the artist.

So if you think about locally, if you've got the musicians for a symphony on the stage, we have to pay those musicians.

And certainly, you know, there's a real cost to that.

If you talk about the large artists that come to the arenas, they command a lot of money.

So in many cases, 75, 80 percent of the ticket price goes out the door right off the bat.

It's not staying here at our organizations.

And then we use the remaining piece.

We use ticketing fees, concessions.

It's all those sort of things that we use to support the cost of the buildings.

Take Kapper, for example.

We run a number of historic theaters in town.

They're not cheap to maintain.

And so that's why that's why we need support.

Even during this time when we don't have any ticket sales at all.

We have to continue to maintain those venues so that one day when we get back to a more normal situation, you have great places to come experience entertainment.

And that's why the import that support is so important right now.

I wish we had millions of dollars sitting in the bank account just waiting to to spend.

But I would say another thing about it, especially if we're talking about the nonprofit organizations.

We have education programs.

We do a lot of things in the community that we know we're not going to make the money back on, but we want to be out in the community and to bring things that maybe aren't popular, that enough people are going to see them, that they make money, but they bring diversity of energy.

To our community, we go out into the schools a lot, those programs cost us money to do, but they're important for for the community.

So the dollars that we're able to keep out of that ticket price, we're making good use of them.

There's still a lot of people who are suffering financially, a lot of non-profits, a lot of companies that are suffering financially.

And there was a bill that was passed last fall to save our stages act that was passed at the federal level last fall, 16 billion dollars nationwide going to support the arts and entertainment.

But there have been some problems with the website, which has got to be really frustrating as people are trying to access this money, this this huge pot of money that is really needed.

Unfortunately, I think that's an understatement.

That was a very nice way of putting it.

That has been a really tough process.

And I'm not necessarily being critical of a small business administration.

They were handed something that had something like that had not been done before with an interest rate industry that they weren't familiar with, but an industry that needed a lot of help really quickly.

And I think they've been working very hard to make that happen.

But the date for the application to open was last Thursday.

The portal did open, but almost immediately there were technical problems.

They crashed, it crashed, and that's what it came down to.

So we were there when it opened and we experienced that.

And in the end, it ended up that we're in a reset.

We're waiting for them to reopen the portal and everybody has to start over again.

This program has a lot of potential to do great things for our our our industry and solve some of the problems we've been talking about.

It's also a great unknown.

There are sixteen point twenty five dollars billion, which sounds like a lot of money, but there are tens of thousands of arts and entertainment organizations across the country.

All of them have legitimate requests for the money.

And that's really the big question is, is it enough money to solve all the problems based on the formulas that are out there in terms of people's eligibility and the way it's set up, or at least it's set up right now, organizations that get an application but no fault of their own, they've their numbers look a little bit differently than other organizations could miss out completely.

So you could have some folks that get one hundred percent of the grant they they request and some folks that don't get anything.

And from my perspective, that's a huge concern.

We need the entire entertainment and arts community to come through this together.

And I think for not only in Columbus and in Ohio, but in cities all across the country, that's important.

We want the whole arts community to be there when we come back.

And I hope they're reconsidering some of those how that program is going to be distributed.

And individual employees have also been suffering, too, because while some did qualify for unemployment assistance, others had to wait for the federal pandemic unemployment assistance to be built.

That whole system to start up fraud has riddled that system.

There have been fraudulent claims even in the traditional unemployment system.

So this has been really hard, not just on people at the top, but on the people who are working at the bottom levels of the arts community.

And really, the thing that has kept me up at night through much of this is at our organizations.

I mentioned earlier that over 50 percent of our staff has been laid off.

To your point, it is a lot of the workers at the lower end of the scale because it's people that are working in the buildings, part time work concessions, workers, theater operations, but also our full time theater operations staff, the people that make the events go when they're actually in the building.

So that has been tough.

They've borne the brunt of this.

We have stagehands are a great example.

They are they work for a lot of different venues around town.

Unemployment has a hard time understanding how to deal with them, especially if they're off for a number of weeks.

And then we've got one event where we just need them to come in and help us work a virtual event that some group wants to do.

And then the next week they're unemployed again.

So it's been a lot for them to work through, even when they're legitimately owed their unemployment to be able to get it.

So, yeah, a tough time.

And certainly all those folks are looking forward to coming back to work.

So I know you say that you're looking forward to that day wanting to get completely open, ready to go.

How long can you last?

Are you are you going to make it based on reasonable projections and assuming, like most of us are right now, that we are going to reopen at some point in the fall?

I don't know if that means September, October.

I will tell you, we've got a full calendar starting in September of this year.

There's anticipation and I think there's a lot of pent up demand.

So we've got plenty of things on the books.

When the doors are open.

The Ohio Arts Council has awarded almost 300 grants worth twenty million dollars with money from the federal Keres Act.

And one final note.

This week, there's a fourth candidate for the Republican nomination for Ohio's open US Senate seat next year.

Cleveland businessman Mike Gibbons, who was last seen on this show in twenty eighteen when he was running for Senate against then Congressman Jim Renacci, has jumped into the race, sounding similar pro Trump themes as Josh Mandel, Jane Timkin and Bernie Marino.

All four met with former President Trump at Mar a Lago last month.

A person familiar with the meeting told Politico it was reminiscent of the Hunger Games.

No Democrats have officially announced that they are running.

And that's it for this week.

Please check out the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau website at statenews.org.

And you can follow us and the show on Facebook and Twitter.

And please join us again next time for the state of Ohio, support for the statewide broadcast of the state of Ohio comes from medical mutual, providing more than one point four million Ohioans.

Peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at Medda Mutual dot com slash Ohio by the law offices of PorterWright Morris and Arthur LLP.

Now, with eight locations across the country, PorterWright is a legal partner with a new perspective to the business community, Morad PorterWright.com and from the Ohio Education Association, representing 100 24000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online at O H E A dot org.