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Next year's race to replace Republican U.S.

Senator Rob Portman gets another expected entrance and three stakeholders look at the state budget and offer their two cents.

All this weekend, the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio, I'm Karen Kasler the contest for the Republican nomination for US Senate next year is now a real race, and it's shaping up to be a battle over which candidate can tie themselves more closely to Donald Trump, who won Ohio by eight points but lost the 20 20 election.

Former Ohio Republican Party chair Jane Timkin announced her candidacy this week.

She writes on our campaign website, With the support of President Trump, Jane cleaned house, got rid of the Kasich decay and completely transformed the party into a well oiled machine that won conservative victories and advanced in America first agenda at every level and delivered a second victory for President Trump in our state.

In response, a spokesman for Josh Mandel, the former state treasurer who announced his campaign last week, wrote that Mandel, quote, is the only unabashedly pro Trump candidate in this race.

That spokesman also suggested questions to ask, quote, due to Thomkins flip flopping on the recent impeachment, which Mandel is called a sham and unconstitutional.

So far, no Democrats have announced they're officially running, but possible names include Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, Youngstown area Congressman Tim Ryan and former Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Akton.

Speaking of a bill that would restrict the power of her successor, Stephanie McCleod, along with Gov.. Mike DeWine, has passed the Senate.

That measure limits health orders to 30 days and allows the Ohio House and Senate to revoke those orders.

It initially proposed a committee of lawmakers that could rescind orders, but now that committee will just scrutinize them.

The bill moves on to the House now, but DeWine offered this warning.

We don't want to be in a situation where a future governor does not have the tools that she or he needs to protect the people of the state of Ohio.

That would be shortsighted.

It could be tragic.

So we can work this through, I think.

It's going to take some effort on both our parts and I'm willing to make that effort, we just have to be careful what we end up what we end up with.

Last year, DeWine vetoed two bills proposed by his fellow Republicans that sought to curb his authority on closing businesses and levying fines for violating health orders.

That first bill was co-sponsored by Senator Rob McColley, who's also a sponsor of this new bill.

This week, the Ohio Department of Health finished adding four thousand covid deaths from November and December to the overall total, which is now above sixteen thousand with more than fourteen thousand confirmed deaths.

McLeod said some personnel changes were made and an investigation into how that happened continues.

DeWine is also warning school to take seriously their promise of getting students back in class or in a hybrid learning setting by March 1st.

But he said he will not punish those who don't by withholding vaccines for school employees.

Seventy five billion dollars to your state budget bill.

House Bill one 10 includes a billion dollars in one time pandemic related spending, along with a 50 million dollar campaign to market Ohio to people who've moved away or considering it.

There's two point four billion dollars in federal Medicaid assistance coming in, which we talked about on this show last week.

And that infusion of funds likely saved the state's rainy day money.

It includes a 90 percent cut to public transportation from 70 million dollars to seven million dollars.

And it also includes an increase in funding for wraparound services for poor kids and public schools to over a billion dollars.

This week, I talked to three people representing millions of Ohioans who are affected by what is and isn't in the budget, starting with Lisa Hamwi.

If you get to the executive director of the Ohio Association of Food Banks, were really pleased to see that the governor has provided us with twenty four point five million, which is flat funding in the budget, and an additional two or excuse me, an additional seven million dollars of Keres Act funding that would only be in the first year of the budget.

And that's going to be for the provision of storage, transportation, distribution.

So we're continuing to work with the administration, as well as members of the General Assembly to urge them to do their part in helping to provide additional support, especially in the area of personal care, personal hygiene, in household cleaning items, those items that are in great demand that we just don't have the resources to purchase.

How does that amount in the budget keep up with the demand that you're seeing because of the pandemic?

It really doesn't.

And I have to tell you that we have never seen anything like this straight out of the gate.

I mean, we're 11 months into a pandemic in the economic recession.

Relief and the demand just continues to increase week over week and month over month, we have been sustained by some federal government commodities.

And again, this year they have really dried up.

We are hoping that the Biden administration will be providing additional resource.

But the biggest challenge that we have right now is what's going to happen in the next 30 to 60 days to the individuals that are standing in our food line.

That's going to put more pressure on the demand for food assistance.

So we need more, not less.

And again, we're all experiencing the same thing, rapidly rising food costs across the board.

We're just not seeing that the supply chains are settling down at all 11 months into this process.

Now, while the unemployment rate has dropped, there are still thousands of people who are unemployed.

Some people have not gotten their checks going back months and months.

Are you concerned at all about the long term impact that is going to happen to these people?

Many of them were in the paycheck to paycheck situation anyway.

That's correct, and again, I mean, Ohio's hunger crisis is the worst that's ever been recorded since we've been doing this work.

And now of this pending an immediate threat that we're going to see is the pandemic.

Unemployment assistance expires in the next 30 days unless Congress acts to renew that.

That's going to affect hundreds of thousands of Ohioans.

Again, as you said that because of the challenges that the unemployment system has had around the widespread identity theft and the organized crime attack that has hit and not just Ohio's unemployment system, but nationwide, we have thousands, if not tens of thousands of individuals who have filed claims that those have not been acted upon.

And then two weeks after that, we have the end of the moratorium on evictions as it relates to those who are behind in their rent or their mortgage.

So we are looking at the next two to four months of being those of just a critical crisis right now.

And the people that are standing in our food lines that are seeking food don't have jobs.

Some have gotten unemployment, but it's not enough to meet their basic needs.

Others are continuing to wait for unemployment claims that they filed months ago that have not been paid.

And all all of them are months behind in their rent and their mortgage.

And while there is some assistance available, the systems that are to to help process them are just overwhelmed with excruciating demand.

Besides being behind in their rent, their mortgage, their they have hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on their utilities as well.

I remember several years ago you had talked about the focus on gig workers and how you were concerned about what that might mean down the road.

And here we are in the situation where I had to build a whole system to try to help gig workers get that federally funded pandemic unemployment assistance.

But that's where most of the fraud has been and some of these people have had their claims held because of that.

Yeah, and again, this should be no surprise to any of us, you and I have been talking about this for years now.

You know, we're 12 years behind the Great Recession that was supposed to be in our rearview mirror.

And those family supporting jobs that provided benefits, a living wage, health care, an opportunity to save for retirement.

Those were all replaced with low wage, part time temporary and contingent jobs.

And believe it or not, those are the individuals that have continued to work during the covid.

And they're the ones that are most at risk of not only exposure from covid, they're the ones that are at risk.

While they may be on the schedule for eight hours, they go in, they find out that the sales aren't there.

Their employer sending them home after working for hours.

So their wages are still very much in flux.

There's no job security and they're the ones that are that are really holding all together for the rest of us.

We estimate right now in Ohio, that's about one in three of Ohioans who are really not making it.

They are the most at risk right now of greater food insecurity, housing insecurity and really the need for additional supports, not less.

How much you get says she's pleased that the Biden administration is moving to end Medicaid work requirements, which had been approved under former President Trump.

But she's worried about state level legislation that aims to target waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicaid SNAP and other public assistance programs that she says really is aimed at dismantling the social safety net.

I also spoke with Pete Van Runkle, executive director of the Ohio Health Care Association, the lobbying group for Ohio's nursing homes and long term care facilities.

The budget includes 50 million dollars for the state to buy 11000 unused nursing home beds to cut down on shared rooms.

We're not really sure why.

I mean, the only the only rationale that was given is the one that you you quoted and Director Corcoran spoke to in her testimony that, you know, they think that this is that there's that there are extra beds out there, which there have been for years.

And there's more now because of the pandemic and that private rooms are a good thing, which we we also knew have known that for a while.

And and certainly as providers build new facilities, they tend to move more towards including more or maybe all private rooms, depending on the building, because it is the demand demands it.

But it was not something that was discussed with us ahead of time.

So we didn't we didn't really weigh in on it or have any influence on on that decision by the administration.

And at this point, you know, we're kind of neutral.

It's like, OK, you know, if folks want to take advantage of it, the general sense seems to be that ten thousand dollars a bed is going to be that attractive to providers, but maybe there will be some that would be interested and that's fine.

The budget also includes some authority for the Department of Health to shut down nursing homes that are deemed unsafe.

Now, from conversations I've had with you before, there was already that authority that existed in state law when you go through the court system.

So do you have any idea what more authority that this budget gives the Department of Health and why now?

Why now, I don't know.

Know again, this was not something that they talked with us about in advance, but clearly it would give them a great deal more authority because they would not have to there would be no check and balance on.

They would be able to do it as they close down facilities or or to issue other orders that required certain things to be done, like get a new administrator or, you know, hire more staff or whatever it may be, you know, but there's there's no check, check or balance on that where someone else is looking at it to see, you know, does this case really warrant that?

Is this a situation that is is really that bad where we ought to take some drastic action?

That's why we kind of thought that the approach of where they could go to court and get a court order, an injunction to direct whatever whatever the judge felt felt was justified, was probably sufficient.

But we really haven't had any further conversations with them about that and whether there's any way to make that, you know, a little more, I guess, balanced in that they approach.

Fewer people have been going into nursing homes during the pandemic, in nursing homes have been closing.

They were even closing before the pandemic started.

There was a survey last summer showing 40 percent of nursing homes said that because of increased costs, they may not make it through six months of this pandemic.

And that was back in August.

I'm not sure how many of those actually closed down with the pandemic hitting nursing home and long term care facility.

So how does this budget support what you need or are you in trouble?

Well, that's a little bit of a complex answer, I think, to start with.

Fortunately, the federal government and to some extent the state government, but mainly the federal government, stepped in and helped during that summer, spring, summer, fall period.

But those dollars are running out.

So now as we look at this budget, we feel that the state has has made a good start in trying to allocate some additional funding to try to deal with those costs of the pandemic.

And and, frankly, the lost revenue from the pandemic.

As we said, fewer people coming in and using the facilities right now.

But but we think there could be some improvements in that.

We're very concerned about the state's proposal not to rebase rates for skilled nursing facilities for the next couple of years.

The on the assisted living side, we were very glad to see the director of Corcoran testify about a four percent increase in rates.

But we think that may not be quite what is was warranted.

And for our homecare members, the same the same thing, four percent increase was proposed, which we appreciate.

But they're there.

They've really been hit hard as well.

And in our side are dead members that are serving people with developmental disabilities.

Basically, they were holding them flat.

And that's that's not going to work.

We can't get we can't get staff.

And we need we need to be able to pay a higher wage to get them.

With the numbers coming down and with most residents being vaccinated, when would Visitacion start up again?

I know that there are a lot of people who really want to get back in and see their their loved ones.

When would we expect visitation even close to where it was a year ago?

You know, what's really what's really cool is that it's kind of a it's kind of a secondary impact because as more people are getting vaccinated, we're seeing the numbers come down.

And it's not true on the state map.

When you look at that state map, it's still like all red except for those four counties down southeast Ohio.

But under the federal map, which is the one that counts for this purpose, it really has improved.

We're down to twenty one red counties.

So that means in the entire rest of the state, you know, the other sixty seven counties there, visitation is actually mandate.

It's not only allowed its mandate.

So know we've been trying to spread the word because our members have been kind of in this mindset of, well, we can't do it, we can't do it.

Well now they can.

And they they really need to be opening up.

Now it's not the same because you still are you still have to use TV, wear masks so that to socially distance, you still have that kind of schedule, things which really people should have been doing for visitation anyway.

But, you know, the reality is that that a lot of times I mean, I know when I went to visit my mother, I would just walk in, you know, and they yeah, they make me sign it at the desk.

But it wasn't any big deal.

It's still going to be more there's going to be more of that kind of restriction for a while.

But as far as being able to do it, you know, in some way, it's it's really this is very rapidly opening up.

And then the other side of that coin, and this is something a lot of people don't don't realize, is that that no matter what, even if even it's a red county, even if the facility has covered in it, even if the person the resident has covered compassionate care visits, we're still required.

And again, I can speak from experience because I was there when my mother passed from covid.

So, you know, I was allowed compassionate care visit and not just because it's me.

It would have been the case with anyone and I was able to be there.

Hospice was there.

You know, they were they were welcomed in to help in those last days.

And, you know, it's a it's a really important thing.

And we really preach that gospel to our members that, you know, you need to make full use of compassionate care, because not only is it important in those kind of situations like an end of life situation, but people people suffer a decline from social isolation.

There's no question about it.

And and it may not be the end of them, but they're still not living life to the fullest that they can.

And when that is happening, that's a valid reason for compassionate care.

Best then, Runkel says nursing homes are being encouraged to call family members and invite them to do compassionate care visits rather than waiting for them to reach out.

And we extend our condolences, the Van Runkel family, for their loss.

I also talk.

Shannon Jones, executive director of Groundwork, Ohio, which advocates for childhood development and early childhood education efforts, notwithstanding the pandemic, we've not we're not really seeing cuts to services for young children, which is a plus.

But even prior to covid, we know that many children, especially low income children, are up to two years behind their higher income peers when they enter the classroom at kindergarten.

And so with all of this discussion that the governor is now having about kids being behind in the K-12 system really means that we have to do more before they enter kindergarten, you know, before those those gaps start to appear.

Governor DeWine in his first budget, really increased funding for foster care for children services.

Do you feel that that's enough, especially when you're starting to talk about this population that is still dealing with trauma even before the pandemic?

Look, when you invest in the earliest years, you're investing in a prevention strategy.

And that prevention strategy is the strong foundation that supports kids through all of these other systems.

And the investments that the governor has made in children's services were much needed.

There's no doubt about that.

But what we're suggesting here is with the brain science and all the research tells us is that if we're investing earlier with these families that are experiencing trauma, that are experiencing things like homelessness or loss of jobs with with evidence based programs like home visitation and high quality child care for preschoolers and even younger infants and toddlers, we know that they're less likely to be in those systems to begin with.

And so, you know, we can continue to support infrastructure once these kids get older and are in these expensive systems that aren't good for them, that aren't good for their families, and that aren't, you know, and certainly aren't good for taxpayers.

Or we can invest in a prevention strategy that's proven, that is a more cost effective way to meet the needs of kids and families.

And it's better for our children and our families.

Is there anything specific that you would have liked to have seen an investment made in any any specific program, any specific dollar amount?

Where would you want to see things change here?

So there's two things that the governor has done in this budget that I would say are modest increases into the right direction.

But I think they really need to there needs to be more focus by the legislature on them.

The first is increasing eligibility for our child care system.

Our child care system has one of the lowest eligibility in the country, meaning so many of our children are low income children and our black children aren't able to access them.

And so we wanted to move our publicly funded child care system eligibility from one hundred and thirty percent to one 50 percent and then 200 percent over time, because two hundred percent is considered the sweet spot of where families can start into self-sufficiency.

So the governor's made a modest investment.

They are moving it up to one hundred and thirty eight percent of federal poverty.

That's a good thing.

It's over the biennium.

Maybe another twenty five hundred children would be served.

But the sad reality is, is that doesn't even make up for the number of children that we've lost in the system because of the covid pandemic.

It doesn't come anywhere close.

So we're not really making any ground.

And so we need to get more children enrolled in these these high quality programs.

The second area would be in evidence based home visitation.

The government governor has made a commitment both during his campaign and in the first budget.

And you've heard him talk about this before, that he wanted to triple the number of families served by this high quality intervention.

And we aren't anywhere close to it yet.

He made a modest investment of one point nine dollars million over the biennium.

But we are way far off the mark.

And again, we know that these young children, these infants and toddlers are experiencing.

Seeing what their parents are experiencing and so if they're if their parents are experiencing joblessness and homelessness and food insecurity, then these children are and that trauma leads to lifelong impacts.

And so those are two areas where we hope the legislature will really consider.

How these how kids in the K-12 system got there in the first place and we can invest in some of these proven prevention items for.

The budget also includes a seven million dollar boost for grants to local governments for lead testing programs, which groundwork, Ohio is said, only provide a snapshot of the problem of lead poisoning in kids.

And that's it for this week.

Please check out the Ohio Public Radio and Television State House News Bureaus website at statenews.org.

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

My colleague Andy Chow will be in this chair next week.

Please join him 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 dotcom 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 Dotcom 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.