Support for the statewide broadcast of the state of Ohio comes from Medical Mutual, providing more than 1.4 million Ohioans peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at med mutual dot com slash Ohio by the law offices of Porter Wright, Morris and Arthur LLP now with eight locations across the country.

Porter Wright is a legal partner with a new perspective to the business community.

More at Porter Wright Dot.com and from the Ohio Education Association, representing 124,000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online at OHEA.org, The fall ballot could include a constitutional amendment on reproductive rights, but a fight is likely ahead.

The Republican, who says he has the support of a majority of the House GOP, talks about his agenda and the continuing House leadership power struggle.

And a key witness takes the stand.

And Larry Householder, Matt Burgess trial.

All this week in the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

Two groups that want reproductive rights in Ohio's constitution but have been working on separate proposals have teamed up to put an amendment before voters this fall.

And this week, 36 weeks before the November election, they're taking their first step toward asking voters to guarantee access to contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage care and abortion.

State House correspondent Joe Ingles reports.

Doctors, lawyers and abortion advocacy groups that have been working on separate proposals came together and submitted petitions and proposed language for their constitutional amendment to Attorney General Dave Yost.

Dr. Lauren Bean says this issue is too important and has to go before Ohio voters in November.

Ohioans are perilously close to losing access to safe, legal, comprehensive reproductive medical care.

Attorney Jesse Hill says the amendment will put an end to public officials making what should be a private decision between doctors and patients.

The language of the petition does not talk about undoing laws now on the books, such as the one requiring minors to have parental consent or a court order to get an abortion, or the ban on ending a pregnancy after a diagnosis of Down's syndrome.

Hill says the standard in this amendment is based on health and safety, as well as reproductive freedom.

But if it passes, she says, that doesn't mean all abortion laws would be null and void.

As you know, when you pass a constitutional amendment, it doesn't just automatically erase everything and start over.

But it would mean that laws that conflict with it cannot be enforced, should not be enforced.

The language of the amendment says abortion is legal until the point of viability.

It defines that is the point in pregnancy when in the judgment of a person's doctor, the fetus has significant likelihood of survival with reasonable measures.

After that point, it would only be legal if a doctor deems abortion the best course of action.

Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gun Advocates Sees that provision this way.

They claim viability.

But then the next line says, But it's up to the doctor and the woman, whatever they want to do.

So at the end of the day, it does allow through abortion up through the ninth month.

Gun advocate says polling shows most Ohioans oppose late term abortion.

And like some of the restrictions now on the books, he says his organization will not put a competing issue forward at the same time.

But he didn't rule out helping any other effort that might compete with the proposed amendment and garnered that Cash says his organization will fight against the ballot measure in a big way.

While we have already initiated the largest grassroots statewide advocacy organization that I've ever seen, we've been working on this for months and months and months here in Ohio because we knew something like this was coming, whether it be 23, 24, and we're ready to go.

In all 88 counties, we have infrastructure in place.

We're raising money.

We're bringing in out-of-state and state groups to come and help us.

The battleground is Ohio.

Whether it be this year or next.

The campaign will likely cost millions of dollars, but both sides say they will be able to raise enough money to be successful.

Abortion rights advocate Dr. Marcella.

As Laredo says, the support for the amendment was demonstrated on the first weekend that they quietly circulated petitions to get a thousand valid signatures.

We gathered over 7000 signatures.

In less.

Than 48 hours.

If the petition language is approved by Yost and if the Ohio Ballot Board eventually gets its stamp of approval, the groups backing the amendment will have to collect nearly 414,000 valid signatures by July 5th to put the issue before voters this fall.

Joe Ingles, Statehouse News Bureau.

Two weeks and two lists of priority bills for Ohio House Republicans.

Speaker Jason Stevens was on this show last week to discuss his agenda.

And this week, a list came from Representative Derek Maron who lost the vote for speaker to Stevens but claims leadership over House Republicans since he got more GOP votes than Stevens did.

Stevens won the speaker's vote with 22 Republicans and all 32 House Democrats.

I talked with Maron just after he released his group's agenda.

You have ten items in your agenda, including 60% voter approval to amend the Constitution, which you list first, eliminating the state income tax, the backpack bill, raising the local government front from 1.66% of state revenues to 2.5%.

Your package of ethics law changes the Save Women's Sports Act on trans athletes and girls sports and the SAFE Act.

On gender reassignment treatment.

Expanding energy production, protecting the Heartbeat law and Second Amendment rights plus.

Stopping Environmental, societal and governance.

Investing.

Transparency in health care laws.

And also the last one, strengthening our workforce and welfare reform.

Why are those things in that particular order?

Well, Karen, thanks for having me on.

I think you did a great job summarizing there.

You know, our caucus believes the most important thing right now is protecting our Constitution from out-of-state liberal interests that seek to really hijack our Constitution and get what they want passed by bypassing duly elected officials in the legislature.

So we think that is incredibly important.

We're dedicated to a flat income tax this cycle of 2.5%.

But then we want to in law, we want it to be phased out in a responsible manner.

And, you know, we believe in school choice.

We believe that no matter a child's zip code, they should be able to go to the school that their parents think that is best, best for them.

So former state lawmaker and Columbus Dispatch editor Mike Curtain says the 60% requirement for the Constitution amending could hurt future bond issues for things like schools, highways and job development infrastructure.

And several important changes would not have been enacted if that requirement were in place, such as county, home rule and the referendum, which allows groups to take bills that pass to the voters.

So what do you say to that?

Well, a lot of those issues would have passed.

And but I think there needs to be a high threshold.

You know, you just don't willy nilly start changing the Constitution and creating new rights or taking away people's rights.

60%, six out of ten Ohioans, if they can't agree on something, you know, it's probably better to be left in state law or statute where, you know, people can change things, amend things easily.

But once it gets in the Constitution, you know, it's hard to hard to change.

Now, this House joint resolution one was assigned to a committee by Speaker Stevens, but it was not on his priority list.

And you feel that it needed to be on a priority list?

Well, it's certainly not on his priority list.

He's he's delayed, you know, sessions and effectively blocked the bill until we missed the February 1st deadline to get it on the ballot in in May, which was an enormous issue.

He effectively gave the, you know, pro-abortion crowd a free shot at the Constitution.

And, you know, as Republicans, so many conservatives were very upset about it.

To be quite frank.

Let's talk about the tax proposal, which you have as your second priority.

He has his tax proposal as House Bill one.

Yours would flatten the state income tax to 2.5% for the first two years and then seek to eliminate it.

His proposal, which is a combination of a flat tax and changes in the property tax laws, would cost communities and schools $1.2 billion.

What's the cost of your proposal?

Well, the it would be $1.4 billion tax cut.

And we approximately the last budget cycle, we basically cut about $1.2 billion away.

You know, we have over $3 billion in a rainy day fund.

We have over $5 billion sitting in our G, r, f, and we have a couple other billion dollars in various different accounts.

So the Ohioans have given the state government a massive surplus.

We certainly need savings to support what's in the rainy day fund, but we have the opportunity to lower our taxes and transition and we have government revenues that are soaring.

So, you know, I don't think we necessarily have to, you know, make draconian cuts to local governments.

Our proposal actually does does the opposite.

We actually give the local governments 250 more.

If this is where I'm a little different from the Republicans over the last ten or 15 years that have actually failed to do a flat income tax, have failed to eliminate the state income tax, is we're not going to win these arguments in this debate until local governments are fully funded and we have everyone's not worried about police and fire and we have our schools that are properly funded.

When those two things happen.

It will make it a lot easier to get a flat income tax, eliminate the the the income tax.

Most people don't care if the if the revenue comes from the state or the locals, they just want service.

And there is no reason with the amount of revenue that comes in to the state and local governments that that those services can't be delivered.

And so I think from a philosophical standpoint and a practical standpoint, Republicans have to do a better job of governing.

And you have to recognize that you've got to give a little sometimes and change the the narrative that we do support local government.

We also support tax cuts.

So how do you do all that if you're going to do the backpack bill, which is the universal voucher program?

Also, you said in your release that you're committed to a fair school funding formula.

You want to increase the local government fund significantly from 1.66% of state revenues to two and a half percent.

How do you do all that and still have that $1.4 billion tax cut.

Simply every year?

The budget increases by at least $1,000,000,000 or $2 billion because of economic growth and inflation.

Okay.

So really, the key is just to be responsible, whole spending to at least the rate of inflation or below our spending likely will be a way above the rate of inflation.

They'll be way above that.

You'll be it'll be pressed up to the statutory 5% limit.

And, you know, you got to you got to rein you got to rein spending in a little bit.

But I don't see I think we can do everything you just said without any cuts in in service.

But, you know, things need to be organized.

We need a better allocation of resources.

And that's back to the local government funding.

A lot of times we're not increasing spending.

All we're doing is reallocating it to, you know, local, local governments.

So some of the priorities in your list, people would say, are culture or some of the priorities in your list.

Some people would say our culture, war issues such as the ban on trans athletes, the gender reassignment treatment bill, protecting the heartbeat law, Second Amendment rights.

Your release also mentioned woke schemes to weaponize the financial services industry against conservative businesses like ESG screening cannot go unchecked.

So what do you mean by woke there?

Well, for first of all, I hope a lot of these social issues could be put to bed.

I have a hard time believing why.

And as you know, Republicans holding a supermajority, why we can't stand up for for girls in sports and having men come and play in their sports.

You know why we why we can't protect children, minors, for making decisions that they're really not equipped to be made?

I mean, we don't allow minors to, you know, get tattoos or smoke cigarets.

But we're going to allow them to get surgery to remove body parts.

Parental permission is required with those.

Well, I don't think that I don't think we all know a lot of the parents are not getting the information of what is happening with their children.

I'm in counseling, so I don't think, you know, the vast majority of Ohioans support myself and the Republicans on these issues.

They don't believe men should play women's sports.

They believe, you know, you should at least be 18 years old before you, you know, do life altering procedures.

I think that's pretty, pretty normal thinking.

And the polls show it is.

And we need to I would love to move on from these issues so we could focus more on, you know, economic, economic issues.

But.

Wolk What do you mean by woke when it comes to, I guess, ESG kind of issues?

Well, this is where people are trying to force their ideals on businesses and try to get things that they can't done through the legislature, into the private sector and just say, you know, you know, we want the businesses and everyone to live by our what we believe is their standards.

And I believe businesses should be, you know, free to free to operate.

And, you know, I think we need to, you know, fight back against, you know, wokeism.

Several of these bills are similar to bills that are on Speaker Jason Stevens list.

In fact, some of your supporters have sponsored some of these bills like the ESG proposal there.

Don't you and your caucus have more in common with Stevens and his supporters than you have differences?

That's a good question.

You know, I any any time I believe Jason Stevens and many of his supporters are correct, I'm going to be their biggest cheerleader, helping them get it done because I came here to get policy done.

And we do agree on many things.

You know, Jason, same as will not find a more of someone to help him on this tax policy than I'm willing to do it.

And he can he can take all the credit for it, you know, being the speaker.

So, yeah, we do agree on a lot of things.

I hope, you know, in the future we can be more on a united front and put our energy in both directions.

But, you know, unfortunately, the Democrats, you know, elected him speaker.

They have a lot of influence right now in the House.

Thankfully, we have a strong Republican Senate.

But, you know, as a leader of the House Republicans, we're doing everything we can to be faithful to the Republican agenda.

We told people we were going, we are Republicans, that we're going to govern like Republicans and we're going to push conservative policies.

And that is what the Republican caucus is trying to do.

And, you know, we hope Speaker Stevens is an ally in that.

You said when announcing your priority list that you do want to partner with the 22 Republicans who voted for Speaker Stevens.

I know there are concerns, though, about primaries being run against some of those, if not all of those 22 Republicans.

If you end up controlling the House's campaign account, so how do you work together on bills with that possibly hanging over the heads of people who you'd be working with?

Well, it is I'm not going to sugarcoat it.

It's a very difficult situation right now.

As you know, the Ohio Republican Party censured them, that it's pretty difficult to run for office when you've been censured, you know, by by the state party.

There's a lot of people upset.

There's a lot of people going to be very upset when, you know, the abortion issue is on the ballot in November.

And, you know, there hopefully there is some, you know, it would be nice if there was an apology.

That would be nice if there were some attempts to to reconciliation and to acknowledge that we are the majority in the House and that I am the caucus leader, and that Phil Plummer and I duly have control of the campaign account and that that would be helpful.

We haven't seen those steps taken to try to unify and to try to you know, I don't want to use the word just give in, but to compromise a little bit.

That's what you have to do in life.

You have to compromise.

You just said you are the leader of the Republican caucus.

You have more than 40 folks who voted for you.

STEVENS says as the speaker.

He's in charge of the entire House, including the Republican caucus.

He also directs the legislative agenda.

So what can you do to further your agenda when he's in control of the agenda?

Well, he can bring things to the floor, but he needs 50 votes to pass.

So right now he has himself and 21 other Republicans.

And then, you know, most of the Democrats follow him.

So that puts him over the 50.

But there are times where we'll see.

I mean, we really have, you know, him we really haven't had any sessions to vote on any bills.

I mean, that's part of the problem.

I mean, we've went for almost two months now and I'm not sure we passed a single bill.

So, you know, the House is not, you know, functioning well right now.

I hope that changes.

I hope, you know, we see more robust legislation and debate.

But, you know, we control over 40 votes.

And, you know, we want our we want our agenda passed.

And I think, you know, that many that many united voices and that many people that can hit the green button or the red button holds considerable power.

Some people might wonder, what's your end game here?

Why are you putting yourself out there as and calling yourself the leader?

What's your end game?

What do you want to see accomplished?

You know, I've lost personally.

I've lost a lot over the last couple of months.

I was going to be the speaker of the House, second most powerful person in the state state government.

You know, one of my friends asked me that and they said to me, you know, Derek, we backed you.

You can't quit on us now.

And I feel an obligation to all the people that supported me who really, quite frankly, aren't treated very well.

They feel left out and feel betrayed that they got beat by a bunch of Democrats to stand with them and to help them, especially freshmen, navigate their first session to give them an agenda to look forward to and to push and to ultimately try to get policy.

You moved across the finish line, and I not only owe it to my colleagues, but I owe it to my district that I represent.

And, you know, there's over 11 million people in this state.

And I hear from all the time of, you know, stand strong, keep pushing for for our freedoms.

And, you know, that's that's what I'm doing.

I owe it to I owe it to other people to continue to fight.

How long can you continue?

How long is this kind of struggle over leadership going to continue, though?

Well, I have a I have a lot of energy.

There's there's there's there is a reason I became speaker elect of the Ohio House.

You know, I ran a campaign for over a year and a half and I won.

Part of the reason I won is because I were pretty hard, have a lot of energy and I have a lot of supporters and people who not only believe, believe in me, but they believe in our friends and they believe in our agenda.

And we're going to we're going to cross the finish line.

The ban on trans athletes and girls sports is a priority for both marin and Stevens.

18 states have passed similar legislation, though there are only a half a dozen trans girls playing high school sports in Ohio and only three for the spring season.

There are around 400,000 athletes total participating in high school sports in Ohio.

Democrats were key in the election of Jason Stevens over Derek Baron, though they are deep in the minority.

Next week we'll hear from Minority Leader Allison Russo on her caucus's goals and what they'll do toward reaching them.

A second defendant who pleaded guilty in the corruption case involving Ohio's nuclear power plant bailout law took the stand in federal court this week.

Jeff Longstreth, a political strategist for Republican former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, testified for the prosecution in the racketeering trial of householder and ex Ohio GOP chair Matt Borges.

I talked to Laura Bischoff of the Columbus Dispatch, who's been at the trial since the beginning and all this week when Longstreth talked about the alleged scheme to put householder in power to pass the bailout for first energy.

Jeff Longstreth served as householders, main political consultant from like late 2016 until their arrest in July of 2020.

He has walked the jurors through how they interacted, how they recruited candidates, how they raised money, and how they basically executed householders.

Plan to win back the speakership.

And he's connected.

FirstEnergy with the dark money group generation now.

At least that's what the prosecution wanted him to do.

Right.

And, you know, it's a long slog through a lot of bank records and text messages and emails.

And I think that Jeff Longstreth, as well as one, suspects that their testimony kind of bolsters a lot of the paper.

The paper trails that the FBI already presented to the jury.

Also key to the two Longstreth testimony is that he says that he paid for Larry householders, legal fees and this settlement for a business lawsuit that had been hanging over his head, repairs to his house in Florida that had been hammered by a hurricane and that he was supposed to be paid back for that.

They were supposed to have a loan agreement, but the loan agreement was never signed.

And then when he met with Householder again to try to work out the finances of getting paid back, Householder said, Here's some credit card debt I want you to take care of as well.

Now Longstreth is under cross-examination and I expect that Householders team will try to chisel away at that loan, the loan details because that's that's pretty crucial testimony and we're talking.

About potentially a lot of money here.

I mean, the amount of money that Longstreth said he paid to these bills and the money that he got from FirstEnergy apparently.

Right.

It was hundreds of thousands of dollars in householder expenses that the prosecution says was converted from FirstEnergy to generation.

Now to Jeff Longstreth to benefit Larry Householder.

I can't remember the total top, top line money off the top of my head.

But yeah, you're right.

It was a lot of money being alleged here.

There's been another person who's been testifying this week with regard to how House Bill six was going to be treated, whether it was going to be something with a tax in it or not.

Right.

So Pat Tully is a guy who's worked on and off for the legislature in in the Republican caucus.

And then he also worked at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio for about five years.

He was hired on as householders kind of energy guy.

And he said he took the job because he knew that there was this big bill coming.

And it was a good opportunity to work on a major piece of legislation related to energy.

And he testified about how there was a push to basically after House Bill six was there was a threat of a referendum to maybe amend it in the Senate and call it a tax or maybe not amend that bill, but like attach this tax language to a different bill.

So anyway, so Tully walked through that stuff that, that, that, that amendment never happened.

But there was a big push by Tim Householder to kind of protected against the referendum if they could get it called a text either by the Attorney General, Dave Yost, or through amended legislation, then it would not be subject to referendum and they were the campaign definitely showed that they were incredibly concerned about this, making it to the ballot because it made it the ballot.

They were certain it would probably, probably lose.

After my conversation with Laura Bischoff, Republican former state representative Dave Greenspan took the stand saying he opposed House Bill six because he didn't like corporate bailouts.

But he called the FBI when both householder and lobbyist Neil Clarke warned him there would be repercussions if he voted against House Bill six, which he did, and then he got another call telling him to delete texts from Householder.

It was an explosion from Householder.

His attorney, after the jury left the room over the judges decisions to overrule some of the householder team's objections, with the attorney accusing the judge of, quote, tying our hands.

The trial is expected to last for several more weeks.

Longstreth and suspicious have admitted guilt in the $61 million bribery scheme, and so has first energy and generation now.

But Householder and Borgias have said they are innocent.

And that is it for this week for my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Radio and Television.

Thanks for watching.

Please check out our Web site at State News Talk and 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 1.4 million Ohioans.

Peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at med mutual dot com slash Ohio by the law offices of Porter Wright, Morris and Arthur LLP now with eight locations across the country.

Porter Wright is a legal partner with a new perspective to the business community.

More at Porter Wright dot com and from the Ohio Education Association representing 124,000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online at OHEA.org,