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Governor Mike DeWine signs the budget and sets a recent record with his vetoes, though he signed it late at night.

Reaction from opponents, including some of his fellow Republicans, came early.

And one of the loudest critics of the Brown Stadium plan speaks out.

That's this week in the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

Governor Mike DeWine signed the two year state budget just minutes before the June 30th deadline.

The budget would spend $60 billion in state funds, includes a 2.75% flat income tax, and creates a sports and cultural facilities fund with $1.7 billion in unclaimed funds, with $600 million of that earmarked for a grant to the Cleveland Browns Dome Stadium development in Brook Park.

But before signing the budget, DeWine made clear his concern about several budget items, issuing 67 vetoes, the largest number since Governor Ted Strickland vetoed 61 items in 2009.

My Statehouse News Bureau colleague, Joe Ingles is here with details on that.

Well, Karen, perhaps the biggest veto was a proposal to allow school districts to carry over a maximum of 40% of their operating budgets from the property tax they collect from voter approved levies.

The rest would be refunded to taxpayers, which Republican lawmakers described as immediate property tax relief.

The provisions in this budget would put an undue, very abrupt, great significant problem for our local school districts.

Public school officials had pushed hard against this idea, saying it could throw districts into financial chaos and lead to more levies.

DeWine appointed a working group to look at other ways to reduce property taxes.

The budget passed by Republican lawmakers cut funding for libraries and changed the library funding formula going forward.

DeWine didn't veto that, but struck a section requiring libraries to limit access to material related to sexual orientation and gender identity to people over 18.

DeWine called that restriction vague.

No one wants, their child to have, you know, a book, or something that is inappropriate, something that is obscene.

But I just felt that the language simply just did not, did not work.

You know, because it goes really to doesn't just say, but it goes to content and it goes to material content within any kind of book.

I just don't think it works very well.

LGBTQ advocates had asked for that veto along with the libraries, and had requested a veto of a provision banning state funds going to use homeless shelters that help trans kids.

DeWine struck that, along with a provision that could have ended continuous Medicaid coverage for some kids under four by requiring annual eligibility reviews.

DeWine also vetoed the creation of educational savings accounts that would have allowed students in non chartered nonpublic schools.

Most of which are religious, to get taxpayer paid vouchers.

But DeWine left intact the 2.5% flat income tax, which largely benefits people making over six figures.

He said when he unveiled his budget in February that he didn't think the income tax cuts were needed.

I've been governor for six years, and I've been involved.

Lieutenant Governor Houston, former lieutenant Governor Husted and I have been involved in talking to many, many companies about coming to Ohio.

There is not one company that said to us, we can't come to Ohio because your taxes are too high.

We've been able to cut taxes now.

Working with the legislature over a number of years.

We are now extremely competitive.

DeWine also had said he wanted a tax cut for working families and had included in his budget a $1,000 child tax credit funded by a cigaret tax increase, which Republicans stripped out.

DeWine was asked why he didn't strike the flat income tax.

The answer is I can count, meaning I can count votes in the General Assembly.

The 67 vetoes make up the largest number of vetoes DeWine has issued at one time, as governor, while more than the 44 vetoes in the previous budget.

Joe Ingles, Statehouse News Bureau.

some of those vetoes set off Republican lawmakers who are saying they want to come back for an override session soon, even before the legislature reconvene after the summer.

My statehouse news bureau colleague, Sarah Donaldson, looks at the chances of a session to reverse some of what DeWine vetoed.

The early morning veto messages left some state lawmakers rallying online and offline for an override session.

They wanted to set a 40% limit for how much money public school districts could possibly carry over year to year, before county budget commissions issued refunds.

The final legislative budget also enabled those commissioners, the authority to lower levies, and included certain levies in the calculation of the 20 mill floor, including emergency and substitute levies.

DeWine shot each item down.

Know everybody has a turn to make a move.

I made my move.

My move was to veto things that I thought were not good for the state of Ohio.

And the legislature now has can do what they do.

You know, I obviously I think that my vetoes were valid, but, you know, we'll see what the legislature wants to do.

He said he worries it would have been too much for schools to adjust to at once.

He instead suggested a state task force.

But the Ohio General Assembly has already convened a committee on property tax proposals.

You know, we do have Ohioans who are hurting, and that's very, very clear.

Freshman Republican Representative David Thomas told us he believes property owners are clamoring for relief.

In all honesty, we I thought we need to go much further in the budget.

We still have a lot of work to go.

Which is why he's advocating his colleagues convene soon to overturn the vetoes.

So if we don't do this before October, what that means is these reforms will not be effective for our January property tax bills.

So I'm urging we need to do this over the summer as soon as possible.

Calling lawmakers back could be a big ask, since most are in their districts for the summer.

Neither chamber has a floor session scheduled before October.

And since this budget and every budget before it was voted on as one package rather than in parts, there may not be broad consensus.

Still, in a statement, a spokesperson for House Speaker Matt Huffman wrote that, quote, our caucus is mindful of the urgency many Ohioans are feeling.

While a spokesperson for Senate President Rob Macaulay wrote, the legislature, quote, needs to strongly consider acting.

It all comes with the citizen led effort to abolish property taxes altogether via the state constitution.

That won't be on the ballot until fall 2026 at the earliest, but if it passed, it would have major ramifications for local governments and the state government.

So vetoes now.

And that's just handcuffing.

I think our efforts to try and say we're going to attack this, we're going to make it right.

In seven years, lawmakers have overridden three of DeWine's vetoes, only one of which was in the budget.

Veto overrides need a 3/5 majority in each chamber.

Sarah Donaldson, Statehouse News Bureau.

there's no Democrat in either the House or the Senate supported the budget.

It seems unlikely they would support any veto overrides when or if an override session is scheduled.

The budget also includes a provision that DeWine had put into his initial spending plan, so it was unlikely that he would veto it.

Trigger language that would end health care coverage for Ohioans in the Medicaid expansion population, which is 761,756 Ohioans as of this month.

If the federal match for Medicaid expansion drops below 90% of the bill that President Trump wants Republicans in Congress to pass would drop the rate to the regular matching rates of the 40 states that adopted Medicaid expansion, which in Ohio is 65%.

I talked to Ohio Medicaid Director Maureen Corcoran about that section of the budget in March.

if they drop it by 5%.

So if they go from just 90% to 85%, that would cost the state about $380 million.

And if they went all the way down to 65, you're right, our our regular amount, then they'd be dropping it by five times that.

So we're up, you know, up near $2 billion.

And so the discussion that we've been having with the legislature is really around.

Look, we need a clear trigger so that if this happens there can be additional conversation with the General Assembly.

They they would have to act.

They control the purse.

They would have to.

And you, you know, you know, from other situations we've had in the state of Ohio where there's been crisis and, you know, people have had to come together in the General Assembly.

So, you know, without knowing exactly what might happen, you know, the our view is we need a clear kind of trigger and then there will need to be more discussion.

But the other thing I've cautioned in, in some of the hearings is, you know, nothing like this occurs overnight.

Okay.

So it's not that you're going to show up at the hospital the next day and not have coverage.

You know, it all takes guidance from the federal government to tell you, you know, what you have to do.

And all that.

So we don't know how much time, but there would be, you know, some back and forth in some time that would be needed before any kind of terminations of individuals would occur.

The budget language also says at the end of the budget cycle, the remaining Medicaid expansion funds are transferred to either the state's rainy day fund or the fund to supplement the state's sales tax holiday.

One of the most vocal critics of the $600 million grant to the Cleveland Browns for a Dome Stadium development in Brook Park, says he feels lawmakers have done an end run around him and other local officials across the state.

The Haslam Sports Group made the argument to lawmakers that the Dome Stadium and surrounding retail and housing will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue on what will be a year round, multibillion dollar facility and the only domed stadium in Ohio.

But for Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne, it's not just the $600 million grant for the Browns to move 12 miles outside of downtown Cleveland.

It's a last minute change in state law that passed in 1996 that ban teams that play in publicly funded stadium for moving, as art model did when he owned the Browns and move them to Baltimore, Maryland.

Ronayne says these things together are a blow to officials and leaders in communities across the state.

this is a difficult day for localities in Ohio.

You know, our communities, look for partnerships with their state representatives and senators.

And, we look for that both from, you know, the state and also the federal government.

And right now, we're feeling very alone.

We're feeling like a lot of, the budget impacts from the state of Ohio are going to end up on the shoulders of counties and our 88 counties throughout Ohio, and certainly our communities within them, you name it, we're paying for it.

And, for us, you know, a great irony in this here up in Cleveland is the large shell out of a large amount of funds, out of unclaimed funds to have them sports group to build the Browns Stadium out in Brook Park.

And we've looked at that locally as a boondoggle.

But if I was another citizen in another county of Ohio, I would be rather upset with my legislature for ushering that one through.

I mean, it seemed, done, you know, in a way that wasn't ultimately a conversation with the electorate.

It certainly was done in a way that, seemed to end run the local, voice like mine, the mayor of the city of Cleveland and others, and it seemed done in a way that, just happened more or less, just a conversation of a few of vying for a few to benefit just one.

And that's how some sports group, I mean, we feel that, long we've seen this as the, kind of stripping away of Bill and Betty Buckeyes dollars, literally.

They're unclaimed funds to give to Jimmy and Dee Haslam, who already have a whole lot of dollars to build a stadium that frankly, we in the region of Cuyahoga County have opposed because we think that there's a better way, and that way is to stay downtown like they did it pay Corfield with the Bengals in downtown Cincinnati and not have to double down on new infrastructure, not have to disrupt Ohio's, largest airport, busiest airport.

And, for us, we think that this is a day where we're seeing legislators who seem, for the moment, to not be listening to their locals and their local partners, not everybody, but those in leadership.

And we need a better partnership.

And leaders also added in, kind of something that might have been a surprise change, the model law, which is the law that keeps professional teams who are playing in publicly funded stadiums from moving out of state.

They said that this just clarifies and says that moving is about not moving out of state, but moving.

You can move within a county.

Do you feel the settles, the lawsuits that are still out there over this move?

Well, I think this is a tragicomedy in Ohio and emphasize comedy.

I mean, you know, it must be nice to be a defendant like some sports group in a, local case at the Court of Common Pleas, to be a defendant and to decide in the under the cover of night to go down to the legislature to get the law that you're actually fighting in context in the local courts with and get it changed.

Must be nice.

We in Ohio, if we all had that, privilege to be able to move out from a court case that we're in involved in as a defendant and go to the legislature and say, hey, change the law for me, would you?

It seems to be what happened, you know, and, again, for us, it's just another move that seems to end run.

Good local process.

And, frankly, overall, you know, the institutions that embody our, our democracy here, which is, you know, our courts, I mean, it's simply something that just end run, a local case.

It's live and active and, Judge Loren Moore's courtroom.

This is a law that really affects the big cities, because this is where the professional sports teams are.

I mean, it's it's illogical from the get go.

Look, we know it was designed specifically to help Jimmy.

And he has a move, the Browns to Brook Park.

But now everybody suffers.

If I'm in Hamilton County and I've got to re-up on a lease with the Cincinnati Reds, hey, maybe they go to Toledo to, become the City of Cincinnati Reds and Toledo.

Maybe the Mud Hens say, hey, we want to be in Sandusky, you know, and maybe, out in the, you know, you name it, maybe, maybe any one of our major sports and minor sports teams, now are in play under this new model law.

And it's a race to the bottom.

It's a race to communities sort of fighting against one another rather than the state really understanding that it's big cities matter.

And really to me it's anti anti city.

It's anti urban.

It's it's anti community in terms of what we're trying to do.

I mean people do enjoy finding their way to the downtowns to discover what's downtown.

And you know, whether that's you know, in Cincinnati with the Bengals and the Reds or whether that's here in Cleveland with the Cavaliers and the Guardians and the Browns, and we're losing one.

But this law was designed to accommodate one.

But it has this, you know, impact is a attendant impact that actually hits.

Every community is going to put them in the same problem we've been in in Northeast Ohio, which is in this race to the bottom over poaching.

And you know, who can create the best deal for the owner and frankly, the worst deal for their, electorate.

And in that race to the bottom, maybe lose a team or gain a team, but nobody wins because it's poaching from one of the next.

What is about to do with the syntax?

Again, this is a, bill that came down from on high to us, exactly opposite of what we had requested.

I think we're in an era where local government, local control, home rule authority is being bypassed and preempted by the legislature from on high to say, we know better than you.

So what do they do in the case of Cleveland, where we have the Guardians, the Cavs and the Browns?

And we really need in those first two cases to attend to facilities that are older than the Browns Stadium, than Huntington Bank field.

The day that the Browns are now, we've got two facilities housing the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Cleveland Guardians that are older than the Browns facility, that the Browns are all of a sudden leaving to go to Brook Park.

So those two facilities, we asked the legislature to help us adjust what was voted on by the electorate of Cuyahoga County back in 1990, which was to help support the gateway model.

And folks and fans from around Ohio know this.

You come up to see a Cavs game or a, Guardians game.

You're in this beautiful complex called gateway.

Well, gateway is getting old now.

It was built in the mid 90s and 30 years later.

We need some improvement.

So we asked the legislature to give us at the Cuyahoga County the local option to levy a adjustment to the original sin tax from 1990.

And we asked for it for these two teams.

And here came the Cleveland Browns and run us and got themselves linked in to the bill.

And then what came down from on high is not what we asked for in terms of the dollars needed in capacity to actually get the job done.

So they carved out half as much as we actually needed, added a team which diluted further the the the opportunity, to work with voters to get our two facilities at the Cavs and the guards, fix they put the Browns in the mix and then they prescribe that it shall only be those three teams, which puts us out of, the ability to sort of court other teams in through that financial, opportunity, like a soccer team.

So it's a triple loss for us.

And we're going to have to go back to the drawing board.

It is not worth us putting on the ballot what they enabled.

The $600 million grant in this budget is only half the public money for housing, so we're hoping for the hasn't said in the statement today, this premier facility will anchor a major lifestyle and entertainment development, and will be a catalyst for one of Northeast Ohio's largest economic development projects ever, and something our community will be proud of and can enjoy for years to come.

Is it a done deal that this is going to be built as the plan?

It's not just going to be a dome stadium, it's going to be a dome stadium and housing and retail.

Do do we know what the final project is going to look like?

Well, we say that it has some sports group.

If you're so confident about the statement you just read off that they gave to you, then pay for it, pay for it, pay for it out of your own pocket.

Don't fleece the public on a deal that we've deemed, too risky that the Legislative Service Commission of Ohio, advised the legislature itself is too risky.

That the Office of Budget Management advised the governor in the legislature.

It's too risky.

And we're the only ones who apparently are taking the advice of a fiscal analyst that it's too risky.

So what I say to ASM sports Group, if you're going to do it, pay for it out of pocket.

But frankly, we hope you don't.

We hope you come back to downtown Cleveland, to a place that has the infrastructure to support sports, has the appeal of three sports teams within walking distance of one another, which is a national model that cities like Detroit looked at when they brought the Pistons and the Lions back downtown.

We were the national model, and now we're walking away from our own national model.

But as the Browns walk away to Brook Park has them, sports is going to have to pull out of their own pocket the balance of the funding.

But it gets worse because we have Ohio's busiest airport across the street and on State Route 237.

It's going to be a massive, a logjam on any given Sunday day or any concert night or any big event when 75,000 people are trying to get in and out of a stadium facility on the same road where people are trying to get into the airport and out of the airport, we've got a problem, Houston, and it's right here in Cleveland, Ohio, at Hopkins Airport.

Are you planning on going to this Sports and Cultural Facilities Fund with that $350 million request that you would had for the Browns Stadium in downtown?

Not at this time.

I mean, what I see is our Cavs and our guards got bypassed by the legislature in this cycle, and we need to help them.

So for my money, I'm really looking to help our Cavs and guards, get their facilities refurbished.

Not to mention look we need some help from the legislature, on some local sports facilities for our local kids.

And, you know, things of that nature.

Now, that might be something that we can talk to the legislature about, drawing through some of those funds.

But I think at the end of the day, this was a really, really curious, cycle in the budget, you know, has, sports went to the legislature and basically the legislative leaders said, whatever we can find for you, we're going to find for you.

So they found our unclaimed funds.

And, you know, to me, that was a very curious source to find, because it's the people's money.

It's not Jimmy and he has some money, but they found it.

They offered it.

Now they got a half a loaf.

But the idea has been half baked from the beginning.

And I'm saying to them, if you want to finish this loaf, you've got to come up with the money.

Money for your other side of the loaf, you know, look, but don't do it.

Stay in downtown Cleveland, where you'll have, a chorus of people who say thanks for coming back, be a part of something bigger than you.

Instead, we're going to be dealing with decades of infrastructure investments necessary to make the airport whole.

Who is the unintended?

Or maybe they didn't care.

It has them sports group.

But the real victim in this is the airport operations itself at Cleveland Hopkins Airport.

Not to mention, I mean, I don't think this is well thought out for our communities locally.

I mean, you've got safety operations issues.

You know, any given Sunday, it takes 100 police officers demand a football game in the NFL.

Well, city of Cleveland has IT infrastructure with over 1100 officers.

City of Brook Park has 35 officers.

You know, you do the math.

How are you going to actually services.

And this would be true if a team left any major city to go to any other place.

And that's what the model law and it's now new configuration presents is the opportunity for any city in Ohio to poach another city from Ohio, but not have thought through the operations, logistics, safety and infrastructure needs.

And it's a race to the bottom that's going to cost Ohio taxpayers for a long time.

Thank Jimmy.

And he has an Ohio for that.

You can thank them for getting what they want.

And the rest of us got you know, what is the relationship between you and the Browns completely broken here.

Is there any room for compromise?

What's that look like now?

Look, I mean, I'm a I'm a Browns fan, and the players sense I want to see our Cleveland Browns do well.

I'll always be rooting for them.

But as far as the narrative goes from has sports group.

It has been won repeated miss statement after the next.

This is not economic development.

It's economic extraction.

It's poaching of jobs from one place to the next.

It's not additive to their point.

It's taking away from the strength of downtown by placing in a very vulnerable market housing, office, work, office space and hotel space that's already downtown.

And it's struggling downtown just to stay viable downtown.

You know, I always referenced my favorite little restaurant down in the flats, the Flat Iron Cafe, where at that cafe that shuttles, families to games.

Be it the Guardians of Cavs or the Browns and in their in their Flat iron cafe.

I appreciate the sign in there that says please Haslam, don't make us shuttle our fans to Brook Park.

These are restaurants and bars that have invested in downtown being a part of the visitor infrastructure of downtown, and they've seen now a major anchor turned their back on them and walk away from them just for parking gains and a sea of surface parking around the stadium.

And to your question about what happens next with the development, I don't know if it all happens the way that they've said, you know, what our analysts have said and again, what LSC and OPM have said is that it's risky.

I don't know if they pull off the housing that they're promoting.

I don't know if people want to be on a balcony watching a 747 go over their head.

They can't hear one another and they're barbecuing out, with, you know, jet fumes, spewing in the air.

I don't know if that's the place where people are going to spend top of market dollars to live.

I don't know if they're going to get, all the, you know, retail activity that they say they're going to get, again, this is a, environment where we're trying to support what's working.

And this to us is just a dilution of that and really a zero sum game at best.

Just before the budget was signed, the Haslam Sports Group completed its purchase of 176 acres that used to be the Ford Motor Company site in Brook Park for $76 million.

The lease on Huntington Bank Field in downtown Cleveland expires in 2028.

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

Thanks for watching.

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And you can also hear more from my colleagues, Joe Ingles and Sarah Donaldson and me on our podcast, the Ohio State House scoop every Monday morning.

Happy Independence Day, and please join us again next time for the state of Ohio.

Support for the Statehouse News Bureau comes from Medical Mutual, dedicated to the health and well-being of Ohioans, offering health insurance plans, as well as dental, vision and wellness programs to help people achieve their goals and remain healthy.

More at Med mutual.com.

The law offices of Porter, right, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Porter Wright is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at porterwright.com.

Porter Wright inspired Every day in Ohio Education Association, representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools.

Every child deserves more at OHEA.org.