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Governor Mike DeWine delivers his final state of the state to mixed reviews from lawmakers and reports of the decline of Ohio's population may have been exaggerated.

More from the State agency.

The tracks that this week in the state of Ohio.

Just.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen, counselor.

This week marked governor Mike DeWine, final state of the state speech, pushed forward a day by a visit from President Trump.

And it was a hot one, not necessarily because of what he said, but the climate in which he delivered it.

DeWine and lawmakers had set the speech for Wednesday, but when Trump announced he was coming to the Cincinnati area to visit a pharmaceutical company on Wednesday, the speech was moved to Tuesday, and continuing work on the state house's heating and cooling system made for a tough start with this from Speaker Matt Hoffman.

In the category of I love old houses.

The air conditioning is not what it once was, or hopefully will be sometime.

So if you feel it's necessary to, remove your coats during the, this session, in this case, that would be appropriate.

DeWine took the dais for a little over an hour, highlighting some of the actions he and state lawmakers have taken since he became governor in 2019.

The one has unveiled policies in this annual speech before, and this one was heavy on policies and programs related to children, education and public safety.

DeWine talked about the science reading curriculum he's championed the ban on cell phones in classrooms.

He called for the Ohio See Kids Vision program he launched, and Lieutenant Governor Jim Trestles Fitness Challenge, which DeWine asked legislators to make permanent after his administration leaves office.

He got the biggest applause when he called on lawmakers to pass bills to rein in artificial intelligence.

excessive screen.

Time is really a thief.

Social media is a thief.

All stealing from our children is the most precious thing in life.

That is their time.

there are things that we, as public officials, can do to help parents protect children, things that we can do to help them protect these children.

In fact, some of these things can't be done without our actions.

DeWine asked lawmakers to pass three bills that have been introduced, making it illegal to possess, create or distribute AI generated child pornography, holding tech companies accountable for AI that encourages kids to hurt or kill themselves or others, and requiring cell phone and tech companies to automatically implement parental control features.

DeWine also talked about the high rate of chronic absenteeism in schools.

1 in 4 students are chronically absent, with even higher numbers in some districts, DeWine said.

Districts can work on this, but they need a plan.

that on April 15th, our Department of Education workforce will launch a new statewide attendance dashboard.

This new tool will provide parents, the public, people in the community with simple, fast and transparent attendance.

Tenants data each week for every district, for every school.

This will offer early information about the effectiveness of attendance strategies so schools, districts and communities can take actionable steps to improve attendance.

DeWine also revisited an issue he brought up in his 2024 state of the state speech a primary seatbelt law, he said, while 88% of Ohioans do wear seatbelts, staff from the Ohio Insurance Institute show crashes involving unbolted drivers or passengers caused Ohioans $2.8 billion a year through medical bills, lost productivity and property damage.

Enacting a primary seatbelt law is about so much more than economic losses, or even the safety of those individuals who are okay with risking their own lives by not wearing a seatbelt.

It's about other things.

It's about protecting families, communities, people who depend on us every single day.

As we saw the distracted driving bill.

The law is a great motivator, and we know that more people will buckle up if we pass a primary seatbelt law.

after his speech in 2024, Republican then Representative John Cross proposed a primary seatbelt law, but it went nowhere as Republican leadership cited personal responsibility and freedom as their concerns.

One thing DeWine did not bring up, besides just a passing reference to it, to Ohio, his clean water initiative.

Hoffman said he expected DeWine to talk about a bond issue to guarantee funding for it, which DeWine said last week he wants to put before voters.

This fall.

But that did not make the final speech.

Many of DeWine's ideas are nonstarters for Republican House Speaker Matt Hoffman and Senate President Rob McCauley.

I think that there's really kind of an interesting mix of legislators who are concerned about, having a primary seatbelt law, and they range from, what I would call, libertarian with a small L within the Republican Party to, urban Democrats who feel like their, populations would be most affected.

A lot of folks get a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt.

They can afford to pay, and a lot of people can't.

And, of course, if it's a moving violation, which I suspect this would be, and it's two points on your license, people not losing their license.

So there's a lot of there's a lot of things beyond just saying, wouldn't it be great if we were like other states?

any proposal that we have that deals with an emerging technology, obviously there are going to be a lot of details that need to be worked out.

I don't know the full details of and I would suspect it wouldn't be a short bill, if we were going to be talking about that kind of legislation.

And so naturally, the more pages, the more volume you have in a bill, the more details are going to need to be worked out.

I think everybody understands that as AI emerges and as AI develops, there's an emerging risk associated with it.

There will be it will be used for or ill purposes, if you will.

And nobody wants to see that.

I know we've we've passed some things in the past that have dealt with this, but we always need to be mindful of what we can do going forward to protect Ohioans.

on the Democratic side, minority caucus leaders delivered remarks after the speech that combined for nearly as long as DeWine's address.

But they told a different story.

Senate Minority Leader Nikki Antonio and House Minority Leader Danny Isaacson talked about what they had been hoping to hear.

We will continue to stand up and fight for common sense policies that help improve conditions for hardworking families across Ohio.

Policies like increasing child care subsidy and raising the income eligibility.

Making health care affordable.

Fully funded.

How many times can I say this fu Investing in universal pre-K and the list goes on.

And pro-family policies where we could find common ground if every day Ohio families were actually the priority of this legislature.

I am cautiously optimistic for Ohio's future.

He didn't talk about property taxes keeping people out of their homes.

He didn't talk about child care and housing being out of reach for too many families.

He didn't talk about the affordability crisis.

He talked about the presidential fitness test, which is good, but it's not what Ohioans need.

The reason that so many Ohio families and so many Ohio children are going home to houses where their parents can barely afford the mortgage.

The reason that kids are going home to families that are struggling to pay their child care or keep up with utility bills.

The reason that kids are going home to parents whose health care premiums go up while their services covered, go down, is because for 20 years, politicians in charge in Columbus have chosen to benefit the people who are already doing very well at the expense of everybody else.

Another quick note this week, after several weeks, the trial is almost at an end in Akron for two former First Energy executives accused of bribing the late Sam Randazzo as Public Utilities Commission chair to get favorable treatment for the utility, as it was seeking $1 billion bailout for its nuclear power plants in the form of House Bill six, in 2019.

This week, U.S.

Senator John Houston testified about his role in compiling information on Puco chair candidates for governor Mike DeWine after they were elected and meeting with former CEO Chuck Jones and former VP Michael Dowling.

But he didn't offer any dramatic new revelations.

The defense rested its case on Thursday.

Whatever the verdict, Jones and Dowling also face federal charges.

Randazzo was charged along with them but died by suicide in 2024.

A report last year showing Ohio's population was projected to decline 5.7%, while the U.S.

population would go up by 17.3% in the next 25 years.

Got attention.

The report from the Ohio Department of Development had said the state would lose about 675,000 people by 2050 if current birth mortality and migration rates continue.

But that agency now says it has new numbers that indicate those forecasts may have been off.

This week I talked about that with Ohio Department of Development director Lydia michalek.

So your department's population report, released last year, predicted while the U.S.

population would increase 17.3%, the state would lose 5.7%, or about 675,000 people, by 2050 at current rates.

Continue.

Now you've got some updates that show that it's a little bit different.

Yeah.

So first and foremost, that those population projections are really based upon historic trends.

Certainly not what we want to see happen.

And not necessarily a prediction of what will actually happen in the future, but it's based upon trends, in the past and so based upon those trends, yes, we were seeing back in 2020, 2021, a decline in population in Ohio.

But great news.

We just got some updated numbers for the first half of 2025.

And what, we're being told is that Ohio's population is actually growing, instead of the decline.

And the reason why people are moving to Ohio, and we've got more people coming to Ohio than we've had in a really long time, I think, you know, Ohio had historically, we've had a decline in population since, I would say about 2001.

If you were to see this, in a graphic, you actually will see it.

It's now starting, to, to curve upward.

And we're really excited about that.

You know, the DeWine administration has been working very hard, on improving communities.

The quality of life, the business, environment, in total.

And so this, these numbers that have just been released lately on a statewide, basis are great news, for the state of Ohio.

One of the things that you had said in the previous report was that, with Ohio's population aging, that was one of the concerns here.

And we've often heard that Ohio is older than other states.

Are the numbers of people moving in enough to kind of counter that?

Yeah.

So we had great, we had great updates from 2024 to 2025.

We had, more births, than what we had projected, which is great news.

And we actually had fewer deaths.

From 2024 to 2025.

And we had more people moving in to the state of Ohio.

So all three of those things are great news.

And we certainly hope that we continue, on that upward slide.

But yes, of course, our population is aging.

But we can counter that, by having more births.

But also just having more people move to the state, which is happening, and we're excited about it.

At the end of last year, it was announced the state is accepting applications for a new $100 million program to support new rural housing development, offering low interest loans covering up to half of eligible cost per single family home up to $30,000.

Will that be enough to deal with the housing shortage that Ohio has, especially when it comes to affordable housing and even affordable rental units?

So, like any program that the state is investing in, I don't think it will be a, you know, be all end all in terms of a solution.

But it's certainly going to help, you know, one of the biggest, things that communities and, and, and private sector housing developments have to deal with is the ever increasing costs related to infrastructure and just even going vertical.

In fact, I just was talking with someone who is very, well known in this business, last week.

And the cost, for construction, for housing, has gone up about 50%.

So, you know, inflation, affordability, it hits all sectors.

And so this program, we hope will help, kind of, fill the gap that exists in these projects so that they pencil out and they become profitable, and more people will want to do them.

It will also help bring the cost of housing down, on average.

And so what we want is for, these dollars to be able to go to communities that maybe aren't as populated, as Columbus or Cincinnati or Cleveland, areas where there certainly are jobs.

That's the rural aspects, right?

Absolutely.

And, you know, houses.

A long time ago, someone told me that houses are where, jobs go to sleep at night.

And so housing is just as important to our overall statewide economic development strategy as is bringing, in new, jobs, but also expansion opportunities.

You also have $90 million in grants to combat homelessness.

There's a new report out this week from the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, showing that there's a shortage of 266,000 affordable and available rental units in Ohio.

And there are 11,700 people who are considered homeless in Ohio.

So is that $90 million?

It sounds like a lot of money, but is that enough again?

Certainly.

It will be helpful, to the situation.

I think it will help add more units.

When you look at the continuum of housing, we have to have all, all types, right?

From the shelter, availability all the way up to, you know, single family homes.

I think Ohio, particularly in our rural areas, is starting to look at density, a little more carefully.

So it's not just about one acre single family lots anymore.

Right?

We're looking at places where we can have, you know, more units that are more affordable for our young people who are coming either out of the trades, or out of out of, higher education or even right out of high school, with all of the skills that they've developed.

You know, people can't just come out of school and afford a $400,000 home.

I know I couldn't, for crying out loud.

When I when I got out of school, I was making $27,000 a year, in community and economic development.

So we, we just need to, to worry about getting more multifamily, structures up, because I think it will help, with affording, housing in the future.

I think a lot of people associate those with urban areas, but they're still needed in smaller areas as well.

Yeah, they absolutely are.

I can tell you that a lot of the housing development that we've seen in my hometown in Findlay in northwest Ohio has been multifamily, as opposed to single family homes.

And it's because it's just more affordable, particularly at this time.

One of the things that's kept development from growing quickly in rural Ohio, it seems like, is broadband.

And, there was supposed to be $783 million coming from the federal Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program.

That program was restructured.

So what's happening?

Are we still on track to get that money?

Where will that money go or what's happening?

I we absolutely are.

And I'll tell you that when we launched Broadband Ohio, we had over 300,000 households in the state that didn't have access to high speed internet.

And of course, we know from the pandemic how vitally important, high speed internet is, not only, for, you know, to have at your home for entertainment purposes, but to go to work from home, to be able to learn from home, but also to see a medical professional, a doctor, from home.

And so all three of these things, it's broadband is an essential component in terms of infrastructure.

So we started with 300,000 homes.

And in 2020 that didn't have access to internet.

We've gotten that number down to 60,000.

And so the broadband equity access and deployment program will certainly help us gain universal coverage.

It is on it is ongoing.

We're working, with NTIA right now on getting those dollars deployed.

And, hopefully we'll be able to get universal coverage very, very soon for the state of Ohio.

Has Ohio had unique challenges in just terrain and making sure, I mean, parts of Ohio are not flat.

So how do you how do you get broadband into some of those areas?

Yeah.

So I think that's probably one of the reasons why things have been so expensive.

And our internet service providers have, you know, been a little slow, in terms of getting those, that high speed internet out to the public, particularly in our rural areas.

And when you think about, you know, Appalachia, it's not topographically challenged like it is back home, where I'm from, and so, you know, there are we're technology neutral, in this space, there are lots of different innovations, that are bringing high speed internet, to the homes.

I think the one thing that we are, very mindful of, though, moving forward, regardless of of what the technology is, that gets the high speed internet to the home, we want it to be affordable.

Affordability, in accessing these things is really important to us.

And so we don't want something that's there, that's right there for them to be able to take advantage of.

But it's $100 a month.

Yeah.

I was just going to ask you about affordability for yeah.

If it's not affordable then what's the what's the good of it.

Right.

Right.

I mean, you want to pay your water bill.

So you can't, you know, afford to have, broadband.

So we want to work on that.

We want also want to talk to, policymakers here, at the state, there was a program that helped subsidize, broadband access for low income families.

And that went away, at the federal level.

And so we want to see what we can do similar to what we do with heap and Pip, in terms of assistance, for energy subsidies, to be able to, to help people afford high speed internet access.

And there were pockets of even urban areas that were having trouble accessing broadband.

Have those been looked at?

Yeah.

So we're definitely looking at all across the state.

It's not just rural, Ohio that's having issues.

You know, we've been helping very diligently the city of Cleveland and East Cleveland in that region, to be able to to have high speed internet.

And we're going to continue to work to get universal coverage.

Over the last 50 years, it's been a real hollowing out of some smaller communities, because major employers left.

I'm thinking of places like Marion with Armco steel and Portsmouth with Portsmouth Steel, East Liverpool with pottery and steel, even my hometown of Lancaster with Anchor Hocking.

How now some of those communities have come back and they've, they've found new employers that they've revived in some way.

But it takes a long time.

How do we break that cycle?

So we don't see some of these smaller communities go into decline and then have to come back.

I will say that, you know, the state of Ohio.

Governor DeWine, we've had a vision where everyone, no matter where you're from or where you live, has the opportunity, at at their, at their best, life, moving forward.

And so we've been investing just particularly with, the Department of Development, we've been investing in communities, helping with infrastructure, helping with quality of life issues, helping get sites ready, helping to, assist with manufacturing expansion.

And it's going really, really well.

And so a lot of our smaller communities that have been devastated by job losses in the past have now create an environment that's conducive for private sector investment.

And here we go.

It's a great, it's a great story.

It's why we're seeing our population grow.

We've spent a lot of money, investing in the things that communities have not been able to afford before.

And it's making a huge difference.

And we're really excited about it.

And it's not necessarily going to be big employers that, you know, employ thousands of people.

It can be lots of smaller employers who employ hundreds of people.

Yeah.

You know, I think about, all of the money that we've spent about $700 million in brownfield remediation, a lot of these old sites or old industrial sites that have long been forgotten for decades, are now getting cleaned up, and they're going to get a new chance, on life.

And so that's great news, for communities across the state.

And, you know, Ohio is a better place now than it was 7 or 8 years ago.

We're we're getting healthier.

We're getting stronger, and we're making a comeback.

And I'm.

I'm happy that we've been a part of it.

what's going on with the film?

Tax credit?

Because I think a lot of people look at, you know, we saw Superman in the theaters last year with all the Cleveland Cincinnati shots and thought, oh, wow, this is cool.

So what's happening with that?

So what?

We've seen a great uptick, in the use of the film tax credit.

And I got to tell you that Ohio has some great historic structures and some wonderful downtowns that are beautiful, for, for Hollywood.

And so that's why we saw Superman use not only Cleveland, but also Cincinnati.

And we're just seeing, we're we're a great affordable place, to come and shoot film.

And we're very proud of that.

I know governor DeWine is very proud of that.

And so we're happy that we have this film tax credit, to make it work.

And it's $100 million, and you do one round of funding rather than two rounds of funds.

So it's, it's an ongoing basis.

So we take applications on an ongoing basis now.

So we used to do it like, you know, every six months.

But that's not how the film industry works.

So we tried to adapt.

So now we do, awards on a rolling basis.

And finally, tourism, that's in your agency is, this year, you have already laid out a lot of the laid out plans have been put together for the 215th American, celebration here.

But every year we're competing against other states which have similar offerings to Ohio.

I mean, I'm thinking of Michigan, and I'm thinking of Pennsylvania.

West Virginia has kind of upped its game here.

So how does Ohio compete tourism wise with other Midwestern states who have similar offerings?

Well, first and foremost, I think one of the most significant things that we did was bring back the heart of it all brand, this brand had a ton of equity.

When you asked people, what Ohio's motto was or not motto, but what our brand was, people would say, oh, yeah, it's hard of it all, even though it wasn't hard of at all.

For maybe 10 or 15, it was.

Find it here.

Yeah.

We had find it here.

So we we we turned it back.

We brought it back and it's been absolutely fantastic.

It's been great to be able to use that brand in other markets.

We definitely are targeting markets around, and our surrounding states, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Kentucky.

And we know and even New York, in Buffalo, we know as we look at the data that these are areas where we can grow market share, and we've actually seen that.

So we've had increasing numbers and tourism visits.

We've had increase in numbers, in terms of dollar spent.

And we've been really focused on using data, to drive results.

And so we're, we're, we're pretty excited about it.

But America 250 2026 is going to be an incredible year.

It's going to be the biggest celebration around the 4th of July, one of my favorite holidays.

And I'm looking forward to seeing how Ohio shines in this moment, because there's been a lot of work done for for many, many years to get us to this point.

And what better time to celebrate, than the middle of the summer?

In the country that we love, we hear often about the Pure Michigan campaign being.

So I was just going to ask, know, do you ever hear about, hey, why can't Ohio be like that?

So so the Pure Michigan campaign, was brilliant.

It was, a a notable voice.

The music was incredible.

It really the the picturesque views of the lake, in and around Michigan.

It's it's a beautiful state, even though we absolutely despise them when it comes to sports.

But I will tell you, that, what we learned from poor Michigan.

And now that we have in our own, in our own broadcast, commercials, is we're using some of the same things, right?

Better.

Views, of, of Ohio to showcase the different variety, that we have, the very diverse landscape that we have, from great urban areas to beautiful rural, Appalachian hills.

We've also looked better at music, to try and make sure that it's captivating, when you view it, and, and trying to tell a story to get that emotional connection, with the viewer.

That's what Pure Michigan did.

And that, you know, we've been we've been learning from them over time, but a lot of it has to go with just the amount of money that we have to spend.

And we've grown that over the years.

But we're pretty happy with our campaign right now.

And that's it for this week.

My colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Media.

Thanks for watching.

Please check out our website at State news.org or find us online by searching the State of Ohio show.

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And please join us again next time for the State of Ohio.

Support for the Statehouse News Bureau comes from the law offices of Porter, right, Morse and Arthur LLP.

Puerto Rico is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at Puerto right.com.

Puerto right inspired every day.

And from the Ohio education Association, representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools every child deserves.

More at O-H e.org.