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Social workers could bolster emergency services
In 2019, more than one in seven calls received by the Shaker Heights Police Department were related to mental health — over 5,000 mental health calls in total. Shaker Heights Police Chief Jeff DeMuth expects this number was even higher in 2020 due to increased stress and depression caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. To deal […]
Omicron underscores the limits of local COVID policy
Omicron is upon us. From Dec. 20 to Dec. 23, over 40,000 Ohioans tested positive for COVID-19, the most of any four-day stretch ever. As a matter of fact, each of the days in that window topped the previous single-day high of 13,374 cases recorded on Nov. 30, 2020, giving us the new first, second, […]
Proposed trucking reforms offload costs on public
In April of 2020, the world saw the largest immediate contraction of consumer spending in recorded history. The fits and starts in the bounce back from this contraction is largely a function of the speed at which the world shut down and opened back up again. While 2020 was the year of hundreds of thousands […]
$300 million for nursing homes is a head scratcher
Late last month, Republican state Rep. Sara Carruthers of Hamilton introduced House Bill 461, a bill designed to appropriate $300 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds as a one-time payment to Ohio nursing facilities. We all know that as people age, they need extra support. Nursing facilities are a key piece of the puzzle […]
How can we improve Ohio’s commercial activity tax?
Last month, the Ohio House’s Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on House Bill 234, a bill that would repeal Ohio’s commercial activity tax. The commercial activity tax raises about $2 billion a year by taxing revenues of businesses in the state. Lawmakers worry, though, that the focus on gross receipts hurt businesses with […]
Ohio House legislation could make Ohio’s bad water problems worse
For the past few years, my firm Scioto Analysis has published a series of studies of Ohio’s Genuine Progress Indicator, a “GDP+” measure that monetizes the impact of environmental damage and external social benefits and costs of nonmarket activity in the state. One of the biggest takeaways we’ve found year after year from doing this […]
How can Ohio fight climate change today?
The Union for Concerned Scientists has an incredible interactive map that provides county-by-county projections for how temperatures will change in the United States over the 21st century. Historically, most of Ohio experiences 11-25 days when the heat index is above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the threshold at which sun stroke, heat cramps, and heat […]
What can Ohio do about childhood lead exposure?
On Monday, a group of medical researchers published an original investigation in JAMA Pediatrics examining the individual and community-level blood lead levels in children across the United States. As reported in the Ohio Capital Journal, this study found Ohio’s rate of blood lead elevation in children well over double the national average and higher than […]
What would the public health and safety impacts of cannabis legalization be in Ohio?
Last Monday, a panel of state officials approved ballot language for recreational cannabis legalization in the state of Ohio, clearing the way for backers to begin collecting signatures for the initiative. According to reports, the ballot language for this initiative is similar to a bill introduced by state Reps. Casey Weinstein and Terrence Upchurch to […]
Do people have the “right” to contract and spread a deadly disease?
From the beginning of the spread of COVID-19, we knew a vaccine would be the most effective tool we would have to stymie its spread, reduce infections, and save lives. While so many things were new about COVID-19, we knew, like with any infectious disease, that vaccine technology would be our best bet for prevention […]
How much does Ohio lose when it turns down federal funds?
A story that has been roiling over the past weeks is Gov. Mike DeWine’s decision to cancel the federal pandemic unemployment program. This decision came months before the federal expiration date on Sept. 6. News coverage of the decision focuses on $300 checks the governor’s decision is making unavailable to unemployed Ohioans. $300 does not […]
New research: Broadband policy is jobs policy
It’s no secret that Ohio’s Appalachian counties have the most sluggish labor markets of the counties across the state. According to last month’s Ranking of Ohio County Unemployment Rates from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, eight of the ten highest-unemployment counties this month are in Appalachian Ohio. Meanwhile, Appalachian Ohio also suffers […]