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Repeal the “gym tax?”
State Rep. Sara Carruthers recently introduced House Bill 595, legislation to exempt memberships to gyms or other recreational facilities operated by 501(c)(3) organizations from state sales tax. Tax carveouts are not particularly rare pieces of legislation: “tax” is a dirty word, so legislation that policymakers put forth to decrease taxation in one way or another […]
Making it harder to be a substitute teacher might not do what you think
On Monday, Representatives Adam Bird and Don Jones introduced House Bill 583, legislation to tighten regulations on educator licensing for substitute teachers. The bill increases the educational threshold for substitute teachers from a more broad requirement of a “post-secondary” degree to a more specific “bachelor’s” degree while creating some exceptions to this rule. The exceptions […]
To keep housing affordable, look beyond Airbnb
Last week, Representatives Sarah Fowler Arthur and Ron Ferguson along with 27 cosponsors introduced HB 563 — a bill to limit the ability of local governments to regulate the operation of short-term rental services like Airbnb. Airbnb has become a convenient scapegoat for local policymakers concerned about the price of housing in their neighborhoods. Opponents […]
Expanded Amtrak coverage ball now in Ohio’s court
A few years ago, I took a trip out to the Pacific Northwest, a part of the country I had never visited before. I stayed with college friends in Portland and Seattle then bunked up in a hostel in Vancouver. On my trips between the cities, I took the train. A lot of us have […]
We’re about to find out what the Intel deal actually cost us
In case you have been living under a rock for the past few weeks, the big news in economic development not only locally but nationally is Intel’s plan to build a $20 billion microchip factory in New Albany, Ohio. President Joe Biden has come out praising the new factory, talking about the national security implications […]
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 […]