The Buckeye Institute testified before the Ohio Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee on the policies in Ohio Senate Bill 275, which will help Ohio meet its growing energy demands. In his testimony, Greg R. Lawson, a research fellow at The Buckeye Institute, noted that while “Senate Bill 275 does not address every energy issue the state faces,” it does “take several strides in the right direction.”

As the Ohio Senate Government Oversight Committee takes up Ohio House Bill 238—a review of Ohio’s occupational licenses requirements—The Buckeye Institute issued a new policy memo urging lawmakers to continue reducing burdensome, unnecessary requirements that hinder careers and make it harder for people to join the workforce. In previous research, Buckeye identified 47 licenses that the state should eliminate or reform. This latest policy paper builds on this earlier research.

Speakers: Greg R. Lawson, The Buckeye Institute; Amy Hanauer, Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy; Hope Lane-Gavin, Ohio Association of Foodbanks; Bailey Williams, Policy Matters Ohio; and moderated by Karen Kasler, Ohio Public Media.

The Buckeye Institute released a new policy memo outlining the failures of government-owned broadband networks (GON) and encouraging local governments to utilize public-private partnerships with cutting-edge technology companies to deploy adequate broadband for customers. The Buckeye Institute outlines how, for years, local governments have propped up GONs to provide internet service in their communities and how those efforts have failed, most recently in Bryan, Ohio.

The Buckeye Institute released a new policy memo urging lawmakers to help Ohioans struggling with debt and adopt policies to improve debt resolution options and increase “consumer access to all available debt management and settlement options.” Consumer debt is not “a generic one-size-fits-all problem with a one-size-fits-all solution. Debt repayment programs can and should vary,” and “well-tailored laws, rules, and oversight should ensure that debt resolution companies operate ethically and effectively.”

In The Lima News, The Buckeye Institute outlined specific reforms lawmakers should adopt to meet the growing demand for EdChoice scholarships. “Public and private charter schools need extra capital to fund school and classroom expansion, and there are ways for state policymakers to make that capital more accessible.” Buckeye urged lawmakers to “ensure that every student in every family across every community can find a seat in the classroom that best fits their academic needs.”

In The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Buckeye Institute defends the OhioACE program and urges officials at the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce to work collaboratively with the vendor to “properly administer the program while implementing policy solutions that maintain fiscal integrity and effectively get funds into the hands of needy families.”

At Cleveland.com, The Buckeye Institute encourages Ohio lawmakers to update the state’s antiquated and anti-competitive franchise law, which is responsible for lopsided restrictions that unfairly favor large wholesale distributors. “Ohio boasts an award-winning craft beer industry. But that industry and its small business owners have largely thrived in recent years despite — not because of — an unfair legal holdover from the Nixon era that should finally be changed, if not repealed entirely.”

The Buckeye Institute testified before the Joint Committee on Property Tax Review and Reform and offered lawmakers several recommendations to ease the property tax burden on Ohioans. In the testimony, Buckeye pointed out that with 924 cities and villages, 1,308 townships, more than 600 school districts, 88 counties, and hundreds of other special taxing districts, Ohio has an “over-supply of local government reflects” that has “saddled Ohio with the 12th highest local tax burden as a percentage of income in the country.”

The Buckeye Institute testified before the Ohio House Government Oversight Committee on the policies in Ohio House Bill 331, which ensures that village governments unable to provide core services to their residents are held accountable. The bill also makes it easier for village residents to vote on whether to dissolve their local government. The policies in House Bill 331 advance commonsense Buckeye Institute-championed reforms by establishing a “process to determine whether Ohio villages meet the needs of their taxpaying constituents.”