Policy Matters Ohio
01/11/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 01/10/2025 12:41
Saturday Stats
Saturday Stats
Posted January 11, 2025 in eNews
60%: Share of the 3 million drivers-license suspensions in Ohio each year that are given for reasons related to debt, not driving. That is, until this week, when justice advocates passed new legislation that automatically and retroactively reinstates licenses that were suspended for failure to pay court fees. In fact, that's just one of a litany of policy wins included in HB 29. For more, check out our statement on the bill's passage, and revisit the Drive to Justice Summit, where coalition partners and everyday Ohioans laid the groundwork for this win.
[Link]
PMO's Bree Easterling (4th from right) celebrating the passage of HB 29, with fellow advocates for justice
6: Number of states that do not require employers to provide paystubs to their workers. That number is smaller by one, now that advocates for working people have passed the Pay Stub Protection Act here in Ohio. With our friends at the Central Ohio Worker Center, we celebrated this win for working people, which has been a long time coming. Check out our statement on the bill's passage to learn more about the bill's history, and many ways working Ohioans will benefit.
[Link]
PMO's Ali Smith (center) with Molly Shea and Claudia Cortez from the Central Ohio Worker Center, celebrating the Pay Stub Protection Act.
61,826: estimated number of Ohioans who would lose their health insurance if Ohio cuts Medicaid by enacting proposed work requirements. In testimony to the Department of Medicaid, Kathryn Poe explained how these cuts will harm Ohioans. You can share your concerns too! The Dept. of Medicaid is hearing public comments on the new requirements until January 21st at 5pm. Email comments to [email protected]. You can also attend our upcoming webinar to learn more about the proposal and writing a public comment.
$72.5M: Estimated cost of a recently approved sales-tax exemption for Microsoft to help the corporation build data centers in Licking County.
20: Estimated number of new jobs that will be created by the project. That works out to more than $3.6M of forgone revenue per job. Once they are built, data centers don't employ many people, but they do use huge amounts of electricity - the cost of which could be passed on to consumers. This combination of state- and local-revenue losses, meager job-creation, and insatiable demand for energy makes the sales-tax break for data centers an all-around loser for the state. Zach Schiller digs into the details in his latest brief.
188K+: Number of kids who learn, grow, and play at childcare centers that accept funding from Ohio's Publicly Funded Child Care program. Every one of those kids benefits when providers can afford to pay their staff a fair wage, and families benefit when programs can afford to keep their doors open. With our friends at the Care Economy Organizing Project, we're calling on Ohioans the contact your legislators to advocate for PFCC in the upcoming budget. To help make the case, we created district-level factsheets with data showing the impact of PFCC near you. House district sheets are here, and Senate district sheets are here. (Click here for a map of state legislative districts.)
Action items
Submit public comment on Ohio's request for special permission to strip health insurance from more than 60,000 of our family, friends, and neighbors. And attend our upcoming webinar to learn more about the proposal and writing a public comment.