On Wednesday, Governor Mike DeWine will deliver his first State of the State speech since 2019 鈥� the last two were canceled due to COVID. Two groups with very different constituencies will be listening for specific messages about money.
Advocates for Ohio鈥檚 Future is a coalition of more than 500 health and human services activists and groups involved in safety net programs. Director Kelsey Bergfeld said they鈥檒l be listening for hints on how DeWine plans to spend $3.3 billion in American Rescue Plan money, since earlier COVID relief funds went to businesses and to pay the state鈥檚 unemployment debt.
鈥淲e know that folks are still struggling from the impact of the pandemic and looking for investments in health and human services 鈥� specifically housing recovery, food and nutritional support as well as ongoing support for things like child care," Bergfeld said.
Bergfeld said the groups will be upset if more funds go to those that have already received benefits, saying this is the time to invest in people and get them back to work.
With that federal COVID relief money and a capital construction bill set for this year, Greg Lawson with the Buckeye Institute said, as always, he鈥檚 concerned about too much state spending.
Lawson said he wants to hear DeWine talk about infrastructure, COVID relief and workforce development.
鈥淲e need to be sure that we don鈥檛 set ourselves up for long-term budget headaches because we overspend in-state resources now," Lawson said. "We need to be very targeted in what we do, [and] use the federal resources that we鈥檙e getting in targeted ways that help get us back on our feet.鈥�
Lawson said he鈥檚 especially interested in anything related to leveraging the $20 billion investment that , along with $2 billion in state dollars, which is almost certain to come up in this re-election year speech.
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