Greg R. Lawson, a research fellow at The Buckeye Institute, testified Monday before the Ohio Senate Finance Committee on the Ohio Senate’s version of House Bill 166—Ohio’s biennial budget, noting that “despite many improvements, the Senate’s proposed budget remains too large [and] too unsustainable to weather anything other than the sunniest economic conditions.”
Melonia Lillie has been a registered nurse for 20 years and has served this country alongside her active duty Marine Corps husband as a military spouse since 2008. Through military transfers, Melonia’s support of her husband’s military service has taken her and her family from California, to Colorado, to Washington, DC, back to California, and now to Ohio. And while we are glad to have her here in the Buckeye State, our occupational licensing requirements have not been welcoming.
Andrew J. Kidd, Ph.D., an economist with the Economic Research Center at The Buckeye Institute and the co-author of It Ain’t Easy Being Green: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Electric Vehicles in Arizona, testified Wednesday before the Arizona Corporation Commission on the proposed policy that would allow Arizona’s public utilities to build charging stations for electric vehicles and pass the costs on to Arizonans through higher utility bills.
Daniel J. Dew, a legal fellow at The Buckeye Institute’s Legal Center, testified Wednesday before the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee on the policies in Senate Bill 3, which would safely reduce Ohio’s prison population by ensuring those suffering from addiction receive treatment instead of a prison cell. In his testimony, Dew noted that “Ohio stands among the nation’s leaders in looking for commonsense policies that will keep our neighborhoods safe while ensuring that non-violent offenders do not overrun our prisons or our courts.”
Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute, issued the following statement reacting to the Ohio Senate’s version of the state’s biennial budget on Tuesday, saying, “The Ohio Senate’s budget offers a substantial improvement by cutting income taxes on hardworking Ohioans, which is one of the most pro-economic growth actions policymakers can take.”
The Buckeye Institute testified before the Ohio House Criminal Justice Committee on the policies in House Bill 1, which will make it easier for people to receive treatment for drug addiction rather than receiving a criminal conviction. “As Ohio continues to reform its criminal justice system, its record-sealing policies, and its treatment in lieu of conviction protocols, our citizens who have paid their debts to society will see more doors open for them as they begin their careers and start their families.”
When the House budget was voted out of the Finance Committee it contained an important program that has been unfairly maligned and misunderstood since it was first introduced in 2015. Healthy Ohio—structured after the popular and successful Healthy Indiana 2.0—was removed from the final version of House Bill 166 before it passed the Ohio House and the Ohio Senate can now reverse this action and restore this critical program to Ohio’s biennial budget.
The Economic Research Center at The Buckeye Institute, in partnership with the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, released new research that found, in an effort to encourage the purchase of electric cars, low- and middle-income Arizonans are subsidizing wealthier Arizonans who can afford new and more expensive electric cars. The report, It Ain’t Easy Being Green: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Electric Vehicles in Arizona, revealed that the subsidies lead to bad outcomes for many Arizonans.
The Buckeye Institute testified before the Ohio House Financial Institutions Committee on House Bill 131, which clarifies restrictions on debt settlement companies that could make it more difficult for Ohioans to get help resolving their debt, saying, “Ohio’s arbitrary fee caps and poorly tailored law makes it harder for some debt settlement firms to operate here, which, in turn, makes it harder for many [Ohioans] to reduce and settle their outstanding debts.”
In the Akron Beacon Journal, Buckeye’s Greg Lawson looks at restrictions placed on debt settlement companies that make it more difficult for Ohioans to get help resolving their debt, writing, “There is growing concern in the state’s debt-settlement industry that a decision by the Ohio Supreme Court will be misapplied and ultimately prevent non-lawyer debt settlement firms from serving Ohioans.”
