Tax cuts, school choice and transgender sports: Ohio House unveils legislative agenda

House Republicans want to cut income taxes, make it easier to adopt, expand school choice to every Ohio student and ban transgender girls from female sports teams in both high school and college.

The priorities, which were announced Wednesday by House Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, can be found in the first 12 bills introduced.

"I am proud to be here today as we lay out our plan of action to deliver for the people of Ohio,” Stephens said. “The House Republicans are putting forth an agenda all about growing the economy, protecting Ohio families, and educating our communities.”

Here's the list of those priority bills broken down by category:

Economic bills:

House Bill 1: This would flatten Ohio's income tax down to a single rate. Everyone would pay nothing on the first $26,050 they earn and 2.75% on everything above that amount.

That would be a significant cut in the amount of taxes the state takes in, so the legislation proposes eliminating about $1.2 billion a year in payments (known as rollbacks) to schools and local governments.

It's basically "your income taxes paying part of your property taxes," state Rep. Adam Mathews, R-Lebanon, said.

When Ohio raised income taxes in 1983, the state also agreed to cover a portion of people's property taxes to offset that increase. HB 1 would eliminate those payments, but that doesn't mean it would increase your property taxes.

Ohioans currently pay taxes on about 35% of their home's value. This bill would drop that down to 31.5%.

"We expect people to pay less on their income taxes and their property taxes," Matthews said.

But it means they're paying less for local schools and services.

"I’ve raised those concerns," House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, said. "I haven’t seen the details. I haven’t seen numbers, and I’m sure there will be robust discussions."

Mathews acknowledged the need for some transitional dollars to help impacted communities, but he also pointed out that local school districts, for example, could go to their voters for a new levy.

"Putting those dollars into a more accountable form of government for our taxpayers and our communities," he said. "I think that's a win for everyone."

House Bill 2: To declare an intent to direct state funds to projects across the state for economic growth and community development.

House Bill 3: Authorize an affordable housing tax credit.

House Bill 4: This bill deals with a particular kind of investing that factors environmental and social concerns into how companies manage their risks and opportunities. Basically, an investor might accept lower rates of return in order to support companies that align with their values.

Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis calls this "woke investing," and HB 4 would restrict how financial institutions and other businesses use ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investing.

HB 4 doesn't explain how it will do this yet. The bill is a single page and simply says lawmakers intend to enact legislation that deals with how public pension systems, universities and other industries might "discriminate against certain companies or customers based on certain factors."

“This legislation will provide consumer protection, ensures the rate of returns on investments or access to capital isn’t sacrificed for the sole purpose of influencing environmental, social, or governance standards,” Rep. Angie King, R-Celina, said in a statement.

Family and culture bills

House Bill 5: Make adoption more accessible and affordable.

House Bill 6: Called the "Women's Sports Act", this piece of legislation would ban transgender girls from playing on female teams in both high school and college. But unlike previous iterations of the bill it makes no mention of how a student's sex would be determined.

Instead, HB 6 would create a way for students and their families to sue schools and universities that were caught allowing transgender girls on their female sports teams.

Russo and House Democrats oppose this legislation.

"As I’ve said from the beginning, we are well aware of what this alliance is and is not," she said.

House Bill 7: This is the Strong Foundations Act, and it's aimed at reducing both maternal and infant mortality.

House Bill 8: This would enact the “Parents’ Bill of Rights” and require public schools to notify parents about their student(s) health, well-being and instructional materials with sexually explicit content.

Education bills

House Bill 9: Establish a loan repayment program for teachers.

House Bill 10: Continue to phase in the "Fair School Funding Plan," a new formula for funding public schools, that was enacted in the last budget.

House Bill 11: This is known as the backpack bill and would let any child in Ohio receive a school voucher for a private school.

“Every child has different gifts, different interests, and different needs,” state Rep. Riordan McClain, R-Upper Sandusky, said in a statement. “This bill seeks to find the right educational opportunity for each one of these children throughout Ohio.”

The biggest potential obstacle to this idea will likely be its cost. Public education advocates speculate the total cost of a universal voucher program could hit $1 billion.

Gov. Mike DeWine proposed expanding income eligibility for EdChoice scholarships to 400% of the federal poverty level in his budget proposal. And while that's not a universal voucher program, it would cover about 80% of Ohio's schoolchildren.

The cost estimates for that program range from $25 million to $178 million per year.

More:Does Ohio's budget underestimate the cost of expanding school vouchers?

House Bill 12: This bill would put a greater focus on career readiness in public education and appears to be a companion bill to something introduced by Senate Republicans in January.

Senate Bill 1 would change who's in charge of writing the curricula for Ohio's 1.6 million school children. The bill proposed taking that responsibility from the partially elected state board of education and giving it to an appointee within the governor's office. And it would create a new deputy director to oversee workforce readiness.

More:Ohio Senate trying again for education overhaul giving more power to governor

House Joint Resolution 1: Another bill that was re-introduced is a resolution to ask Ohio voters whether they want to require more votes to amend the state constitution. House Joint Resolution 1 would raise the percentage needed to pass an amendment from the current 50% plus one to 60%.

Will this heal GOP divisions?

The flurry of new legislation came Wednesday after weeks of inaction by the Ohio House. Rep. Derek Merrin, R-Monclova, and his allies repeatedly criticized Stephens for canceling House sessions and not considering the constitutional amendment resolution in time for it to make the May ballot.

"I understand it now has a number," said Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, who's sponsoring the resolution. "That's a good place to start. That's also just a constitutional requirement. To say that it's going be referred to a committee, that's pretty basic stuff. We want to see actual movement, actual commitment."

Merrin said Wednesday they're glad to see movement in the House. But it remains to be seen whether the speaker's priorities are enough to unify a caucus that's been sparring since January. While proposals like the backpack bill and transgender athlete ban are among their top priorities, they're not sure if the tax legislation goes far enough for them.

The group plans to release its own policy priorities as session progresses. Some of them were formally introduced Wednesday, including an ethics reform bill unveiled on the eve of former Speaker Larry Householder's trial.

"Last General Assembly...I took note that we never passed a bill that did not have 50 Republicans voting for the bill, supporting the bill, and I'm curious if this GA if that's going to be any different," state Rep. Ron Ferguson, R-Wintersville, said. "Are we going to pass some bills that can't get to 50 Republican votes?"

Anna Staver and Haley BeMiller are reporters for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio House Republicans finally unveil legislative agenda