The Yin and the Yang of Governor Sleepy Tea
In Ohio, you have to cherish the wins no matter how small. And Mike DeWine delivered several big wins with the stroke of his veto pen.
Governor Mike DeWine is, above all else, a partisan Republican.
As such, he bears an outsized blame for Ohio’s current predicament and the seemingly never-ending march to starve social services in the name of massive wealth transfers to the rich.
That trend continues with the 2025 biennial budget, which the governor signed at 11:15 p.m. on Monday, 45 minutes before the constitutional deadline.
Ohio will move to a flat tax for anyone making more than the princely annual salary of $26,000. That means a Waffle House waitress will now pay the same percentage of state tax as billionaire sex freak Leslie Wexner.
The budget includes a $1.7 billion looting of the Unclaimed Property Fund, an unprecedented move in scope throughout American history, to fund new stadiums and upgrades to existing ones for billionaire sports owners. On that front, there’s still hope thanks to a pending class action lawsuit filed by former Attorney General Marc Dann, who is a known hitter.
The budget also includes language that would end Medicaid coverage for roughly 700,000 Ohioans—and close several rural hospitals—should the federal government reduce its share of Medicaid expenses by $1, which it’s set to do if the so-called Big Beautiful Bill becomes law as currently written.
We also short-changed our public schools by continuing to propagate the school voucher scam, which is little more than a public handout to affluent families already sending their children to private schools.
The same can be said about our renowned public library system because a cabal of peanut-brained legislators equates it with LGBTQ+ indoctrination centers. (More on that in a bit).
DeWine will have to live with all of that. And he will, too, because, again, he’s a partisan Republican.
But as I wrote in September 2022, DeWine, for all his flaws and incomplete worldview, will likely be the best executive that Ohio will have for the rest of my life.
Obviously, I would love to be wrong about that. I want to think 2026 might be the year that the Democrats can at least steal the governor’s office from the Republican junta that seems intent on returning Ohio to the Gilded Age.
And in this reality, it’s undeniable that DeWine has a streak of common decency and empathy that his Republican contemporaries lack, which is why you can see several of them soiling themselves on social media this morning despite agreeing with 98 percent of the budget.
And although there are massive problems with the 2025 biennial budget, it’s equally undeniable that DeWine went Republican beast mode with the veto pen. DeWine issued 67 vetoes, which beat his previous high of 44 in 2023.
As reported by Jessie Balmert and Laura Bischoff of dispatch.com:
“He rejected a provision that would've forced public libraries to keep materials on sexual orientation and gender identity away from patrons under age 18.” This comes from the bottom of my heart: Eat shit, State Rep. Gary Click, you weird little freak!!!
“Rejected lawmakers' plan to limit how much school districts could carry over to 40 percent.” DeWine saw through an asinine plan to deliver “property tax relief” that would have punished fiscally responsible school districts and caused them to spend down their cash reserves rather than return that money to taxpayers.
Vetoed “a requirement that candidates for local school board races be identified with partisan labels on the ballot.” A win for sanity, unless you think more kooks involved in educational policy on the local level is a good thing for the rest of us.
“He also vetoed changes to how the mill floor is calculated, a prohibition on local governments and school districts levying certain taxes.” The State Legislature refuses to tax corporations and millionaires properly, so that tax burden gets shifted to the local level. That scheme will continue, though I did earn a hearty chuckle at seeing the State Legislature’s many preposterous “property tax relief” scams get incinerated at the finish line. The State Legislature might be able to fool their docile primary voters, but they didn’t fool Governor Grandpa Sleepy Tea!
“Savings accounts for students who attend non-chartered, religious schools.” As DeWine correctly stated, these could have been used as slush funds for unaccountable, fly-by-night operations like Bishop Sycamore, which the state has done nothing to prevent from happening again.
“DeWine vetoed language that would have cut funding for homeless shelters ‘that promote or affirm social gender transition.’” This was the No. 1 ask from Rooster Worldwide Lobbying LLC to Governor DeWine on Sunday. And it shows DeWine’s streak of compassion that I mentioned earlier. His Republican contemporaries should be ashamed that it was even necessary.
“Axed a plan to block state and local governments from using eminent domain to obtain property for building recreational trails.” I want to think the Governor did this as a personal thanks for our decades-long friendship. But I’d settle for knowing that it was a personal “Fuck you” to House Finance chairman Brian Stewart, who gloated about the provision to me.
“Removed language that would have prevented using H2Ohio funds to purchase land or conservation easements.” Only in the Ohio Legislature can a relatively inexpensive program aimed at fighting algae blooms in one of the state’s geographical crown jewels be considered wasteful government spending. Between this and getting the Cleveland Clowns moving to Brook Park, things are looking up for Lake Erie.
It would be a fever dream to live in a state where the budget season wasn’t an unremitting parade of horribles. Where we wouldn’t have to cling to basic acts of decency and kindness as mana from the heaven of a benign God.
That isn’t Ohio. The death march will continue until rural voters awake from their slumber and demand more from their legislators than making life harder for even more marginalized communities.
But on this day, that death march was mitigated in small and substantial ways thanks to a unique Republican governor.
And for that, I’m thankful.
THOSE WMDs. Murders are down nationwide, and researchers point to the COVID-19 pandemic… 20 kitchen tools the pros think are worthless… The icy village where you must remove your appendix… The best way to organize your socks and underwear, according to the experts… This doctor lost his job after challenging the opinion of a powerful child abuse specialist.
You know what I always think of when anyone mentions a flat tax? When Hulk Hogan “ran for president” and did an interview on the Tonight Show and Jay Leno asked him his tax plan and he said “Flat tax, brother.”
That’s how I know that’s a stupid idea
What about the provision about protecting internal lawmaker's documents for corruption discovery??