Central Ohio Lawmakers Discuss Growth, Workforce Strategies

Overcoming Ohio’s “Eeyore syndrome” and helping people to connect to the workforce, whether they be K-12 students or residents returning from incarceration, were among policy prescriptions from Central Ohio legislators at a Thursday Impact Ohio conference.

Columbus Chamber of Commerce Government Relations Vice President Andy Hardy moderated Thursday’s “legislative insights” panel, at which lawmakers talked about what victories they claim from the recent biennial budget priorities and ideas to keep more people in Ohio and get them working.

The panel included House Finance Committee Chair Brian Stewart (R-Ashville), Reps. Munira Abdullahi (D-Columbus), Christine Cockley (D-Columbus), Latyna Humphrey (D-Columbus) and Dontavius Jarrells (D-Columbus) and Sen. Michele Reynolds (R-Canal Winchester).

Stewart said in the late 19th century Ohio was a political powerhouse, and it regained some momentum under Gov. James Rhodes, but he said most of his life Ohio has suffered from “Eeyore syndrome.”

“’Thanks for noticing me. Nothing special about me.’ That was sort of Ohio’s vibe for too long,” said Stewart.

“We want to be cutting edge. We want to be a place where people want to stay and where people want to move,” Stewart said. “Everything we do and say contributes to that, either negatively or positively. We need to be saying more that Columbus is a really great place to be.”

Stewart offered a full-throated defense of state support in the biennial budget for a new Cleveland Browns stadium in Brook Park, saying that to achieve growth, Ohio needs to be an alluring place with amenities that people want. Leaning into Ohio’s status as a professional sports hub is one way to do so, he said, recounting the 2021 Bengals Super Bowl run.

“That Super Bowl was in Los Angeles at So-Fi Stadium. It’s a palace,” Stewart said. “Not one single Bengals fan came back and said, ‘You know what, I’m so glad we don’t have anything that nice in Ohio.’”

“If this was $2.25 billion of private investment in anything else [than the Brown Stadium] … We would say yes to that all day long,” Stewart said.

“Lo and behold, here we are a year later, the same billionaire is in Franklin County, saying we want to do a similar type of deal here, we want to bring more sports here,” he said, referencing the Haslam family’s involvement in a bid for a professional women’s soccer team in Columbus. “And thankfully, I’ll credit Franklin County, folks are saying, ‘Yeah, economy development is still good, whether it’s sports, a factory, anything else.’”

Most lawmakers on the panel mentioned the need to have students connected to career opportunities before graduation.

Humphrey said in her district, which includes parts of the South and East sides of Columbus, residents participate in the workforce at very close to the same rate as the state’s overall population, but earn substantially less.

“My constituents are not saying they don’t want to go to work … however, they don’t necessarily have the same skills as everybody else,” Humphrey said. “If we can prepare our babies on the front end to be prepared to go into the workforce … the likelihood of them staying in the state of Ohio is greater.”

Humphrey also talked about getting more people with criminal records a chance to work, noting her legislation to shorten the waiting period for a person to become eligible to earn a certificate of qualification for employment (CQE), HB268 (Humphrey-Click).

“We need more employers to become second-chance employers, because there are people at home right now that want to work, that have the grit to work … but there are barriers created that they can’t do that,” said Reynolds.