COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine outlined his priorities for the year in his State of the State address Tuesday, focusing on childcare, education and workforce development. In the end, it is a lot of spending on seemingly bipartisan policies.
"We meet at a time of great opportunity for Ohio and its citizens," the governor said. "Yet, it is also a time of great challenges."
Some of those challenges include the infant mortality rate, low literacy statistics and declining population. In his speech, DeWine said he believes his budget will fix these problems.
"Our budget asks you to repeal the State’s sales tax on critical infant supplies, things such as diapers, wipes, cribs, car seats, strollers, and safety equipment," he said.
DeWine is also proposing a $2,500 per child state tax deduction. Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) is on board, citing it's hard to have kids right now.
"We really need to encourage people to have children and change the policies that are preventing people or causing people to decide not to have children," Huffman said.
And keeping his focus on families, the governor said he will be implementing the Fair School Funding Plan, receiving a standing ovation from the Democrats. He then announced an expansion to the EdChoice program and Republicans applauded.
"We for sure can not afford to prop up with taxpayer dollars any voucher system that lacks transparency," House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) said.
The budget provides an additional $3,000 for each economically disadvantaged student to attend a "high-quality charter school." It also increases the per-pupil facilities funding for all charter schools from $500 to $1000 per student, the governor said.
RELATED: Lt. Gov. Jon Husted's reactions to the State of the State priorities.
Other than the voucher system, Democrats received many of the requests they have been asking for for years — mental health service funding, affordable housing tax credits, and more training for law enforcement on use-of-force.
Russo said the governor should be going further, especially with safety.
"We want to have safe school buildings, but without addressing the issue of gun violence in our communities, that is a tremendous oversight, I think, on the part of the governor," she added.
The Democrat says those things, in addition to the focus on culture war issues and abortion fight, are causing people to leave Ohio. Acknowledging that people are moving away, DeWine is putting forward a $2.5 billion investment for new economic development sites to create jobs, among millions of other dollars for new initiatives.
The governor is also proposing to increase the Ohio College Opportunity grants. If someone is in the top 5% of their high school graduating class, DeWine wants to reward the student with a $5,000-a-year scholarship to stay in Ohio for college.
"If the state's going to do this, everyone has to understand that at some point — when we don't have the residue of $6 trillion being released from the federal government and therefore lots of sales tax and lots of income tax — that the money will have to come from somebody," Huffman said.
Now it's up to the state lawmakers to make this budget happen. Lawmakers will debate the plan over the next few months and must approve some plan by June 30th.
READ MORE: DeWine prioritizes children, mental health, and attracting business in state of the state
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