Rotunda Rumblings

Budget drop: Gov. Mike DeWine’s newly unveiled state budget plan would drastically raise taxes on sports gambling that could help fund a new Cleveland Browns stadium, pump more money into K-12 schools and offer more state help to parents with children, among a slew of other proposed changes, Jeremy Pelzer writes. DeWine’s proposal would also raise taxes on marijuana and nicotine products, tie a portion of higher education funding to graduates’ ability to find jobs, and return driver’s education programs to high schools. The two-year, $218 billion budget plan will now undergo months of negotiations and revisions by state lawmakers.

Tales out of school: DeWine said that his proposal also would cover the final two years of the Fair School Funding Plan, which was designed to be phased in over six years to inject $2 billion more into public schools. DeWine also wants to return driver’s ed training to public schools, get kids in glasses who need them, and work on school bus safety, Laura Hancock reports.

Tariff effects: Higher prices for homes, cars, groceries and gasoline and diminished markets for agricultural exports like soybeans and corn are in the cards for Ohio if the tariffs that Donald Trump has threatened to impose on Canada, China and Mexico take effect, experts tell Sabrina Eaton, Anna Staver and Peter Krouse. “Since these tariffs are pretty broad based, across the board, that means an increase for consumers buying all sorts of things and an increase on the price, on inputs, that are going into other products as well as these final goods,” said Case Western Reserve University economics professor Jonathan Ernest.

Add it to the tab: The state is planning $16 million more in subsidies for the proposed Anduril advanced weapons manufacturing site in Central Ohio. As Jake Zuckerman reports, a formal request at the Ohio Controlling Board lists a $86 million appropriation instead of the $70 million shared at a press conference, attributing the difference to water and sewer work to be done on adjacent land. It’s all part of at least $538 million in publicly announced incentives.

Backing ICE: Ohio House Republicans proposed legislation that would force local law enforcement to assist the federal Immigration and Customers Enforcement’s ramped up deportation efforts. It would also require local leaders to comply with a federal law blocking undocumented immigrants from receiving certain public benefits, as Haley BeMiller of the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau writes.

Overdoses down: A complicated set of factors has driven down the overdose rates around the nation. David Ovalle of the Washington Post reported on the dynamic from Cincinnati, interviewing current opioid users, those recovering, those helping, and those researching. As for what’s behind the decrease, some ideas include a shrunken pool of active users after years of crisis level fatalities; increased access to naloxone; a law enforcement crackdown; increased awareness of overdose risks of fentanyl, and others.

RIP: Cedarville University’s Grace Maxwell was aboard the plane that crashed into a military helicopter above Washington D.C. last week, killing her and 66 others. WDTN reports she was in her third year there, studying mechanical engineering.

What we’re watching this week

Welcome back to state budget season. The House scheduled a busy week. The Senate isn’t in town (Gongwer reports the Republican Senate Campaign Committee has a fundraiser scheduled Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale, where meteorologists say the weather is much nicer)

1. Budget bills must start in the House, where the Finance Committee is taking its first legislative testimony and rolling out its first cut on tens of billions of dollars in state spending Tuesday. The House Transportation Committee meanwhile starts its work on the Transportation Budget on Thursday.
2. The House Rules Committee meets Tuesday. This is less interesting as House Speaker Matt Huffman recently said he won’t take questions from reporters anymore after the typically sleepy meetings
3. The full House meets for a floor session Wednesday
4. Both Larry Householder and Matt Borges are scheduled this week to make oral arguments before a panel of judges in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking a reversal of their criminal convictions in the FirstEnergy-House Bill 6 scandal
5. Will Ohio get a Lieutenant Governor this week?

On the Move

Mitch Tulley has been hired as executive director of the Ohio Republican Party, succeeding Cameron Sagester. Tulley previously served as the state party’s political director and as a field organizer for the Republican National Committee.

Dawn Baker, a former staffer for U.S. Reps. Bill Johnson and Michael Rulli, joined Prest Public Strategies as an associate consultant.

Birthdays

William Wohrle, legislative aide to state Rep. DJ Swearingen

Straight From The Source

“I went to the U.S. Military Academy. Every military academy on the planet would say some version of: ‘You’re more likely to win any conflict if you multiply your allies than if you multiply your enemies.’ Why put tariffs on everybody all at once when we could actually build a coalition to go after China?”

Ohio GOP Congressman Warren Davidson to NOTUS in a profile of Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade advisor and a key tariffs hawk.