Redistricting season opens
Do you have an Ohio congressional map proposal burning a hole in your pocket? Are you on a first-name basis with Dave, of Redistricting App fame?
Well, now is your time to shine.
The Republican leaders of the Ohio House and Senate launched a redistricting website on Tuesday through which the public can submit their map plans. The site checks a box in the Ohio constitution that says the legislature must “facilitate and allow” such a process. It also marks the official launch of redistricting season.
Under Ohio’s redistricting rules, the legislature has an initial Sept. 30 deadline to approve a map. Other than launching the new public map portal, though, they’ve made no public moves indicating they plan to have a map by the end of the month. If the deadline indeed passes without any action, then the Ohio Redistricting Commission, a panel of elected officials, will get a month to try their hand. The legislature will pick the ball back up in November if nothing’s been passed by then. (We think that’s likely, since the previous two steps require Democratic buy-in.)
Ohio sheriffs are leasing jail space to ICE
At least four Ohio sheriffs offices and two regional jails are detaining hundreds of people on behalf of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency as the alleged offenders await deportation.
It’s an unusual mission for sheriffs, who are typically tasked with enforcing state laws, protecting courthouses, administering concealed carry permits and other duties.
The sheriffs collect a fee from ICE on a per-head per-day basis. Some, like Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene, are outspoken about the financial benefits. But the head of the Buckeye State Sheriffs’ Association denied the existence of what the American Civil Liberties Union called a “profit motive.”
The arrangement leaves the immigrants – about 70% of whom haven’t been convicted of any crime – in custody of sheriffs who have publicly referred to immigrants as “human locusts” or are facing lawsuits over physical violence against inmates.
Jake took a look at the federal-county partnership, the financial incentives in play, the ACLU’s fight, and the moral case against it from an immigration advocate. You can read it all here.
Woke youth prisons?
The Trump administration is taking its war on transgender people and culture to unlikely places – Ohio’s youth prisons.
In a letter to the Ohio Department of Youth Services, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Administration for Children and Families Andrew Gradison faulted state officials for educational materials that ask participants for their preferred pronouns and remind them to “respect diversity,” among other concerns.
Although the materials were previously approved by the same agency under President Joe Biden’s administration, Gradison said federal law doesn’t allow for “teaching students that gender identity is distinct from biological sex or that boys can identify as girls and vice versa.”
Aaron Mulvey, a DYS spokesman, said the department is “working to adapt the curriculum materials as instructed by the Trump administration and have been in communication with HHS on our progress.”
Nursing homes notch a $286 million win
Ohio’s nursing homes – some of the biggest recipients of Medicaid funding – won a major lawsuit against the state Department of Medicaid.
The Ohio Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the nursing home industry got shortchanged by a legal formula designed to pay more reimbursement money to facilities that meet certain quality standards. The ruling stems from a lawsuit brought by three lobby groups on behalf of more than 900 individual facilities.
The case amounted to arguments over a complicated legal formula set in state law that establishes the facilities’ reimbursement rate. But the outcome is a big financial win for a politically powerful and largely publicly funded industry.
Bringing down the house
President Donald Trump’s top housing official, along with Ohio’s two Republican U.S. Senators, made a couple of public stops in Columbus last Friday.
They visited sites that highlighted how innovation might play a role in addressing homelessness and housing affordability.
They first stopped at Vista Village, a gated community that helps transition people out of homelessness. The site, a collection of 41 420- square-foot homes, is run by a faith-based nonprofit organization.
The second stop was at a factory owned by Connect Housing Blocks, a company that builds prefabricated apartment units that can be shipped and stacked at construction sites. The company says their approach can help make building apartments cheaper and faster.
“I think we’re at the point in the development of housing, especially affordable housing, where the status quo is not going to be enough to get us to the goal that we need to,” said Amy Riegel, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio. “So we have to be innovative.”
Both projects got support from the state and local government.
U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner said the sites show how the federal government – by bringing together local and state governments with private organizations – can increase housing supply without necessarily spending more money.
But Sens. Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted also touted legislation that directs more funding toward housing. That includes the Big Beautiful Bill, which permanently expanded the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, a major federal incentive for building low-income housing; and a major bipartisan Senate housing bill that would funnel $1 billion to jurisdictions that build more housing.
Riegel said the bills show the disconnect between Republican legislation and the rhetoric and actions from the Trump administration, which has pushed for cuts to housing programs.
“I think it is really hard to tell you at this point where we are when it comes to housing policy,” Riegel said.
Chips are down
Following the housing event, we asked Husted what he thinks about the Trump administration plan to take a 10% ownership share of Intel, the company that’s struggling to finish a massive computer-chip factory east of Columbus.
Husted responded that he’s “wary” of the idea, which critics have said discourage the company from being innovative enough to compete globally.
But, Husted, who helped line up the factory deal when he was lieutenant governor, also said it’s crucial from a national security standpoint for chips to be built in America.
“I think this is an exceptional time and an exceptional circumstance that brings us to this moment,” Husted said. “And I hope… This will be a short-lived investment and the federal government will get out of it as soon as possible.”
Mark the calendar
The Ohio Republican Party’s central committee is meeting on Friday. Noticeably absent from the agenda: an endorsement in the crowded GOP primary to challenge Democratic Ohio Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner in next year’s election.
