Gov. Mike DeWine carried through on his promised veto of a bill that allows the General Assembly to end states of emergency and limit public health orders.

Senate Bill 22 also limits the role of local boards of health during health crises.

The House and Senate both approved the bill two weeks ago in reaction to the governor’s restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his Tuesday veto, DeWine wrote: “Senate Bill 22 jeopardizes the safety of every Ohioan. It goes well beyond the issues that have occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. SB 22 strikes at the heart of local health departments’ ability to move quickly to protect the public from the most serious emergencies Ohio could face.”

DeWine had vowed to veto the bill, saying Monday that he would do it on Tuesday.

Legislators say they have the votes to override DeWine’s veto. The House and Senate are controlled by Republicans. DeWine is also a Republican.

State Rep. Scott Wiggam, R-Wayne County, who led the effort to pass SB 22, wrote DeWine stating: “Your response demonstrates the fundamental differences between the current philosophy of the executive branch and the philosophy of the majority of members in the legislative branch. We differ in the role and moral authority of a government that is bound by constitutional imperatives of protecting individual rights of the citizens by severely limiting the powers of government.”

DeWine said Monday he was working on a compromise with legislators to avoid an override, but declined specifics. The Legislature could vote as early as today to override the veto.

The bill limits public health orders to 90 days and allows the Legislature to terminate them after 30 days as well as permit lawmakers to rescind any order or rule issued in response to a state emergency on the day it’s declared and bar the executive branch from reissuing the order for 60 days.

The state has operated under executive orders for more than a year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

DeWine says the bill is unconstitutional and “handcuffs Ohio’s ability to confront crises.”

Wiggam wrote the bill “places guardrails around authority that was given to the executive branch by the legislative branch” and “re-establishes checks and balances.”

He added: “I understand that you believe that your actions over the course of the year were reasonable, rational and even scientific. Even if this is assumed, your actions have demonstrated the unfettered power of Ohio’s executive branch of government.”

Wiggam also wrote: “An executive branch that has the unchecked power to issue a ‘stay at home order’ to healthy citizens or prevent all citizens from being out past 10 p.m. under the threat of arrest simply has too much power.”

ODH AUDIT

Also Tuesday, state Auditor Keith Faber, a Republican, released a performance audit of the Ohio Department of Health’s management of COVID-19 data.

The ODH has had a series of problems with its data, most notably when it disclosed last month it had underreported 4,275 COVID-19 deaths because a single person was manually handling the information and when fatality numbers greatly increased during the final three months of 2020, that person couldn’t keep up.

“Although inefficiencies, opportunities to improve transparency and methods to collect better data certainly exist, the Ohio Department of Health has generally provided the public with correct information and managed Ohio’s response to the pandemic commendably,” Faber said.

COVID-19 DATA

The ODH reported 1,628 new COVID-19 cases in the state Tuesday, up from the daily average of 1,535 for the past 21 days.

The state had a total of 1,002,822 COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday with 954,255 presumed recovered and 18,382 dead.

With an adjusted policy on how it reports COVID-19 deaths, the ODH will provide that information only on Tuesdays and Fridays.

The state saw an increase of 42 deaths since Friday including two in Trumbull and one in Columbiana counties.

Mahoning County had 19,960 total COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday with 18,914 presumed recovered and 573 deaths, according to the ODH.

The department reported Trumbull County had 14,794 total COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday with 13,882 presumed recovered and 448 deaths.

Columbiana County had 8,297 total COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday with 7,940 presumed recovered and 218 deaths, according to the ODH.

VACCINATIONS

The ODH reported 2,883,634 people, 24.67 percent of the state’s population, had at least started the vaccination process as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, including 61,945 people in the previous 24 hours.

In Mahoning County, 26.52 percent of the population (60,643 people) had received at least one dose with 24.9 percent in Trumbull County (49,288 people) and 22.2 percent in Columbiana County (22,623 people) as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, according to the ODH.

There were 1,631,464 people, 13.96 percent of the state’s population, who finished the vaccinations as of 6 a.m. Tuesday, including 21,741 in the prior 24 hours.

In Mahoning County, 15.91 percent of the population (36,379 people) had completed the process while 13.74 percent of the population in Trumbull (27,194 people) and 13.51 percent of the population in Columbiana (13,764) had as of 6 a.m. Tuesday.

dskolnick@tribtoday.com