Ohio Governor Mike DeWine gives his 2024 State of the State address in the Ohio House chambers at the Ohio Statehouse on Wednesday, April 10, 2024 in Columbus. (Barbara J. Perenic /The Columbus Dispatch via AP)

By DAVID SKOLNICK

Staff writer

Members of the Mahoning Valley’s state legislative delegation said they appreciated Gov. Mike DeWine’s focus on children in his State of the State address, but wanted to hear his plans for several other topics, including economic development.

“Where he fell deeply short is addressing the everyday problems that Ohioans face: inflation, rising costs and the major issue of rising property taxes,” state Rep. Al Cutrona, R-Canfield, said. “He didn’t address economic development or workforce development. The children are our future and we have to help them. If you’re not creating an economic opportunity for them, they’re going to leave.”

Cutrona added, “He missed the mark on a lot of key issues that impact Ohio and focused on children. There are a lot of important children issues, and he addressed many of them.”

But other topics should have been discussed, Cutrona said.

State Sen. Michael Rulli, R-Salem, said he “was encouraged to hear what Gov. DeWine had to say,” but “I was a little surprised he didn’t really touch on economic development.”

Rulli said the Legislature “worked hard to move our state forward and provide opportunities for the next generation of Ohioans and make the Buckeye State the best place to live, work and raise a family. We must continue to work together to protect our most vulnerable population: our children from the negative impacts of intoxicating hemp and marijuana. Our children are the top priority in our state, and we must provide options for families in regards to child care, health care and their education.”

DeWine, a Republican, delivered his annual State of the State address Wednesday in front of a joint session of the state House and Senate.

DeWine devoted nearly all of the 60-minute speech to policies, accomplishments and proposals related to children.

He said, “For all of us in Ohio, this now is our time in history, and we must act with great urgency to not squander this precious, finite window of opportunity when our children are growing up. This is our time to meet the challenges I have laid out (Wednesday) to do the hard things that matter and will make a lasting difference for our children and the future of Ohio.”

State Sen. Sandra O’Brien, R-Lenox, said, “I give a B rating to the governor’s speech. I fully support the implementation of the science of reading and the creation of career pathways for our students. However, it seems like much of what the governor wants will require quite an expansion of state government (that will be met) with suspicion.”

State Rep. Lauren McNally, D-Youngstown, said DeWine couldn’t offer new programs in his address because his fellow Republicans who control the state Legislature aren’t interested in moving the state forward.

“It’s not the governor’s fault the Legislature has done nothing to pass bills since his last State of the State,” she said. “It’s been a missed opportunity because of the state Legislature. The strides in the state have been done in spite of the little work the Legislature has done.”

McNally said DeWine “talked about all these great tools he gave school districts, but the state Legislature didn’t give funding to implement the programs. He talked of expanding child care and early education, but we didn’t build any capacity. He called on higher ed to do more, and the budget gutted funding for higher ed. We opened more parks, but we did it for drilling. It’s been a frustrating year at the Statehouse and it’s been frustrating for him.”

State Rep. Nick Santucci, R-Howland, said he supports DeWine’s “focus on integrating career planning into our schools. To move Ohio forward, we absolutely have to encourage a work ethic in our young adults. I was pleased to hear he is focusing on those issues as we move forward in this General Assembly and into the next one.”

Santucci added, “I also appreciate the governor’s continued support for our career technical centers. Every career tech center that I work with has a waitlist, and the governor wants to work with the Legislature to eliminate these wait lists to support the growth and expansion of our career centers for students. Career centers are the direct pipeline into the workforce that I’m working to support every day down in Columbus.”

But Santucci said, “We still have a long way to go to address human trafficking, cleanup and redevelopment of former industrial sites, the drug issue, veterans issues and the need to invest and develop a qualified workforce that can propel us into the future.”

Among the initiatives outlined by DeWine in his speech are asking the Legislature to make a law change to require career planning into existing high school graduation requirements; a child care voucher program to about 8,000 qualifying families; an effort to ensure that every student who fails a vision screening has a follow up comprehensive eye exam and receives glasses if needed; have state agencies help school districts with technical assistance in creating school-based health clinics; have the Legislature make changes to an existing bill, that a federal judge blocked in February on constitutional grounds, to require parental consent for children under the age of 16 to have social media accounts; have the Legislature pass a statewide ban on flavored tobacco; and make not wearing a seatbelt a primary offense allowing law enforcement to pull those over who don’t wear them.

During his talk on eye exams, he specifically mentioned Sight for All United, a Struthers-based nonprofit organization, along with an Athens-based group as “models” for the effort.

“We must take them statewide,” DeWine said.

Have an interesting story? Contact David Skolnick by email at dskolnick@vindy.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @dskolnick.