Last week, Greater Ohio Policy Center had the chance to join our colleagues at the Ohio Association of Regional Councils (OARC), the association that represents the state’s metropolitan planning organizations, in sponsoring the 2022 Candidates Forum. Attendees heard from both major party candidates for governor in the 2022 election, incumbent Governor Mike DeWine, and his opponent, former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley.
Governor Mike DeWine with Grace Gallucci, Executive Director & CEO of the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA)
Mayor Nan Whaley with Chris Chiles, Executive Director of the Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia Interstate Planning Commission (KYOVA)
Governor DeWine spoke to his record over the past four years addressing issues related to infrastructure, job creation, and economic development. Among the accomplishments he highlighted was his work with the Ohio General Assembly to increase the state gas tax in 2019, provide funding for the expansion of broadband internet access across the state, create the H2Ohio program, to provide funding to address problems of clean water access across the state, and attract new business development and investment in Ohio, most notably the $20 billion investment by Intel.
Mayor Whaley was critical of Governor DeWine’s record and highlighted her own accomplishments serving as Mayor of Ohio’s sixth largest city. To address the impact of a recent increase in the price of motor fuel, Mayor Whaley supports a six-month suspension of the state motor fuel tax, to be supplemented by funds from Ohio’s rainy day fund. She criticized the H2Ohio and state broadband access initiatives as being too generous to big business, and said that more needed to be done to hold the industries accountable for the use of state funding. While praising the investment by Intel, she also said that more needed to be done to make sure that Ohio’s $2 billion support to the development of the project is properly accounted for, saying that ‘sunshine’ is the best cure for government waste and abuse.
Both candidates spoke in support of the recent investment of $350 million in brownfield clean-up and revitalization, an issue that Greater Ohio has championed and supported for the past decade.
Prior to the forum, Greater Ohio shared with the event organizers questions that we had for the candidates, with special focus on the issues of brownfields and transportation policy. Today, we are excited to publicly share our 2022 Questions for the Candidates, our biannual campaign to learn more from candidates at the national, state, and local level, about issues that are important to achieving a revitalized Ohio. In offering these questions, we seek insight into how the next generation of Ohio leaders view issues including brownfields, transportation, legacy cities and housing.
The full list of questions, along with more information about the issues addressed, are available here on our website.