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Healthcare Repeal Could Hurt Ohio, And Activists Say People In Poverty Not Helped Much By Budget

Testimony is continuing in the House on Gov. John Kasich’s proposed state budget, and Republican leaders should introduce their version in the next two weeks. Meanwhile, Republicans in the U.S. House, Senate and White House are all in a fight over how to change the Affordable Care Act. As Statehouse correspondent Andy Chow reports, state lawmakers are being mindful of the looming issue of big federal cuts as they work on the upcoming state budget.

For the third time in three weeks, another Democrat has joined the race for governor - former state Rep. Connie Pillich of Cincinnati says she’s focused on jobs and reaching Democrats who saw Trump as a leader. Rep. Wes Retherford (R-Hamilton) is facing drunk driving and weapons charges after he was allegedly found passed out drunk in his running car in a McDonald’s drive thru last weekend. 

Gov. Kasich has touted his budget as another income tax cut, but that's paid for with increased taxes on cigarettes, e-cigarettes, alcohol and oil and natural gas drilling, and through both an 9% increase in the sales tax and a broadening of that tax to services such as cable TV. And while it does continue funding for 700,000 people on Medicaid expansion and puts a little more money into food banks and children services, it flat funds other things such as adult protective services. And the money isn’t nearly enough to help some local agencies deal with the impact of the opioid epidemic. Joel Potts is the executive director of the Ohio Job and Family Services Directors’ Association.  He’s also on the steering committee of Advocates for Ohio’s Future, a coalition of hundreds of health and human services nonprofits and organizations. Lisa Hamler-Fugitt is the co-chair of that coalition, and is the executive director of the Ohio Food Banks Association.