Activity at the Statehouse in Columbus has picked up. Now that the May primary election is complete, the next several weeks will be busy, with a goal of wrapping up some major items by mid to late June. This is the typical cycle of legislative activity in an election year—a busy beginning of the year, a quieter spring ahead of the primary, a burst of activity post primary and then a quiet summer ahead of the fall election—all leading to what we expect to be a very active lame duck session after the November election extending to the end of the calendar year.
What’s happening with the 2027-2028 capital budget?
In even-numbered years, the state legislature considers a capital budget. This is different than the operating budget in that it funds construction/infrastructure or the purchase of buildings for the state, colleges or universities rather than ongoing operating costs. The Ohio Office of Budget and Management set the stage with capital budget testimony in March.
Legislators encouraged community organizations from their districts to submit proposals to potentially be funded through this process with the hopes that their proposal is included in the final capital budget. This solicitation process occurred earlier this year, but given some financial uncertainty (covered below), the General Assembly only recently confirmed that there will be a capital budget.
We expect a bill to be introduced soon and for hearings on the bill to occur quickly throughout May and June, with a goal of passing the bill no later than June 30.
Legislative response to data centers
Ohioans have data centers on their minds. With new datacenters seemingly popping up everywhere, public demand for information on the economic, environmental and human impact (and a signature gathering campaign underway proposing to ban large data centers via ballot initiative) and little legislative activity on the issue thus far, the state legislature launched a joint data center study committee.
Sen. Brian Chavez (R-Marietta) and Rep. Adam Holmes (R-Nashport) will chair the committee that plans to move swiftly to hear from a host of interested parties about data centers. The joint committee will meet on May 27and 28 with a lofty goal of developing some legislative proposals by June 10.
Medicaid in the spotlight over claims of “waste, fraud, and abuse”
The topic of “waste, fraud, and abuse” (in quotation marks because these words are rarely used separately, despite have distinct definitions) in public benefits programs has reverberated across the country over the last few months.
Claims of widespread fraud in the child care system prompted Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and director of the Ohio Department of Children and Youth, Kara Wente, to share the current anti-fraud measures in place in the state’s publicly funded child care system and the diligence the state takes to ensure a secure system. In the meantime, there were several announcements from the federal government in response to claims of “waste, fraud and abuse” including a moratorium on enrolling certain provider-types in the Medicare program and the launch of the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud.
More recently, an online report named Ohio as a hotspot for Medicaid fraud related to home and community-based services. Despite the report not being fully published or thoroughly sourced, these claims have sparked increased interest from the majority party in the Ohio legislature in increasing scrutiny of the Ohio Medicaid program, who had been raising “waste, fraud and abuse” issues over the last few years.
In response, Governor DeWine instituted a moratorium on new home-health and hospice providers, suspended payments to high-risk providers, issued an executive order granting emergency rules to Ohio Medicaid to conduct more frequent revalidation of providers, and began a rulemaking process to mandate GPS and electronic visit verification for home and community based services.
Overall financial picture of the state
Despite inflation continuing to rise, and outpacing wage growth for the first time since 2023, the financial outlook for the state of Ohio looks more positive than expected. Just a few months ago, there was some legislative doubt about the existence of a capital budget this year.
The Ohio Office of Budget and Management (OBM) issues monthly reports detailing the financial status of the state, as well as intel about the overall financial outlook, colloquially known as the OBM Monthlies. Issued around the 10th of each month, the reports recap the most recent complete month, so we have data through April 2026. Given April’s designation as the major tax filing month, this particular report includes more information about the revenue picture for the state. Personal income tax revenues for the month exceeded estimates by $272 million or about 27 percent higher than expected.
This report also includes information about spending (disbursements) across state government and provides some timely, helpful indicators around spending, enrollment and the impact of policy changes throughout the year.
Conclusion
This is not an exhaustive compilation of the Statehouse “hot topics” but provides insight into the importance of tracking the policy and politics across a range of issues to understand where potential levers for change may exist.
