Ohio lawmakers plan to interrupt their summer break for a vote to override three of the governor's line item budget vetoes, all dealing with property taxes.

An appeals court agrees that cities, not the state, have the right to regulate flavored tobacco.

and the Son of Krypton, actually born in Cleveland, has arrived in theaters worldwide as he celebrated locally this weekend.

Ideas is next.

Hello and welcome to ideas.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you for joining us.

The Ohio Legislature has set July 21st to interrupt summer break and vote on overriding three of the 67 line item vetoes.

The governor, Mike DeWine, made to the new two year state budget all involve property taxes.

Former Ohio Attorney General Mark Dan and former State Representative Jeff Crossman followed through on their threat by filing a class action lawsuit.

It challenges the state's plan to tap unclaimed funds to pay for stadiums like the proposed Browns Complex in Brook Park.

An appeals court judge ruled that local communities have the right to ban flavored tobacco products, which cities argued is their prerogative under home rule.

And it's homecoming weekend for Superman.

Born in Glenville and celebrated all over town this weekend as the new Superman movie filmed here last summer, is released nationwide.

Joining me to discuss these stories and more from industry and public media reporter Abigail Botha from The Marshall Project Cleveland, a nonprofit covering the criminal justice system.

Editor in chief Phil Trexler and in Columbus, the Woman of Steel.

Karen Kasler let's get ready to Round Table.

Republican lawmakers will be back at work later this month, interrupting their summer recess to consider overrides on three of governor Mike DeWine.

Line item veto of the new state budget.

The governor used his red pen 67 times to strike out items on the massive $60 billion, two year operating budget.

He signed off on the budget at the end of June.

There must be a 3/5 majority to override a veto.

So in the Ohio House that 60 votes in the Senate, it's 20.

And while these three override votes are planned for this month, the door is still open for the legislature to override any of the vetoes until the end of the legislative session.

That's all the way in December of 2026, Karen.

Republicans are looking at overturning these three particular vetoes, and they describe them as property relief measures.

The governor said it was just all a little too much at once.

Yeah.

And what is going to happen on July 21st is the House is going to convene on a Monday, which is unusual.

They're going to convene in the Senate chamber.

Also unusual.

It's a smaller chamber because there are 33 senators and 99 members of the House, because there's work on the air conditioning system going on here at the state House, which has been a serious problem this week.

We didn't have air conditioning for four of the five days this week.

So it's it's kind of a priority.

But the Senate has not yet said when they are going to come back.

So you need both chambers to come back to do the full override here.

And I talked to Senator Jerry Serino, who was the chair of the Senate Finance Committee for our TV show, The State of Ohio this week.

And he said so far, the Senate has not set a date.

It could be late July, it could be early August.

But they're having trouble getting everybody together because a lot of people are on vacation.

Some people are out of the country.

So we'll see the house.

Go ahead and override these three property tax related provisions that are related to budget commissions and their authority, that are related to how levies are calculated in terms of the effective tax rate, and also about whether school districts can do emergency levies.

These are the three that are going to be looked at on the 21st by the House.

And you like you said, Republicans only Democrats are very unlikely to support this at all.

They didn't support the budget at all.

There was a cap on what schools could carry over, and that was also vetoed by DeWine.

And we're not hearing about that being a target now.

Could it be later?

Absolutely.

I mean, that's one thing that school districts had said they were very concerned about, because it did send them potentially into deficit spending even in the second year of the budget.

They were very concerned because what this would do is cap the amount of collected property tax that voters have approved at 40% of their operating budgets that they can hold.

They can hold 40% of their operating budgets in that.

And then the rest of it would have to be refunded to taxpayers.

And they said schools had said that this would create financial chaos and mean more levies, which DeWine actually noted in his veto message.

Now, Republicans would call that immediate property tax relief, and that's why they wanted to see that happen.

But this is an idea that came about just when the House proposed the budget, their version of the budget in April.

So a lot of people have not had a long time to really absorb this.

And so when I talked to Serino about this and whether the votes were there to override the cap, he said that may be something the House is not putting that on their schedule for a reason.

So there may not be the votes to override that right now, but this is an idea that could potentially come back.

Just because it's vetoed doesn't mean that it might not come back in another standalone bill later on, for instance.

That's an interesting point that you brought up.

It's not just all the things that some of them wouldn't like.

They've got to have the votes.

They've got to have the 60 votes.

They do have a supermajority of veto proof majority if they all got together.

But what they're putting on the agenda are ones they know can pass.

Absolutely.

They're not going to bring for them.

They're not going to call everybody back.

They weren't supposed to come back to the fall.

They're not going to call everybody back and put something forward that isn't going to pass.

And right now, it looks like the votes may not be there for that 40% cap.

But again, that is an idea that Serino said could maybe come back again in another bill or in some other form, because obviously there are some Republicans who really like that.

They see school districts are holding too much property tax money in their bank accounts, essentially, and that that money could be refunded to taxpayers.

There were a number of other vetoes, and I just want to run through them and get some thoughts from you on whether they might be the target later.

There was an election, an election integrity unit in the Secretary of State's office.

That was a line item veto.

The governor also removed a provision limiting the types of flags permitted to be displayed on state owned buildings and property.

That would include only the Ohio U.S. POW Mia flags and flags of official state agencies as approved by the governor, and vetoed restrictions on public library displays related to sexual orientation and gender.

Are any of those possible overrides down the line?

Well, I asked Serino about that.

If there are others, I mean, 67 vetoes.

This is a lot.

It's a record.

And so he said that right now he's not sure whether there's consensus, at least in the Senate, on which of those could also be targets for veto overrides.

So it's I think unclear at this point.

But like you said, at the top of the show, the legislature has till next December, December of 2026 to override these items.

The pressure is on them to do the property tax ones now, because property tax bills will soon be calculated for January and people will start to see those school property tax related things come forward.

And so that's why they want to move that forward right away.

Those three.

But the other ones, they've got plenty of time to reconsider those if they want to The anticipated summer blockbuster Superman has soared into theaters.

Directed by James Gunn, the reboot brings Superman back to his home town, not Krypton, Opolis or even Metropolis Cleveland.

Two Glenville teens, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, created the Man of Steel.

Superman debuted in Action Comics in 1938.

By the way, I know all this because I hosted a city club forum out in the park across the street with Bill Garvey from the Greater Cleveland Film Commission and Valentino Zullo from the Siegel and Shuster Society.

And I learned a ton because I'm not, you know, like, I don't know, every comic and the number and everything else.

But Valentino had the comics down.

Bill had the film down.

Big crowd there.

But I'm telling you, the whole weekend is devoted to the new metropolis, Cleveland.

And in fact, Abigail, this weekend, at Tower City and at the Cleveland Public Library, there's just a bunch of stuff going on.

Yeah, yeah.

The, the Cleveland Public Library has a big event, and there's a comic workshop, a scavenger hunt, an escape room, Superman exhibit.

And then I guess there's going to be like a really big prop from the film at the Cleveland History Museum.

Plus, there's a ton of screenings and watch parties, and I prepped really hard for the round table by going to see it last night.

Oh, did you go see it?

Yes, I thought it was released today.

I don't I don't think release dates are real anymore because my brother saw it earlier this week and.

Well.

And what did we think?

It was incredible.

So much fun.

Yeah.

It was also like got me emotional.

I was like I cried.

So I heard it was a lot like Superman has a lot of heart.

Yes, yes.

And Cleveland is like a character.

Oh my gosh, it's so fun.

Yeah.

I was just like giggling and pointing when, the credits rolled in.

It had the little thing at the end that was like Made in Ohio.

Everyone clapped.

It was so much fun.

And I think the scene I've only seen the previews, but the arcade oh so cool.

It just looked at me.

I mean, it's an amazing place.

And I used to go just get coffee and look up there, and it's beautiful stare for a while.

Yeah, there's a lot of economic, value that we're talking about with this.

Bill Garvey made that case when I had my conversation with him earlier.

Phil, the production coming to town offered not just spending for hotels, but real opportunities for locals, to work.

You're.

And you could talk about the, you know, the public relations marketing aspect of this all day long.

I mean, we're talking about it now and and Cleveland really is like a costar of this movie.

So you not only get the impact with hotels and restaurants and, and, you know, labor unions and folks coming in to help with a set building.

You got folks in the community, too, who who are getting hired to be, you know, in the background, what do they call that job?

But extras.

Extras.

Thank you.

But also but also workers, I mean, people.

Yeah, but the key grips and that's a of cameras and all of that stuff.

And like Abigail, I prepared for the show too.

And you want to do I did.

No I didn't watch my I but I talked to my son who watched it Tuesday night and he, you know, the grumpy, the grumpy son.

And he said he laughed for two hours and it was great.

Yeah.

He has a lot of humor.

Yeah.

James Gunn yeah, exactly that.

And if you talk about the economics, look what they're doing in California.

They're saying, well, we're losing a lot of movie, productions.

They're now trying to create some incentives in California to revitalize Hollywood, because Hollywood's losing a lot of these, these, these movie productions, not only to Ohio, but, you know, Georgia has been a huge player, in picking up a lot of work.

So, yeah, it's a huge win for Cleveland.

Bill Garvey from the Film Commission couldn't talk about the specifics of the Superman economics because of non-disclosure agreement.

But he said in the six projects that were brought to the area last year, including the upcoming Hulu film Eenie Meenie, $77.8 million in local spending was generated, he said.

He said the productions hired nearly 3000 crew members, cast of 2500 background actors booked more than 25,000 hotel room nights.

And and he made the case that you can have people local who work in this business and be employed if you have that many films coming in, he said.

It's freelance, but freelance isn't a dirty word.

He spent his whole life as a location scout, and other jobs in the film industry from Ohio, and made a good living doing that.

I asked him exactly how much he didn't tell me, but he said six figures.

So you can make you can have a career and still have it if you bring that in.

But to do that, Karen, he said the number one key thing is the motion picture tax credit, which in the state of Ohio is capped at $50 million.

Once that's used up, there's no more tax credit.

And there was a wild area where lawmakers wanted to sunset the credit.

Why?

Well, they wanted it to be a situation where instead of just having something that is constantly funded, they wanted it to be something that each individual General Assembly could decide upon.

It's kind of like what they did with libraries where it's, was, a formula, and they changed it to a line item.

So that's kind of what they were, hoping to do here.

But DeWine vetoed that, saying that, this is there's a lot of economic credit here that comes from this tax credit and that he didn't want to see this thing.

Sunset.

So it's it's still there.

And in fact, the film Commission, which is happy that it didn't sunset because that was vetoed out would like the credit to increase to double what it is now to $50 million cap.

They'd like 100 million because Pennsylvania's got 100 million new Jersey has 100 million.

Kentucky's is 75, Texas 150.

Bill Garvey said that they lose a lot of business to Louisiana as well.

And I think that, that's something that's been talked about ever since the credit was instituted.

I mean, I can remember, for instance, Senator Matt Dolan talking about he was a big proponent of this, saying that this is something that really does pay off over time.

I mean, that's a question about any sort of tax credit.

Is is it worth what the state is putting up in terms of what the state gets back?

Kind of the whole discussion about the $600 million for the Browns Dome Stadium project in Brook Park, is that going to be something that pays off that $600 million investment?

And this is kind of in that same area, but, there's a lot of support for it, I think, among people in Cleveland and among people in Cincinnati, they see a lot more productions than, say, people in Columbus do.

And I think that's just because the architecture is just more interesting in Cleveland, in Cincinnati than it is in Columbus.

So much variety to fill out.

The, the Siegel and Schuster Society has been working forever to bring Superman to a prominent role in Cleveland.

But it's been almost a century, and it seems like Cleveland hasn't really embraced Superman.

They're hoping to change that by, next month with this new statue, but it seems to be slow and coming.

Would seem to me that you'd be like, we are Metropolis.

Yeah.

And it's funny, you can remember when you and I were kids, they were talking about some sort of statue.

I mean, that this debate goes back to the, you know, the mid 80s, like, how are we going to honor them?

And it looks like they now have a plan.

They're going to next month, they're going to unveil this, kind of, homage to Superman with this nine foot lifesize.

Yeah, inflight in-flight Superman.

It's kind of cool, too.

They, you know, they, use the family members, to, or portray Lois Lane there, who's based on the family members of, I think Shuster but, and there's also going to be a phone booth there with, car cans, clothes, kind of like.

Yeah.

What?

They're that's kind of me and Abigail saying, what's a phone booth?

Yeah.

There's also a statue of both, Siegel and Shuster.

But the Superman thing is supposed to be really cool.

Unveiled August 2nd.

It's over by the convention center.

And, the question is, will it then become like this idea that Cleveland ties itself to the Superman marketing?

Sure.

And we should we should own it.

An appeals court this week delivered a legal win for Ohio's cities and towns, who say it's their right and not the state, to determine whether to ban flavored tobacco products.

The 10th District Court of Appeals, agreeing with a lower court ruling, held that Ohio does not have the authority to prevent cities from placing restrictions on flavored tobacco sales.

I know that was celebrated by the health officials in Cleveland, particularly Karen.

The law was passed in a lame duck session, in 2022, despite a veto from the governor, that which was overridden.

But essentially what the communities are arguing are arguing, and what the appeals court said is they have the right to set their own rules.

Well, this is it's really interesting to circle back to veto overrides here because this is a a measure that was passed in a bill.

Devine vetoed it.

So the legislature put it in the budget.

Then DeWine vetoed it.

So this really shows that there is the governor does have some power with vetoes, but legislatures want to do their thing sometimes, even if the governor doesn't want to.

So this, this moves forward here to the next step, because cities have said this does violate our right.

It's a ban on communities banning any sort of regulation on flavored tobacco, which, like you just said, public health officials, including DeWine on this, feel that this helps with youth smoking rates especially.

But Republicans have said that this could be a problem for small businesses that sell these products and that these are uneven rules that are passed here.

So this is interesting.

This is one to watch.

So it's a ban.

It was a ban on bans.

And now this ruling would be a ban on banning bans.

Yeah okay.

You can get out your scorecard.

So the question about home rule then would, would be a little bit larger if this was a win for home rule that says, yes, you can make legislation or ordinances locally in regards to flavored tobacco, what about gun restriction gun rules?

I know local communities are saying, hey, we should be able to to have rules here.

And the state says, no, you can't.

Yeah, the state has already ruled on that.

And, that's absolutely something that cities really want to do.

But they are prohibited under state law.

And what was interesting in watching this case already, you've got, on the 10th District Court of Appeals is Judge David Leland, who as a Democratic state representative, actually voted to have this ban to to to stop this ban.

So when he wrote the opinion saying that this ban is unconstitutional, you can kind of see that coming.

But obviously cities have wanted to use these kind of regulations to really push forward the idea that they do have the ability to set regulations, especially on things like guns, because they feel the rules can be different in cities than they are in smaller communities when it comes to regulating guns and ammunition and that sort of thing.

So this is all part of the idea of whether the state law prevails or whether local communities do have their ability to do these things under home rule.

former Ohio Attorney General Mark Dan and former State Representative Jeffrey Crossman followed through on a promise to file a class action lawsuit challenging the state's plan to fund stadiums, including a Brook Park Browns complex with unclaimed funds.

They say it's unconstitutional.

Karen, what is the lawsuit?

It's a class action suit.

So I guess everybody who has unclaimed funds, what does it ask of the court?

Well, I should add one thing really quick here that, there is a provision in the budget that prevents public records requests about, certain, communications in the legislature for the duration of the General Assembly.

So we won't have access to some public records that we have had access to before.

So that's a real concern about transparency there.

But when it comes to the lawsuit, this is basically a challenge to whether the state has the authority to take some of this public, this, unclaimed funds and basically own it and create this Sports and cultural facilities fund from $1.7 billion in unclaimed funds, and then earmark $600 million of that for a grant for the Cleveland Browns.

So the lawmakers who signed off on it see it differently.

Yeah.

I mean, I ask Jerry Serino about that and whether he felt that indeed, the state has the authority to do that.

He said there was a lot of legal consultation here.

I mean, this is an idea that came out of the Senate's version of the budget with what he called lazy money.

Money.

That's just kind of sitting around that, banks and, and utilities and all these entities have forwarded to the state because they couldn't reunite that money with the owners of that money.

But, you know, you do have people who are now checking the unclaimed funds site, and everybody should, because if it's your money, you want to get it back.

Who are also saying that it's really hard to claim that unclaimed money, it takes a lot of work and it's a long process.

And so there are some questions about the the whole work that goes into getting your money back before the state can get a chance to take it.

It would be, this, process would be unclaimed funds that have been there for more than ten years.

And what Dan has said is that, you know, this is other people's money.

You're supposed to be care.

Take it.

You can't just go and use it.

But but the state has done that in the past.

Yeah, but not to the point of really taking ownership like this.

The state has raided those funds for budget purposes and that sort of thing.

But this is a little bit different.

It's something called achievement.

And, I don't want to get into the legal explanation of that because I'm not sure I understand it myself.

But this is the basis of their lawsuit that the lawmakers and former lawmakers say that the state doesn't have the authority to do this.

This is not their money.

Some people pronounce that as treatment and they put the emphasis on it.

That's how it's spelled.

Abigail, what about another issue, the Browns?

If they leave the city of Cleveland is saying they should help pick up the tab to demolish the existing stadium.

Yeah.

Mayor Justin Bieber is saying that he'd hope that Haslam would pay for that.

And he said they've spent half $1 billion since 1999 to support the Browns and the Haslam.

And he said it's his hope that the Haslam in the business community will support the city and in demolishing the stadium.

To get towards that trans transformation of the lakefront that he's been working toward.

So that's he's kind of throwing that out there.

Okay.

Students across the state will soon face a ban on cell phone use and class because the budget mandates it for k-through-12 schools.

It goes into effect in January, but most schools will put it in place earlier for the start of the academic year.

How encompassing is this new ban?

There are some carve outs, right, Karen?

Yeah, I mean, the law basically says that you have to have some way your kids can access their phones in an emergency.

And so, for instance, I talked this week with the superintendent of the Dublin City Schools in suburban Columbus who said that we're going to ask kids to put our their phones on airplane mode or power them down so they'll still carry them.

They just can't have them on.

I don't know how that's going to work.

Anybody who has a teenager is going to be a little suspicious here, but there's been a lot of support for this among even parents.

Kids don't like it, but educators like it.

Parents like it.

And so this is something that, I think you're going to start seeing more of even around the country, because there are these studies that show that there is a real impact of the distraction of cell phones, an interruption of learning in class.

I've gone to some shows at Playhouse Square.

They make you put your cell phone in a little bag and lock, and I've done that too.

And you can't get it out unless someone unlocks it for you.

So if you're like, I've got to check on my kids, or I felt it vibrate and I, you know, I've got a babysitter, I've got to go check.

Could that be a possibility in schools?

I guess there's a expense to that.

That's exactly right.

And I think schools are trying to find a way to implement this policy without having extra money, because as we talked about earlier in the show, money is a big issue for school districts.

And having that additional, unfunded mandate essentially would be a problem.

So they're trying to find ways, I think, to implement it that still gives the spirit of the law and gets kids away from their phones during classroom time, but then offers them the opportunity to check on emergency messages and that sort of thing.

It also impacts like, the watch, you know, the, the Apple Watch.

You can only use them to for finding out what time it is, not talking and texting and those types of things.

So, Phil, I don't know, can you imagine when we were kids not having your so not having your cell phone on you or your Apple Watch.

Could you imagine, sister, it's just her sister Camilla coming over or Sister Mary Daniel.

Mary.

Holy water.

Come over and tell you, you know, you.

It blows my mind.

I mean, we I remember I had a, Farrah Fawcett notebook.

And and and sister, Sister Alberta confiscated it.

I recently saw it on eBay, and it was selling for, like, $200.

Yeah, you could have you of could have been a contender.

Yeah.

You know all those rubber ducks you see on Jeep dashboards?

Well, imagine a rubber duck so big the jeeps look like those little dashboard ornaments.

The world's largest rubber duck, mama duck will be floating into South Bass Island, Put-In-Bay from August 1st to August 3rd.

And I mean big.

It's 61ft tall, 64ft wide, and 74ft long.

I'm going to need a bigger bathtub, I believe, but, this thing Abigail is coming in to put me, first of all.

How's it getting there?

It's not really a rubber dock.

It looks like an inflatable.

It can't swim.

Yes, it cannot swim out ducks.

It can't swim.

Well, it can't float either.

Well, it's kind of a bummer.

Guy wires or something, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, no, she will come in a trailer, unfortunately.

Okay.

And what?

Why would you bring a gigantic duck to put in Bay?

As Phil was saying earlier, to put him, I don't have any problem attracting people.

It's always full.

But what does the duck do?

Well, I just think it's fun.

I now, I did not I did not know about this.

So now I do feel like I need to go see the duck.

But, it was invited by the Perry Group, which is like is a nonprofit that supports the Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial.

So I think they're trying to make it a little history lesson.

They're going to give out a little souvenir.

It's much smaller ducks that say, don't give up the ship, which is the reference to the USS Niagara.

So, yeah, I think they're trying to get families out there to maybe learn a little bit about the history out there.

But I also just think a great photo op, once in a lifetime opportunity.

I love a gimmick, but you can't ride the duck, unfortunately.

Yeah, I do wish it could swim.

And, Yeah.

And it's, the Battle of Lake Erie, War of 1812, all of that kind of stuff.

So you'll learn a little bit of history when you're there, too.

Yeah.

And it was it came to Sandusky in 2013.

We asked about this in our news meeting, and I figured no one had to, Josh Booth had seen it because he did.

Yeah, he was there.

He saw.

Yeah.

That makes that checks out for him.

Yeah.

Monday on the Sound of Ideas on 89 seven, we asked you to begin her final week as host.

Jenni Hamel will talk to Idea Streams Steve Litt about how Cleveland sports billionaires have different ideas on development.

The haves LMS have their eyes on the suburbs.

While Dan Gilbert is remaking downtown's riverfront.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for watching and stay safe.