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Possible cuts and changes.

Worry benefit program recipients and local job and family services workers.

That's this week in the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Jo Ingles.

The Ohio Attorney General's office reports there were more than 21,000 missing persons cases last year.

That includes more than 16,000 missing children.

And while more than 96% of those missing kids were found safe, the number of children who have not been located in recent years continues to grow.

A working group made up of law enforcement leaders, legislative representatives and families of missing persons has been looking into what could make investigations more effective.

And now, Governor Mike DeWine said the group has come up with a list of 18 recommendations that range from administrative changes to new laws.

issuing the working group's final report contains 18 specific recommendations covering better information sharing between law enforcement agencies, improve communication between investigators and families, increased training and public education, and comprehensive support for youth who, for a variety of reasons, consistently leave their homes or leave their congregate care settings.

DeWine said some of the changes can happen immediately or soon.

Like those requiring better reporting and resources for law enforcement and the communications between police and families of missing persons.

Ohio lawmakers say they're closer to making long debated changes to cannabis laws before they break for summer.

The newest version of the bill, modifying state marijuana laws, still puts limits on how potent THC products can be.

But the latest round of amendments permits sharing some products at a person's home.

And although it limits Ohioans to partaking at private homes, the public smoking ban now has one notable exception certain outdoor concerts.

I do a lot of live music.

I go to a lot of concert venues and, hypothetically, I've seen people, pass a marijuana, cigaret at a concert.

And, those people are not criminals and shouldn't be considered criminals.

And so that, to me, was a huge thing.

If you go to a Grateful Dead concert, you shouldn't have to look over your shoulder when you're passing a joint.

Legislative leaders say they want the bill to advance before June 30th.

Rural school district leaders gathered at the statehouse Wednesday to let lawmakers know how the current proposed state budget will affect them.

Marietta elementary physics teacher Alex Myers says the current version of the budget provides his district with a little more than it had last year, but not what it would gotten under the Fair School funding plan.

That was in the last two year budget.

And he fears that will mean cuts in support staff and programs.

He said it's important to remember districts like his cannot rely on local funds to pick up the slack, in smaller and rural towns.

We just can't pass levies.

We don't have enough people.

We don't have enough support for that because they're already struggling.

We are a very low income, so asking them for even more money is very difficult.

John Patterson is a former Ohio House member and the author of the Fair School Funding Plan.

He said lawmakers should be using that formula in this budget.

Knowing that.

Scalable, knowing that it's transparent, everything's justifiable.

There's not a better plan out there.

And it was developed by the professionals.

It's a matter of will.

Do we want to do what's right for our children and our children's future?

And I'm hoping that events like this will help move the legislature to understand how critical this is for all of Ohio's kids.

Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman says restoring funding to the fair school funding plan is highly unlikely.

In this budget.

the bottom line was that the if, if we had done what some call the third phase, it would have been a $1.8 billion increase in school funding, which, you know, pretty much would have wiped out other increases.

We did, you know, daycare or a whole number of other things.

The Senate is expected to come out with budget amendments this upcoming week.

More than 100 pastors and religious leaders throughout Ohio have signed on to a letter urging lawmakers to say no dice to expand a gambling.

Among the group is Representative Gary Klick, who is also a pastor.

The Republican said he won't vote for a bill that expands gambling through internet based casino games, horse races and online lottery.

Click and the other religious leaders say gambling disproportionately hurts Ohio's most vulnerable citizens.

It's going to hurt their families.

It's going to destroy their homes.

It's going to destroy lives.

I can't think of a just or noble reason to do that.

The bill's sponsor, state senator Republican Nathan Manning, says estimates show Ohioans may be spending more than $2 billion a year gambling on illegal websites.

He says providing a legal outlet for that gambling would allow the state to put safeguards around it.

Ohio legislators are again considering identical bills banning, quote, foreign adversaries from buying real property in a wide swath of protected areas.

That property purchase ban extends to both non-citizens, like lawful permanent residents and businesses hailing from countries Ohio defines as adversarial.

Under the bills, protected property includes anything within a 25 mile radius of military facilities or critical infrastructure, from water treatment facilities to railroads to electric generation facilities.

And right now, Ohio lists six countries as foreign adversaries, namely China and Russia.

Republican backers say the bill comes from concerns about national security.

I think there's logic to it.

I think that, there is an issue with, unfair trade practices between Ohio and China.

Certainly the United States and China.

But, Democrats say in practice they could prevent immigrants from owning a home or running a business.

I want to reiterate this bill betrays a fundamental values that we claim to care about in the statehouse.

It betrays the constitutional values that we say we care about.

And not only is this bill discriminatory, like my colleagues and the distinguished speakers before me have mentioned, but it also has a potential, the great potential to impact our economy and our higher education.

In 2023, governor Mike DeWine vetoed these measures in the budget.

Although he did sign off on similar language banning adversaries from buying farmland.

Medicaid has been a big part of the budget discussion at the state and federal levels.

The state budget includes language that could cut that health care coverage for around 764,000 people on Medicaid expansion in Ohio, if the federal match drops below 90% and there are new reporting requirements for Medicaid, as well as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or Snap, also called food stamps.

All of this puts pressure on the people who work in the state's 88 county Job and Family Services offices.

My Statehouse News Bureau colleague Karen Kasler talked with John Harnick, who leads the organization that represents those workers.

let's start with work requirements.

We've heard the arguments for and against work requirements since we've been here before.

When it comes to people who are receiving Medicaid, it seems likely this time, though, that those work requirements, that waiver is going to be approved.

So what would instituting work requirements mean for the people who work at Ohio's Ada County job and family services agencies?

Well, Karen, I appreciate the question.

It does seem like the waiver would get approved or there's been some, discussion at the federal level.

The recent markup of the reconciliation bill.

Worker requirements have been, a part of that.

And there's a ways to go in that federal process.

But one way or another, Ohio's probably going to get Medicaid work requirements.

So for our folks, our folks are the frontline eligibility workers at the county.

About 3000 workers across the state.

So they're checking on the income levels of the folks who apply and what's their household status and their residency and all sorts of information, some of which can be provided through various electronic databases.

But a lot of it we've got to ask the client directly for the most up to date information.

So there would be some administrative work, involved, certainly with, with a work requirement.

You know, we might have to hire additional county workers to, to kind of take a look into that and deal with, the additional work.

The other concern, Karen, is I think, the majority of the folks who are on Medicaid, especially in that expansion population, they are working, those who are not often have a barrier to employment.

They've got mental health issues.

They've got substance abuse issues.

They may be in a caregiving role for another individual.

Now, some of those individuals and the way the waiver has been set up will be exempt.

But we want to make sure also that we have the, the resources to help people, get back to work and stay in a employment position.

If they're having trouble.

And a lot of them are they are having trouble, you know, keeping work or finding work.

And I think that's where we need additional discussions at the state level about what are we doing in terms of workforce programs to make sure these people are getting the help that they need?

And that's not the only thing that potentially the people who work on the front lines, as you put it, would have to be dealing with in terms of changes to eligibility requirements and that sort of thing.

There is a proposal in the budget that would require eligibility for Medicaid and food stamps, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Every right now, it's every six months.

Yes.

That would make it quarterly and require the use of third party data systems to try to help with that.

Does that would those third party systems help with that or what would be changing the requirement from every six months to every quarter, I mean, for your folks.

So, Karen, it's interesting, we've got these parallel discussions going on at the state level.

And the federal level.

So there's actually two provisions in the budget that we're watching now.

So on the on the snap side, on the food assistance side, there's a provision that would, take us from the current kind of six month check in with folks that we use now basically to monthly reporting, which is something that the state of Ohio has not used basically in a couple decades, basically because of the administrative burden involved.

That would involved mailing out forms to any household that's, non elderly household that's receiving snap, having them fill things out, report back to us, even if there hasn't been a change in their income or, or their status.

And the administrative costs of that would be tremendous.

We'd actually we'd actually like to see that come out of the budget.

I mean, we're talking about millions of people here that, are receiving food stamps right now.

Correct.

And so and as we look at the population receiving food stamps in Ohio, we think there be over 400,000 households that are affected by this change.

And obviously more than one individual in most of those households.

So we're we think to implement this change, it would be over $60 million total cost.

About half of that would fall on to the under the state.

But there's nothing in the budget to actually pay for that.

So that that was put in the House version of the budget.

We are asking the Senate basically to to remove that because it, it not only prevents us doing the the simplified six month reporting we have now, but even, even a quarterly reporting, we could not do.

So that's on the snap side.

On the Medicaid side, there's another provision, as you alluded to, that, would would require quarterly check ins.

With the folks who are on Medicaid instead of the annual.

So as it stands right now, we believe that probably will not fly under federal law.

Now, things could change at the federal level, to, to make that more palatable or make that allowable.

And, and the language also says to use, we, you know, we need to use third party databases.

And to be clear with your viewers, county, eligibility worker job and families workers, we already have access to a number of electronic databases.

So, you know, we can check on on income.

We know we can check on residency.

We can check and see if someone, may have been receiving, Medicaid in another state.

We get alerts for that.

So it's it's not clear, what additional, resources or electronic resources were supposed to be using.

So I think that that provision is something we've kind of flagged for the legislators and say, hey, you know, you want to take another look at this and don't put us down the road where the state is.

You know, maybe purchasing additional IT resources that we don't have to have.

And, and let's take a look at that, that cadence.

And I should also note again in the budget, the federal budget reconciliation process, they were now suggesting a six month, cadence of checking in with Medicaid households, which would make it similar to what we're doing currently with Snap.

So a lot going on here.

We just want to make sure, you know, our workers are doing the frontline eligibility.

We want to make sure that the the burdens we're putting on the clients makes sense.

And and we've got the administrative resources to do what the state is asking us to do.

Would it save the state money, though, if you're catching people who are ineligible every quarter or monthly rather than six months?

I mean, that seems to be the overriding goal here.

Do you think there would be cost savings?

We think there would be.

You know, very, very minimal cost savings.

We feel like, you know, on the snap side where we're checking in with folks every six months.

The clients also have a requirement to come back to us, if there's been a major change in circumstance that affects their eligibility, they're told that upfront.

And, we're receiving alerts through the various third party databases.

If they don't report in there happens to be an overpayment, then, you know, we will go back and collect that overpayment.

And and they will possibly, be excluded from the program or become ineligible for the program.

And they're told that upfront.

So it's, you know, an entity, any of these administrative situations, it's a matter of balancing the resources with, you know, how often do you need to check in with a client?

We think the current state of affairs works pretty well.

It's been working for the state.

So we like to to keep that.

There's another provision in the budget that would trigger the end of Medicaid expansion for about 764,000 Ohioans as of this month's count, if the federal match for Medicaid expansion drops below 90%, Maureen Corcoran, who's the Medicaid director, told me on this show earlier this year that talks are still going on, that even if this does happen, that the trigger language stays in and the federal match drops, it wouldn't happen overnight.

People wouldn't just all of a sudden lose their Medicaid coverage.

What are your concerns about this language?

Well, you know, we are concerned about it because we do see that, you know, for that population that that needs Medicaid generally, there's no other available health insurance from the private sector.

And going on to the exchange, the federal marketplace is often very, very expensive.

And some of the additional subsidies that have been available there are being rolled back.

So they often don't have another option.

Basically for health insurance.

You know, in the end, the legislature will decide, you know, whatever it wants to do.

You know, I know this this has been a controversy for for many, many years.

Again, we just hope that legislators understand that there's for many of these folks, there's no plan B. I think through a lot of these discussions about changing Medicaid, Snap, these other programs, there's this prevailing narrative that there's waste, fraud and abuse in these programs.

And this is making these changes is the way to really get at that and find out where the problems are and save the state money.

Is there waste, fraud and abuse in these programs?

Look in any in any program benefit program, there's going to be, you know, a very few number of people who abuse it, who maybe aren't reporting, information timely as they should.

Our, our biggest issue on the, on the snap side is actually not anything that the clients are doing.

It's actually, criminal enterprises who are skimming, information off of a, off of the snap card.

So in the old days, we call it food stamps, right?

So that doesn't exist anymore.

What we have now is an electronic benefit card.

And, you know, for years, in the private sector or gas stations, folks would put in a skimmer and get the numbers off a card.

Well, the snap cards right now don't have a chip in them.

The private sector went to, you know, chips years ago because there's so much harder to, you know, for criminals to kind of crack their code and, and so what we've been seeing in recent years is an increase of that sort of thing, where, you know, the skimming takes place and the, you know, criminals will take the, the information off the card and use it at some bodega in New York or Chicago or what have you.

That's our biggest issue with fraud.

And so, there's proposals out there, basically to move the system to a chip card.

We are hoping that the federal government would do that.

So far, that hasn't happened.

It would cost the state of Ohio about $5 million, and there would be some federal match to that to move to a chip card system.

And I think that's the if you wanted one single best thing we could do right now to stop fraud in the Snap program, that would be it.

Move to a chip card and see how that gets implemented, because I think that would go a long way.

And finally, another narrative that I think a lot of people hear in this conversation is that, people who are receiving these benefits need to be working.

They need to be striving to get off these benefits.

The people that you represent, the people who are working in these county offices, is that a fair narrative from what you've heard from them?

Well, as I said, Karen, the, you know, the majority of folks in that Medicaid expansion population are working, there actually has been for many years a work requirement on the snap side for so-called able bodied adults without dependents.

And that's been in the law for quite some time.

They have a work requirement.

They can only receive, food assistance for three months out of a 36 month period, unless they can prove that they are working.

And again, what our folks are seeing is that's a population that often has, you know, they're very they're very transient.

They've often got barriers to employment, whether that's again, mental health, substance abuse issues, transportation issues.

They may be caregivers.

So we just want to be sure, you know, we don't disagree with that premise that, folks who can be working, you know, they should be working.

We want to be in a position to help them and give them the resources they need to make sure that, you know, they can find the job, keep a job, and that that's what we'd like to do at the county level is really take people, you know, who need help, get them a job, help them work up the ladder, you know, and, and we've got some programs, you know, to do that.

And, you know, we'd like to see those better funded.

Are your workers at the county level overworked, stressed out.

What's the workload like for those folks?

Well, I'm glad you asked because we're basically trying to run the system on on a lot fewer resources than we had maybe 15, 20 years ago.

The resources for the administration of job and family services were cut back in the 0809 recession.

They've never recovered.

So a lot of our agencies have open positions that they can't fill because of budget constraints.

And so, yeah, we've got a lot of agencies that are kind of stretched to their limit.

They're really pushing their staff with overtime and other means to keep up with all the folks calling in to, you know, to get benefits.

And, we'd like to get back to doing more hands on, case management work again, where we can really help people and, and kind of move Ohioans up that economic ladder.

But we need some more resources to do that.

Well, that's it for this week.

For my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Media.

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Support for the Statehouse News Bureau comes from Medical Mutual, dedicated to the health and well-being of Ohioans, offering health insurance plans, as well as dental, vision and wellness programs to help people achieve their goals and remain healthy.

More at Med mutual.com.

The law offices of Porter, right, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Porter Wright is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at porterwright.com.

Porter Wright inspired Every day in Ohio Education Association, representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools.

Every child deserves more at OHEA.org.