Axios Columbus

July 02, 2025
What's up? It's Wednesday.
☀️ Today's weather: A foggy morning, but otherwise sunny, with temperatures maxing out in the 80s.
🎵 Sounds like: "Got Money" by Lil Wayne featuring T-Pain.
🎆 Situational awareness: It's time to start making your fireworks viewing plans. Here's a helpful list of events from WSYX-TV.
Today's newsletter is 780 words — a 3-minute read.
1 big thing: Inside Ohio's $60 billion state budget
Gov. Mike DeWine backed a tax cut for wealthy earners and sports stadium funding — while nixing his party's attempt to reform school property taxes — with the signing of a new two-year state budget earlier this week.
Zoom in: The budget bill passed with Republican supermajorities and no Democratic support.
Some highlights:
💵 A new "flat tax." Anyone earning over $26,050 will pay an equal 2.75% income tax starting in tax year 2026. Previously, those making above $100,000 paid 3.5%.
- Legislative analysts predict the state will lose over $1 billion in revenue.
🏈 Browns funding. A new stadium in suburban Cleveland will receive $600 million, funneled from Ohioans' unclaimed funds — and $400 million will go toward other projects statewide.
- The Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority wants some of it to pay for Nationwide Arena renovations, per the Dispatch.
👶 Sharing is caring. A new child care cost-sharing program got $10 million, though state care overall was flat-funded.
🩺 Medicaid coverage threatened. Over 750,000 Ohioans will lose Medicaid coverage — those insured by the program's expansion under the Affordable Care Act — if federal match funding dips below 90%.
- A transition plan would assist them toward "private insurance subsidies or charity care programs."
Between the lines: The governor didn't get everything he wanted.
- Lawmakers threw out DeWine's proposed $1,000 child tax credit for kids under 7.
- And they opted against his plan to pay for a new Browns stadium by doubling the sports betting tax.
Yes, but: DeWine vetoed 67 provisions in the budget lawmakers sent him.
Those include:
📚 Library crackdown. Public libraries would have had to place material "related to sexual orientation or gender identity or expression" out of sight of minors.
- DeWine says "strong" existing obscenity laws should be enforced instead.
🏫 School tax reforms. Lawmakers wanted to do away with several kinds of property tax levies and limit how much reserve cash districts could carry year-over-year, among other changes.
- DeWine called the levies "important tools," and noted that limiting reserves might result in districts seeking tax levies more often, not less.
- What we're watching: DeWine noted "the great need for property tax reform in Ohio" and said he'll convene a working group "to ensure this critical topic is given the attention deserved."
🗳 School board elections. Lawmakers wanted candidates to campaign with political party affiliations, but DeWine says nonpartisan boards have "served the interests of students and communities well."
What's next: Lawmakers can override vetoes with a three-fifths vote upon returning from summer break.
2. Some odd budget items
Many obscure things are tucked inside the new 3,156-page state budget.
What caught our attention:
🐝 Bee lovers are buzzing. A $5 registration fee per apiary is no more.
🐷 Pork barrel spending? A new "Pork Marketing Program" will promote the industry — but only if the national program ever goes away.
💀 Death and taxes. Ohio's burial permit fee is going up from $3 to $10.
🏒 Student slap shots. Kids who attend a school without a hockey program can play on another district's team.
💍 "I do, guvnah." Current and former Ohio governors can now solemnize marriages.
✅ A quick spellcheck. The budget corrects an Ohio Revised Code misspelling of "tayassuidae," a family of pig-like mammals.
- Avinav Prem Anand would be ashamed.
3. Nutshells: Your local news roundup
🎻 The Columbus Symphony failed to raise $275 million for a new riverfront music hall by a June deadline, but the city has granted it a two-year fundraising extension. (Dispatch)
⚖️ Adam Coy, the first Columbus police officer to be convicted of murder in the line of duty, will be sentenced July 28.
- A judge denied his request for a new trial. (WOSU)
🏙️ Columbus City Council adopted a resolution Monday supporting another phase of "Zone In" zoning changes to encourage development, plus the creation of a new land use policy to guide the process. (WBNS-TV)
🧯 A Blacklick family is raising awareness about grill fires ahead of July Fourth, after an unattended smoker destroyed their home earlier this year. (Spectrum News 1)
4. 🚗 Yes, Columbus drivers are worse-than-average


A record-high number of Americans are traveling over the holiday week, according to AAA.
Why it matters: Be careful out there. Columbus drivers crash more frequently than the U.S. average, per Allstate claims data.
Threat level: Our drivers typically go about 8 years between collisions, compared to a national average of over 10 years.
Caveat: The data is based on where drivers live, not where crashes occur, and it only includes incidents resulting in property or collision damage claims.
- Minor fender benders that go unreported aren't captured.
The bottom line: If you've ever thought, "Wow, Columbus drivers are really bad" — or something a little less cordial — this data backs up your inkling.
Thanks to Tyler Buchanan for editing today's newsletter.
Our picks:
⛱️ Alissa bought a new patio picnic table and umbrella — and hopes the humidity cools off enough to actually use it.
👶 Andrew is on paternity leave.
😤 Tyler plans to veto several items in his household's two-year budget.
Sign up for Axios Columbus






/2021/10/15/152744-1634311664775.gif?w=3840)
