Benefit cuts won’t improve system solvency and will hurt workers, businesses and communities, Policy Matters testifies.
For immediate release
Contact: Hannah Halbert, 614.221.4505
Full testimony
Download release
Today Policy Matters Ohio urged the Joint Committee on Unemployment Compensation Reform, a committee addressing system solvency, to avoid cutting the number of weeks of unemployment insurance available to Ohio workers. (read more)
Cutting unemployment is wrong direction for Ohio
↧
↧
Report shows damage from housing crisis continues
Ohio foreclosure filings decline, but remain substantially higher since housing crisis.
For immediate release
Contact: Amanda Woodrum, 330.780.8321
Full report
Download release
The number of foreclosure filings in Ohio last year dropped to less than half the number at the peak of the housing crisis in 2009, but the level remains unacceptably high and Ohio should take immediate (read more)
↧
Investment in childcare benefits families, communities
Report says Ohio childcare funding still falls short despite improvements.
For immediate release
Contact Wendy Patton, 614.221.4505
Full report
Download release
Ohio should increase funding for public childcare so more working families can make ends meet and communities can enjoy the economic benefits, a new Policy Matters Ohio report says.
Ohio’s funding for public childcare has improved but still (read more)
↧
October’s spooky job numbers
Ohio jobs decline for a third month, labor force shrinks again
For Immediate Release
Contact: Hannah Halbert 614.397.6080
mailto:hhalbert@policymattersohio.orgDownload JobWatch
For the third consecutive month Ohio has lost jobs. The state lost 2,800 jobs in October, according to data released today by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS). Gains in production (+6,400) did not offset losses in (read more)
↧
Judge blocks overtime, deals blow to workers in Ohio, across country
More than 12 million workers nationally and 351,000 in Ohio would stand to benefit from new overtime threshold
Download press release
In a blow to more than 12 million American workers, including 351,000 in Ohio, a federal judge has blocked implementation of an overtime rule set to take effect on December 1. The new rule, issued by the Department of (read more)
↧
↧
Policy Matters names Caitlin Johnson communications chief
Johnson previously worked as an organizer, funder and journalist
For Immediate Release
Contact Amy Hanauer
216.361.9801
Caitlin Johnson, a former community organizer and journalist, is the new director of communications at Policy Matters
Ohio.
Johnson most recently led environmental justice campaigns in Cleveland and the Ohio Valley for the Ohio Organizing Collaborative (OOC). At OOC, Johnson formed Communities United for (read more)
↧
Unemployment compensation bills would cut benefits
New bills would reduce the maximum number weeks of benefits from the current 26 to a sliding scale.
For immediate release
Contact: Zach Schiller, 216.361.9801
Download release
New bills introduced in the Ohio General Assembly today overhauling the unemployment compensation system would cut benefits for jobless workers. While some of the draconian measures in an earlier bill have been (read more)
↧
Policy Matters Ohio submits testimony against Installment Loans in Senate Bill 355
Kalitha Williams argues bill exposes Ohio consumers to risky installment loans
Contact: Kalitha Williams, 614.221.4505
Download press release
Download testimony
Senate Bill 355, the Enact Consumer Installment Loan Act, opens the door to dangerous installment loans — the latest iteration of payday lending, according to testimony submitted by Kalitha Williams, policy liaison at Policy Matters Ohio, to the (read more)
↧
Unemployment Overhaul is Unbalanced
House and Senate proposals lack an equitable pathway toward solvency.
For immediate release
Contact: Zach Schiller, 216.361.9801
Read testimony
Download release
Jobless workers should not have to pay 83 percent of the cost of making the unemployment compensation trust fund solvent, but that is exactly what is proposed in legislation moving through the Ohio General Assembly, House Bill 620 (read more)
↧
↧
Unemployment compensation overhaul halted
Policy Matters Ohio pushed for the bill to be delayed
Press statement
For immediate release
December 5, 2016
Contact: Zach Schiller, 216.361.9801
Policy Matters Ohio is pleased that House Bill 620, the bill that would overhaul Ohio’s unemployment compensation system mostly by cutting benefits for jobless workers, is not moving ahead. Rep. Louis W Blessing III, chairman of the (read more)
↧
Agreement reached on unemployment compensation
Talks in ’17 of key parties to decide on solvency
Press statement
For immediate release
December 6, 2016
Contact: Zach Schiller, 216.361.9801
Download press release
Policy Matters Ohio is happy to see talks next year involving key stakeholders affected by the state’s unemployment compensation system will determine how to make it solvent. Until Monday, bills were moving through the (read more)
↧
Policy Matters slams slew of dangerous lame duck bills
Proposals threaten state agencies, pre-empt local worker protection, harm consumers
For Immediate Release
Contact: Zach Schiller
216.361.9801
Several bills moving quickly in the Ohio General Assembly’s lame duck session threaten local governments, state agencies, workers and consumers, according to the think tank Policy Matters Ohio. The group urged that all these bills be opposed.
Changes in Senate Bill 331 would (read more)
↧
Review of tax breaks is a positive step
Bill creates a committee to review the state’s 128 tax breaks every eight years.
For Immediate Release
Contact: Zach Schiller, 216.361.9801
Download press release
The Ohio General Assembly today approved a bill that will for the first time bring a regular review of the nearly $9 billion in annual state tax breaks for businesses and individuals. Policy Matters Ohio (read more)
↧
↧
Policy Matters report finds loss of “5 of 8 rule” will further harm students
Ohio lost more than 3,000 educators in the decade before ending minimum staffing requirements
For immediate release
Contact Victoria Jackson 216.502.7172
Download report
Download executive summary
Download press release
New research from Policy Matters Ohio shows last year’s controversial elimination of the “5 of 8” rule further strains the state’s already stressed public school system.
Until 2015, the State Board (read more)
↧
New Policy Matters’ budget button provides quick budget basics
New “budget watch” links directly Policy Matters’ latest analysis of Ohio’s tax and budget issues
For immediate release
Contact Wendy Patton
614.221.4505
Download press release
Download report
Policy Matters Ohio’s web page will make it easier to find information as the 132nd General Assembly debates the budget for fiscal years 2018 and 2019. A “budget watch” button will take you (read more)
↧
Ohio reverses course and adds some jobs in November
Growth still sluggish, tax and budget policies have not spurred promised economic boom
Contact Hannah Halbert
614.397.6080
Download JobWatch
After three consecutive months of job loss, Ohio reversed course and gained 9,100 jobs in November – just barely recapturing previously lost jobs. Despite the welcome news, over the past year Ohio’s .9 percent growth lagged behind the national average of (read more)
↧
Ohio local governments lost $1 billion since 2010
Policy Matters report calls for increases to Local Government Fund
For immediate release
Wendy Patton, 614.221.4505
Download report
Download executive summary
Download press release
Ohio could improve the quality of life in communities and boost statewide competitiveness by restoring funding for local services, according to a new issue brief from research institute Policy Matters Ohio.
For more than a (read more)
↧
↧
Flat tax would make most Ohioans pay more
New report shows top 1 percent would get a big break on state income taxes
For immediate release
Contact: Zach Schiller, Policy Matters Ohio, 216.361.9801
Jenice Robinson, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, 202.299.1066 x 29
Full report
Infographic
Download press release
If Ohio’s General Assembly flattened the state’s tiered income tax to a single rate of 3.5 percent, (read more)
↧
Eyes wide open: January news from Policy Matters
Ohio policymakers have made moves to cut funding to schools and local communities, reward the wealthiest, threaten unemployment compensation and more. Policy Matters is there every step of the way to explain what’s happening, block bad ideas when we can and promote a vision of a better Ohio. Some recent action:
Education Policy fellow Victoria Jackson examined the troubling decline (read more)
↧
ACA repeal threatens healthcare for 1 million Ohioans
Ohio hospitals to lose $15 billion by 2026
Contact Wendy Patton
614.221.4505
Press release
Press conference
Full report
Executive summary
Repealing the Affordable Care Act would jeopardize healthcare for nearly 1 million Ohioans, saddle Ohio’s hospitals with $15 billion in costs and drain $3.5 billion from the upcoming state budget, according to a new report by Policy Matters Ohio.
As (read more)
↧
More Pages to Explore .....
