Saturday Stats
Posted February 10, 2024 in eNews
100%: All of the adult restrictions were removed from Governor DeWine’s proposed rules on gender affirming care. This is thanks to the tireless work of organizations like TransOhio, Kaleidoscope Youth Center and EqualityOhio, as well as many trans Ohioans and their families. Our Budget & Health Researcher, Kathryn Poe, told Ohio Capital Journal that they were “cautiously optimistic” for the future, adding that the rules are also “wildly unnecessary” for kids.
$26,000: Amount of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) a Parma business owner was told he had to repay due to a missed deadline. The Ohio Department of Job & Family Services (ODJFS) has begun sending notices to some Ohioans claiming they fraudulently received PUA and have to repay those benefits because they didn’t provide required identity documents. Zach Schiller, Research Director, talked to News 5 Cleveland about the need to be more charitable to those who received these benefits during such a unique time.
9: Number of states in the US with no income tax, unless legislators in Ohio are able to pass their newly introduced plan to eliminate the state income tax by 2030. Our Tax Policy Researcher, Bailey Williams, was featured on WOSU’s All Sides with Anna Staver to discuss why this would spell disaster for Ohio.
50+: Number of attendees that walked out of the Greater Cleveland Partnership’s Sustainability Summit in protest of keynote speaker Kaitlin Bergan, a representative of the multi-trillion dollar investment firm BlackRock. Molly Bryden, Climate & Sustainability Researcher, was among those who walked out and participated in a teach-in focused on an energy transition rooted in racial and economic equity, solidarity and justice. For more on this event, as well as a look at how Ohio’s clean energy transition is going (hint: not great), read Molly’s latest blog.
$13.15: Median hourly wage for child care workers. That’s according to an Ohio Capital Journal piece detailing the pervasive risks facing Ohio children if we don’t address the shortcomings of our state’s child care system. The article cited Kathryn Poe’s op-ed that appeared in the last edition of Saturday Stats.