Just before midnight on June 30, Gov. Mike DeWine signed Ohio's two-year budget. The budget includes an income tax cut for high earners and $600 million for the Cleveland Browns' new domed stadium.
In a victory for OCSEA members, the final state budget DOES include an additional $16 million over the next biennium for the Ohio Dept. of Rehabilitation and Corrections. OCSEA activists recently urged legislators to maintain DRC-requested funding, particularly to pay for the statewide deployment of tasers to all state corrections facilities. The union is working closely with DRC to push the deployment of tasers, among other initiatives to protect officers and address the problem of understaffing. Stay tuned for updates in these emails.
The state budget signing also included 67 veto items by DeWine. In another victory for OCSEA members, one of those vetoes was to remove legislative restrictions regarding remote and hybrid work. Nearly 1,000 OCSEA members wrote the governor over the weekend urging a veto on the restrictions, and it paid off! Some legislators are calling for an override session, but it is uncertain whether the General Assembly will have the numbers to call a session or to override any of the 67 vetoes.
Through the union activist email campaign, and in a letter directly to the Governor from President Mabe, the union argued that the legislative remote work mandate would negatively impact the entire state workforce. The legislative overstep could have eliminated effective telework options as well as erode collective bargaining and any future union negotiations over flexible work arrangements. Broadly, this legislation would have undermined the Governor's executive authority to manage the state workforce and remove managerial discretion to make operational decisions based on agency needs, staffing realities and evolving technologies.
In a related note, the next step in the union's statewide grievance regarding Return to Office mandates is arbitration. A mediation hearing was held on June 23. It’s OCSEA’s contention that management does not have the authority to eliminate or modify telework without negotiating with the union based on section 13.17 of the state contract.