The 132nd General Assembly is off to a good start, but we still have most of this legislative session ahead of us. With that in mind, the Ohio House Republican Caucus recently released its policy platform—The Buckeye Pathway—a member-driven document that outlines our priorities as members introduce and consider legislation over this term. The Buckeye Pathway will serve as a road map, rooted in conservative principles and focused on three tenets: improving Ohio’s economic environment, enhancing opportunities for all Ohioans, and strengthening families and communities.
Under the leadership of House Republicans, Ohio’s economic climate has steadily improved since the Great Recession, but we have more work to do to ensure continued growth. Improving the state’s economic environment encompasses a variety of issues. With the perspective that government does not create jobs, but instead shapes policies that nurture an environment of job growth, we will work to address these issues. Our priorities include generating greater tax certainty and a stable tax structure, promoting regulatory fairness, and modernizing infrastructure, among other initiatives. By streamlining these areas, we can support Ohio’s economy to make our state a better and more affordable place for people to work and live.
A strong economy lends itself to better opportunities for all Ohioans, but the House Republican Caucus is committed to ensuring that our future generations have an equal chance to succeed, regardless of their different goals and aspirations. By encouraging a strong educational foundation through investment in quality-measured early childhood education, our caucus strives to better prepare our children for future educational development. On that note, in today’s ever-changing world of technology, it is important that there are multiple pathways to degree attainment and workforce training for the jobs that need filled in the market now. While we endeavor to decrease the cost of obtaining a post-secondary degree, the caucus promotes policies and programs that better enable students to pursue their career goals, like College Credit Plus and the enhancement of workforce skills.
A successful individual often transitions into successful families and communities. The family is the foundation of society, and ensuring that Ohio’s families and communities are prosperous and healthy is vital to our state’s outlook. Through the Buckeye Pathway, the caucus will prioritize the issues of several segments of our population—our rural communities, which are the backbone of our state, our aging population, and our local governments. Additionally, we have rolled out initiatives to be smart on crime and enact sentencing reform and reforms to our criminal code. Lastly, the most pertinent matter affecting our families and communities is the heroin and opioid epidemic. Through the HOPES (Heroin, Opioids, Prevention, Education, and Safety) Agenda, we will continue to address this crisis through policies that foster prevention and treatment.
Utilizing the three objectives of the Buckeye Pathway, the Ohio House Republican Caucus will deliberate policies that help provide Ohioans with a better quality of life. There are many issues concerning a variety of subject matters to address, but at the end of the day, my goal as Speaker is to advocate for an agenda that better positions Ohio and its citizens for greater happiness in all aspects of life.
