Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, wants to outlaw selling intoxicating hemp products at retail outlets in Ohio.
Huffman has proposed legislation that prohibits hemp products that are not sold in marijuana dispensaries from marketing the products as marijuana. He and other legislators have raised concerns about the safety of these unregulated products. Huffman also said he wants to ban smoking marijuana in public places and in moving motor vehicles.
“I don’t want to sit at a ball game and have my 10-year-old daughter smelling marijuana,” he said.
Sen. Kyle Koehler, R-Springfield, said he is working hard to pass a bill that would provide a refundable tax credit to businesses for past health insurance mandates imposed by the state legislature.
Koehler said about a decade ago state lawmakers passed a bill that requires Ohio employers to provide health care coverage for autism to people on the spectrum who are enrolled in their health insurance programs. He said this bill will help businesses with labor costs.
“When we did that we promised employers that we would address tax relief for them,” he said. “We never did.”
Rep. Desiree Tims, D-Dayton, said she plans to work on criminal justice reform, including “banning the box.” Ban the box policies remove questions about criminal history from initial job applications.
“If you can be the president of the United States with a felony, you can certainly be a cashier,” she said.
Tims also said she also expects to work on legislation focused on workforce development.
Rep. Phil Plummer, R-Butler Twp., said he wants to pass a bill that will make the criminal penalties for murdering a peace officer, prosecutor, first-responder or military member life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.
Plummer said about eight officers have been shot in Ohio in the last month.
“It’s out of control,” he said. “We need to get back to a respect for responders.”
Plummer also said he is working on a bill to increase the penalties for trafficking fentanyl.
Rep. Andrea White, R-Kettering, said she is trying to get a bill passed that would require Medicaid and health benefit plans to cover medically necessary biomarking testing.
Biomarking testing is laboratory method that uses a sample of tissue, blood or other body fluid to check for certain genes, proteins or other molecules that may be a sign of a disease or conditions like cancer, says the National Cancer Institute.
White said she’s also very concerned about artificial intelligence. She said kids needs to learn critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, but AI threatens to do all the work for them. She wants to find a way to address this problem.
Rep. Brian Lampton, R-Beavercreek, said his top priority is to pass a litigation funding transparency bill that would help businesses with tort reform.
He said there are large corporate investors who are investing in lawsuits, which is wrong. The proposed legislation would prevent third-party funders from influencing legal decisions and ban foreign-based litigation funders from operating in Ohio, says the American Tort Reform Association.
“It’s causing all of our insurance rates to go up,” Lampton said. “It’s causing all of our costs to go up.”
Rep. Tom Young, R-Washington Twp., said he is pushing for higher education institutions to offer accelerated degrees, like a three-year or a one-year degree.
“We’re working on accelerated degrees where parents and family don’t incur a tremendous amount of debt in four-year colleges,” he said. “We’re working out the details.”
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