The Buckeye Institute commented on newly released employment data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, saying, “Ohio remains where it was in July—with an unemployment rate of 5.4 percent and nearly 250,000 private-sector jobs below its pre-pandemic level—albeit with tens of thousands of Ohioans back in the labor force,” and urging policymakers to “implement systemic reforms to Ohio’s tax system and its regulatory scheme, and adopt innovative, pro-growth policy solutions” to make Ohio a more attractive place to live and work.

How did states alter the landscape of policing and broader criminal justice issues in 2020? Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute and author of a forthcoming Federalist Society report on criminal justice reform in the states, joins Caleb O. Brown, host of the Cato Daily Podcast, to discuss recent trends in state-level criminal justice reform.

The Buckeye Institute filed its appeal with Ohio’s First District Court of Appeals in Schaad v. Alder—a case challenging the constitutionality of Cincinnati taxing the income of nonresidents who did not work within the city of Cincinnati due to the pandemic. “The Buckeye Institute is confident that the Court of Appeals will follow recent Ohio Supreme Court precedent and recognize that when it comes to taxing nonresidents like Mr. Schaad, cities can only tax work that was actually performed within their borders.”

In the Dayton Daily News, The Buckeye Institute looks at how the pandemic continues to impact Ohio’s school children, families, and businesses and recommends that policymakers “build and reform existing child tax credits to make early child care and education more affordable.” “Big government has made life and child rearing more expensive, and families with young children do need help. But that help should come with more choice, not less, and with more tax relief, not higher taxes driven by more government spending.”

The Buckeye Institute filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court of the United States in Carson v. Makin calling on the court to make clear—as it has in many other cases—that it is a violation of the U.S. Constitution to deny students and their families financial aid that is available to all other students just because that family chooses to use their aid to send their child/ren to a religious or “sectarian” school. “Such restrictions violate the U.S. Constitution and cannot be allowed to stand.”

The Buckeye Institute issued a statement on Ohio’s decision to appeal the Biden Administration’s decision to withdraw approval of Ohio’s Medicaid work and community engagement requirement waiver. “if successful, [this appeal will] benefit the thousands of healthy, able-bodied individuals who will remain connected to the workforce, gain new skills and valuable work experience, and—as The Buckeye Institute’s research shows—will find better job opportunities and earn more money throughout their lives.”

In The Lima News, The Buckeye Institute highlights how Ohio’s new Afterschool Child Enrichment Education Savings Account Program will help parents afford desperately-needed resources to improve their children’s educational outcomes. “[S]tate policymakers...have recognized the educational challenges that families face—and the financial burdens that those challenges can pose. To help, state leaders have expanded school choice options to reach more students and families, offering them more than a one-size-fits-all, hand-me-down approach to public education.”

The Buckeye Institute, in partnership with National Right to Work Foundation, filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio on behalf of Kimberlee Warren, a Cuyahoga County Court probation officer who is asking the court to help her recover dues that the FOP—a union Ms. Warren never joined—illegally took from her paycheck. “There is no question that Ms. Warren never joined the union. But that didn’t stop the union from taking dues out of her paycheck—an act that violates Ms. Warren’s First Amendment rights.”

The Buckeye Institute released a new policy report, Policy Solutions for More Innovation: A Policy Primer for Emerging Technology in Ohio, which outlines guiding principles and 25 actionable policy recommendations that policymakers should adopt to ensure that Ohio can take full advantage of the economic benefits and the improvements to quality of life that come with advances in technology. “Emerging technologies have a lot to offer Ohio—better pay, better jobs, better healthcare, better transportation, better education, better lifestyles.”

The Buckeye Institute commented on newly released employment data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, saying, “Ohio’s private sector has added 50,000 jobs this year...Simply put, more Ohioans are working, and the number of new jobs is climbing. Despite this positive report, Ohio needs to add nearly 250,000 private-sector jobs to get back to its pre-pandemic levels, and unless job creation accelerates in the second half 2021, Ohio is still a long way from seeing a full recovery.”