Swearingen Supports Coronavirus-Response Legislation

State Rep. D.J. Swearingen (R-Huron) voted in favor of House Bill 197, which addressed many issue-areas affected during the coronavirus outbreak. The measure passed out of both chambers of the Ohio General Assembly. Swearingen spoke on the House floor regarding provisions on Ohio’s primary election.

“It is our duty as a legislature to set a date and a process by which Ohioans can quickly and effectively exercise their vote,” said Swearingen. “Though it is unfortunate that we will be unable to vote in person in this election, we will at least give the voters a process that has certainty to it in light of the uncertainty that the COVID-19 brings.”

The bill set the Ohio primary election process as follows:

- 2020 Primary Election – The primary election in-person voting was cancelled due to the public health crisis. Ohioans that were eligible to vote on March 17, 2020, will be able to cast their ballot by mail on or before April 28, 2020. Those Ohioans that cast their ballot early will have their vote count. The Ohio Secretary of State will mail all voters a postcard informing them on how they will be able to request their ballot by mail from their local county Board of Elections. The board will send them their ballot and a postage paid return envelope.

The emergency legislation passed under House Bill 197 addressed many other issues, including:

- Testing & Accountability – Eliminates state-mandated K-12 student assessments for the 2019-20 school year. It eliminates Ohio’s school district and school building report cards for the 2019-20 school year, prohibits ODE from assigning letter grades to buildings or districts, prohibits rankings based on report card data and creates “safe harbor” for schools and districts to ensure data from the 2019-20 school year will have no effect in determining sanctions or penalties. The proposal directs ODE to seek a waiver from federal testing requirements.

- EdChoice Scholarship – The bill freezes the 2019-20 performance-based EdChoice building eligibility list at 517 buildings for the 2020-21 school year. The legislation allows siblings of current voucher students to participate. Under continuing law, the EdChoice application portal will open for 60 days beginning April 1, 2020, to process income-based EdChoice vouchers, renewals of existing performance-based vouchers, and new students attending the 517 buildings already on the list. The bill prohibits expansion of the building list to 1,227 buildings.

- Tax Year 2019 and 2020 Changes - Ohio’s tax filing deadline will be the same as the federal filing deadline, July 15.

- Unemployment Compensation – Places Executive Order 2020-03D in uncodified law that accomplishes three things:

-Eliminates the work search requirement during a declared public health emergency;

-Eliminates the one-week waiting period during a declared health emergency; and

-Allows for benefits paid during a declared health emergency to be mutualized across employers.

The legislation also addressed other areas of concern including health care workforce support, child care access, and more.