Fowler Arthur, Thomas address chamber members

GENEVA — The Greater Ashtabula Chamber of Commerce Advocacy Committee hosted State Rep. Sarah Fowler Arthur (R-99th) and County Auditor and State Rep.-elect David Thomas (R-65th) for a discussion Tuesday afternoon at LakeHouse Inn Retreat.

The discussion included the overview of the district lines for Ashtabula County and policy updates for the Ohio Legislature in 2024.

“We like to give access to the membership of all types of organizations to our elected officials,” said Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Greg Church. “We appreciate David and Sarah being willing to give their time.”

 
The discussion started with Thomas going over updated maps for the district lines for Ashtabula County that will be effective Jan. 1 as representative for the 65th District and Fowler Arthur’s 99th District.

“In Ashtabula County, we’re split about 50-50 population-wise,” he said. “I’ll pretty much have everything south of [Interstate] 90, minus part of Harpersfield and Trumbull townships, plus I have the city of Geneva and Kingsville.”

Fowler Arthur added that she will have, “Everything north of 90 except for Geneva Township and Kingsville.”

Fowler Arthur is serving her fourth year in the legislature, with 10 years experience as an elected board member in Ohio’s State Board of Education.

“We’re supposed to have our feet firmly grounded in the community that we’re living in so that we can relate to the people that we are making laws for,” she said. “With the background that I have [running two businesses] that I can more fully represent any concerns and needs that you’re bringing to the table. A lot of my legislation has been K-12 education related.”

Fowler Arthur said that she’s recently been working on occupational licensure reform.

“Our bill just passed the Ohio House and is now in the Ohio Senate,” she said. “We are expecting this current bill addresses the last one-third of occupational licenses that have never been reviewed ... that includes everything from electricians, barbers, everything. We want to make sure that we are being competitive for new licensees, that we are being incentivizing to keep people who are already licensed in the field here in Ohio and working on the tax reform side to make sure that you keep more of your hard-earned money in your pocket. We reduced the state income tax three and a half percent, but unfortunately with inflation you probably didn’t notice.”

Thomas was elected auditor in 2018, and was formerly the Austinburg Township fiscal officer.

Thomas will remain in his office in Jefferson until Dec. 31, and the county commissioners will appoint an interim for a short period of time until the Ashtabula County Republican Party appoints the successor for the remainder of the term until 2026.

“We are hoping to announce that very soon,” he said. “It will be a good transition.”

Thomas said his priority has been and remains on property taxes.

“You can only spend so much time where you say we will contact your state rep or this is a state issue until you want to actually change that policy yourself,” he said. “It’s a huge issue right now for us, in our county as well as in Trumbull ... 2026 will be another update year for both counties and I’m warning everyone that values are only going up and the market is only increasing. This problem is not going away. The current legislature has been the most unproductive since the 1950’s. Having a new legislature coming in next year ... we are all excited. Hopefully the next cycle will be the most productive.”

Thomas said he will also be focusing his efforts on agriculture and on energy policy.

“Here, I think energy is big in terms of reliability and cost,” he said. “In Trumbull County, the Mahoning Valley is becoming that electric-focused manufacturing area. Energy, reliability and resources will become crucial in the next couple of years.”

Fowler Arthur added that this has already been a big discussion since we are in an energy consortium.

“I don’t want to have the power going out and people not having electricity or heat in the middle of a snow storm,” she said. “Unfortunately, some of our surrounding states have passed legislation that is shutting down their power production. Since we are in a consortium, we have an obligation to provide what they are not producing.”

Chamber members voiced some of their concerns.

Ashtabula Arts Center Marketing and Public Relations Director Amanda Frazier said that her organization is concerned with the potential harmful impact of proposed federal policy changes and the impact it will have on arts organizations.

“Project 2025 is calling for the dismantling of federal agencies, among other actions,” she said. “One federal agency that matters a great deal to the arts center is the National Endowment for the Arts. We’ve received funding from the NEA for decades.”

Fowler Arthur said in the recent capital budget, the Ashtabula Arts Center is receiving some of the appropriation for the infrastructure.

“Historically, you are talking a federal proposal,” she said. “That’s going to depend on who is going to who is office federally and reaching out to the Congressman and State Senators. We are happy to pass on those concerns, but you also should reach out directly.”

Fowler Arthur said in terms of one-time federal dollars, we are going to see some “belt-tightening” across the state.

“For public-private entities, I encourage you to work on your private fundraising side,” she said.

Thomas said the more state control that we can have the better.

“You always have to weigh the strings that come with federal dollars in certain programs,” he said.

Michele Merkel, President at Junior Achievement of Eastern Ohio, said that they are currently fulfilling the Senate Bill 1 (SB1) mandate for financial literacy requirements for their schools and school districts.

“I’m expecting that it likely will be passed and signed into law by the end of the year,” Fowler Arthur said. “No one really is opposed to teaching those concepts ... it’s more of a question of how and the intent of the language.”

Kent State’s Trumbull campus Dean and Chief Administrative Officer Bill Ayres brought up JobsOhio and the future of economic jobs and workforce development.

“The conversation across the state has been driven in terms of what kind of workforce do we need for the future,” he said. “The Governor has talked a lot about this ... I think Intel investment has woken up a lot of folks. We need some education beyond high school. JobsOhio had an idea in the spring they were calling ‘Ohio Technician Promise,’ where they would invest some funds into supporting Ohio learners who wanted to go and get Associate Degrees or technical credentials. This could be from community colleges, regional campuses and technical schools. That was a really exciting conversation until that disappeared. I’m intrigued to see where this conversation goes next and what will the new legislator think about how we can help shape the workforce in Ohio.”

Thomas said when he recently toured Youngstown State University’s campus, they almost showed completely just the technical workforce component.

He added that from a cultural perspective, it seems like we’re getting on the right footing.

“Not everyone has to go to college ... there are other options out there ... I know A-Tech for example, with their expansion coming up, is an exciting thing for us in our county.”

Fowler Arthur said in the past four years, she’s seen more partnerships between higher education and career-tech education.

“Before, you had to pick either or and it was emphasized strongly that you needed a college degree to be anything worthwhile,” she said. “We’ve re-centered back to who we really are as individuals and said no ... if you want to go to college that’s great and we have some great opportunities, but you shouldn’t have to, to get a job. I know you have a great working relationship with A-Tech and I know we have a lot of other business partners with A-Tech. [A-Tech Superintendent] Scott Wldugya has really taken that to new levels. Making Ashtabula County’s career-tech offerings and college pathways for students who want to pursue it ... we are really moving forward. I think that going forward there’s going to be a greater emphasis on the partnership side.”

Fowler Arthur pointed out that when you have 40 to 50 percent of the population who have student debt with a job that isn’t paying for their experience, it’s an issue. She said that there will be an ongoing discussions at higher levels to address these challenges and to ensure that our educational systems meet the evolving needs of future students.