Rep. Riedel addresses nuke power bailout

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

State Representative Craig Riedel was in Van Wert this week to purchase some animals at the Junior Fair Livestock Auction and to provide a legislative update to members of the Van Wert Rotary Club.

Riedel, who is in his second term representing the 82nd Ohio House District, which includes all of Van Wert, Defiance, and Paulding counties, and a portion of Auglaize County, first talked about the state biennial budget, which was passed back in July.

The state representative said that he first voted “no” on the budget bill because it didn’t include a deduction allowing small business owners to not pay income tax on their first $250,000 of income. That was later corrected in the Ohio Senate, Riedel noted.

The state legislator noted that the budget includes a record $675 million for K-12 schools, but Riedel said the Ohio General Assembly still needs to fix the state funding formula. The budget also provides new graduation requirements that will be effective with the class of 2023, he said, noting that the budget also includes $20 million for schools to purchase school buses — money that hasn’t been in the budget for approximately a decade, Riedel noted.

There is also more money for Ohio technical colleges and Ohio College Opportunity grants, as well as more money for local governments and libraries, as well as money to improve rural industrial parks.

He also noted that the state includes $3 billion in its rainy day fund, adding that he’d like to see some of that money refunded to Ohio taxpayers.

The budget also includes $172 million over two years to fund the H2Ohio program, which works to improve water quality in the state, including funding for septic tank and Lake Erie water quality projects. There is also money for farmers to create nutrient management programs.

Riedel also talked about House Bill 6, which provides money for Ohio’s two nuclear power plants, as well as continuing restrictions on wind energy projects.

The state legislator said he voted “no” on the bill, mostly because he believes electrical power generation should not be subsidized.

“Electrical generation is a deregulated market in Ohio, it’s been deregulated for over 20 years, and I believe in free and open competitive markets,” Riedel said, noting that he also does not oppose wind development, but does not believe in giving power projects subsidies. “I believe that in a deregulated market, we’ve made some bad decisions here.”

The legislator also noted that there is a statewide effort to put an issue on the ballot to would provide a referendum on whether to throw out HB 6.

Riedel said he is also working on a compromise measure to fix the state’s workers’ compensation program, as well as a bill that would require state agencies to eliminate two regulations for every new regulation they create.

Finally, he also addressed pending state gun control bills, noting that 17 gun bills have been introduced in the General Assembly that would provide some restrictions on guns. Noting that he is a gun owner, Riedel said he has some concerns about “red flag” laws that call for the removal of guns from a household for a number of reasons, as well as with some background check measures.

“I can tell you that I don’t believe there’s going to get a lot of appetite to make any major changes in our gun laws,” he said. “We have a lot of gun laws already on the books.”

One measure Riedel said he does like is one that would provide resources to county clerk of courts offices to allow them to enter background check information within 48 hours of receiving it, and to also add information on protection orders and some arrest orders in the database.

“It’s going to cost money, but I’m okay with that,” he said. “I’m okay with spending some money if it’s going to save somebody’s life.”