As he heads into second term as Ohio’s governor, Mike Dewine looks back at 2022 as the “year of Intel,” securing the launch of that $20 billion dollar plant outside Columbus.
“But it was not just Intel,” said DeWine. “Other companies coming into Ohio, looking at Ohio, we're creating more jobs every day, and we have people fill them.”
“We have to continue to really focus on high school kids to make sure that they have many pathways…certainly to your colleges for some, but also pathway maybe into the trades, a pathway into working with manufacturing companies in high tech, manufacturing,” said DeWine.
When it comes to schools, the mental health of students will be a major focus. The legislature just approved a $150 million bill to get more people in and stay in the mental health field. DeWine said it’s one of the issues he heard the most about from state educators.
Anchor Adrian Whitsett sat down with the DeWine a few days before Christmas to talk about this past year and what lies ahead for Ohio in 2023:
DeWine: One thing they said was, we've never seen so many behavioral problems at so young and age and mental health problems that we're seeing with these kids. So we have to react to that. We have to try to be in front of that. And we have to understand that that is occurring in classrooms, all across the state of Ohio.
Whitsett: No one's found the solution.
MD: Well, there's no, there's no easy solution.”
AW: When you look at Intel specifically in the huge boost that it will be to the economy here in Ohio, what else are you looking for? What's the next innovation? Is it “we know the chips are coming here, they're going to be manufactured so now we've got to figure out a way to get more electric vehicle chargers?
MD: Well, Ohio historically has been a state that we make things. We're a manufacturing state, we're state of inventors. And I think that what we're seeing in the world is a company saying “look, I gotta be close to my supply chain.” I think that all is advantageous for the state of Ohio. We're picking up a lot of these companies that are moving, we're picking up a lot of these companies that are that are expanding. And we're in a good position. We have a very good business climate in the state of Ohio, we have relatively low taxes, regulation. And we're a state, frankly, that is on the move. This is our time…it's a great opportunity for us to capitalize fully on that opportunity.
AW: The first jury trial in the Pike County massacre just wrapped. You were Attorney General, at the time. Can you sort of explain what you saw and felt as the sentence was handed down earlier this week for George Wagner?
MD: Well, my thought always, in regard to the Pike County murder case, goes to the families. I've gotten to know some of the family members. I've talked with them on numerous occasions. I was able just to express to them my gratitude for what they have done, they've been patient. You know, they have persevered now for six and a half years. And they're getting closer to full justice. You know, I don't believe that this will end their sorrow or, you know, this idea of closure I never really accept. But, you know, they're closer. They're one step closer to justice. And I think that's very important.
AW: Do you have any specific things that you want the legislature to try to focus on? I know that there's a separation there but they obviously take some cues from the governor.
MD: Well, you know, we had an agenda actually in the lame duck session. And one of the things I'm very proud of is the legislature did appropriate about $150 million to focus on two different causes that we had in regard to mental health. You're gonna see a budget that I think is very future oriented. The one time I told the legislature, look, I'm going to ask you to invest in money…where you may not see the results overnight. In other words, you invest in a 2, 3, 4-year-old you're not gonna see the full results of that for a number of years, so we're going to continue to invest in our people. We're gonna continue to invest in the future. We're gonna continue to focus on education, mental health, and bringing jobs to Ohio. I get excited every time we get close to landing another company coming to Ohio in light of the opportunity, you know, I'm on the phone with CEOs, and we're talking about, you know, all the things that we can provide them in Ohio. So that's the exciting part of the job.
AW: We had a spate over the course of the last year of young teens who are involved not only as victims of gun violence, but perpetrating gun violence that doesn't seem to be slowing.
MD: Police, sheriffs, prosecutors tell me they're seeing violent crime among a younger and younger group of people. And that's very scary…and we end up with a lot of innocent victims, not just in Cincinnati, but in every city in the state of Ohio. One is help. We ask the legislature to appropriate hundreds of millions of dollars for local police departments, they have done that we're getting that money out and the local police department is deciding you know exactly how to spend that money. But in the majority of cases, they're expending it, spending that money on retaining or acquiring new police officers or cruisers, always coming back to the people who are on the street, people who are on the road. Second, we have put a real emphasis on making sure that all outstanding felony warrants are in the national database. One of the things that shocked me when I became governor is to find that only 5% or 6% of those are going into a national database. What's that mean? Someone in Ohio, somebody in Cincinnati, is charged with a violent crime. And they take off and they end up in Kentucky. If that if warrant not been put into the national database, the Kentucky officer who pulls that person over, the Indiana officer pulls that person over has no idea. Information is vital for a police officer just like it is for anybody else. But it has life or death consequences for a police officer.
AW: What are you most looking forward to for 2023? Other than maybe the Bengals winning (the Super Bowl)?
MD: Well, I am hoping for another trip to the Super Bowl. We had a great time up until the last couple of minutes late in the game. Bengals are an exciting team to follow. And it's an exciting year. For me as governor, I'm looking forward just to the opportunity to continue to focus on things that I know matter to people on education, mental health, infrastructure. That little bridge, built across the Ohio River, all of those things are things that matter to the quality of life and opportunities of families That's really what you know, I'm going to remain focused on.
