COLUMBUS, Ohio — Republicans in the Ohio Statehouse can't stop their infighting, which in turn is putting community investment projects all over the state in jeopardy. Ohioans have been hopeful that proposals like the Cleveland land bridge, U.S. soccer stadium and a renovated airport would be accomplished under the House's spending bill; the Senate has other plans.
We don’t just report the initial story—we follow through to its conclusion. Read and watch our previous reporting on this story below and see more stories that we've followed through on here.
Getting from downtown Cleveland to the Lake Erie shore can be difficult. Locals have to cross the highway, railroads and bluffs.
The Cleveland land bridge project is a perfect solution, said Grace Gallucci with Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency.
"In addition to being able to better access the lakefront, the lakefront would be able to be accessed in a safer way," Gallucci said.
The North Coast Connector, the pedestrian bridge being proposed by city leaders, has been talked about for years. It would allow locals to safely travel across — and above — the rail tracks.
"It's really to benefit people to improve their overall quality of life, but it will have definitely an impact on tourism," Gallucci said.
And her dream could come true. House Finance Chair Jay Edwards (R-Nelsonville) announced the lawmakers would be giving $20 million in funding to construct the pathway.
The money comes from the one-time funding aspect inside their spending bill, House Bill 2. It came from the state's excess General Revenue Fund, a surplus in money coming from previous years.
"Mayor Bibb and... the executive council and Cleveland, the County Commission worked very hard," Edwards said. "It was their number one priority."
The Ohio House passed H.B. 2 as part of the capital budget proposal — which includes $700 million in one-time funds for community projects. The House and the Senate agreed that each chamber would get to decide on half of it — or $350 million, according to Edwards.
"It was also agreed upon at that time that our $350 wouldn't be touched by them," Edwards continued. "Their $350 wouldn't be touched by us — they get to spend their $350 however they want."
The legislation also passed $1.65 billion in other bondable appropriations — totaling about $2 billion.
In plain English: the projects slated to receive the $1.65 billion are typically in the capital budget — however, the House Finance leaders wanted to get the projects done before the full and extensive capital budget comes out.
But there’s a problem.
House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) and Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) continue to fight about seemingly everything since the fall.
The spending bill is no different.
Senate Finance Vice Chair Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) said he didn’t approve of any of the House's proposals, nor did he know about their process.
"I can't explain why they were taking that position," Cirino said. "There was no deal — there is no deal."
From talking with numerous high-ranking Republican senators, all have said that they never agreed not to touch the House's half, meaning all of these projects could be dead.
News 5 reached out with questions to Senate Finance Chair Matt Dolan (R-Chagrin Falls) about the process, but he did not respond.
After the House passed their version in a bipartisan fashion, Huffman released a statement to his chamber.
"The Senate will continue to follow its timeline announced in December for this year’s Capital Budget process which includes the additional $700 million for the One Time Strategic Community Investment Fund, with the goal of both chambers passing a single agreed upon bill later in May or early June," Huffman said.
Stephens seemed annoyed at the president's claims — and addressed the memo to reporters after the session in which the bill passed.
"It was widely published that the House was going to deal with $350 million, the Senate was going to deal with $350 million — which is exactly what we did," Stephens said.
That isn't true "at all," Cirino argued back. Senators learned of the "supposed deal" from seeing news reports quoting Edwards and other representatives.
"There is no deal and we're going to go through the normal Senate deliberative process of entertaining requests from constituents and organizations, discussing them internally," Cirino said.
Supporters of the land bridge are worried about the House not getting their own chunk — because in the last budget, the representatives put money in for the land bridge, but the Senate took it out.
"It has not gone through the process of the Senate having our version of the capital budget and the community special budget," the senator said. "We're talking about a lot of money and a lot of projects."
Huffman and Cirino also seemed to take aim at the House for barely having public testimony on H.B. 2 before it passed. The House published their bill around 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday evening. In the morning, and after testimony from the bill sponsors, it was passed out of committee. A few hours later, it hit the floor and passed.
"Approving a large spending bill without additional debate would be irresponsible and an abdication of the duties of the Senate," Huffman said. "Normally, both chambers work together to create an agreed upon bill. For unknown reasons, the House chose to break from that process."
Click here to read the full Senate memo.
The Senate president may have said that the House broke away for "unknown reasons," but Cirino has an idea.
"The House is trying to take advantage of this for the primaries, of course," he said.
Huffman is expected to challenge Stephens for House speakership next January. He has a faction of supporters within the House currently, and candidates have told News 5 that Huffman has helped support their bid to knock out the Stephens' team incumbents.
This has led to the House lawmakers focusing on their March primaries, instead of Ohioans, Cirino added. House leadership has denied this.
Edwards said the reason why the House moved ahead of the Senate was because the other chamber wasn't "ready with their projects." The Senate finance leadership asked the House to put their projects and money up now, he said.
In a seemingly rebuttal memo, House leadership sent a letter to the rest of their members this Wednesday addressing the debacle. It was signed by Stephens, Edwards and the rest of the House Majority Leadership.
The memo starts by reminding the members that the House passed hundreds of millions of dollars in investments in its version of H.B. 33, the operating budget.
"While the House believed HB 33 was the appropriate vehicle to spend these one-time dollars, the House agreed to table the projects as a result of negotiations during conference committee," the letter continued. "As a result of these negotiations the One-Time Strategic Community Investment Fund was created. These investments were well-vetted and designated for House projects."
The letter seems to assert that the concessions from the operating budget was when the agreement to divvy up the $700 million was made. This was echoed by House Finance Vice Chair Jeff LaRe (R-Violet Township) after this story was published.
“I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the budget conference committee. We were able to come to a solid consensus and build a brighter future for Ohio. I was proud the House was represented by both Chairman Edwards and me nearly every time. We appreciated Chairman Dolan’s approach," LaRe told News 5 via text statement.
The budget conference committee must only have three lawmakers in the room at a time per legislative rules. Typically each chair is present and the vice chairs switch off. LaRe's comments seem to suggest that Cirino was absent.
Cirino argued back.
"The final budget was blessed by the Speaker and the Senate President and the President says there was no deal. So does Dolan. LaRe and I alternated being in the room. If there was a deal the President, Senator Dolan and I would know along with our budget team," the senator responded, also via text.
Back to the memo: Stephens' letter also shares how the House was purposeful and transparent in its timeline, to "ensure money is readily available for the beginning of the summer construction season," as Edwards had told reporters.
"Numerous local leaders and organizations across Ohio are excited about this opportunity and the future," leadership said.
The memo continues that the legislation is thoughtful and time-sensitive — like projects to build schools.
"We look forward to the Senate voting on their $350 million portion of the One-Time Strategic Community Investment Fund and negotiating the traditional capital bill to get these bills across the line. We believe the sooner this is accomplished, the better for Ohio," the leadership wrote, doubling down and addressing the other chamber head-on.
Click here to read the full House memo.
That being said, Cirino is generally supportive of the land bridge, but he needs to see how the numbers work out. He is specifically trying to keep the Browns in Cleveland, and the Haslam family really wants the land bridge.
"Moving the project forward does require funding," Gallucci responded.
Meanwhile, the Democrats are sitting back and watching this unfold. Both Senate and House Dems say this is just a political performance — coming at the expense of projects for Ohioans.
GOP drama
Stephens has two major infighting problems: the Senate and his caucus.
The speaker and Huffman make polite jabs at each other during press gaggles, but behind the scenes, they seem content with not working with each other.
For example, the Senate passed a proposal dealing with marijuana policy — restricting marijuana possession, lowering THC levels and making it more expensive. The House refuses to take it up because they believe the Senate is "going against the will of the people."
The Senate passed S.B. 83, a controversial bill overhauling the higher education system. House leadership has continued to let it stall, saying there are problems with it — angering Senate Republicans.
The House passed the previous operating budget in a bipartisan manner as they did with the portion of H.B. 2. However, the Senate basically decimated the House's proposal last year — causing them to go into conference committee for an extended amount of time to bargain for their needs.
Huffman is expected to challenge Stephens for House speakership next January. Candidates have told News 5 that Huffman has helped support their bid to knock out the Stephens' team incumbents.
Click here to read more about the Republican infighting that has plagued the Statehouse.
Meanwhile, while all of this is going on, the chambers are behaving well with their colleagues of the other political party.
The House members have worked across the aisle on major policy proposals, such as each budget this General Assembly and marijuana regulations.
The Senate Republicans and Democrats have also been getting along with each other, supporting the same marijuana policy and even having joint press gaggles.
Stephens' other problem is the faction of Republicans who feel scorned nearly 14 months after their chosen representative lost speakership.
The Republican caucus had previously chosen state Rep. Derek Merrin (R-Monclova) as their speaker months before the full House vote. Twenty-two Republicans (known "affectionately" by the other faction as the "Blue 22") and the Democrats voted for Stephens for speaker during the actual vote, while the majority of Republicans voted for Merrin. Stephens, still a conservative, is significantly more moderate than Merrin.
The anti-Stephens faction has been relentless in fighting Stephens at every opportunity — informing him, mainly on social media, that they aren't very fond of him.
Currently, Merrin Squad leaders are suing Stephens and allies due to his control of the money inside the House GOP campaign fund.
RELATED: Ohio Republican infighting drama continues as lawsuit filed against House speaker
Not only is Stephens being forced to go to court, but some Merrin faction members stand up in every single House session to try to speak. Stephens has steamrolled over them each time.
The most recent example was when Merrin yelled "what a coward" during a session because Stephens wouldn't hear amendments or thoughts on H.B. 2.
More than a dozen red districts got no money or under $500,000 total. Stephens' rivals say this was a plot to hurt them because they didn't vote for him and have rejected him as speaker since.
"It rewards Democrats & 22 Republicans with tens of millions of dollars, but leaves table scraps for the Republican majority," tweeted Stephens rival state Rep. Brian Stewart (R-Ashville). "It appropriates $0 to 16 [sic] Republican-voting counties while every Democrat-voting county swims in cash."
Stephens said he wouldn't let the rivals speak because they were being "ornery," meaning combative, and actively working against sitting incumbents getting reelected.
"Every county is affected in this bill," he said, citing that the public works section gives money to paving roads. "To say that 'no, some of those counties didn't have anything in this bill' is just not accurate."
The bill passed the House 75-19, with some members who spoke out against it voting in favor — such as Merrin.
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