Will Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine live up to his word and end the state’s constitutional crisis?

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine said he’s taking the lead on a fourth Ohio legislative map, after the Ohio Supreme Court rejected the third.

DeWine is finally suggesting having Democratic and GOP mapmakers “work together,” following the Supreme Court’s instructions. We’re talking about his promises on Today in Ohio.

Listen online here. See the automated transcript at the bottom of the post.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editor Leila Atassi, editorial board member Lisa Garvin and content director Laura Johnston.

You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up for free by sending a text to 216-868-4802.

Here are the questions we’re answering today:

Our reporter Laura Hancock did a deep dive last week on the failure of the Ohio teachers pension system to provide cost of living increases since 2017, and lo and behold, the pension system announced an increase Thursday. How much?

How does Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine plan to fix the Constitutional Crisis that has crippled the Ohio election system because of gerrymandering by his Republican colleagues on the Ohio Redistricting Commission?

How much money is Intel spending in Ohio on semiconductor education and research as it sets about building a huge factory outside Columbus?

What happened this week a cynical move in the Ohio Legislature to help commercial property owners avoid paying their fair share of taxes, putting higher bills on homeowners.

We continue to wonder how much money Cleveland must refund to people who worked from home instead of inside the city boundaries, and reporter Sean McDonnell has some early numbers. How much has been paid back so far?

One way to measure the wealth of a community is to look at the median family incomes, and reporter Zachary Smith has done with Ohio cities. Where is that number high? Where is it low? What are the highlights in Greater Cleveland?

What remarkable benchmark did MetroHealth this week in the pandemic that is in its third year?

Joe Biden’s team put out its plan for consolidating, closing and opening new Veterans Administration facilities based on changing population patters, and we learned Thursday what that means in Akron and Cleveland. Are we growing or shrinking here?

An almost nondescript building on Carnegie Avenue was in Cleveland this week, identified as the warehouse where massive amounts of drugs were coming into the city from Mexico. It’s in the Midtown neighborhood, which is bursting with investment but still has plenty of signs of years of decay. We asked real estate writer Eric Heisig to tell the story of this building. What did he learn?

We have an Apple podcasts channel exclusively for this podcast. Subscribe here.

Do you get your podcasts on Spotify? Find us here.

If you use Stitcher, we are here.

RadioPublic is another popular podcast vehicle, and we are here.

On Google Podcasts, we are here.

On PodParadise, find us here.

And on PlayerFM, we are here.

Read the automated transcript below:

Chris: [00:00:00] It’s today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the plain dealer where we pride ourselves on telling the truth and offering perspective. We keep growing by leaps and bounds. You get a lot of good feedback, but with that comes the occasional person that doesn’t want us to tell the truth and wants us to issue propaganda, not going to happen.

We’re here for a reason, right? Platforms are the citadels of free speech. I’m Chris Quinn. I’m here with Lisa Garvin, Layla Tassian lard Johnston, and I got to see all three of you in person for the first time in ages, Lisa, we hadn’t been in the same room since the Merrill endorsement interview. It’s wonderful to see you.

Wasn’t it a great

Lisa: day. Oh my God. You couldn’t ask for more perfect weather and everybody was so happy to be.

Laura: I got to meet Lisa for the very first time person.

Leila: I can’t believe that was the first time you guys crossed paths. Yeah,

Laura: it was really cool though. The whole newsroom was full [00:01:00] that the windows were clean.

We saw the parade and it was just, it felt like a really good

Chris: day. Yeah. I mean, it just, it’s good to see people face to face before the next variant comes and went off the mask up and cancer. Anyway, let us begin with our truth. Telling our reporter Laura Hancock did a deep dive last week on the failure of the Ohio teachers’ pension system to provide cost of living increases in 2017.

Well, I wouldn’t behold, the pension system announced an increase thirsty. How much Layla

Leila: they’ll be getting a 3% cost of living adjustment later this year. And that’s the first time since, like you said, 2017, the board of the state teachers retirement system, which is known by the acronym, stirs approved the increase at its monthly meeting Thursday.

And the rays will show up on retirees pension checks on the return. And on their retirement anniversary date, starting on July 1st, which I think is the start of their fiscal year. The board also included in its [00:02:00] resolution, a statement saying that it would consider additional increases in the future. It was, the board was originally planning to consider a 2% increase, but the pensions actuary said the fund could afford 3%.

So they opted. For that because of inflation and to give retirees more because there’s no guarantee of yearly increases in the future. And also the resolution eliminated the requirement that teachers have to be 65 years old to retire, which was put in place in 2012. You still have to have 35 years of service.

But if you achieve that at a younger age, you’re eligible for retirement. So all of these positive developments, as you say, On the heels of Laura, Hancock’s remarkable reporting a couple of weeks ago, shining that light on the problems with the management of the teacher’s pension fund.

Chris: Well, Laura actually came up to see the St Patrick’s day parade.

Cause she’d never been in the newsroom for that yesterday. And I was talking to her and I said, my gosh, you should go to percentage. And she’s saying, she, you know, she’s very, very cool. [00:03:00] They were working on the 2%. Although if you read her story, they were hostile, but they, she said they were working on a 2%, but she will take the credit for the third percent that they gave.

I mean, if you go back and read her story, that the STRs people were not all fuzzy and warm, the most amazing part of this. They couldn’t come up with a custom living increase in the most robust investment market we’ve ever had. If you can’t come up with investment returns, these last five years, you really don’t know what you’re doing.

Although I do take issue Layla with that, these are all positive reforms. One of the reasons they have trouble is they let people retire when they’re 55 or what. That’s ridiculous. You should not be able to retire till you’re 65. That’s what pension systems are designed on. I’ve never understood the whole public pension retiring when you’re, you’re still a kid.

Yeah.

Leila: Yeah. But 35 years in Edie system is quite an, you know, you’ve, you’ve paid a lot of dues at that [00:04:00] point. So I don’t know. Yeah, I got 41

Chris: years in ours and I have no intention of retiring yet. I’m not even close. So I’m, I’m just not buying it, throwing the flag. I think that was a weak move. Yeah. You know what?

Leila: The teacher tier two teachers who were running for seats on the stairs board, and they released a statement saying that, you know, one taught when a one time cost of living adjustment. Isn’t good enough when the teachers have gone. So, you know, so many years without one. So, uh, so they’re, they’re kind of saying.

Not not, you know, it’s nice, but not quite, not quite there. Um, so it looks like the fight is continuing

Chris: tip of the hat to lower Hancock. I just,

Lisa: I hate to be Debbie downer, but you know, unfortunately, because of inflation, these Cola raises. I may just end up just evening out. You know, it’s not like they’re really going to benefit a whole lot from this because of inflation, which isn’t, it’s not keeping pace with inflation in other words.

Well, no,

Chris: especially since they didn’t get one for five years, they’re falling [00:05:00] away way behind. It was inexcusable how this has played out and Laura’s story raised some very good questions about the management of that fund. Uh, so. Uh, this is all good. And we didn’t do that story just because we thought of it.

A whole lot of people ask us to do it. And then Laura delivered the most fully considered piece I’ve seen, uh, to, to bring it together. And then they give the 3% raise. Um, you’re listening to today. How does Ohio governor Mike DeWine plan to fix the constitutional crisis that has crippled the Ohio election system…