COLUMBUS, Ohio — The 134th General Assembly features a number of newly-elected members of the House of Representatives and Senate. It also had a number of lawmakers switch from one chamber to the other.
Spectrum News spoke with one member from the latter category to get their perspective on a new role in government.
Sen. Bill Reineke (R-Tiffin) was sworn in to the Ohio Senate earlier this month after serving three terms in the Ohio House of Representatives.
Reineke represents the state’s 26th Senate District, which includes all of Union, Crawford, Marion, Morrow, Sandusky, Seneca and Wyandot counties.
“My district is about 100 miles north of here (Columbus) up to about 50 miles north of here. So, it’s kinda rural America, and I wanted to continue to advocate for that population,” saidReineke.
Reineke, who is a business partner in Reineke Family Car Dealerships, feels the best way to do that is by improving the state’s workforce development.
“If we can realign our student purpose, realign our school systems to match that up, eliminate this remediation rate, we can fulfill our workforce needs,” Reineke said.
Because Reineke said “brain drain,” or people leaving the state for another to pursue better professional opportunities, is Ohio’s biggest economic problem.
“It’s mostly a function of our job facilities and trying to reinvent the manufacturing world, trying to reinvent job creation world and I think we can do that. That’s my goal,” Reineke said.
Reineke’s Senate Republican colleague, George Lang (R-West Chester), said Gov. Mike DeWine’s handling of the pandemic has destroyed Ohio’s economy.
Reineke would not go there. He said he believes the science behind the virus but businesses need to be re-opened.
“I know that as a business person and most of the business people I know would never jeopardize their employees or their customers by doing something unsafely. So, if we’re doing all those things that we’ve been told to do, and that’s what really reduces the pandemic, I think that we should be allowed to be open,” said Reineke.
Therefore, Reineke, like Lang, would be in favor of legislative oversight of future health orders.
In the House, Reineke supported House Bill 305, which would revamp the state’s unconstitutional school funding model, but says he would need to see the specifics before signing on to a similar bill.
On House Bill 6, the taxpayer-funded bailout of two Ohio nuclear power plants, Reineke thinks it should be repealed and replaced because he says the crux of the bill is too important.
He also believes former speaker Larry Householder should resign.
Reineke said he will know he has had a good term four years from now, “If I feel like I’ve satisfied the needs of my constituents and I don’t want to sound trite on that but, again, I do feel the biggest thing I’ve been able to do is bring the government back to my district.”
Editor’s note: The last line of the article has been corrected, reflecting a change from “two years from now” to “four years from now.”
