Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter and writes from Ohio University.
Hard to imagine, but one of winner in Ohio’s proposed $3.7 billion construction budget, Senate Bill 450, is a cause without any lobbyist besides statewide popularity in communities big and small: pickleball.
More evidence, were it needed, that the General Assembly’s GOP budget maestros, House Speaker Matt Huffman, of Lima, and Senate President Rob McColley, of Napoleon, have their ears to the ground, personifying a saying popularized by Democratic U.S. House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill Jr.: “All politics is local.”
Ohio’s public schools remain underfunded, homeowners overtaxed; and electric companies own the Statehouse: but the pending, two-year construction budget, to be passed before July 1, offers $200 million in heart-balm to Hometown, Ohi-a, in what are called “community projects” – the kind of construction that features local ribbon-cuttings for state legislators.
So much pickleball and chickenfeed
And the bill, as it now stands, has at least 14 separate appropriations for pickleball courts or their improvement, hither and yon, an evident response to pulse-taking by General Assembly members.
Is the money chickenfeed? Yes.
All told, it’s just under $2 million – a dust-speck in terms of the overall, two-year $3.7 billion construction plan. But it’s an interesting take on what legislators hear at the barber shop, the beauty salon or hometown meetings of national service clubs.
According to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association a few years back, “Counter to some preconceived perceptions … the average age of a pickleball participant is 35, while the age group with the most participants is 25-34. The 18-24 and 65+ age groups were tied for the second highest most participated [sic] age group.” So, we’re not talking geezers here.
Heart-warming (in the civics-book sense) as this legislative responsiveness may appear to be, if doesn’t make up for (a) the butchery the already passed operating budget (House Bill 96, signed last June 30 by Gov. Mike DeWine) did to what had been a national praised public library funding, or (b) for the continuing failure by the legislature to address skyrocketing property taxes.
There’s nothing wrong with promoting healthy recreation, though that’s usually local governments’ job. But when a pickleball court in towns like those Ronald Reagan once called South Succotash is opened or rededicated after a spruce-up with state help, you can bet the local legislator will be on hand for applause, and maybe feel-good video on local TV.
But the next time a school levy fails, she or he will be in Columbus cooking up new ways to harass gender minorities or making it harder to vote.
The soil bean belt
MEANWHILE: Often forgotten, too often, is that there are Democratic voters in rural Ohio, though the common “wisdom” is that many of those voters were lost long ago – and permanently – to Republicans.
Similarly, common “wisdom” is that rural Ohio sent Democrats to the Ohio House only because of Vern Riffe’s gerrymandering (which was child’s play compared to Ohio Republicans’ current antics).
But history suggests that, given the erratic games President Donald Trump’s been playing with America’s China trade, swatches of Ohio agribusiness have been stressed, especially in the soybean market.
Ohio ranks from fifth to seventh among states in soybean production.
The Wall Street Journal reported June 2 that China has “pledged to buy 25 million metric tons of soybeans from American farmers’ 2026 harvest as part of its commitment to the Trump administration … China bought 12 million tons of last year’s crop, below its typical 25 million to 30 million tons.” But what Trump. & Co. agree to doesn’t always stick.
In 1982, when Democrat Richard F. Celeste beat Republican Clarence (Bud) Brown Jr., for governor. Celeste carried almost a dozen nominally Republican counties in Ohio’s portion of the Corn Belt. And in 2006, Democratic winner Ted Strickland did almost as well there.
Now, with Dr. Amy Acton, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, and Vivek Ramasamy, the GOP’s, it appears Democrats are waging an 88-county campaign.
That makes enormous sense given, just as one example, the closure threats rural Ohio hospitals face from Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.
Every Ohio Republican in Congress, including appointed Sen. Jon Husted, of Upper Arlington, voted “yes” on Trump’s bill, though it’s Main Street, Ohio, they’re supposed to represent, not the White House’s madcap tenant.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter and writes from Ohio University.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: As schools fall apart and taxes soar, lawmakers focus on pickleball |
Opinion
Reporting by Thomas Suddes, Columnist / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Thomas Suddes, Columnist | USA TODAY Network
