With Ohioans ready to change the state constitution to raise the minimum wage, Statehouse Republicans suddenly offer compromise: Today in Ohio (2024)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Senate Republican is pitching a compromise to a proposed constitutional amendment that could make the November ballot and raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour for all workers.

We’re talking about how the bill undermines the referendum, with a longer timeline and no mandate to pay tipped workers the full $15 an hour, on Today in Ohio.

Listen here online.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin, impact editor Leila Atassi 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 here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.

You can now join the conversation. Call 833-648-6329 (833-OHTODAY) if you’d like to leave a message we can play on the podcast.

Here’s what else we’re asking about today:

Here’s more proof that voters made the smart move on last year’s Issue 1, defying legislators who wanted to all but kill our ability to change the Ohio Constitution. Are Republicans suddenly in the mood for compromise on raising the minimum wage – something that they have opposed fiercely – because a move to change the constitution on the subject is headed to the November ballot?

Why might state legislators ask Ohio voters to lock down more than $2 billion in the state budget over the next 10 years, and what beneficial ways would that money be used?

The first full week of our Delinquent series concludes today, with five more weeks to come. Leila each week has a specific theme. What did the first week show?

When it comes to sports betting licenses, Ohio has a use-it-or-lose-it rule, meaning that if you get the license and don’t start a betting operation, you lose the license. So why does the state want to go soft on the Cleveland Cavaliers and the football hall of fame in Canton, neither of which have met the license requirements?

Cleveland has three big hospital systems in a market experts say cannot sustain that many, meaning at least one could eventually fail. University Hospitals’ latest annual financial report puts those predictions into some focus. What’s the bad news?

How much did Cuyahoga County spend on a jail management system that was never installed and is now obsolete, meaning it never will be used here?

Who’s the new head of Leadership Cleveland?

Why are some businesses asking people if they want to opt out of Mother’s day advertising?

Cleveland made the odd decision last year to pick an electricity aggregator from the southern end of the state, rather than use NOPEC in Cleveland. The aggregators help residents save money. It’s a year later, so is Cleveland sticking with its choice for another year?

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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.

chris (00:02.337)

And we come to the end of what seems like a very long week, but one with some beautiful weather. Let’s hope the beautiful weather is here to stay. It’s Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland .com and The Plane Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Leila Attasi, Lisa Garvin and Laura Johnston.

Here’s more proof that voters made the smart move on last year’s issue one, defying legislators who wanted to all but kill our ability to change the Ohio constitution. Lisa, are Republicans suddenly in the mood for compromise on raising the minimum wage, something that they have opposed fiercely, because a move to change the constitution on the subject is very likely headed to the November ballot.

There’s a bill in the Senate, Senate Bill 256, which was sponsored by Senator Lou Blessing, the Republican from Coleraine Township. This would extend the rollout of the $15 an hour minimum wage in phases until 2028 when it would take full effect. It also excludes tipped workers from the full $15 an hour. They would get half the value of the non -tipped minimum wage or $750.

This bill also offers a refundable tax credit to working class earners, which increases with the number of children that they have. But this is against the proposed ballot amendment, which may make it to the November ballot. That minimum wage would take effect in 2026, so about two years earlier than this bill. And it does include TIP workers. And some people think that just letting the ballot amendment roll through and let the voters decide is the better way to go.

The Ohio Restaurant Association supports this Senate bill. They said the slower rollout would give them time to adjust and then eliminating the tipped wage threatens small and independent restaurants, according to the association. Policy Matters Ohio on the other hand says they really can’t support this bill. They say tipped workers continue to be exploited. They don’t like the slow rollout of this program and the lack of constitutional protections, but they did commend the refundable in earned income tax credit.

chris (02:15.713)

You know what I love about this is Lou Blessing, who put this into law, says that this is very likely headed to the ballot and it very likely will pass. So he’s acknowledging that the majority of the people he’s supposed to serve want this to happen. And yet he and his colleagues have tried to block it at every turn. Now that it’s inevitable, they’re going, okay, how can we weaken it? How can we get something through that makes it not quite as bad?

And they’re catering to the restaurant association, again, the special interest over the Ohio majority, which wants this. I couldn’t believe he’s acknowledging it. Yeah, this is going to pass because most Ohioans want it. And yet they have refused to do it year after year after year. It’s it’s a perfect example of how this legislator is out of step with the people it serves. And like I said, clear evidence that we needed to keep the ability to change the Constitution with a majority vote.

Well, with a four -year rollout, that seems excessively long to me, and there’s a whole lot of things that can happen between now and then. The lawmakers might decide to do something different between now and then. But yeah, it looks like they are conceding finally to the will of the voters a little bit.

Well, go ahead.

I love Blessing’s comments that we haven’t had a lot of wins in the legislature lately, so we’re looking for a win. He acknowledged we keep doing things that people don’t want. We keep pushing things like issue one last year and then trying to keep people from the right to abortion or keeping marijuana just medical. And he’s like, this is going to be a win. I thought that was, I mean, prescient. Who doesn’t know that and admitted it?

chris (03:52.961)

It’s...

But it’s a win over majority. He’s basically saying our tyranny, the tyranny of our minority needs a win to defy what Ohioans want. This is this terrible.

I agree, but at least they’re going in the direction that people want.

No, I oh man, I think you’re being Pollyanna sheer. They’re trying to block this in some way, shape or form. The other thing is if they pass a law, they can pass another law tomorrow to get rid of it.

Mm.

Lisa (04:20.599)

Exactly, exactly.

That’s true. That’s true. It does seem though that they are acknowledging that we don’t want to have to resort to a constitutional amendment for every single thing that people want. I agree. It should be more what the people are asking for. And you’re right. Maybe we should go forward with a constitutional amendment anyway to get what people actually want. But I’m glad they’re looking and saying, oh, we’re not in step with the people here.

I don’t think you’re, I think you are putting rose -colored glasses on. They are looking at this saying, darn, the restaurant association doesn’t like this. How can we make it better for them? They’re trying to defy what the people want. I hope the constitutional amendment passes. It’s until we get rid of gerrymandering, until we get rid of this minority group that is lording its will over the majority of Ohio, government’s horribly broken. It’s never been more broken in Ohio than it is now.

That constitutional amendment process is the only thing we’ve got to rein these folks in.

But was anyone else surprised by how low the minimum wage actually is in Ohio? At 1045, I was like,

Lisa (05:27.479)

Yeah, and it hasn’t changed since 2006.

It’s poverty.

chris (05:31.745)

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

I thought it adjusted up. It was, it unlike the federal wage, which is seven something that the Ohio has built an inflation calculator and that’s why we’re at 1045. But, but I don’t know who’s actually getting paid 1040. You can’t hire a babysitter for 1045 and out.

They do.

chris (05:50.593)

When, when will this legislator sure start looking at what the people want and trying to serve them instead of trying to be the Lord and master? Everything about last year was meant to get around the majority didn’t work. And this, this is the good result of that. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Why might state legislators ask Ohio voters to lock down what could be billions of dollars in the state budget over the next 10 years?

And what are the beneficial ways the money could be spent? Laura.

So this is a public works program that Ohio has been doing since 1987, but has to ask voters for approval because it exceeds their borrowing capacity. Apparently, Ohio is only supposed to borrow $500 ‚000 at a time. And this is way more money than that because it’s infrastructure for cities and towns across Ohio. They can ask this Public Works Commission for grants or for loans with 0 % interest.

and they can be granted it for all sorts of programs. But it is a ton of money. Over the last 10 years, from 2014 till now, we’re talking about $1 .85 billion in projects, which still wouldn’t cover the cost of a new stadium for the Browns, but actually paid for thousands and thousands of projects across Ohio. So we don’t know when they’re going to go to the voters with this. It might be next year. It might be the year after.

but they do have to get voters permission to lock up that amount of money, whatever they decide to ask for, to commit it to a program in which then they could give it to the cities to help them improve their roads, bridges, and other infrastructure.

chris (07:29.409)

There’s not a tax increase, but what they do is they take a section of the budget and they pretty much lock it up. So these guys that are always talking about cutting taxes and things like that, this makes that more difficult, but it’s for an absolute good. We have very old infrastructure in Ohio, because we’re an older state and some of our cities are pretty ancient now, and bridges are falling apart and roads need help. So this is a great way to help.

local government get the job done. And I expect that it’ll be an easy vote for the voters to approve.

The last time it was about 65 % and you think that they just have to show people what they’re spending this money on. 21 -20 -22, according to the Public Works Commission, Cuyahoga County had $45 million for 35 projects, including nearly $10 million to replace Pleasant Valley Bridges and Independence and Valley View, $3 .5 million to rehabilitate West 65th Street, $2 .9 million for Barbary Drive and a couple others in Berea. So this gets spread around. This is not just going...

to one place, so it does seem to be a good for everyone.

Yeah, there is not an apparent bias. It doesn’t appear in the way it’s awarded. Everybody gets a fair shake at it. We have had our fair share of it in Northeast Ohio. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Well, the first full week of our delinquent series concludes today with five more weeks to come. Each week has a specific theme. What did this first week show?

Leila (08:59.886)

This week, we really wanted to introduce readers to the complexities of the juvenile justice system, because while punishment and accountability are the cornerstones of the adult system, the juvenile system is focused greatly on rehabilitation of young people who’ve been shaped by their circ*mstances and their upbringing and really have a great capacity for change. So with that in mind, the stories that we shared with readers this week set up that

dichotomy between rehabilitation and protecting the public. And we introduced the readers to some kids who ended up in prison after interventions failed or after falling through gaps in the system earlier in their lives and then going on to commit more serious crime. And on Monday, we opened the series with the story of Montori whose early life was full of trauma and abuse and abandonment, which are really common themes in the cohort of kids that we’re featuring in the series.

He ended up falling in with the wrong crowd in his Collinwood neighborhood. He spent a lot of time in treatment facilities that were designed for at -risk kids, but none of those programs ever really made a difference for him. And then he committed a shooting that injured two people. He was bound over to adult court where the luck of the draw signed him to Judge Daniel Gall, who sent him to prison for 10 years. And he’s now 23 years old and has been behind bars with adult felons since he was 17. And there he’s received no treatment.

that’s geared toward young people. He’s been exposed to a lot of violence in the adult facility that experts say make kids more likely to commit crime when they’re eventually released. But we see Montori maturing naturally, growing out of his young mindset and realizing how impulsive and reckless his behavior was in his teens.

Yeah, yeah, it’s a powerful introduction. And this series isn’t intended to say no juvenile should ever be treated as an adult. It really is trying to put a picture on are we doing this effectively. And it’s not just about the kid, it’s about the future for the community. If we have a chance to change the lives of a kid, that means down the road, he’s not a problem for the community.

chris (11:07.713)

If you can help somebody thrive, it really helps the community out later. Lesser crime, lesser costs of social services. So this is a wonderful kickoff. I’ve been saying all along, I think the story that’s coming Monday is the high watermark of this series, the most impactful story in it. And next week, we’ll start looking at how kids are automatically moved to adult court.

That’s right. And on Monday, you’ve said this is your favorite story. It’s the story of Efrain, who is a teen who was part of a scheme that ended in a non -fatal shooting, but he wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger. And prosecutors could have treated this case in a number of ways that would have kept him in the juvenile system within reach of those interventions. Oh, okay.

And no spoilers, no giving away too much. You want people to read it. Read Mondays. It will be enlightening. But there’s plenty of great stories ahead. I’m saying it’s my favorite, but there are a whole bunch that are great. The last two weeks should bring some people to tears.

And this will, our first week of content will be in print on Sunday, if you’d like to see it all laid out in one place.

And the reporters on this are Caitlin Durbin and John Tucker. It has wonderful, lovely illustrations by Andrea Levy. And Layla is the editor that oversaw the whole thing. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. When it comes to sports betting licenses, Ohio has a use it or lose it rule, meaning that if you get the license and you don’t start a betting operation, you lose the license. Makes sense, right? So why does the state want to go soft on the Cleveland Cavaliers?

chris (12:44.289)

and the Football Hall of Fame and Canton, neither of which have met the license requirements. Lisa.

Yeah, the current law says that a company can get wagering licenses revoked after one year if they don’t stand up that operation or take any bets in that time. But there’s a proposal now that the Ohio Casino Control Commission executive director gets to decide if unused licenses can be revoked. And so a spokesperson for the office says, well, this would be moving something that they must do as the executive director, so something they have the option to do.

So the Cleveland Cavaliers and Jack Thistledown Racino have not yet used their mobile betting licenses yet. They haven’t stood up an app or anything. And also the Hall of Fame Village in Canton has yet to open a physical sports book. They say they’re still looking for a partner to do that. Now there could be a slight economic disincentive for standing up mobile apps and getting, you know, using your license for that.

98 % of Ohio bets through February placed on apps were mostly on FanDuel and DraftKings. So there is kind of a lack of incentive for others to stand up a mobile app license. The license period runs for five years. Companies could theoretically sit on their license that long without losing it, depending on what the executive director of the Casino Control Commission says.

Because the number of these licenses is limited they out enforce the law there might be somebody else that doesn’t fear draft Kings and wants to try to Compete in this space unless we have competition real competition the consumer gets the short end of the stick I I don’t know why they would bend on this the rules are the rules. There’s a limited number There were a lot of people that wanted these licenses. Let somebody else try

Lisa (14:33.015)

Yeah, and it sounds like the mobile licenses aren’t as much of a problem as the physical sports book. Those are really limited and most of those licenses are already spoken for. Now, in fact, the Cleveland Browns have a physical sports book license, but they don’t have a physical sports book yet.

Yeah, it seems like they’re catering to some special interest here instead of pushing for the open market. We’ll see how this one ends up. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Cleveland has three big hospital systems in a market that many experts say cannot sustain that many, meaning at least one could eventually fail or merge or disappear. University Hospital’s latest annual financial report puts those predictions into some focus. Laura, what’s the bad news?

UAH had its second annual operating loss in a row. And these are big numbers. Operating loss of $256 million in 2023, that follows $302 million in 2022. And a lot of that, they say, is the MyChart system. Remember, they switched to that, and that accounted for $179 million in expenses. But the hospital says it’s starting to pay off because of

increased in efficiency and people are scheduling more appointments because they don’t have to go through the terrible phone system anymore. But it’s not the only one that’s suffering. Southwest General also had two bad years. Metro Health had an operating loss of about 20 million last year, but it wasn’t on the plus side the year before. But the clinic is making money.

I’m a long time UH guy and when my chart came in, I have to say it made things way more efficient. It’s way easier to get a doctor’s appointment. And I bet what they’re saying about the long -term benefits of that and cost savings are real. This will save time and bring a much greater efficiency. They said in the first week that they had my chart in, they had a huge number of people making medical appointments.

chris (16:34.369)

I think all of us, especially during the pandemic, were frustrated at how long it would take to schedule an appointment, how long you’d be in phone tree hell trying to reach somebody. So maybe they’re right. Maybe you get some pain up front to have cost savings in the long run. But it’s distressing that one of the big three has had two very bad financial years.

Mm -hmm.

laura (16:57.262)

It is distressing. And what they say is basically that providing health care is very expensive and that the cost is rising at a much higher rate than the reimbursem*nt they receive for the services. And as a consumer, you’re like, how is that possible? I just feel like every year the cost of our insurance goes up, the cost we pay out of pocket goes up. And you think, I mean, I’ve had this discussion lately with people that when you get bad news about something you have to do, either a treatment or a diagnosis or just a test,

Hehehehe

laura (17:26.35)

The first thing you think is, how much is this going to cost me? Your kid breaks an arm. How much is this going to cost me? It’s so crazy to me that the cost of health care is the first thing rather than your actual health.

Yeah, it is. It seems like having your hospital is a license to print money, but evidently not. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. All right, get ready to be outraged. This is the outrage story of the week. Leila, it’s yours. How much do Cuyahoga County spend on a jail management system that was never installed and is now obsolete? And how much did they spend after they were told it would never be installed?

This is nuts, right? Cuyahoga County wasted over a million dollars on the system, Chris. This was flagged in an investigation that was conducted by the county’s inspector general, Alexa Beeler. She told county council this week that she discovered that the county had paid $1 .1 million to Securis Technologies for this jail management program that they never used. It all started in 2016 when the county was looking for a company

to run the phones and video meetings for people incarcerated in the county jail. Securis submitted a proposal to run that communication service for the county, and it still does that today. But embedded in that proposal was also a proposal to implement a jail management system called X -Jail. Now, X -Jail is a public facing system that shows which inmates are housed in a jail system when they’re booked, what charges they face.

what their bond amount is and has mugshots. Other local governments have used this according to their website. Their proposal said that they would have XJL up and running in four months. For five years, this program stalled out. Then in November of 2021, five years after this contract was signed and one month before this long awaited plan was to go live.

Leila (19:30.478)

Securis told the county that they were gonna sunset support for ex -jail in 2024. So then the county decided they would just stick with their existing jail management system. But Securis kept charging the county a $15 ‚111 monthly fee for ex -jail until the inspector general’s office finally caught it in 2023. So the county paid $241 ‚778 to Securis.

after the county canceled its ex -jail program, which never was installed. The county is now working to recover that money, but county council members were aghast at learning about this. They were calling it waste and fraud. They wanted a deeper investigation to find out who on the county side is responsible for letting this disaster happen. And I kind of laughed out loud when I read one of the council members acknowledging that stuff like this is why the public thinks.

that the county is incompetent and can’t do anything right.

Well, I think it’s reason 2056 for why we need to go back to the charter government. An elected treasurer would not have allowed this to happen. Jim Erco*ckus would have caught this way earlier and said, what are we doing? Why are we paying these bills for nothing? They would have caught this way back in the beginning, but certainly when the contract is dead, they would have said, stop paying it. And here we are continuing to pay for a service we’re not getting. Good luck getting the money back.

No!

Leila (20:36.878)

Uh.

chris (20:59.969)

And I love the way they collected the money. They have the phone service contract. So they were just taking their cut before they sent the proceeds to the county. So obviously no one was auditing anything. And if we didn’t have an inspector general, we would still not know about it. This is outrageous. It’s bad government. It’s bad oversight. And I really, I think this new charter government in year, what is it, 13?

Yeah.

chris (21:25.281)

It’s a disaster. We should go back to the county commissioners. It did not have this level of incompetence. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. All right, Lisa, who’s the new head of Leadership Cleveland?

Her name is Rebecca Ruppert -McMahon. She will be the new president and CEO of the Cleveland Leadership Center in July. The outgoing CEO, Mary Ann Crosley, will stick around as an advisor during the transition. Crosley began in 2010 and she expanded existing programs and added several new ones, including the Advanced Leadership Institute and Legacy Leaders. So, McMahon is currently the CEO of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association.

Association and its foundation. She served on several boards, including the Legal Aid Society and First Federal Bank. She was also in the 2018 Leadership Cleveland class that was given by her her new employer. Board Chair Bill Castor says that McMahon is the ideal candidate to advance the Cleveland Leadership Center into the future and.

and AIDS rising professionals. This is a group of AIDS rising professionals and senior leaders and becoming more civically involved.

And for people to understand what they do, I went through Leadership Cleveland, I think the class of 2015, I was in it from 2014 to 2015. And there’s a lot of for newcomers, there’s a lot of stuff about the history of Cleveland, which if you’ve been here for any time, you know, but what it really does is brings a bunch of people who are leaders in the community, 60, 70 of them from business, from nonprofits, from all over the government.

chris (23:01.761)

and puts them together for a whole bunch of serious discussions and it builds a network. One of the reasons I think Cleveland has pretty good communication across all these is because of leadership Cleveland, because it keeps doing this. And most of the people in it are alpha dogs, right? They’re the kings of their domain. And alpha dogs don’t play well together. So the way they started out is with a weekend where you go off on a retreat and you do things like have spaghetti bridge competitions.

Mm -hmm.

chris (23:30.497)

all sorts of this nonsense that just knocks everybody right off of their ivory towers. They’re in the trenches doing the silliest nonsense you could think of. But that builds that camaraderie and then the serious work begins. So it’s an important Cleveland institution and the leader of it ends up with a Rolodex of the movers and shakers of Cleveland. I wish they would do more with it because I think they could galvanize much bigger movements toward

progress. We keep getting bogged down in this region with with nonsense and they have it. They have all these people that are in their Rolodex that would return their calls. They could do more. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Why are some businesses asking people if they want to opt out of Mother’s Day advertising? Laura, I got an ad from Nespresso saying if you’re traumatized by Mother’s Day, click here and we won’t mention Mother’s Day to you.

struck me as odd, but then you kind of got my face and said, no, no, no, this is hugely traumatizing. It’s very important. What’s it about?

getting in your face. I think this has been a trend for the last couple of years that Mother’s Day can be a really painful time for mothers whose babies have died or couples struggling with infertility or people who miss their own mothers, either who are estranged or their mothers have died. And customers don’t want to anger, or sorry, companies don’t want to anger their customers. So they offer this period of opting out because if you get stored emails and all of us do,

This is a time when you get a lot of them. Like, I can’t think of the number of things I’ve gotten, you know, buy this for mom. And it’s like, you’re sending it to me. I’m not buying it for myself. I guess I could buy it for my mother. But Megan Sims talked to the director of outpatient psychology at the Cleveland Clinic. She said the holiday can be very difficult. Her mother passed away 10 years ago and she remembers feeling really anxious and sad, especially that first Mother’s Day and that the holidays can be really tough.

laura (25:32.174)

I got, I think, only one of these emails that I can remember about opting out from Jenny’s Ice Cream, which is an Ohio company in this year. But I’ll take the Jenny’s. I’m not going to buy the Jenny’s Ice Cream. I’m not sure why I get Jenny’s Ice Cream emails. But there you go. What’s interesting is it does bring your attention to just how many of these you get every day. And you just click Delete, Delete, Delete. And you wonder why Mother’s Day.

It’s interesting, because it does clear that this is a common news that everyday it’s Christmas and Christmas. And if you wonder why Mother’s Day and not some other holidays, then you’re open to certain reasons. But this is a really tough time for me.

and not maybe some other holidays that can also be triggering for people. Christmas is a really tough time for people. I’m sure Father’s Day can be really tough. Why they’ve zeroed in on Mother’s Day.

Well, but I also think it’s impossible to avoid it. I mean, you try to avoid Christmas. Good luck with that. If you step out of your house, you’re surrounded by it. And anywhere you go in the month leading up to Mother’s Day, you’re going to see Mother’s Day messaging. Okay. So maybe you can stop it from coming into your mailbox and that has some effect, but the idea that you can avoid that messaging, not realistic at all.

Mm -hmm.

Lisa (26:34.871)

Yeah, not realistic at all. I mean, I don’t have a boyfriend on most Valentine’s Day. I’m not, you know, triggered by Valentine’s Day. Come on.

Yeah

You

Right. You can’t opt out of the world. You can’t. You can unsubscribe from any email at any time. You don’t have to wait for them to ask you. Just go in and unsubscribe.

Look, I’m... Right.

chris (26:52.545)

Well, no, but this is one where they’re these are emails you get, but they’re just saying you could keep up this message. Look, it threw me. I when I came to you with it and it’s like, this seems like it’s going to for I lost my mom less than three months ago. And as Mother’s Day approaches, I’ll be thinking about her. But but the messaging isn’t traumatizing me. But I get it. You made very clear that I didn’t understand and you provided some good examples. You did get in my face because I was kind of like, what is this? This seems too much. And you’re no.

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

chris (27:21.665)

you know Chris you need to understand for what’s going on here there’s some serious losses that people are bothered by and anything they can do to reduce that is probably important and I stood correct.

Well I think it I think also it’s a it’s a very thoughtful gesture that customers when it means something to a customer they’re going to remember that and so in a way it’s good marketing.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah, I once Laura set me straight, I could see it. I just it but I don’t think it’s possible to avoid the messaging altogether. That’s the part that is just never going to happen.

No.

Lisa (27:57.015)

We can’t just wrap everybody in cotton wool and expect them to be protected from the world. And every day, there’s a loss. People, every day means a loss for somebody.

Yeah, but I don’t think that these individual companies are trying to take it upon themselves to solve the whole problem for everyone. They’re just trying to be kind.

Yeah.

chris (28:17.025)

Yeah, I agree. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Cleveland made the odd decision last year to pick an electricity aggregator from the southern end of the state rather than use NOPEC up here in greater Cleveland. The aggregators help residents save money. It’s a year later. Leila, is Cleveland sticking with its choice for another year?

The city is indeed sticking with this choice of SOPEC for two more years. You’re right that this was an odd choice when they first decided to go with this aggregator because Cleveland was by far the largest city to use SOPEC services. And that made city council members kind of uncomfortable when it was happening. But it appears to be saving Cleveland, Cleveland First Energy customers money under Cleveland SOPEC rates between, I’m sorry, between last August and this July.

The average customer will have saved roughly $276 compared to the first energy default rates. Citywide, the savings will have amounted to about $12 million. So the city is re -upping this agreement because of that. Through July of this year, the default SOPEC rate for first energy customers in the city, which are backed by 100 % renewable energy credits, is 6 .302 cents per kilowatt hour, according to SOPEC.

Starting with the August meter reading and continuing through at least next summer, the default rate is expected to remain about the same. And if Cleveland didn’t have an agreement with SOPEC or another electric aggregator, customers relying on FirstEnergy’s default rates would be paying 11 .08 cents per kilowatt hour. So it’s been good.

This seems like less of a crisis than last year. Last year, the rates were going sky high and everybody was looking at big increases in their bills. They’ve come back to ground a little bit. So you can save some money, but this is not the crisis it was a year ago. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. That’s it for the news for this week. Thanks, Leila. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Laura. Come back Monday. We’ll be talking about the news some more and thanks for being with us.

Leila (29:54.798)

Right, right.