Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday he wants to get a bond issue before voters this November to secure long-term funding for H2Ohio, the state’s multi-agency clean water initiative DeWine established seven years ago.
That’s since he is not sure to what extent the next governor will back or fund H2Ohio’s extensive work on Lake Erie and on wetlands elsewhere, he said. Water quality scientists tell him the full results will take years to show their effectiveness.
The issue is likely to get a nod in his final State of the State remarks, scheduled to be delivered Wednesday from the Ohio House chamber—whose leader has already thrown cold water on the idea in the House.
House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said Wednesday morning the two have discussed getting bonds for H2Ohio on this year’s fall ballot
“I don’t think we’re going to do that,” Huffman told reporters. “The governor, of course, has the right to make his case, and maybe he’ll talk about that, maybe he won’t. That’s a conversation that he and I had recently.”
That was news to DeWine.
“Well, he hadn’t told me that,” he told reporters. “So we will see. H2Ohio has been very, very successful.”
DeWine hasn’t yet set a dollar figure. His funding request last year was $270 million.
But the final version of the two-year state budget, which DeWine signed June 30, instead gutted funding to one of his earliest initiatives as governor. Under House Bill 96, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency were given much less money in 2026 and 2027. The cuts totaled about 40% of H2Ohio funds, according to budget data.
In 2021, Sen. Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green) and former Sen. Kenny Yuko (D-Richmond Heights) introduced a $1 billion, 10-year bond for H2Ohio as Senate Joint Resolution 2. It died in committee.
