COLUMBUS, Ohio—Ohio lawmakers early Friday morning gave final approval to legislation to override a state health order from Gov. Mike DeWine’s administration banning most county fair activities because of the coronavirus crisis.
Senate Bill 375, which now goes to DeWine’s desk, is the latest move by the Republican-dominated Ohio General Assembly to rein in the governor’s coronavirus policies, most of which have been implemented via Ohio Department of Health orders.
DeWine, a Greene County Republican, announced in late July that his administration would only permit junior fair activities to be held, with participation limited to members of 4-H, FFA, or other youth organizations.
But state Rep. Kyle Koehler, a Springfield Republican, said that only holding junior fairs isn’t financially sustainable for county fair boards and that the order would allow fair officials to start planning for “full, safe fairs” next year.
“County fairs are activities that are important to our communities,” Koehler said. “Fair boards across the state who chose to have fairs did so this year using the necessary precautions.”
State Rep. Juanita Brent, a Cleveland Democrat, questioned why the House is moving to void health directors’ orders as coronavirus cases have shot up in the past few weeks. She also asked why lawmakers aren’t instead passing bills to help Ohioans pay their rent and mortgages, or offer free or reduced-price masks.
“We might be darned living through this pandemic for the next couple years. There’s no guarantee,” Brent said. “But what we do know [is] we all have an obligation to put the public health over money, over a good time, over how you feel about stuff, period.”
The governor has vetoed or threatened to veto a number of other bills passed by the legislature to rein in his powers to issue coronavirus orders, though he hasn’t yet said whether he would reject this particular bill.
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