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Here’s my list of Day 1 Executive Orders. They’ll be signed before midnight on January 11. Buckle up. E.O. #1: Investigate local property tax spikes. This executive order will direct the Department of Taxation, in consultation with the Auditor of State, to review changes in property taxes in every county, township, municipality, school district, and special district in Ohio, and surface how increased property taxes have been spent. Every jurisdiction that has seen an increase of over 100% in property taxes since 2020 will be subject to a full investigation into spending realities and needs. E.O. #2: End sanctuary cities across Ohio. This executive order will prohibit Ohio cities, townships, counties, or other local jurisdictions from adopting policies that would prevent or impede their law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. Specifically, if a political subdivision does not honor detainer requests or share information as federal law allows, the local government will lose eligibility for state grants run by executive agencies, including public-safety and homeland-security grants, until it complies. The sanctuary city policy would also be referred for possible legal action. E.O. #3: Stop new data center projects until comprehensive legislation is signed. This executive order directs every state agency, board, and commission to pause action on any application, permit, incentive or approval for a new data center to give the General Assembly time to pass comprehensive data center legislation that includes my non-negotiable principles. E.O. #4: Direct the Department of Medicaid to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse. This order will direct the Department of Medicaid to apply for a Section 1115 waiver that caps Ohio's Medicaid spending, in line with Tennessee's original TennCare III waiver, which let the state keep up to 55 percent of federal savings when it spent below the cap. Under similar terms more of every dollar of fraud that Ohio stops would return to Ohio. E.O. #5: Prioritize solving violent crimes to rapidly get criminals off our streets. This executive order will direct the Departments of Public Safety and of Rehabilitation and Corrections to prioritize violent crime clearance rates in discretionary funding available to support local law enforcement. Tools including advanced forensic science will enable local law enforcement to increase the number of violent crimes solved from the current 34% level to aggressively eliminate violent criminality in Ohio cities. E.O. #6: Comprehensively review all existing state contracts to root out wasteful spending. This executive order will order a review of every executive-branch contract paid in-part or in-full from the General Revenue Fund. The Department of Administrative Services, working with the Office of Budget and Management, will review each contract's legal basis, necessity, performance, alternatives, and the cost of ending it versus continuing it, then recommend continuation or termination. E.O. #7: Establish an inter-agency anti-fraud task force, with direct accountability to the Governor. This executive order will establish an inter-agency task force, reporting directly to the Governor, focused on combating various forms of fraud including, but not limited to: Medicaid fraud, benefits fraud, and child care fraud; visa fraud; voter registration fraud; trucking fraud; foreign CDL licensure; and abuse of foreign hiring by public entities. The anti-fraud task force will consist of experts from across state government and the private sector and may include representatives from the Auditor of State, Secretary of State, and Attorney General.

The health impact to the people of East Palestine was bad enough & the legal injustices that followed only made it worse. After the train derailment, class-action attorneys promoted a $600 million settlement, claiming families would get $25k. Instead, lawyers took about $180 million in fees, while residents received far less than advertised (average of $12.4k), which is insufficient to cover future cancer-related costs. Worse, new reporting now suggests the class-action attorneys withheld their own expert’s report from their clients, even though it showed high levels of carcinogens in East Palestine that residents had a right to know about before waiving their rights to further damages. These families needed advocates. When lawyers make promises to desperate people, conceal critical information, & collect nine-figure fees while clients are left exposed, that is not justice. The people of East Palestine deserve better.