Articles from Columbus Dispatch - politics

Perhaps the only thing more plentiful than the potholes on Ohio’s roads these days is the angst inside the Statehouse among lawmakers staring down a proposed $1.2 billion annual gas tax increase.So far, no one is arguing that Ohio doesn’t need more money for road construction and maintenance. And Gov. Mike DeWine showed he’s not about to tiptoe around the problem, proposing in his two-year, $7.4 billion transportation budget an 18-cent tax increase on a gallon of gas that would take […]

Gov. Mike DeWine wants all of his requested 18-cents-a-gallon increase in the gasoline tax to maintain and upgrade Ohio’s roads and bridges imposed July 1, with no phase in.Prior increases in the state gas tax have been phased over a few of years. In his transportation budget submitted Thursday morning to the House Finance Committee, DeWine […]

Ohio lawmakers may one day have other transportation revenue options besides a gas tax, but that day doesn’t appear to be in the near future.Thursday, Gov. Mike DeWine will propose raising the state’s 28-cent gas tax by 18 cents, and lawmakers have been asking whether alternatives exist.Ohio Trucking Association president Tom Balzer, […]

The United Methodist Church faces a defining, and potentially dividing, decision on lesbian and gay rights as members from around the world gather this week in St. Louis.A group of 864 appointed delegates, clergy members and laypeople will meet Saturday through Tuesday in a special session of the General Conference to vote on whether the church should allow lesbian and gay people to serve as clergy members and to be married in Methodist churches.Since 1972, the Christian […]