Ohio Democrats continue pushing anti-corruption legislation

(The Center Square) – Nearly five years after House Bill 6 became law and six months after former House Speaker Larry Householder was sent to prison, Ohio Democrats plan to introduce legislation again to stop corruption at the Statehouse.

Reps. Daniel Troy, D-Willowick, and Rachel Baker, D-Cincinnati, plan a news conference Tuesday to announce the Ohio Anti-Corruption Act requiring dark money groups to identify contributors and disclose spending.

Also, Democrats hope to pressure the Republican-dominated House to move forward with the HB6 Repeal and Repay Act, which fully repeals the billion-dollar bailout of the state’s nuclear energy plants that led to the largest corruption scandal in state history.

That act would also stop Ohio taxpayer subsidies being paid to two Ohio Valley Electric Corp. coal-fired power plants, one of which is in Indiana.

The act was introduced last year in the House and has not received a hearing.

Clifty Creek is in Madison, Indiana, an hour from the Ohio border. Ohio Valley Electric receives $232,000 in ratepayer subsidies daily, part of which goes to Clifty Creek.

Householder was sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for his involvement in the scandal. Former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges is also in prison for his involvement.

Householder lost his speakership and was expelled from the House in June 2021.

As previously reported by The Center Square, FirstEnergy agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in their investigation, admitting it conspired with public officials, others and entities to pay millions of dollars to public officials in exchange for specific official action to help FirstEnergy.

Householder, along with four co-conspirators, were charged in 2020. Also charged were Borges, lobbyist Neil Clark, the Oxley Group co-founder Juan Cespedes and strategist John Longstreth.

HB6 created a new Ohio Clean Air Program to support nuclear energy plants and some solar power facilities. Electricity consumers were to fund the program with the surcharge that ran through 2027.

The fee, which was scheduled to begin Jan. 1, 2021, was stopped by the Ohio Supreme Court in late December 2020. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost also reached a deal with FirstEnergy to stop what would have been a $120 million windfall for the company this year based on another part of HB6.