Billy Cunningham, the Great America.
Welcome with Florio's Thursday halfe me in the drive thing, whether it bit hippie reads, pitchers and pastures reported on Monday, which is the beginning more or less of spring Hope, Springs Eternal, And having watched the Philadelphia Eagles beat up so easily.
On the Kansas City Chiefs, that may be quite happy. I'm thinking the Bengals might have a long way to go, but we'll see what happens. The Reds are much more present concern because on paper they look really good. But until then, Governor Mike DeWine, welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show and Governor many issues, so little time. And you had told me about a month month and a half ago, against everyone else at Odott that the four to seventy one Big Mac Bridge would open by the
middle of February. People laughed and snickered at you. They said, there's no way that's going to happen, and lo and beholding open Monday night, which makes my producer Tony Bender so happy.
What did you know at that point that most of us did not know?
Well, I just was telling O, we got to get this. This is this is very people. I'm hearing from a lot of people. This is a real pain for them. And so yes, we put a real push. I kept I kept on them, I kept on the on Pam Borton, who's the head of ODA now, And I said, Pam, you have to make things happen, and and you know we got it open.
So thank god.
Well it's a it's a lifesaver. I know you're in Green County. I know you're in Columbus. I know you have great roots in Cincinnati. But that bridge, dammit has caused billions of dollars worth of havoc and pain for so many. It destroyed businesses, destroyed lives. There's two uh criminals, career criminals been indicted for it. We don't have the
full story yet, but that's that's a great positive. Secondly, you announced a few days ago that lieutenant governor will be Jim Tressel, and I knew he had a great history at Ohio State, won the state title, I'm the national title, and then you Youngstown State. He did a bunch of stuff with Youngstown on state as the president. Why did you pick Jim Tressel, who's never been in politics over all the politicians that wanted that gig.
Well, I think I surprised you, Bill didn't I surprised.
Yes, yes, I didn't see that in coming.
Nobody else did either.
So you know, nine days before the announcement, I called up Jim Trestle and I said, I want to come see you and friend.
I went up there.
He lives up near Medina and went into what he called He showed us his uh buck eye man cave and this is the ultimate buck eye man cave with with rings and footballs and everything. Anyway, so we had that conversation, but then we got down to business and I asked him if he would serve as.
My lieutenant governor. And what I told.
Him was, look, I'm healthy, but you know, one never knows, and I need somebody who I have great confid it's in their judgment, great confidence in their leadership ability that if for some reason I could not serve during the next two years sometime and that person became governor, I want someone who I could really make sure that they were really a leader, and someone who really cared about education, cared about kids.
And I said that's number one.
Number two, I said, you know you can really help me over the next two years. And Bill, I've known Tressel for a long time, but I really got to know him after he became president at Youngstown State University.
And I know Cincinnati is a long long way from.
Youngstown, but he has done a did a phenomenal job for nine years as the president. He pulled the business community together. You know, a university can be a great engine of economic development, and he worked to make that happen in Youngstown. He's someone who is I think, very practical. You know.
I asked him a few months ago.
I said, you know, Jim, we've got a lot of universities in Ohio or public, fourteen of them, but we've got you know, fifty or sixty private, and with the demographics of fewer kids, you know, these schools are some of them having a difficult time. I said, what would you recommend? And he says, look, he says, you have to cut you know, Okay, he says you have to you have to pare down the cost. And he says you can't have classes where there's a one professor teaching
five kids. He says, just it simply will not will not work, and that just that's kind of gives you an idea what kind of guy he is. But anyway back to the story, you know, we talked to him and he said, well, I might be interested in that, and you know, so then we could be carried on a conversation by phone for the you know, the next few days. And then he said, look, he says, I'm I got talked to Ellen, I got talked to my
wife and uh and she basically told him. Uh, according to Jim, she said, you know, I think God has something in mind for you. You need to you need to listen, and you need to do this. So uh so I'm just delighted, delighted to have him.
Uh.
He's going to really work a lot on workforce development, is going to work on education, uh, economic development. Uh. Those are all intertwined because we're creating more jobs every day in Ohio than we have.
People fill them.
So we got to make sure that everybody who uh you know, is growing up, when they graduate high school, they get they're on some pathway. Uh, and we help them get the tools that they need to be able to.
You know, live live their version of the American dream.
And that's what she's But he's he's all he's a passionate guy about young people. He's just a natural leader, and he leads young people, and that's what he really has cared about his whole life.
Does he see this as a stepping stone, because, as you know, in addition to being the governor, you're the head of the Republican Party and you got veak Ramaswami out there has announced, there's others going to announce for your position. They want to be the governor. Is Trustle going to be a candidate for governor in twenty twenty six?
Well, Bill, he and I never I got the question a similar question the other day, and he and I never have talked about that. I mean, are what I said to him is, you know, can you sign up for basically a two years uh and and you know, do this and help us for for the next two years. We never talked in any way, shape or form about running running running for office, So that's not not certainly not come up.
Is he going to do it?
Fran France?
Is he going to do it?
Fran calculate? Fran calculated the day.
The days that it came up to almost exactly one hundred weeks. So I said, will you sign up for one hundred weeks, and he said, yes, I will.
So you don't see him getting an exploratory committee together soon, because, as you may know, the primary is a little over a year away, and if he's going to run for your gig, he's going to have to start raising money immediately. But veg Ramaswami's a rich guy. Other people want the job also, And I guess we're going to know in the next six months if he establishes an exploratory committee and starts raising money. Would Governor Mike DeWine be surprised?
Well, I wouldn't.
I wouldn't look forward to that. I mean, I think his focus is really the present. His focus is not about running. You know, things could change in the world. I understand that, But I'm just telling you from my conversation with him, we've never had a discussion about, you know, him him running for office.
That's not what he's signed up for, all right.
Two or three other issues. One is the chip plant Intel. There's reporting that Intel's having some difficulties. If I would go to the site of the Intel plant that you and Ustad like Governor put together a couple three years ago, are you still confident the chip plant, the intel plant, that big development in and around Columbus is gonna happen.
Yes or no, Yes, absolutely, Bill, think about this.
Uh. And I may be off a couple of billion dollars, but I think they've already put into the ground literally in building and building this material and construction costs of about seven or eight billion dollars already in the ground. And every day they're putting more, more and more money in. They're doing more work. So there will be a chip factory there. What we don't know is how fast.
Uh it will build out.
I mean, you know, they they committed to do two fabs, as they say, uh, but they also told us that you know, there could be four times that much go in if if business is good. We don't know, you know, how that business is going to work out. I don't think anybody knows. But they're going to be making They're going to be making chips work there, and it is a great, great, great thing.
Now, another issue percolating is marijuana, and Ohio wins passed.
The marijuana law. They made it a.
Statute instead of a constitutional amendment. Those on the marijuana side that are actually operating or unhappy with these moves by the legislature to fifty percent increase and taxes to the government, taking away local government money, which many consider critical. There's a sense that possibly the leaders of the House in the Senate actually want to kill the marijuana situation
by sending more money to the dark market. As you may know, in the first year, three hundred million dollars of legal sales took place to which took three hundred million dollars out of the dark market, out of the pockets of drug dealers. And now I think there are some that are going to seemingly what they're going to do is make it more expensive in order to buy
legal marijuana. Is the there Where does the governor stand on a fifty percent increase on money's going in state and taking it away from local governments and making it more expensive, which will drive more people to the dark market. Where does Governor Mike Dwein stand on that?
Well, that's the kind of leading question. Bill.
Let me let me phrase it a little differently. When the when this thing was written, keep in mind, it was written by the UH people who wanted to make money from marijuana, and they have every right to do this and the people ended up voting for you know what.
People want to vote it for it.
You know, I doubt if very few of them thought about where the money from that is going to go to. They basically were voting on, hey, should we have marijuana or not have marijuana?
And I lost that.
I think it was I think it was a mistake, but that's that's what the voter said. So we're gonna We're going to obviously live live with that. But there's some goofy stuff in the way it was written. For example, Uh, you know you talk about money going to local government. It's almost like this crazy lottery. Uh.
You know, if if you were a township.
Or the village, uh, and you had you had a facility there, Yeah, you got some money, but your your neighbor over here another township that might need money, they get nothing from that.
So you had winners, you had losers. Uh.
And So what we've done is try to identify some needs in the state of Ohio, things that we do not have money for, can't find any money for, uh, and utilize the money for that. Jails, for example, we have problem with jails. We've got some of the people in your rural counties that listen to you every single day.
Uh, they're faced with spending a.
Lot of money to build a new jail or to revitalize the jail. We want to help them in doing that, and there's a lot of other things that we would use this money for. So I think there's clearly room if you look at what other states have done, clearer room to raise the tax on that. We don't want a situation where, you know, we drive people out of the market. But also we need to be able to take that money and frankly do some things that are very very positive in in in the state of Ohio.
Well, the other issue is the Uh, those on the marijuana side feel as if I'm speaking for them, not myself, for you, but they think think they're being sandbagged by uh rural edgrarian politicians in Columbus that I don't like marijuana. I think most politicians in Columbus don't like marijuana and they want to regulate it out of existence. And so they're saying, Okay, we're going to take the abortion route.
What we're going to do is put in a constitutional amendment and get that passed and get the lawmakers out of it.
Are you concerned about that issue.
No, I'm not concerned about that. Look, no one is saying that we're not going to sell marijuana. Look, we live in a country where the voters have of the say they voted and they want legal sales of marijuana. I mean, I think it was a mistake. I think it was a mistake because you know, uh, if you look at young people, you know, the evidence is abundantly clear that the frequent use of marijuana among kids whose brain is still developing can end up with a significant
loss in IQ. I mean, that's a that's a real, real problem. But that's what the that's what the voters voted for.
And so we're not going to uh roll back and say we're going to go to prohibition. The voters are voted.
For it, and they're going to be able to buy it in the state of Ohio. No one is saying that that that we should go against the will of the voters in regard to that. I just think that how the money gets spent and where that money really goes to. No one, no one who voted, very few people who voted voted because they want that money, uh, you know, to go to some of the different causes
that were contained in in that bill. I think we have an obligation uh to respect the voters, uh provide the marijuana uh in a in a legal and safe fashion, or safe as you can make it. But we also have an obligation to spend that money in a respectful way, in an intelligent way.
In that regard, there's a lot of fake marijuana being a lot of fake marijuana being sold like inconvenience stores that is not not selling as marijuana, and there's kids buying that product. Couldn't that issue be dealt with off to the side without having a complete overhaul?
Sure?
Sure, and uh you know, but we've asked the legislature to do it. I've asked them, and there's no way that I can stop that. Uh. And it is, as you indicated, a real problem. Kids are buying this junk uh and we have no way to stop uh these people from selling it to them. But you know, the leaders in the legislature have assured me that, uh, you know, within the next several months they're going to pass legislation
to stop that. So I certainly hope that they do, and I will I will quickly sign it, all.
Right, in your last two years, have about a minute or two remaining, Governor Mike DeWine, what do you want to accomplish the next year or two You've not yet done.
Bill, We're going to stay really focused on the basics, investing in people. What he has used to say, you win with people's.
That's really the key.
We want every kid who graduates from high school to be on some pathway. We want kids to stay in Ohio. You know, we want everybody to live up to their God given potential. To do that, we need to remove barriers that stop them. One of the big barriers today's the mental mental health problems. We're trying to build out a system that no matter where you live in the state of Ohio, you will have access to good mental health health care.
We're focused on what we call the.
Science of reading and education phonics, sounding words out. We got away from that for about twenty or twenty five years. We've paid a heavy, heavy, heavy price. So you know, we're focused on kids, focused on reading, focused on giving people the tools that they need to be successful.
Well, last I know, townshow.
I got a text here from a township trustee not happy about taking money away from townships. I have a text here from a legal marijuana business saying they're outraged to what's happening. And I would think that Matt Huffman, who's the Speaker of the House, is going to have to have these hearings to indicate how much you can
raise without driving people into the dark market. A three hundred million dollars out of the pockets of drug dealers is a great thing and really destroyed the marijuana business. When someone can go to Michigan, for example, and pay a lot less money makes no sense, and I hope Matt Huffman takes that into account once again. Governor Mike Dewaine, you shocked the world by appointing Jim Tressell as the lieutenant governor, and we'll see what happens down the road.
Are you endorsing anyone for your seat or are you going to endorse for ak Ramaswami for example.
I think it's much too early to getting in the endorsement business. I mean, what what my job is, I think is to really kind of tell the people to state where we are in these different issues and outline at least what I think is important. And I think educating, educating people given the tools they need to be successful. That's that's what we need to continue to do.
All right, Mike DeWine, Thank you very much, Governor, State of Ohio. Get my best a friend as as Valentine's Day approaches, and know you're going to give her a box of candy and some flowers. You two have been through a lot in your life. Incredible journey and last we had thirty seconds. When your term is up? Are you done? D u n and done? Are you going to back to Cedarville? You're going to be a Miami University trustee? Are you done? Are you done with politics?
Next year?
Why I'm running again, Bill, But I'm going to stay pack even things and you know the same things I care about today, which is you know about kids and kids who are you know, have difficulties, challenges and you know. But I'm not sure exactly, but I got two more years and my focus right now is on those, on those two years and the one hundred weeks that we've got left.
All right, Governor Mike Dwine, You're a great American. Thank you for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. Thank you, Mike, Thank you, Governor.
Thank you appreciate it.
Thank you, Let's continue with more news.
Is next at Show Them the Reds on news radio seven hundred WLW