Buckeye Institute urges lawmakers to override three of DeWine’s vetoes and protect taxpayers while there’s still time
A Columbus-based think tank wants state lawmakers to override three of Gov. DeWine’s line-item vetoes of House Bill 96, the state’s biennium budget, and the group wants action before the 136th General Assembly adjourns at the end of the year.
In a policy memo titled Shine a Light on Ohio’s Shadow Government, Buckeye Institute Senior Research Fellow Greg R. Lawson called for restoring provisions that strengthen legislative oversight of agency rulemaking, limit board authority, and restore the statutory appropriation limitation formula. In a statement, Lawson urged lawmakers to act during the lame-duck period and before Republicans lose their supermajority in the state House when the new session kicks off in January.
“The legislature has the votes to override these vetoes and restore reasonable guardrails that The Buckeye Institute has advocated for years, regardless of which party holds the executive and legislative reins,” Lawson said. “Overriding House Bill 96 line-item vetoes would help restore government accountability and public confidence, regardless of which political party is in charge.”
The targeted provisions include adopting the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny, or REINS, Act to improve legislative oversight of agency rulemaking “or, if necessary, to override the related line-item veto and restore legislative oversight of any agency rule that would raise expenditures by $100,000 or more in the biennium, cost a directly affected person $100,000 or more, or affect Ohio’s economy by $1 million or more per year.”
The second override would reinstate a provision that capped the amount of funding the Controlling Board may accept, per purpose and per year, at $100 million. This would ensure that the full General Assembly decides whether Ohio should sign up for new federal programs and “all their regulatory strings and obligations,” an issue that the Buckeye Institute said it has called for since the Kasich administration.
“As early as the Kasich administration, The Buckeye Institute has supported the General Assembly’s attempts to rebalance power between the legislative and executive branches,” Lawson said. “By doing little more than they did when they originally passed these provisions, lawmakers can finish the work they started last year.”
The third override being sought would shine a light on the state’s “shadow budget” and strengthen the statutory appropriation limitation formula. The Buckeye Institute emphasized that this will keep runaway government spending in check.
On June 30, 2025, Gov. Mike DeWine signed HB 96, the fiscal 2026-27 budget, but not before issuing 67 line-item vetoes. The House considered acting on two other property-tax provisions that DeWine vetoed, Items 55 and 65, but they did not act, and the measures remain in effect.
To date, both chambers have overridden only one veto: Line item 66, which restricted school districts and other jurisdictions from placing certain replacement, emergency, and substitute property-tax levies on the ballot for elections after Jan. 1, 2026.
The House overrode line item 66 by a vote of 61-28 on July 21, 2025, and the Senate followed on Oct. 1, 2025. Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, described that action as the first step toward broader reforms.
