The state will continue its fight to block $900 million in undistributed federal assistance from going to Ohioans who didn’t have a job between the summer and fall of 2021, Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday.
During COVID-19, the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program sent an extra $300 each week to Ohioans on unemployment, but DeWine ended the program months early in Ohio, arguing that businesses were struggling to hire for vacant positions because of the additional assistance.
At question in the ensuing legal battle is whether the state was in the right to cut off the benefits ahead of the pandemic-era program ending nationwide—which occurred about 10 weeks after DeWine’s order to end Ohio’s participation took effect.
Since then, both the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas and the Tenth District Court of Appeals have sided with the near-300,000 residents affected, ordering DeWine to reclaim and disburse $900 million from the U.S. Department of Labor.
But DeWine said Thursday he believes the state has solid legal ground, and that there’s another issue, which is why the state is asking the Ohio Supreme Court, again, to weigh in. “The money is not there,” DeWine told the Statehouse News Bureau.
Marc Dann, the Democratic former state attorney general who has been leading the lawsuit since filing it in July 2021, said he doesn’t buy that. “If the money is not there and he’s right, then all he has to do is send a letter asking for it, and we’ll all find out,” Dann said in an interview Thursday.
That the state continues to fight its case is “outrageous,” he said.
“The federal government has $900 million waiting to pump into Ohio’s economy that will go into the hands of the people that need it most,” Dann said.
In 2022, the Ohio Supreme Court sent the case back to Franklin County. If the court takes the case on this time, Dann said it could be months before there is a final decision.
