The Ohio Senate President was a key speaker for the Allen County Republican Luncheon on Friday.
Held at the Eagles Lodge in Lima, Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman shared updates on different topics that are in the works in the state of Ohio.
One topic Huffman shared information about was an upcoming bill that aims to address illegal sports gambling. The bill itself would introduce a new regulatory framework in the state, where sports gambling operations will need to have licensed personnel.
"You know frankly it would look like the liquor permit situation where there are a limited number of permits, done in a way to make sure it's done responsibly," said Huffman.
Another regulatory framework bill deals with Solar Power. The bill itself would improve the local decision-making process when it comes to solar. Huffman points to the project that could be developing the Shawnee Township and shares his thoughts on solar farms.
"These are not financially self-sustaining projects," said Huffman. "These are being funded by the taxpayers, and the second is they do not produce that much energy. We've been sold this bill of goods through the years that this is the way to solve global warming and it's not."
A delay in census reporting is also on the minds of Ohio Lawmakers. The delay affects a September 15th deadline to have congressional districts mapped out. Census data would be used to map out those districts, however, Huffman states that they are seeing a four and half month delay in receiving that data.
"My suggestion was to simply push back that September 15th date by 30 or 60 days, so that we would not violate the constitution," explained Huffman. "The second reason is we wouldn't have this hurried process that it has to get out the door."
The Senate president states that he hopes the data from the census will come by September of this year.
