Ohio governor to sign 3 bills into law promoting pandemic recovery, high-speed internet access (Source: KEYC News Now) By Chris Anderson | May 17, 2021 at 9:56 AM EDT - Updated May 17 at 10:58 AM
CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is slated to sign three bills into law on Monday that will improve broadband access throughout the state and provide
The first bill signing ceremony was held at an elementary school in Middletown. There, the governor signed House Bill 2 into law, which creates Ohio’s Residential Broadband Expansion Program through $210 million in grant funding.
The funds will help provide high-speed internet services to underserved communities.
Governor Mike DeWine recently released his proposed budget which includes funding for several Ohio agricultural priorities.
“The Ohio Department of Agriculture’s budget increased overall and individual line items have also increased. One of them is H2Ohio funding. Overall, $240 million was set aside for H2Ohio funds over the biennium and $49.3 million of that goes to agriculture each fiscal year. The rest of that funding is split up between Ohio EPA and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources,” said Jenna Reese, director of state policy for Ohio Farm Bureau. “We also saw a significant increase in funding to farmland preservation. That line item increased by about $7 million for just fiscal year 2022. We are excited to see the DeWine Administration continuing to support farmland preservation. The coronavirus relief for county fairs line item was created last year to get $4.7 million to county fairs and this fiscal year it has allocated $1 million to the Ohio State Fair under