CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) -On Tuesday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed the state’s biennium $86 billion budget to cover spending for the 2024-25 fiscal years.

Before doing so, DeWine used his veto power to make changes to 44 different parts of the budget.

Tobacco/vaping

Five of the items vetoed took aim at the tobacco and vaping industries.

In part, it strengthens age verification requirements and clears up a section that could have made free samples legal in the state.

There is also a major component that prohibits local regulation of tobacco products.

“Currently in Ohio, it is against the law to provide free samples of tobacco, and inadvertently opening the door to the distribution of free tobacco products goes directly against Ohio’s significant efforts to reduce tobacco use, especially against youth, and improve public health. Therefore, the veto of this item is in the public interest.

It also makes sure the state isn’t liable to refund any excise tax to distributors who were stiffed by retailers.

It does however, exempt vapor products shipped into, then out of the state for retail sale from paying the excise tax.

Sales tax holiday

The budget put on the DeWine’s desk expanded the annual sales tax holiday, around the time of back to school shopping, to two weeks in 2024 instead of the usual one weekend.

The language would have also allowed the Tax Commissioner and the Director of Budget Management, and County Commissioners Association to determine the length of the tax holiday in 2025 and beyond.

DeWine vetoed that extension saying, “Because the expanded sales tax holiday is a new policy, the revenue loss that will be a result cannot be estimated. Instead of requiring that the initial expanded sales tax holiday be two weeks long, a veto will allow the Tax Commissioner and the Director of Budget Management, with the County Commissioners Association, to determine the length of the first expanded sales tax holiday in 2024.”

Vaccines and higher education

In the state budget was a provision that would have allowed students to decline vaccines before enrolling at a private college or state institution of higher learning, and it was vetoed by DeWine.

“Universities and college dormitories and student housing are congregate settings where such a policy may be of great importance to ensure resident safety. This item is overly broad and may compromise the overall health and safety of students, residents, staff, and the faculty at the institution. Therefore, the veto is in the public interest.”

When asked for clarification, a spokesperson for DeWine said, “Current law allows some leeway for declining vaccines due to reasons of conscience but there are guardrails. For example, what the law doesn’t allow, and what the veto preserves, is for someone to go into, say John Carrol University, and tell them “my catholic faith prevents me from getting a vaccine” when that is not what Catholic teaching states. Under current law, John Carrol could tell the student that is not correct. The vetoed provision would have required a school to accept something they knew was false and potentially violated a private religious institutions religious liberty.”

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