The following is a presentation of FCB Faith. This is Keeping America First with Bishop John T. Coates and Reverend Jeff Jemison on FCB Faith. Here we are on this beautiful fall day in Ohio, and we have a dynamite guest with us, one who's doing quite a bit. She's done quite a bit in her tenure in office. And today we have a great guest, Senator Michelle Reynolds, who represents Franklin County. That is District 3 in the Ohio Senate. Good afternoon. Senator, how are you today? I'm wonderful, Jeff. Thank you so much for having me on your show. Well, it's election season and people really need to know what's going on and who they're voting for. Senator Michelle Reynolds, please talk a little bit about your district and what you're doing. Yes. Well, thank you so much. Again, I am State Senator Michelle Reynolds. I represent Ohio Senate District 3, which incorporates parts of Franklin County and all of Madison and all of Pickaway County. So it is three counties. It's 350,000 constituents around the district. And It is a very diverse district in that it has urban, rural, and suburban parts of the district and lots of various different issues. So I kind of reflect that. Diversity of this district, and it's truly a microcosm of what the state looks like in Ohio. That's awesome. Talk a little bit about some of the things that you've done since you've been in the Senate. Well, yes, I am known worldwide. As the results-driven person. The reason I ran for office is because I am an addicted problem solver. So before coming to office, I actually worked about 30 years on the other side of public policy. I am a nonprofit executive. a third-generation business owner with several successful businesses. And my husband and I are pastors of a church in Columbus, Ohio. And so I really love public service. Service is what love looks like in public. That's what Dr. Cornel West said. And so I bring a wealth of experience to the table and to the statehouse. And during my last four years as a state senator in the statehouse, I developed 10 commitments of various perspectives areas of policy that I wanted to focus on and have delivered on all 10 of them. But one of the biggest areas that I'm known for is leading the charge for affordable housing. As you know, affordability is one of the top issues that we're experiencing here, not just in Ohio, but the nation. But we have been leading the charge on housing. And I'm the chair of the Senate Housing Committee. But we've been leading that before it actually was a big headline or part of this election cycle. So have been traveling the state, making sure that we understand what the housing challenges are here in Ohio, and then developing solutions on how we can build more supply of housing, which is to increase the supply to make affordability possible, but also trying to innovate in housing and try to build housing that would be more economical and looking at things like manufactured modular homes and building more density and helping our local communities really be able to afford and build out more housing spaces for those that need it. Look, here in. Ohio, we are doing a great job at driving up economic opportunity. We have so many people that are coming to the state of Ohio because we have lots of opportunity with jobs and job creation. We also have a lot of workforce programs. We're helping with a lot of career tech because we're starting to really attract big business here in Ohio. And in my district, we have the. Home of Andrel, who is bringing about 4,000 jobs to the region. And those jobs are starting pay at about $ 135, 000 for people coming right out of high school that do not need a college degree. So some of the things that we've been working on me specifically, is trying to make sure that we have a housing, a housing is a tool for workforce so that we can match up homes for those that need it who want to stay here in the region and work those jobs. Homes are where jobs go to at night. But besides that, I'm also working on child care, making that affordable. We've passed into law one of my bills called the Child Care Cred Act, and that allows for employers, and this is a permissive bill, but for employers who are trying to attract more talent or trying to keep their workforce, they're always telling me, look, we need a workforce and we need something to be able to offer them. So for employers, they are able to, through their health care plan, offer up to 40 percent of a family's child care expenses. And then the family would also pay 40% and the state would kick in 20%. And that's for those who do not get subsidized child care, just for working families that just find it hard to be able to have child care after now a COVID epidemic that want to go back into the workforce. So that is now passed into law. I was the sponsor of that. And that is something that, you know, we're pushing here in Ohio to see if we can help more families get to work and be able to afford child care. But besides that, we've also been, the entire General Assembly, we've been working on making sure that people can keep more of their hard-earned money in their pockets. And by that, what I mean is we have flattened the income tax here in the state of Ohio. When I first started out as a senator, there were nine tax brackets in the state of Ohio. Now there's just one flat tax for state income taxes, which means that if you make over $ 26, 000 a year you pay 2.75% to the state on income tax. And that flat tax allows people to keep some of their money that they earn in their pocket. Beyond that, we've also delivered a huge property tax relief that you will start to see in 2027 property tax bills. As we know, this is high for those that are homeowners and some as high as 40% increase. And so what we've done is we've delivered a $ 3. 2 billion property tax relief bill that especially helps our seniors and those that are trying to make sure that they can afford to keep their home and stay in their home. Some of them will not even see a property tax bill in the next quarter. So working a lot on that. And then just recently, I was one of the sponsors to do the gas tax holiday. So slowly but surely, we're starting to see some savings at the pump. depending where you are in the state of Ohio. But we delivered a 90 day gas tax holiday to give some much needed relief at the pump. So what I've been working on is trying to make things more affordable, solving problems. That's what I plan to continue to do when I get back after reelection, get back in the General Assembly next year for my last term. But my goal is to continue to solve problems for the good people of the state of Ohio. A lot of people are really applauding the relief that they're seeing at the pump. So I just want to say thank you. And I'm sure all Ohioans would do the same in stepping out there, getting in front of this thing in a timely manner. Do you see any other efforts in the area of affordability taking place? Just curious. Absolutely. I mean, those are some of the biggest areas that I discussed is, you know, property taxes, child care, making sure that housing prices are, you know, we're able to afford that. But, you know, beyond that, there are some things in the national environment, some things that just really we can't control. But if we can look at making good public policy decisions on the things that we can do, like how we tax people, things in the state of Ohio until those things work themselves out. But look, we take a very, we take the approach of, we don't want to grow government. We want to grow opportunity. You know, I am a conservative, but I'm someone who is what I would like to say, common sense. You don't, we don't have government to solve all of our problems. Sometimes government needs to, you know, eliminate those problems and get out of the way. And so sometimes you need to pass legislation to fix things, but sometimes, you know, government is the problem. So what we're looking to do is not grow government, but grow opportunity and make sure that the taxpayers are only spending what they need to in order to keep, you know, things working smoothly. Otherwise that money belongs to them. And through good fiscal stewardship, I'm happy to say that Ohio has just been rated a the number one place to do business in the entire United States. Ohio has been rated number one by CNBC. You don't get that through happenstance. You get that through intentional leadership and having people who know what they're doing at the table. But our heart is to serve and our heart is to make sure that working families and the people of the state of Ohio are, we're moving the state in the right direction and that people can not only afford to live here, but that they can thrive here. Thank you, Michelle Reynolds, for your leadership. Continue fighting the good fight, doing what you're doing, keeping people first. And please, to our audience, let's remember Michelle Reynolds, Senate District 3 in Ohio. Tell your neighbors, tell your friends, tell your relatives to go out and support her. We need her. We need to keep her in the Ohio Senate. She's doing a great job, a great role model, great example of leadership. Let's keep her in our prayers. And thank you, Michelle Reynolds. And we certainly want to have you back after you're reelected so that you can share with us some of the great things that you're doing. in the days ahead. Thank you so much for having me. And I'll just remind everyone, it is early vote time. You can certainly go out to your local board of elections and vote early, or you can vote on election day. But the most important thing is to go exercise your right to vote. We need you to come out there and support all of our families. But that is your right. Exercise your right so that you have a say in our democracy. Thank you so much for having me today. Oh, thank you. God bless you. And thank you to our audience for listening. And let's all remember to keep fighting the good fight. And we can all do our part to make our lives, our communities, our state and our nation a better place. Thank you again. God bless you. Thank you.
