Senator Antonio Commends Passage Of Ohio’s Bipartisan Transportation Budget
On March 29, the Ohio General Assembly passed the state’s two-year transportation budget (House Bill 23). The $13.5 billion transportation budget passed out of the Senate with resounding support from every Senate Democrat.
House Bill 23 will appropriate $8.36 billion in fiscal year 2024 and $5.14 billion in fiscal year 2025 to fund our roads, bridges, airports and trains.
In Ohio, transportation is one of our most vital sectors—it directly affects our communities, provides increased employment opportunities and supports our economy. I am pleased that House Bill 23 strikes a balance between bipartisan efforts and preserving many of the Democrat priorities we tirelessly fought for to ensure that the transportation budget would include investments in public transportation and railway safety measures that have been in the works for the last decade – all without a tax increase. One of our major priorities includes over $100 million in funding for public transit which would authorize the Ohio Rail Development Corporation (or its designees) to construct and operate an intercity conventional or high-speed passenger rail system. It would also allow for passenger rail operators, such as Amtrak, to build and provide service on a route including Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati.
A recent subject of significant concern is the issue of railway safety. Included in our Democratic priorities addressed in the transportation budget are amendments to make wayside detector systems be installed every 10-15 miles, requiring two-person freight train crews, requiring hazardous waste transportation reports when materials are passing through communities, and requiring railroad safety technology reports.
The transportation budget includes green transport investments, such as reducing the registration fee for plug-in hybrid electric motor vehicles from $200 to $150, as well as providing $2 million for electric vehicle infrastructure expansion, workforce training and credentialing programs related to the emerging field of electric vehicle charging.
House Bill 23 was signed by Governor DeWine on March 31, 2023 and will go into effect on July 1.
I am proud to have done my part in ensuring that the transportation budget puts Ohioans first and helps to make our state a great place to live and thrive.
State Senator Nickie J. Antonio (D-Lakewood) is honored to be serving in the Ohio Senate, representing District 23, and in leadership as the Minority Leader. She is the first in her family to graduate from college; she holds both an MPA and a B.S. Ed. from Cleveland State University, and she was named a CSU Distinguished Alumni in 2013. She is also an alumnus and Bohnett Fellow of the Kennedy School Harvard Leadership Program (2011) and has been the recipient of numerous awards as legislator of the year from various organizations during her tenure. Her daughters, Ariel and Stacey, have made Antonio and her wife, Jean Kosmac, very proud as the girls engage in their adult life journeys.
Nickie Antonio
State Senator Nickie J. Antonio (D-Lakewood) is honored to be serving in the Ohio Senate, representing District 23, and in leadership as the Minority Leader. Antonio, who was elected to the Senate in 2018, previously spent eight years in the Ohio House of Representatives, where she served District 13 and was also a member of leadership. Antonio has served as a Lakewood City Councilmember, Executive Director of an outpatient drug and alcohol treatment program for women, Adjunct Professor, and a teacher for children with special needs.
Antonio serves as Highest Ranking Member on the Senate Health, Transportation, and Rules and Reference Committees. Additionally, she is a member of the Ohio House Democratic Women's Caucus, previously as chair, and is the State Director for the National Women Legislators’ Lobby.
She has been a dedicated champion of workers’ rights, high-quality education, local governments, equal rights for women and the LGBT community, health care for all, and fighting the opioid crisis.
Antonio is recognized as a leader who reaches across the aisle to get things done. As a result, she championed Ohio’s historic adoption of open records law (S.B. 23/H.B. 61) and step therapy reform law (S.B. 265/H.B. 72). Last General Assembly, Antonio passed legislation to abolish the shackling of pregnant inmates (S.B. 18/H.B. 1) and to require pharmacist education for dispensing life-saving naloxone (S.B. 59/H.B. 341). During her tenure in the Ohio legislature, Antonio introduced the Ohio Fairness Act, which would provide civil rights protections for members of the LGBTQ community. She continues to work to remedy and end Ohio’s use of the death penalty, as well as on an array of other bills focused on improving the lives of all Ohioans. Antonio continues to be an established expert in health policy in the General Assembly.
The first in her family to graduate from college, she holds both an MPA and a B.S. Ed. from Cleveland State University, and she was named a CSU Distinguished Alumni in 2013. She is also an alumnus and Bohnett Fellow of the Kennedy School Harvard Leadership Program (2011) and has been the recipient of numerous awards as legislator of the year from various organizations during her tenure.
Her daughters, Ariel and Stacey, have made Antonio and her wife, Jean Kosmac, very proud as the girls engage in their adult life journeys.