Thanks to The Buckeye Institute, Ohio has adopted a great number of free-market policy solutions that are helping the Buckeye State respond to the coronavirus and protecting Ohio families and businesses in the process.

In the early days of the pandemic, The Buckeye Institute leveraged its respected reputation and policy expertise to present the Ohio governor, and other policymakers, with policy solutions that would strengthen Ohio’s healthcare system and help families and businesses facing unexpected economic hardship.

These ideas and solutions have also gained traction at the federal level. Buckeye’s president and CEO Robert Alt was invited to testify before the prestigious and influential National Coronavirus Recovery Commission where he offered important lessons from history as well as expert advice on working to ensure the durability of policy solutions beyond the pandemic.

While continuing to talk to state policymakers and presenting them with commonsense policy solutions, Buckeye published its first set of recommendations to boost Ohio’s healthcare system and support Ohio’s workers, small businesses, and the economy, “Policy Solutions for the Pandemic: How Ohio Can Fight the Impact of Coronavirus,” outlining actions Ohio policymakers needed take to ensure Ohio was ready to fight and recover from the pandemic. Buckeye also highlighted its policy solutions in an op-ed for The Columbus Dispatch.

In a column for the Washington Examiner, author Quin Hillyer cited Buckeye’s policy recommendations as an example of leadership coming from the states saying that while Buckeye’s “suggestions are Ohio-specific, other states certainly could, and in most cases probably should, emulate them.”

The Buckeye Institute didn’t stop there. Under the banner of its Policy Solutions for the Pandemic, Buckeye continues to proactively produce commonsense, free-market solutions that are helping Ohio fight the pandemic and recover from the economic impact. Buckeye produced two comprehensive research reports, eight policy briefs, 19 policy memos, placed 19 op-eds and letters to the editor, testified before legislative committees 27 times, issued 24 statements on responses to the pandemic, filed nine amicus briefs in cases responding to government overreach during the pandemic, and—notably—filed five separate lawsuits representing taxpayers in Ohio and Pennsylvania who have had income taxes unconstitutionally taken from them due to Ohio’s emergency-based local income tax system.

Ohio policymakers have responded and have adopted many of Buckeye’s solutions, including:

• Creating Ohio’s first-ever education savings account program;
• Increasing telehealth access and monitoring;
• Extending universal recognition of out-of-state medical licenses to nurses;
• Joining the Nurse Licensure Compact;
• Joining the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact;
• Permitting pharmacists to test for COVID-19 and administer COVID-19 vaccines;
• Enlisting medical and nursing students to support doctors and nurses fighting COVID-19;
• Eliminating unnecessary budget commitments;
• Instituting a hiring freeze in state government;
• Allowing establishments with an existing liquor permit to sell and deliver alcohol on carryout menus;
• Expanding broadband access to underserved areas of Ohio;
• Providing responsible businesses, schools, and workers with critical liability protections from COVID-19 lawsuits;
• Withdrawing from the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation Program;
• Using federal tax dollars from the American Rescue Plan to repay Ohio’s unemployment loan, saving Ohio employers and workers millions of dollars; and
• Allowing taxpayers who do not live and did not work in a city to seek a refund of 2021 local income taxes that had been unconstitutionally taken.

For their important research and outreach campaign to help Ohio recover from the pandemic, The Buckeye Institute is a finalist in State Policy Network’s Bob Williams Awards for Outstanding Policy Achievement, in the Most Influential Research category.