A Democratic State Senator and gubernatorial candidate is joining the Republican Attorney General in calling for the use of money from Ohio's rainy day fund to help battle the opioid epidemic . Ohio Public Radio's Andy Chow reports.
It’s raining in Ohio according to Senator Joe Schiavoni. He wants the state to pull $200 million -- or 10% of the $2 billion balance from its Rainy Day Fund to put towards opioid addiction treatment and services.
Half of that money would be divvied up to Ohio’s 88 counties and let the local governments decide where the funds should go.
As Schiavoni explains, the money would have to stay in specific fields such as addiction services, law enforcement and drug courts.
Schiavoni: “Deal with it the way they need to deal with it, not the way that politicians in Columbus say that they should deal with it.”
Gov. John Kasich has been strongly against taking money out of this reserve.
