Latest / Chuck Douglas / State Representative Josh Williams

Transcript

State Representative Josh Williams · Chuck Douglas

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  Speaker 1: I want to tell you a little story about a
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  Speaker 1: high school dropout. Baby daddy. That's what he is, at
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  Speaker 1: least that's what he was. Child was born, he left
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  Speaker 1: school to go to work take care of the child,
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  Speaker 1: ended up getting into an accident at work, dropped thirty feet,
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  Speaker 1: got injured, got done being injured, decided, you know what
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  Speaker 1: time to get the GED. So got the GED. Started
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  Speaker 1: college at the age of thirty listened to this by
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  Speaker 1: the time he was thirty five, that's five year by
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  Speaker 1: the time he was thirty five, graduating from law school.
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  Speaker 1: That's impressive. That's extremely impressive. And I'm glad that I
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  Speaker 1: get a chance to talk to him tonight because he
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  Speaker 1: is doing something what I consider to be extremely impressive
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  Speaker 1: here for the state of Ohio as well as a
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  Speaker 1: member of our legislature. Josh Williams, let me get him
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  Speaker 1: on the line here. He's from Sylvania Township. There you go,
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  Speaker 1: which is you're now forty four the House district forty
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  Speaker 1: four instead of forty one like he used to be.
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  Speaker 2: Right, that's correct, Chuck, Yeah, Now I'm District four in
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  Speaker 2: Savania and Lucas County, Ottawa County and Wood County.
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  Speaker 1: Because I was trying to email you and it went
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  Speaker 1: to IDN Santa's workshop or something, I don't know how,
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  Speaker 1: but eventually got back to you and I was very glad,
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  Speaker 1: but I didn't even know about the change in that
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  Speaker 1: we have not talked for a while. So welcome back,
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  Speaker 1: and thanks for finding some time for me this evening.
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for having me on again.
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  Speaker 1: It's all about house Built twenty six, which is back
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  Speaker 1: in the back in the headlines, and now we are
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  Speaker 1: in an era with the presidency with a momentum that
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  Speaker 1: may get this thing moving a little bit better than
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  Speaker 1: it did last time around. Protecting Ohio Communities Act. In short,
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  Speaker 1: this cuts off the financial feed to those cities in
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  Speaker 1: Ohio that choose to call themselves sanctuary cities and refusing
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  Speaker 1: to work with the Ice people, the immigration people when
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  Speaker 1: they come in here to do their job with immigration enforcement.
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  Speaker 1: Is that pretty much it in a nutshell?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's two main sections to the bill. One is
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  Speaker 2: a defunding of sanctuary cities, so municipalities that are refused
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  Speaker 2: to work with federal law enforcement efforts for immigration will
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  Speaker 2: lose a portion of their local government funds. For some
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  Speaker 2: major cities like Cleveland who openly declare themselves the sanctuary city,
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  Speaker 2: they can lose tens of millions of dollars. And then,
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  Speaker 2: in addition, it requires all of our law enforcement departments
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  Speaker 2: to cooperate with task force and law enforcement efforts in
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  Speaker 2: the federal government for immigration enforcement, or they risk losing
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  Speaker 2: homeland security funds that the state allocates to them.
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  Speaker 1: With the language as it is written, does it require
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  Speaker 1: the cities or the municipalities to openly declare, as Cleveland,
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  Speaker 1: did we are a sanctuary city? Or do their actions
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  Speaker 1: and policies come in to play in making that determination.
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  Speaker 2: They don't have to openly declare themselves as sanctuary cities.
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  Speaker 2: They must affirm to the Attorney General's office that they
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  Speaker 2: do not have a particular set of policies on the books. Essentially,
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  Speaker 2: we're looking at policies that are prohibiting their employees, their agencies,
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  Speaker 2: their agents from cooperating with federal law enforcement efforts as
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  Speaker 2: it relates to immigration enforcement. They must sign that if
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  Speaker 2: we find out their line in the future, they are
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  Speaker 2: penalized even harsher. And essentially, if they fail to do that,
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  Speaker 2: they will be at risk of losing local government fund
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  Speaker 2: So this is similar to what we did with the
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  Speaker 2: red light and speed camera enforcement for the cities that
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  Speaker 2: were trying to use those stationary cameras and mobile cameras
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  Speaker 2: to write people tickets. This is similar to the way
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  Speaker 2: we drafted that bill, and the Ohio Supreme Court found
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  Speaker 2: that bill constitutional because the legislature has the power of
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  Speaker 2: the purse.
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  Speaker 1: This is good news. And I ask you know, particularly
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  Speaker 1: being here in Columbus, because our our mayor is not
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  Speaker 1: like you know, the mayor of Chicago who says you're
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  Speaker 1: not coming in and I'm gonna make sure Trump can't
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  Speaker 1: get any is it? And the idiot up in New
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  Speaker 1: Jersey who said, yeah, I got an illegal alien living
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  Speaker 1: over my grade. Our mayor. Our mayor will not call
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  Speaker 1: us a sanctuary city. However, he will say that our
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  Speaker 1: city employees, our resources will not be used in immigration issues.
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  Speaker 1: So that because that is what is stated openly, that
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  Speaker 1: we're not going to use our law enforcement or whatever
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  Speaker 1: in immigration cases. I hope that you know, that gets
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  Speaker 1: his attention and makes him understand that he is subject
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  Speaker 1: to this as well. Chances of passing once you get this,
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  Speaker 1: We're still in committee at this point.
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  Speaker 2: Right correct, but we have substantial support behind it. We
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  Speaker 2: even have the Senate reaching out to carry a companion
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  Speaker 2: version to get it moving in the Senate so we
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  Speaker 2: can get that done real swiftly. We believe this is
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  Speaker 2: going to be a priority. And this is just one
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  Speaker 2: of about six immigration bills that will come out of
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  Speaker 2: my office. I also introduced another bill with tex Fisher
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  Speaker 2: that just made its way out of rules and references
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  Speaker 2: and will make its way to its official committee next week.
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  Speaker 2: That one will require certain agencies law enforcement agencies are
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  Speaker 2: county jails to give data to the state about immigration
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  Speaker 2: status of inmates. They collect all kind of other data points, age, gender,
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  Speaker 2: income level, prior convictions, all that type of data they
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  Speaker 2: collect and transmit, but they do not collect immigration status.
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  Speaker 2: So we're going to make sure they do that. And
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  Speaker 2: then we have several other bills that are coming out
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  Speaker 2: as well in the area of immigration enforcement.
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  Speaker 1: Now, if I look on the web page right now,
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  Speaker 1: the Representative's web pages, State Legislature web page, if I
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  Speaker 1: post a link to the view bill text, is that
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  Speaker 1: in its current form or is that with whatever amendments
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  Speaker 1: might have been suggested at this point?
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  Speaker 2: So there's an as introduced version. It's a very complicated website.
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  Speaker 2: That's the as introduced version, Yes, and then through the
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  Speaker 2: committee process you would have to go to the committee
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  Speaker 2: and get updates on what amendments have been what amendments
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  Speaker 2: have been approved to be added to the bill. There
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  Speaker 2: are no amendments to it currently. The as introduced version
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  Speaker 2: is exactly the version we're working with right now. And
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  Speaker 2: we have tried to work with a stateable how to
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  Speaker 2: make our website just more friendly, user friendly, to be
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  Speaker 2: able to track what amendments have been added or removed
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  Speaker 2: from a bill.
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  Speaker 1: Now, you said too in working with text Fisher, do
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  Speaker 1: me this favor. I've never met tex Fisher, but explained
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  Speaker 1: to text Fisher, this is Ohio. He needs to change
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  Speaker 1: his name to Buck Fisher because text Fisher, I don't
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  Speaker 1: know man. Then there's I've never does he look text
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  Speaker 1: in at all, because there's no picture of him on here.
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  Speaker 2: No, no, So we just had our official pictures taken.
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  Speaker 2: He joined the General Assembly last General Assembly, he was
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  Speaker 2: appointed and then he ran for re election and was
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  Speaker 2: sworn in again. We just had our official pictures taken
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  Speaker 2: this week, so they'll be uploaded pretty short shortly.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, I just text I'm pictured him in a big
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  Speaker 1: old cat like hoss cart right from Bonanza or something.
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  Speaker 1: What can we do? Do we need to do anything?
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  Speaker 1: Is the momentum already there? Do we just sit back
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  Speaker 1: and watch? What can the public do to help you
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  Speaker 1: along here and get this thing out of committee to
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  Speaker 1: the floor, debated, voted on, and moved over to the Senate.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think the momentum is there, but you can
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  Speaker 2: always be helpful. So what you can do is you
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  Speaker 2: can go to the Ohio House Legislative website and type
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  Speaker 2: in Josh Williams. You'll get all my contact information. You
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  Speaker 2: can write an email to my official office and we
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  Speaker 2: will show you how to submit testimony. So you can
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  Speaker 2: provide written testimony that will be in the official record
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  Speaker 2: and support or in opposition to a bill. Our office
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  Speaker 2: can make that happen. For bills we see students that
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  Speaker 2: don't like certain bills, thousands of written comments will come in.
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  Speaker 2: We meet our Ohio ones that support legislation to take
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  Speaker 2: the time to email our office, fill out a witness form,
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  Speaker 2: and submit written testimony, and my office can help you
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  Speaker 2: do every step of the way.
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  Speaker 1: That's something that I don't think a lot of people
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  Speaker 1: are thinking about right now. Our kids are in a
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  Speaker 1: very precarious position with this going on. And you know,
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  Speaker 1: I've got grandsons and I've had to talk to them
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  Speaker 1: pretty much every day about this. You know, you can't
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  Speaker 1: say these things. You can't. People are taking this very seriously.
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  Speaker 1: And no matter what your politics is or anything else,
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  Speaker 1: if these families are disappearing from your school, other kids
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  Speaker 1: are disappearing from your school, it's not something you can
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  Speaker 1: laugh about, joke about, or anything else, because them, at
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  Speaker 1: a human level, this is scaring the crap out of them.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and many Ohioans don't realize that the mere presence
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  Speaker 2: of illegal immigrants in your community actually takes resources away
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  Speaker 2: from you as an Ohioan that you pay into. So
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  Speaker 2: we have to provide them medical care at our hospitals
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  Speaker 2: free of charge without reimbursement. We have to provide them
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  Speaker 2: educational opportunities in our schools. So resources that are allocated
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  Speaker 2: that are supposed to go towards your child being educated,
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  Speaker 2: towards your health care problems are being allocated to individuals
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  Speaker 2: that either entered into the country illegally or overstate they're welcome,
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  Speaker 2: and that's not the way it should be. If we
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  Speaker 2: are going to have federal law enforcement efforts to remove
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  Speaker 2: these illegal immigrants from our communities. Our government, our local
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  Speaker 2: governments should be cooperative.
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  Speaker 1: I am just so general proud of you, just for
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  Speaker 1: the life that you lived and where you where you
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  Speaker 1: are now, how quickly you got there, how determined you
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  Speaker 1: seem to be walking away from House Built twenty six
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  Speaker 1: right now. And just to Josh Williams, what else is
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  Speaker 1: going on in your career in your world that people
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  Speaker 1: would want to know about.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm just concentrating on what my colleagues have selected
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  Speaker 2: me to do. So I was just you know, selected
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  Speaker 2: to be one of the majority whips here in the House,
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  Speaker 2: which is a leadership position. I'm on three very very
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  Speaker 2: competitive committees Finance, Energy, Higher Education, and Workforce. You know.
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  Speaker 2: Last General Assembly, my goal out of my office was
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  Speaker 2: to introduce thirty bills and get half of them passed.
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  Speaker 2: We were able to get seven of those bills either
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  Speaker 2: in the budget or in Lane duck or stand alone.
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  Speaker 2: Through this time, my goal is forty pieces of legislation
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  Speaker 2: coming out of my office with over half of them
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  Speaker 2: being able to be passed. A lot of them will
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  Speaker 2: make their way into the budget. You will see things
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  Speaker 2: as far as development, giving our kids every opportunity to
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  Speaker 2: graduate from high school with an opportunity to go right
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  Speaker 2: into the workforce, making a reasonable way that they can
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  Speaker 2: live on their own and be sustainable or go on
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  Speaker 2: to higher education. You'll see things like criminal justice reform
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  Speaker 2: coming out of my office to make our community safer,
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  Speaker 2: like the Repeat Offender Act House Bill five that we
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  Speaker 2: introduce that will substantially increase penalties for violent crimes in
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  Speaker 2: our communities when it involved the firearm. You will see substantial,
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  Speaker 2: meaningful legislation come out of my office, and almost weekly
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  Speaker 2: you're going to see a bill drop.
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  Speaker 1: You have you had time on the Finance Committee, if
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  Speaker 1: you had time yet to read much of the governor's
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  Speaker 1: proposed budget.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we've gone through every single page of that budget. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and we've had a lot of the department heads come
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  Speaker 2: in and discuss the Governor's version and what their vision
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  Speaker 2: is for their individual department.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I'm not real happy about some of this stuff.
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  Speaker 1: The raising of the taxes on the legal weed bugs me.
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  Speaker 1: Though I'm not crazy about the idea that we have
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  Speaker 1: legal weed. I just think that that shows a greed
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  Speaker 1: right out of the box for the state and the
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  Speaker 1: we just recently got the sports gaming and boom, let's
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  Speaker 1: use that as a cash cow as well. I'm worried that, frankly,
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  Speaker 1: we will start sending people back to the the illegal
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  Speaker 1: underground drug dealer to get their weed, and of course
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  Speaker 1: the illegal underground drug dealer is going to well set
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  Speaker 1: them a few other things as well, which just creates
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  Speaker 1: more zombies on our street and takes us right back
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  Speaker 1: to where we don't want to be. And that I
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  Speaker 1: wish they would consider the overall societal impact. Don't let
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  Speaker 1: the dollar signs be an influence there. And with the uh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, with the idea of the sports gaming. The
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  Speaker 1: Internet's a big thing, and we got a lot of
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  Speaker 1: money coming in here to the state of Ohio. I
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  Speaker 1: would hate to see it going to the other states
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  Speaker 1: or to you know, foreign countries or whatever with offshore betting,
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  Speaker 1: because Ohio so quickly jumped that tax up.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I totally agree. I'm never in favor of
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  Speaker 2: braising taxes, you know, especially I was in just apa
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  Speaker 2: tightening up the belt knowing that we were not going
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  Speaker 2: to be receiving the federal COVID dollars that we were
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  Speaker 2: getting over the last four to eight years, I thought
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  Speaker 2: that we were going to get a smaller, more constrained budget.
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  Speaker 2: So the first thing that I paid attention to was
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  Speaker 2: he wants to increase taxes all over the board to
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  Speaker 2: generate more revenue, especially to give you know, millions of
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  Speaker 2: dollars the sports teams to build stadiums here when they
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  Speaker 2: already make huge profits off of those investments. You know,
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  Speaker 2: that was really concerning, and we'll be having those discussions
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  Speaker 2: as the budget continues moving on. But I tell you
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  Speaker 2: there's a lot of Republicans that do not like the
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  Speaker 2: idea of us raising any of these taxes.
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  Speaker 1: God love you, Josh Williams. I will get your links up.
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  Speaker 1: We will talk again soon. The music's playing, which means
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  Speaker 1: I got to get my big butt out of here.
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  Speaker 1: But thanks for your time tonight. We will do it
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  Speaker 1: again in the very very near future. And hey, it's
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  Speaker 1: time for me to fly. Thanks for being part of it.
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  Speaker 1: On sixt ten, WTV and