New Philadelphia mayor Joel Day is sharing some concerns about the state’s housing crisis and the continued erosion of municipalities’ home rule.
Day told council this week those two topics were discussed in depth at the recent annual conference he attended put on by the Ohio municipal league.
He says presenter Jon Melchi of the building industry of central Ohio told them that only 50 percent of Ohioans can now afford to buy a home and nearly half of Ohio’s housing stock is more than 50 years old.
Day says another presentation examined how the legislature could keep chipping away at a municipal’s self-government, or home rule, through changes to the Ohio revised code that preempt the local authority given to cities and villages in the Ohio constitution.
“To make matters worse, courts in Ohio do not understand home rule. This is something that we’re all going to have to pay attention to.”
Day is encouraging council members to bring up these concerns with representatives in the state house and senate.
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