State treasurer visits Warren to explain ResultsOHIO initiative

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague spoke at the Trumbull Country Club about his ResultsOHIO initiative, which will try to attack challenges such as addiction, infant mortality and water quality by creating a fund that will reward success and innovation.

Later Thursday, Sprague learned the Ohio House had passed the biennial budget bill that contains language establishing ResultsOHIO. The bill now goes to the Senate.

Sprague issued a news release applauding House leaders and representatives for its action on Results-OHIO, which he says will fund and support “pay-for-success” initiatives in Ohio. He also thanked state Rep. Don Manning of New Middletown, R-59th, “for his hard work in recent months to help us move this proposal forward.”

Sprague, a Republican who was elected state treasurer in November, also served in the Ohio House and championed solutions to the state’s opiate crisis. Manning worked many years in mental health and drug and addiction services.

Despite the state spending $1 billion per year on addiction services, the recovery rate of addicts is still low, Sprague said.

He said one reason is state officials tend to “quarterback” problems in Columbus without realizing how solutions need to be tailored to specific areas of the state.

“The reality is what works in Findlay might be different from what works in Youngstown,” he said.

ResultsOHIO would encourage local communities to devise projects “that work better than what the state’s already paying for.” If the outcome is better than what the state is doing, the state will reimburse the organization that carried out the program with interest.