(The Center Square) — Ohio’s elected leaders have earmarked more than $16 million to commemorate the nation’s 250th birthday next year – significantly more than some of the first U.S. states.
And they have committed those funds over the course of five years to a commission that is outside of typical state oversight and that is spending significant amounts of money on projects that are not directly related to the country’s founding, according a Center Square review.
That includes more than 250 free showings of films that have some sort of Ohio connection, at an anticipated cost of about $1.4 million this fiscal year. Among the first film screenings is “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”\
State lawmakers created the Ohio Commission for the U.S. Semiquincentennial in 2022 to commemorate the founding of the United States and “the impact of Ohioans on the nation’s past, present and future.”
The 29-person commission includes: four state lawmakers; leaders of historical, arts and tourism organizations; residents and others. It has a staff of about 10, four of which earn more than $100,000 each year.
Commissioners are not paid but are reimbursed for travel expenses they incur for their duties.
The annual amount of money the commission receives from the state has swelled from $500,000 for the fiscal year that ended in 2023 to $8,750,000 for the current year.
That dwarfs the spending of some of the nation’s first states where prominent battles were fought for independence from the British Empire. Delaware, the first state, is spending about $1 million to commemorate the country’s founding. Connecticut, the fifth state, has allocated about $100,000 for each of the past three years.
Ohio was the 17th state and joined the union more than a decade after the original 13 colonial states.
Gov. Mike DeWine had sought significantly more funding for the commission. He proposed a total of about $14 million for the previous two fiscal years alone — about $9 million more than what lawmakers later approved.
A spokesperson for his office did not respond to requests to comment for this article.
In a statement that was published by numerous news organizations in recent days, DeWine said Ohio has had a “significant role in the history of American film.”
“Ohio Goes to the Movies ensures that residents in every community can participate in the America 250 celebration and rediscover the films that connect us,” he was quoted as saying.
Less state oversight
The commission was created by state law and is funded with state taxpayer dollars, but its staff members are not state employees.
That’s because the funding is diverted to the commission through the Ohio History Connection, a non-profit organization that is also state funded. The commission’s staff are technically employees of the non-profit.
“The Office of Budget and Management does not collect data on how this appropriation is spent,” Pete LuPiba, a spokesperson for the government office, which tracks the spending of other state agencies, told The Center Square.
By law, the commission is required to submit an annual report to the state with a summary of its spending and to undergo an annual audit.
The most-recent annual report — which covers the fiscal year that ended in 2024 — contains little detail about the spending and instead shows broad expenditure categories. That year, the staff’s salary and benefits accounted for nearly a third of the commission’s $1.8 million of expenses.
A budget document that commissioners used to approve spending for the current fiscal year has more detail about how much each of its initiatives cost, but some of the listed expenses are nebulous. For example, the single-largest item that is classified under “operations expenses” is listed as “other expenses.” It totals about $570,000.
Commission co-chairperson Doug Preisse told The Center Square he did not know what might be included as an “other” expense but that he assumes auditors will catch inappropriate spending.
Another co-leader of the commission, Paul Oyaski, appeared to be unaware of the extent of oversight by auditors, during a commission meeting last week.
“Have the financial books been independently audited recently?” he wrote in a chat for the meeting, which was broadcast online. “Who specifically did the audit? Can a copy be distributed?”
A staff member replied: “The commission books were audited with the (Ohio History Connection) audit.”
A Center Square review of the non-profit’s audits in recent years found no mention of the commission.
Todd Kleismit, the executive director of the commission’s staff, said auditors had access to the commission’s financial transactions, and that the “other expenses” category is meant to cover unanticipated expenses along with the costs to employ additional staff members.
He has an annual salary of about $131,000, according to a budget document he provided to The Center Square. He hired an operation director and communications director who each earn about $106,000, and a project manager whose salary is about $103,000, according to the budget summary.
The commission’s total anticipated costs for staff salaries and benefits was about $870,000 this fiscal year.
The four state lawmakers who are part of the commission did not respond to requests to comment for this article.
States’ spending varies widely
The salary and benefits total for this year alone in Ohio approaches what Delaware had planned to spend in total for 250th commemorations. And the salary of each of the four highest-paid commission staff members is more than what Connecticut has spent each year.
But some states are spending considerably more. Pennsylvania and its largest city Philadelphia — where the Declaration of Independence was signed — are expected to devote tens of millions of dollars to the celebrations, in part to support major events happening there next year. That includes World Cup soccer matches, professional baseball’s All-Star Game and college basketball tournament matches.
“Some states are doing a lot, some states are doing something little, and some states don’t seem to be nearly as organized as we are,” Preisse said. “But we don’t really compare ourselves to other states. We’ve mostly been comparing ourselves to what we think we should be doing.”
Among the “signature events” Ohio has planned, the free movie series is by far the most expensive at just shy of $1.4 million, according to this year’s budget.
The next highest amount is $525,000 for the 250 Buckeye Train, which has two train rides in April that are similar to the state’s bicentennial celebration. Participants — who pay between $115 and $190 for tickets — ride on vintage passenger cars from Columbus or Newark to Dennison and back for a transportation celebration.
The budgeted money will cover costs associated with the celebration, Kleismit said, and the ticket fees defray the costs of operating the train.
The commission has also planned $450,000 for a women’s suffrage memorial, $330,000 for a statewide homecoming and picnic, and about $181,000 for its Trails and Tales initiative, which plots routes to drive for noteworthy sites across the state.
Preisse also noted that the commission’s staff is identifying Revolutionary War graves in the state to create a database that will exist indefinitely after the commission is disbanded after the celebrations. This year’s budget includes about $75,000 for that work. Ohio had one Revolutionary War fort that operated for about a year south of Akron.
There are many more projects and programs underway.
“We think celebrating not only history but contemporary aspects of Ohio’s place in the nation is quite legitimate and defensible,” Preisse said. “Some might say we’re spending too much, too little, or just about right. I think we’re getting it just about right.”
