Cincy Reporter

Ohio gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci has accused the governor of mismanaging state funds and said that "taxpayers of Ohio are still on the hook for Mike DeWine's failure."

According to the Columbus Dispatch, Ohio's Medicaid department made $118 million in payments that were either duplicates or improperly paid between 2017 and 2020. This not only includes payments to ineligible prisoners but also the deceased. The auditor's office also said that there was a potential additional $84 million in invalid payments, but the agency has has not confirmed it. 

"While $118.5 million might be a drop in the bucket for the Department of Medicaid, for Ohioans that is a lot of money – taxpayer money – that needs to be accounted for," Ohio State Auditor Keith Faber said, according to the outlet. "That’s enough money to cover 1.8 million doctor’s office visits, 2.4 million prenatal appointments for expecting moms, 1.6 million mammograms, 1.3 million pairs of prescription glasses, 148,000 sets of dentures, 1.3 million drug addiction counseling sessions or 1.3 million hours of in-home nursing care." 

A 2018 federal report indicated that the department paid $90 million on behalf of the dead, and another one in 2021 revealed that Ohio paid $5.9 million for out-of-state residents.   

From April 2020 to June 2021, Ohio's unemployment insurance system paid out more than $3.8 billion to either fraudulent claims or due to mistakes, according to Cleveland.com. This equates to nearly $700 for each Ohioan in the labor force.

"For a 40-year career politician, Mike DeWine is awfully bad at managing Ohio's government, and he's a poor steward of taxpayer money," Renacci said. "These audits keep finding overwhelming evidence of fraud and waste in DeWine's administration."

In the GOP primary on May 3, candidates Joe Blystone and Jim Renacci have lined up as challengers to Gov. Mike DeWine, according to NE Ohio Times.