Seeking his fourth and final term as State Representative for Ohio’s 97th District is Representative Brian Hill.

Hill has called Muskingum County his home his whole life. He grew up on a farm in Hopewell Township, graduated from West Muskingum and is raising his own family in the same school district he attended.

Married to his wife, Tracie, for almost 21 years, Hill and his wife have three children together: Kaleigh, 20, Cameron, 15, and Conner, 12.

For Hill, it was his life of farming that led him to public office.

After studying agriculture technology at the ATI in Wooster, Hill transferred to Ohio State University’s main campus where he graduated in 1986 with a degree in animal science.

He got his first taste of politicswhile taking part in various agriculture commodity groups. It was during his time on the Farm Bureau Board that Hill represented constituents in the state capital.

His first elected position was for the Guernsey Muskingum Electric Cooperative in which he represented constituents in both Columbus and Washington D.C. for program funding and other important issues to the co-op.

That experience led him into politics, Hill said he has “just always been interested in working to help represent members or constituents’ interests.”

In 2005, Hill was elected Muskingum County Commissioner and held office until he was appointed to fill then State Representative Troy Balderson’s seat in 2011.

During his time in office, Hill said he was able to cut $2 billion in personal taxes over the past six or seven years and helped bring half a million new jobs to the state.

“I will continue to be doing things that strengthen the business community through our tax breaks,” said Hill.

Agriculture

Hill is now finishing his third term representing Muskingum and Guernsey Counties and currently chairs the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee.

One of his biggest accomplishment with the committee was passing Current Agricultural Use Values (CAUV) tax reform, which will come into effect this year.

Hill said because of the reform, residents of Muskingum and Guernsey Counties with agricultural land will see tax reductions between 25 and 30 percent.

Another major issue for Hill’s committee is improving water quality throughout the state, especially in Lake Erie.

Hill said a local company out of Guernsey County, the BEG Group, will be presenting their product, which has been tested to help solve the algae bloom issue on Lake Erie, before lawmakers in Columbus.

However, the water quality issue his committee is trying to resolve is also hurting farmers, according to Hill.

“Agriculture is struggling right now with some of the state mandates on water quality that the governor’s put out ,” said Hill.

According to Hill, some of the regulations put in place to improve water quality and prevent phosphorous runoff is making it difficult for farmers, especially those in Ohio’s western basin.

“There needs to be an easier path,” said Hill. “Restrictions are getting tougher and tougher in an area where the margins are pretty slim.”

Hill said he is not necessarily advocating for deregulation, but he’d rather see the farmers he represents involved in the decisions.

“Agriculture wants to do more, but they want to be involve in the process and what the governor did basically excluded them from the process and just kind of mandated what they’ll do, which is not a good approach in my opinion,” said Hill.

Education

Another important issue to Hill is the emphasis of vocational training for high school students.

“I don’t want to take away from our local high schools at all, but there are those young people that, I’ll say, they are not good test takers,” said Hill. “They are hands on people. They learn very well once they get into a trade or an area they enjoy working on.”

Hill said it is important to let parents and students know that there are technical job opportunities available to kids when they graduate high school, many of which are high paying jobs.

“We haven’t seen this kind of thing in probably 30, 40 years where you can leave high school and make the incomes that you can today,” said Hill.

Hill said students don’t have to feel like they’ve failed just because they didn’t go to college.

“Some people feel bad if they don’t go to college, and I don’t think they should feel bad. I think there’s so many opportunities out here that they can get out and make a really great living and not have all this college debt,” said Hill. “We just need to make sure that they know that there’s opportunity there and then they’ll make the decision which way they want to go.”

Some of the jobs Hill would like to see filled in his district include those in the gas and oil industry, especially as he pushes for the advancement of Utica Shale production in the area as part of his goal for energy independence in the U.S.

Additionally, Hill recognized Zanesville as the health center of southeast Ohio and would like to continue growing that industry in the area.

Opioids

On the topic of opioids, Hill is opposed to the proposed constitutional amendment as proposed in Issue 1 on the ballot.

“Although there’s an issue there with sentencing, sentencing reform, we need to probably have a discussion on, changing our constitution and allowing people to carry, you know, what, 19 grams of fentanyl — enough to kill 10,000 people — to make that a misdemeanor is not the way to go,” said Hill.

Not only does Hill worry for the potential drug users who could be harmed by that amount of fentanyl, he is concerned for the officers who would encounter the drugs.

“It’s very dangerous just for law enforcement to handle, and we’re going to allow somebody to have that much fentanyl on them and just be a misdemeanor,” said Hill.

Hill stressed the importance of drug courts in Ohio and their ability to scare people into treatment with the threat of jail time.

While Hill does agree with the need for sentencing reform, and better drug treatment, he believes it should be decided through a vetting process in the legislature, not in the state constitution.

“We continue to fight the drug epidemic and will continue to do that,” said Hill. “I voted for $180 million was put in the budget bill a year ago to help fight that for treatment and prevention, and as of today (Oct. 29), there will be another $50 or 55 million go in to try and help fight the opioid epidemic.”