Hiner ready to dig into new role as Ohio representative
Newly elected Ohio State Rep. Mark Hiner, left, chats with Holmes County Commissioner Eric Strouse. Hiner, a Mt. Vernon native, has been extremely involved with visiting Holmes County prior to the election and vows to continue to do the same.
The Ohio State House of Representatives will have a new face filling out the seat of outgoing member Darrell Kick, who termed out this past year, and Mark Hiner is excited to take on this new role in serving the communities of his hometown in Mt. Vernon and Knox, Coshocton and Holmes counties.
In addition, he will take on the role of communicating with representatives from all of Ohio’s 88 counties, something he recognizes will be a challenge in itself because of the potpourri of beliefs and desires throughout the state.
“Thank goodness the campaigning is finally over,” Hiner said. “In terms of working within the district, my views are pretty much in alignment with everyone. In terms of working at the state level, I know that will be the greater challenge. There’s more moderate views and a lot of different ideas, and it will be a much more difficult challenge for all of us to work together to find the best possible solutions, and that is why building quality relationships is so important.”
Hiner had the backing of various organizations throughout his district and romped to a lopsided victory in the November election to claim the house seat.
“Thank you to all of the voters and all of the volunteers who helped me win this race,” Hiner said. “Nobody wins a race by themselves, and I am so appreciative for all of the support I received. Now that the election is over, I am eager to get to work moving all three of our counties forward.”
Hiner said the exciting activity currently taking place is the gathering of incoming freshman electees who are getting together to get to know one another and learn about the policy-making process.
Hiner said they are already talking about which committees they would like to help steer.
“It’s time to learn all the nuts and bolts of it all,” Hiner said. “I’m just looking forward to getting started and figuring out how to best represent my constituents.”
Hiner said his main focus will be on helping to get budgets under control in the coming months, adding that with property taxes soaring out of control, that will be another focal point.
“We need to have some reform in those areas,” Hiner said. “There are different ideas of how to do that. I’d like to see broad-based cuts across the board for everyone. I don’t like the idea of carving out cuts for specific groups. I’d rather have it be broad-based.”
He went on to speak about his frustration with the growing state budget, noting he would like to limit that, saying there were others on board already with that concept.
“Whether we’ll be able to accomplish that or not, I don’t know, but we’ll certainly try,” Hiner said. “We’ve got to live within our means, and despite what government seems to think, there is not a never-ending supply of money. It’s all coming out of the taxpayers’ pockets.”
As for connecting with the constituents of Holmes County, Hiner has spent plenty of time visiting many people, functions and events throughout the past year, including attending the recent Holmes County Chamber of Commerce banquet.
He said his time spent in Holmes County has been a blessing because of how welcoming people have been.
“It’s not a chore to come to Holmes County,” Hiner said. “I love it here, and my job is to represent everyone. I’m here to represent the district, and that won’t change. I’m going to continue to do the best I can to spend as much time as possible in all of my counties because that is important.”