COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Hours before Gov. Mike DeWine rolled out his plan to gradually roll back Ohio’s coronavirus restrictions, a group of GOP state lawmakers pre-empted the governor by rolling out their own plan proposing a full and immediate re-opening of all state businesses.

The GOP plan, titled the “Open Ohio Responsibly Framework," as of Monday afternoon was signed by 33 Republican state representatives, generally a sampling of the House GOP caucus’ more conservative members, many of whom represent rural areas. There are 61 GOP House members overall.

It calls for businesses to voluntarily follow safety guidelines by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and for the governor’s office to issue guidance to local health departments, which would be responsible for carrying it out. It was posted to Facebook on Monday by one legislator who signed it, state Rep. Nino Vitale, an Urbana Republican.

Also before DeWine’s announcement, House Democratic leaders released their own more cautious plan, which called for a focus of increased testing and an emphasis on providing protection and childcare for workers.

House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes, an Akron Democrat, said it’s too soon to begin re-opening businesses, since Ohio still hasn’t fully expanded its capacity to perform needed COVID-19 tests. The White House’s guidelines for re-opening states call for 14 days of a decreasing number of positive tests. Ohio has seen its number of cases plateau, but has seen only four consecutive days of decreasing cases, in part likely do to a surge of testing in state prisons.

“Without having that information we are operating blindly and leaving ourselves susceptible for a second surge,” Sykes said.

DeWine ended up announcing a phased re-opening plan, under which offices, retailers and manufacturers will re-open this month but movie theaters, restaurants, bars gyms and salons will remain closed indefinitely. Asked why he didn’t follow the approach recommended by the Republican House members, DeWine said it would be “irresponsible” of him to open everything at once.

“There is nothing that has changed, other than ohioans have done a bang-up job, but if Ohioans go back to business as usual this thing is going to go straight back up,” he said. “The curve is going to go back up. We’ll have more Ohioans die. And i’m not going to do that.”

House Speaker Larry Householder, of Perry County, said House Republicans are frustrated, and feel the closures as structured have allowed big chain stores to operate while closing small businesses.

“As long as small retailers continue to be shut down while national chains are allowed to remain open, government is assisting in the demise of many great small businesses. The big get bigger and the small go away,” Householder said in a text message. “The Ohio House has asked to work with the Administration to come up with common sense solutions to resolve this, but have been met with deaf ears. Ohio’s three branches of government are to be separate but equal, our members feel disrespected that their opinions have been largely disregarded by the Administration.”

DeWine’s plan requires businesses to have their employees wear masks among other safety requirements laid out in CDC guidelines.

But the GOP House plan calls for guidelines to be “strong recommendations,” and doesn’t describe a phased-in approach. It also leaves it up to local health departments to interpret enforcement, rather than setting a statewide standard.

“We believe it is time to trust Ohioans. They have respectfully followed the guidelines and NOW is the time to responsibly open all businesses,” it reads.

Only two Northeast Ohio representatives had signed the plan by Monday afternoon. They are state Rep. Diane Grendell of Geauga County and Rep. Bill Roemer of Richfield.

Among those who signed the plan is Rep. Paul Zeltwanger, a Warren County Republican who has been leading a House coronavirus recovery task force, although Zeltwanger said the plan is not an official task force document.

Zeltwanger said the new plan wasn’t meant to conflict with DeWine’s rollout. He said House members hope the governor will take it under consideration as he puts the finishing touches on his own plan.

“We’re moving to another stage from my perspective, and a lot of people that I represent’s perspective,” he said.

He said the Republican plan represents the reality that many Ohio businesses have remained open under the coronavirus health orders, and that Ohio hasn’t seen the same degree of outbreak as other states.

Even though the plan calls for a full re-open, Zeltwanger said he imagines many businesses won’t re-open for weeks, if at all.

“As a business person or an organization, they all know the last thing they want is to re-open early,” he said. “If we went with this plan, not all of them will re-open. There has to be some trust there."

The Democratic plan includes a requirement that shoppers wear masks while gathering indoors, among other protections for workers and customers. Sykes said she understands businesses’ impatience to re-open, but called the House GOP plan “dangerous.”

“Not all businesses are created equal, and not all business models are the same,” she said. “A business in my home where I can ship out supplies is not the same as a movie theater, for example.”

Meanwhile, a new poll released Monday found DeWine enjoys broad support among Ohioans for his approach to dealing with the coronavirus. It also found found that while about 52% of Ohioans said they support DeWine’s plans to start re-opening on May 1, when asked about specific businesses, they said the time isn’t right yet to open up.

The House Republican plan:

The House Democratic plan:

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