Michael Fox

Michael A. Fox



Michael A. Fox was born and raised in Hamilton, Ohio. He was the son of Ben and Nora Fox. His father, Ben, was a Hamilton Police Sgt. and beloved by the community. His mother, Nora Bowling, was born in Flat Creek, Kentucky, attended Oneida School, and settled in Hamilton in 1947.

Mike and his wife, Mary Ann, have been married for over forty-one years. They have two children, Ryan and Ashley, four grandchildren-the twins, Taylor and Avery-and Harper and Brynn. He graduated from Miami University in 1971. He is a member of the Community Christian Church but also attends The Princeton Pike Church of God.

Mike's election to the Ohio General Assembly in 1974 launched a thirty-three-year career in elected public service. He was elected and reelected to the state legislature thirteen times and served just short of twenty-three years in the Ohio Legislature (1975-1997).

Mike is the longest-serving state representative in Butler County History. His work on behalf of Butler County through his thirty-five years in public service earned him the name "Mr. Butler County."

Mike left the statehouse in 1997 and returned to serve Butler County residents for nearly ten years as a Butler County, Ohio County Commissioner.

He retired from elected office in April of 2007 and became the Director of the Butler County Children Services Agency (the county child welfare agency. While Children Services Director, Mike led the adoption and implementation of the most comprehensive reform effort ever undertaken by the agency. He dramatically reduced the number of children in foster care, reduce staff caseloads, increased monitoring and oversight of at-risk children, drastically reduced administrative costs, and made the agency more open to the public and more kid and family-friendly.

Mike was known for his extraordinary service and loyalty to his constituents, his creativity, and his willingness to take on challenging and sometimes controversial issues. Former Ohio Governor George Voinovich described him as an "idea factory." He was a "big ideas" guy.

Mike was a policy, program, and project entrepreneur, providing leadership to bring change and improvement to big systems, working on issues and policies that mattered to hundreds of thousands of people in Ohio and Butler County.

Thought leaders respected Mike all over America as a man who got things done. He brought David Osborne, author of "Reinventing Government" to Butler County, to help reorganize Children Services.

He called on the Milken Foundation to help draft a Jobs and Economic Development plan for Butler County. The fruits of that endeavor can be seen in the extraordinary growth of good-paying jobs in health services in West Chester, Liberty, and Fairfield Township.

His most significant legislative accomplishment for Butler County residents was the enactment of his legislation creating the Butler County Transportation Improvement District (TID).

The TID oversaw the construction of over two-hundred-and-forty million dollars' worth of highway projects in Butler County, including the Union Center Blvd. Interchange, the Fox Highway, connecting Hamilton to the Interstate System, the Liberty Interchange, and several other highway improvements in South-Eastern Butler County. The construction of the highway infrastructure sparked an economic boom creating tens of thousands of new jobs, billions in investment, and breathing new life into his hometown of Hamilton.

The Federal Highway Administration listed his Transportation Improvement District project as one of the top twenty innovative projects in the United States. The Fox Highway won over ten national and international awards for excellence.

His 1995 legislation establishing an Ohio School Scholarship Program (Vouchers) became the basis for the landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court (Zelman v. Simmons-Harris) in June of 2002, knocking down constitutional barriers to school vouchers. Fox's legislation established a Pilot Program for the Cleveland Public Schools, making low-income parents eligible for state-funded scholarships enabling them to pay for tuition to private, nonpublic schools.

President Bush called the decision a "landmark ruling," noting that it paved the way for low-income parents all over the nation to have the same choices to educate their children as parents of better financial means.

Career Highlights

He initiated, authored, and secured the enactment of legislation creating a Transportation Improvement District (TID). It provided the funding ($158 million) for, and the oversight of the construction of the eleven-mile Interstate Highway Connector from Hamilton to I-75. It was named the Michael A. Fox Highway, in recognition of the crucial role he played in getting the long-awaited highway built.

He Chaired and led the Board of the TID and managed the process of securing the financing and construction of several related highway projects in Butler County, Ohio, totaling over $240 million. He oversaw the creation of a multi-corridor east-west highway grid in Butler County, Ohio.

His leadership helped secure approval, financing, and construction of a $42 million Liberty Interchange in Liberty Township, and a $40 million Union Center Blvd. Interchange, in West Chester Township. These two projects generated tens of thousands of new jobs and billions of dollars in new investment in Butler County, Ohio.

He created the first county-sponsored Prescription Assistance Program in the country. The program saved Butler County residents millions of dollars on their purchases of prescription medications.

He provided the leadership to build a 125-mile fiber-optic network in Butler County, Ohio. He created a partnership with Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, to share the use of the fiber network, resulting in millions of dollars of savings for Miami University and the county in telecommunication and digital communications services. The system provides high-speed connectivity to serve the digital needs of Butler County businesses and governmental entities.

As Director of the Butler County Children Services Agency, he formulated and directed the implementation of transformative changes in county services to protect Butler County Children from abuse and neglect.

He dramatically reduced unnecessary administrative expenditures and redirected the money into direct services to children and families, lowering staff to client ratios from nearly 30 to one to 12 to 15 to one, creating more caseworker positions than at any time in the agency's history.

He reduced foster care placements to the lowest level in over twenty years and increased placements of children with relatives and other family members. He improved the monitoring of children at risk of abuse or neglect and, through various new programs, beefed up the agency's investigative resources. He also identified and secured additional state funding and oversaw the passage of a successful tax levy renewal.

As Director of Children Services, he was responsible for managing over 200 employees and worked to change the culture of the agency, putting more emphasis on completing thorough investigations, being more family-friendly, child-friendly, and responsive to the public. He made the agency more open, accountable, and transparent, significantly upgrading its information systems to track and measure the performance of mission-critical activities.

Mike was one of the most productive legislators in Ohio's history. Amazingly, he accomplished most of his major legislative enactments while serving as a member of the minority party for most of his nearly 23 years of service. He sponsored and gained the enactment of more than one hundred major pieces of legislation (amendments and bills).

He was also a master at getting state funding for Butler County projects. During his legislative years, he secured state funding amounting to several hundred million dollars for Butler County Community Projects and facilities.

He secured funding for numerous Butler County projects:

Jobs Development Center for Hamilton High School $5,000,000

Fox Highway $159,000,000

Low-level Dam for Hamilton $3,000,000

Fairfield Developmental Center $11,500,000

Hamilton High Street Underpass $15,000,000

Juvenile Justice Center $8,000,000

Fairfield Nilles Rd. Widening to four lanes $5,000,000

Fairfield Major General Charles Jones Armory $4,000,000

St. Rt. 27 Life-Saving Safety Improvements $2,800,000

Liberty Center for Developmentally Disabled $1,200,000

Transportation Improvement District $1,000,000

Union Center Blvd. Interchange $36,000,000

Fairfield Mulhauser Rd. Extension $8,000,000

Fairfield Symmes Rd. Extension $6,000,000

Fairfield Pleasant Run Flood Control Project $300,000

Vocational Fire Training Facility $87,500

Vocational Activities Center for MRDD $2,500,000

St. Rt. 747 Extension and Widening $3,000,000

Hamilton Government Services Center Start-Up Grant $3,100,000

Wilks Conference Center Miami University Hamilton $8,000,000

Miami University Projects $102,000,000

During his career in the legislature, Mike Sponsored and Co-Sponsored legislation providing over $102 million in additional projects for Miami University.

Sub Total $386.6 million

As County Commissioner, Mike provided the leadership and ingenuity to fund numerous innovative projects. He figured out the funding, organized key supporters, and proposed it to the Commission.

Butler County Jail $40,000,000

County Emergency Communication System $37,000,000

Removal of Middletown Mall Roof $3,000,000

Construction of New Animal Shelter $3,200,000

Sub Total $83.2 million

Mike was the lead House Co-Sponsor legislation establishing the Ohio School Facilities Commission. The legislation (Am. Sub. S.B. 102) provided for state assistance to local school district new building construction and improvements.

This legislation provided Butler County Schools $293,247,446 in state funds to build 33 new school buildings. It established the framework for the most extensive state-funded school building improvement expenditure in the state's history.

Summary below:

School District Total Buildings Total Cost State Share State Grants

Butler Tech Career Center 1 $16,773,061 63% $10,567,028

Edgewood 1 $42,146,325 51% $21,494,625

Fairfield 3 $73,120,019 26% $19,011,204

Hamilton 11 $211,732,520 59% $124,922,187
Madison 2 $30,208,009 57% $17,218,565
Middletown 7 $81,696,308. 64% $52,285,637
New Miami 1 $12,744,851 81% $10,323,329
Ross Local 4 $50,063,970 48% $24,030,705
Talawanda 3 $55,809,028 24% $13,394,166

Total 33 $571,294,091 $293,247,446

Mike put Ohio on the map for funding school technology when he authored, sponsored, and secured enactment of Ohio's School-Net Plus Program, which initially provided more than $400 million to provide classroom computers for one in five K-4 students in Ohio's public schools.

The program made the State of Ohio one of the most innovative leaders in providing classroom technology than any state in the nation.

This legislation provided Butler County Schools approximately $12 million to purchase one computer for every five Kindergarten through fourth-grade students.

Summary below:

School District Number of Students Number of Computers State Grant Amount

Edgewood 1,088 218 $612,798
Fairfield 3,516 703 $1,976,133
Hamilton 3,977 795 $2,234,745
Lakota 5,472 1,094 $3,075,234
Madison Local 575 115 $ 323,265
Middletown 4,061 812 $2,282,532
New Miami Local 357 71 $ 199,581
Ross Local 971 194 $ 545,334
Talawanda 1,273 255 $ 716,805

Totals 21,290 4,257 $11,966,427


He authored and secured passage of a significant statewide expansion of Ohio's Charter Schools in 1997. Today, more than one hundred and twenty thousand Ohio public school students participate in the program funded by over one billion dollars annually.

He authored and secured passage of the Education Management Information System (EMIS) for Ohio Schools. The system is the most comprehensive education accountability information system in the State's history.

He authored and secured passage of Ohio's Workfare legislation. It required every healthy person receiving public assistance to work in exchange for their benefits. At the time of its adoption (1982), it was considered the nation's most comprehensive welfare reform legislation. Most all of its components were later included in the Welfare Reform legislation enacted during President Clinton's tenure in the White House.

He authored and secured the enactment of teacher licensure reforms requiring all licensed elementary teachers in Ohio to become reading experts.

He authored and secured passage of Ohio's first legislation to provide access to health care for all Medically Fragile Ohio children by establishing Ohio's first Medicaid Waiver Program for Medically Fragile Children. The program provided health care to Ohio's sickest children regardless of their family's income.

While representing Butler County in the Ohio General Assembly, Mike Fox provided the leadership, ingenuity, sponsorship, and co-sponsorship of legislative enactments that brought nearly $700 million in state funding back to fund projects and programs in Butler County ($691.7 million).

Also, while county Commissioner, more than Mike's leadership and ingenuity, brought about the funding of $83.2 million in project funding for several badly needed local projects.

Awards and Recognitions

He received numerous awards and recognitions throughout my legislative and public service career. The following is a list of some of my most notable credits:

Federal Highway Administration recognized the Transportation Improvement District as one of the nation's top twenty best highway financing and construction model. The Transportation Improvement District (TID) became a model utilized by states and local communities all across America to build highway projects. It received nine national and international awards for excellence, more than any other highway in Ohio history.

The Interstate Connector in Butler County between the City of Hamilton and Interstate 75 was named in his honor: The Michael A. Fox Highway

The Prescription Assistance Program he created for Butler County residents received recognition for excellence awards by the National Association of County Commissioners and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Mike was named Legislator of the year by the American Legislative Exchange Council for my work in education.

Awarded Miami University's President's Award

Named one of Ohio's most effective legislators by Columbus Monthly magazine
He was appointed to serve as a member of the National Advisory Committee of the Milken Exchange on Education Technology (MEET). The MEET was a twelve-member board created by the Milken Family Foundation to promote policies at the national, state, and local levels to expand access to digital technology for American educators and students.

He was named Legislator of the year by the Ohio Association of Vocational Schools for authoring legislation that provided a stable and enduring funding base, giving Ohio vocational and career training programs the most robust and reliable funding framework of any in the United States.

Named to Ohio Victims of Crime Legislative Honor Role

Recognized by Ohio Victims Witness Association for work on behalf of Victims of crimes

Legislator of the year by Ohio Speech and Hearing Government Affairs Coalition of Ohio

Legislator of the year by Ohio Academy of Nursing Homes

Legislator of the year by the Ohio Chiropractic Association

He was recognized for his work by the Boy Scouts of America, Ohio Youth Services Association, Families for Acceptable Care and Treatment, and numerous other community and statewide organizations.

Education

Bachelor of Science, Education 1971

Miami University, Oxford, Ohio USA

Attended Law School 1977-1978
Capital University Law School, Columbus, Ohio