A Look Back At Kasich’s Tenure As Governor

(ONN) – As Governor John Kasich prepares to leave office, a look back at some of his accomplishments and defeats in his eight years as governor.

in 2011, his first year in office, he tried to cut collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of government workers.

It became law, but a referendum put it on the ballot and voters sided with the workers.

Also in his first term, he shut down pill mills and took action against doctors prescribing powerful pain pills.

Despite those efforts, the number of people who have died from overdoses has nearly quadrupled since he became governor.

in 2014, Kasich was able to expand medicaid to cover low-income and childless adults.

Nearly 700,000 additional Ohioans signed up – and that number has increased to 1.2 million.

More recently, the legislature in December failed to override Kasich’s veto of the ‘Heartbeat Bill’, but was successful in reversing his veto of a controversial gun bill.

In his final gathering with advisers and agency heads, the Associated Press says they remembered fights for medicaid expansion and dangerous-animal legislation and Kasich shared firsthand accounts of handling a school shooting, a city water crisis, an Ebola scare and a condemned man’s request to donate a kidney to his mother.

Attorney General Mike Dewine will be sworn in as Ohio’s new governor on January 14th.