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Franklin County prosecutor rebuts testimony backing bill to shift child-care fraud prosecutions
Summary
Franklin County Prosecutor Shayla Favor told the Board of Commissioners that claims her office has declined child-care fraud cases are false, saying her office received no referrals for such cases in 2025 and urging public comment at a House committee hearing on House Bill 649.
Franklin County Prosecutor Shayla Favor used a point of personal privilege at the county commissioners’ March 17 meeting to challenge testimony that helped justify House Bill 649, which would transfer authority to prosecute child-care fraud from elected county prosecutors to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
Favor said Representative Josh Williams told a House committee last week that some county prosecutors were unwilling to prosecute child-care fraud. "This characterization is false," Favor told the board, adding that her office "has prosecuted fraud aggressively and without hesitation whenever cases have been properly referred to us." She said that following the COVID-19 pandemic the office indicted about 50 pandemic-relief fraud cases, with alleged losses ranging from about $24,000 to $7 million.
Favor emphasized a procedural point: county prosecutors generally prosecute fraud only after an appropriate investigative agency—such as the state auditor, state highway patrol or the Ohio inspector general—investigates and refers cases to the prosecutor's office. "In 2025, this office received zero referrals for child care fraud," she said. "We did not decline a case. We did not deprioritize a case. We were never given a case to act on." She added, "A prosecutor cannot charge what a prosecutor has never received."
Favor said she stands with the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association in opposing HB 649 and warned that shifting authority to the Attorney General could make enforcement "more distant, slower, and less accountable to the communities affected." She invited residents to provide testimony at the Ohio House Children and Human Services Committee hearing scheduled the next day at 11:00 a.m. in Hearing Room 18 at the Ohio Statehouse.
Why it matters: Favor framed the dispute as one of local accountability and process. The question before lawmakers is whether investigation-and-referral protocols or centralized prosecution would better ensure enforcement of alleged child-care fraud. Favor urged lawmakers and residents to consider whether removing locally elected prosecutorial authority is the right solution.
The commissioners did not vote on any formal action related to HB 649 during the session. The board proceeded to its regular consent and resolution calendar at the close of Favor’s remarks.
