Fact 01 / Speaker identification
The caller identifies herself as Megan Coy.
The full recording begins: “Hi, my name is Megan Coy.” Visitors can listen to the censored-address recording and compare it with the transcript below.
The voicemail Megan Coy left
Cowardly Coy
Megan Coy wants to represent you in Columbus. But when it mattered, she told a legislator to skip the vote entirely.
Megan CoyCandidate, Ohio House District 17
Voicemail excerpt • loops after playback begins
“DON’T VOTE AND DON’T EVEN GO TO SESSION.”— Megan Coy, recorded voicemail
Key facts.
Check the record.
These are the narrow, verifiable claims underlying this page. The recording is the primary source; official Ohio records provide the legislative context.
Fact 02 / Direct quotation
She asked the recipient not to vote or attend session.
The recording includes: “don’t vote and don’t even go to session today,” followed by the alternative of voting no on overriding the vetoes.
Fact 03 / Legislative subject
The call concerned Ohio House Bill 96 veto overrides.
HB 96 was Ohio’s FY 2026–2027 operating budget. The official legislative record shows the governor’s line-item veto receipt and later override votes. View official status.
Fact 04 / Source boundary
The blanket request is documented; motive is opinion.
The audio documents Coy’s request concerning all the governor’s budget vetoes. Statements about courage, accountability, or fitness for office are this site’s political argument—not quotations from an official source.
Primary evidence: the voicemail hosted on this page. Legislative sources: Ohio Legislative Service Commission budget documents, HB 96 documents and veto message, and official vote history.
The case
against Coy.
Representatives are elected to show up, study the issues and cast a vote. Coy’s own voicemail argues for the opposite.
Exhibit 01 / The ask
Take a walk.
Coy explicitly asked an elected representative not to attend session and not to vote on overriding the governor’s budget vetoes.
Exhibit 02 / What was at stake
Property-tax relief.
The veto package included provisions connected to property-tax relief—exactly the kind of kitchen-table issue voters send representatives to Columbus to decide.
Exhibit 03 / The standard
Showing up is the job.
Ohioans deserve a representative who will take a position on the record, not encourage public officials to avoid accountability.
Exhibit 04 / The question
If she won’t fight now…
Why should the people of House District 17 believe Megan Coy will fight for them when the pressure is on?
Her blanket
request covered all of it.
Coy didn’t ask lawmakers to consider each veto on its merits. She asked them not to override any of the governor’s budget vetoes—and even suggested skipping the session. That sweeping request covered measures like these:
Property taxes / Items 55, 65 & 66
More checks on rising property-tax levies.
The vetoed package included limits on certain levy combinations, new ballot information about school-district reserves, and restrictions on asking taxpayers for additional current-expense levies when a district held very large carryover balances.
Medicaid / Nursing-home care
Support for dialysis inside nursing facilities.
One vetoed appropriation would have provided a $110-per-treatment Medicaid rate add-on for dialysis delivered to nursing-home residents—backed by $700,000 in FY 2026 and $1.4 million in FY 2027.
Maternal care / Emergency access
Safer transfers for birthing-center patients.
A vetoed provision would have required Medicaid hospitals with maternity units to enter requested transfer agreements with freestanding birthing centers within 30 miles, establishing procedures for immediate transfers when complications arise.
Tax policy / Data centers
Stop awarding new data-center tax exemptions.
Another vetoed provision would have ended new agreements granting sales-and-use-tax exemptions for qualifying computer data-center equipment after October 1, 2025, while preserving existing agreements.
Sources: Ohio Legislative Service Commission, H.B. 96 final analysis and vetoed-items comparison: official budget documents. These descriptions summarize vetoed provisions; reasonable people may disagree about their policy effects.
Full transcript
Public evidence
Public evidence
Read every word.
Listen to the complete voicemail
“Hi, my name is Megan Coy and I am a voter in your district. My address is [personal address redacted]. I’m calling this morning to ask you to not override any of the governor’s budget vetoes.”
“We need tax reform in our state—or property tax reform in our state—but there was a reason that Governor DeWine did veto those budget items.”
“It’s going to hurt our state more than help it, and we should be looking at ideas like the property tax circuit breaker that is used in other states.”
“So, I ask that you take the time to work with experts in this area and find solutions that aren’t going to have a negative impact on our schools and first responders.”
“So I ask that you either don’t vote and don’t even go to session today or, you know, vote no on overriding those vetoes.”
“So I hope you do the right thing, even though I know you’re on the budget committee, because this is not okay for our state. Thanks.”
Transcript lightly edited for punctuation and readability. Audio is the controlling source.
She won’t
fight for you.
Public office takes backbone. Megan Coy’s own words tell voters exactly what she thinks public officials should do when a hard vote comes: don’t show up.