Eugene K. “Gene” Krebs spent eight years in the Ohio House of Representatives, three years on a local school board, and four years as a county commissioner. With Phil DeVol he is coauthor of Bridges Across Every Divide and contributed the sections on policy and advocacy to Bridges Out of Poverty, fifth edition.
Krebs has been a research executive in an organization that studies economic development, urban revitalization, and farmland preservation. Later he was an executive in a research group that studies healthcare and human-service issues. He served on Ohio’s Joint Committee on High Technology Start-up Business, Sales Tax Holiday Study Committee (chair), and the Eminent Domain Task Force.
He was appointed by Democrat Governor Ted Strickland to Ohio’s 21st Century Transportation Task Force and by Republican Governor John Kasich to the Local Government Innovation Council. Krebs is a three-time winner of the Watchdog of the Treasury award for supporting fiscally frugal policies.
He also has appeared on a regular basis on the PBS television show Columbus on the Record and has been featured on CNN, BBC, The State of Ohio, The Spectrum, and All Sides with Ann Fisher as an informed voice on many political and policy issues.
Further, Krebs has been published in The Wall Street Journal on economic policy and several times in The Columbus Dispatch and The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) on state policy issues and is frequently sought by the media for insights on various issues. His scientific research in quantum biology and ethology appeared in the Journal of Biological Psychology, and his ag research was featured in The Ohio Farmer magazine for his innovations involving the use of zinc as an enzyme inhibitor to reduce nitrogen loss in no-till settings.
Krebs was awarded the Preservation Hero Award from Heritage Ohio for his efforts in drafting, passing, and defending the state tax credit for historical rehabilitation, which is now a national model due in large part to its requirement of cost-benefit analysis of all prospective projects.
He recently resigned as the chair of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Governing Board. While he was chair of the board, the Consumers’ Counsel saved consumers $800 million in utility costs, with another $5 billion projected over the next nine years. Originally appointed by then Attorney General Jim Petro, Krebs has been consistently reappointed to the board by both Republican and Democrat attorneys general due to his expertise in utility law and economics.
A former inter-collegiate fencing coach, Krebs is a seventh-generation farmer of 400 acres where he was a pioneer in no-till methodology, has planted 10,000 trees and still lives on the family farm near Morning Sun, Ohio.
He is married to Jan, an award-winning professional artist who works in many different styles and materials. They have two grown daughters who have blessed them with five grandchildren. His principal hobby is a small flock of mostly Dominique chickens, the breed brought to America by the Pilgrims.