Thomas Suddes:A few gifts Santa didn’t bring to Ohioans this year

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By Thomas Suddes 1:18 PM Thursday, December 24, 2009

Santa keeps a list, and checks it twice, but he can be as frail in the memory department as the rest of us. So here are a few things the Old Guy missed, but which Ohio begs for:

• Repeal of General Assembly term limits: Term limits are the biggest reason why the General Assembly has turned into a zoo — or, on its more dignified days, a fraternity house.

Term limits were supposed to bring different people to the Legislature. Yeah. Right. The 1993-94 Ohio House, just after voters approved term limits in November 1992, had 24 female state representatives (of 99), thanks in part to shrewd candidate recruiting by then-Minority Leader Jo Ann Davidson, a suburban Columbus Republican. Today, despite tremendous advances by women everywhere else in Ohio, there are 21 female representatives.

• Full reporting by lobbies: Ohio’s lobby-registration laws are as limp as overcooked spaghetti.

In Columbus, as in Washington, insurance companies and utilities are likely the two most powerful lobbies. (And, based on Columbus fiddle-faddling over payday lenders, the rest of that bucket of leeches isn’t exactly weak.)

Unlike Ohio, California, for example, requires fairly full disclosure. Consumers learn that — in 2009’s first nine months alone — Anthem Blue Cross spent $1.9 million to lobby in Sacramento; AT&T spent $1.47 million; and Pacific Gas and Electric spent $1.05 million.

But if Ohioans want to know how much FirstEnergy, American Electric Power, Dayton Power and Light or Duke Energy spend lobbying Columbus, the only evidence they’ll find is indirect — their monthly bills. (Meanwhile, telephone ratepayers may notice that a telecommunications “reform,” Senate Bill 162, is zooming to Statehouse passage.)

• Banning “contingency” lobbying: Ohio bans “contingent fees” for lobbying — that is, tying a fee to an outcome, to “passage, modification, or defeat of any legislation” or “the outcome of an executive agency decision.”

But it’s hard to see how — if lobbying deals aren’t public — the state can enforce the ban. Ohio should require a standard no-contingent-fee lobbying contract and make any other deals unenforceable.

An allied problem has surfaced, thanks to the antics of backers of Issue 3, the four-city casino plan (Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo, and Cincinnati) that Ohio voters ratified in November. Columbus Dispatch senior editor Joe Hallett wrote in his Dec. 13 column that under current campaign reporting laws, Ohioans can’t know all details of Issue 3 spending.

That’s because Issue 3 promoters treated some helpers as subcontractors to campaign consultants. Payments to campaign consultant firms by Issue 3’s funders — Penn National Gaming and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert — are public. But what a campaign consultant firm pays its subcontractors aren’t. On Wednesday, Kettering’s Sen. Jon Husted introduced a bill to close that loophole. Husted is the probable 2010 GOP nominee for secretary of state — chief Ohio election officer. Incumbent Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, isn’t seeking re-election.

• Ohio needs a smaller legislature: Rural Republicans, particularly, forever yowl about how Ohio should spend less, although an epidemic of laryngitis breaks out if you ask for any specifics.

Here’s an idea uncomplicated as a zipper: Reduce the 99-seat Ohio House by one-third — to 66 members. That would save taxpayers at least $2 million a year in salaries — much more, if you take into account savings on medical insurance and taxpayers’ contribution to legislators’ Public Employees Retirement System pensions.

To put $2 million in perspective: It could cover a year’s tuition for 200-plus undergrads at a state university — maybe as “Legislative Thrift Scholars.”

The idea’s direct, “transparent” and simple. But it would also empty some very comfortable hammocks. That’s why it’ll never happen.

Thomas Suddes is an adjunct assistant professor at Ohio University. Send e-mail to tsuddes@gmail.com.

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