Meanwhile, the members of the state Senate and the Ohio House are also aiming to block or at least limit serious consideration of America’s racial history and questions of gender identity. Perhaps like Henry Ford, some members of the legislature think “history is more or less bunk.”
Maybe what Ohio really needs is a proficiency test for members of the General Assembly. It might help, for instance, if prospective state senators and representatives had at least a passing acquaintance with Ohio’s Constitution and its Bill of Rights. Sure, some of those words, written as long ago as in 1802 and 1850-51, are parchment-and-quill-pen stuff. But some of it is utterly practical.
Take for instance the now-flouted constitutional command that “members and officers of the General Assembly shall receive a fixed compensation, to be prescribed by law, and no other allowance or perquisites …”
It’s hard to reconcile that wording with, for example, the extra pay House speakers and Senate presidents ladle out to legislative committee chairs, floor leaders, etc. – extra pay that can be yanked at any time for not toeing that day’s party line. That is, extra pay can be a way to keep any potential rebels in line. Meanwhile, it is just as hard to hard to reconcile that ban on extra pay with actual practice considering, for example, the $150 per day fee paid to each legislative member of the Controlling Board.
Also on the Ohio Legislators’ Constitutional Proficiency Test might be a section on the one-subject rule: The Ohio Constitution says a bill may not contain more than one subject, which should be clearly expressed in its title.
Ohio’s phonebook-thick budget bills (and similarly massive measures) don’t meet that requirement. The current operating budget bill is 2,436 pages long. And its title is (supposedly) “clearly expressed” in these 11 words: “to provide authorization and conditions for the operation of state programs.”
In fairness, members of the General Assembly taken an oath to uphold the Ohio Constitution. But as almost every legislative session demonstrates, that’s not the same thing as taking an oath to understand the constitution.
Footnote: Two and a half years ago, in the summer of 2019, a gunman killed nine people in the Oregon District before police shot and killed the assailant.
When Republican Gov. Mike DeWine attended a vigil at the crime scene, other mourners directed a shouted plea at the governor – “Do something!” That is, they demanded that DeWine act to reduce gun violence in Ohio.
Soon after, DeWine proposed a gun-safety package. But the General Assembly, led by fellow Republicans, made a point of ignoring his plan.
Then, last Monday – 953 days after the Oregon District shootings – DeWine did indeed do something, though perhaps not what those Dayton mourners had in mind: He signed Substitute Senate Bill 215, which, in a headline writer’s words, “[allows] people to carry concealed firearms without training or permits.”
Meanwhile, “more Ohioans died from firearms in 2021 than almost any year on record, according to preliminary data from the Ohio Department of Health,” Ohio Capital Journal reported last month.
And judging by SB 215, nothing can – or will – be done about it.
Thomas Suddes is an adjunct assistant professor at Ohio University and the former Statehouse reporter for The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer.
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