And the marijuana ballot issue proposes a state law, not a state constitutional amendment. Changing a constitutional amendment would require another statewide vote. But the General Assembly, as with any other state law, can change a petition-proposed law — and that’s what the marijuana legislation issue, if OK’d by voters, would be: A law, not a constitutional amendment.
The instinctive response is that it would be politically mad for the GOP-run General Assembly to mess with voters over the marijuana initiative by weakening any pro-user features. But this isn’t a normal state — it’s Ohio.
If General Assembly Republicans ever had any intention of legalizing marijuana, they could long ago have proposed and passed their own version of legalization to undercut the voter-initiated plan. That’s what the legislature did in 1982, as a favor to utilities (big surprise) to stymie a ballot issue that would have required popular election of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
Legacy: Ten years ago Saturday, the Controlling Board approved Medicaid expansion in Ohio, a move sought by Republican then-Gov. John R. Kasich with a (typically) crafty assist from the late Rep. William G. Batchelder, a Medina Republican and leading conservative who was then speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives.
The expansion covers Ohio adults under age 65 with income up to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level. This year, as examples, 138% of the poverty level equals annual income of $20,120 for a single person, $41,400 for a family of four.
Because Medicaid expansion was authorized by Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, some General Assembly backwoodsmen refused to implement the expansion in Ohio. That happened despite the pleas of hospitals and other health-care providers shouldering mountains of treatment costs that poor patients couldn’t afford to pay.
Kasich and Batchelder (discreetly, in the speaker’s case) outmaneuvered expansion’s foes. Most recently, the Medicaid expansion provided health care to 903,163 Ohioans (one of every 13 of the state’s residents) who can thank a GOP governor, his tireless health-care advisors, and Batchelder, for the medical safety net.
Cincinnati’s Establishment: The rest of Ohio will soon see whether the Cincinnati Establishment still can have its way with the Queen City’s voters.
Now on Cincinnati’s citywide ballot is a proposal to sell the city-owned Cincinnati Southern Railway, a 337-mile interstate railroad from Cincinnati to Chattanooga, to the Norfolk Southern, the railroad in the middle of the East Palestine disaster.
Norfolk Southern leases the Cincinnati Southern from the city for $25 million a year. If Cincinnati voters agree, Norfolk Southern would buy the Cincinnati Southern for $1.62 billion. The city would invest the purchase money, with earnings on the $1.62 billion spent only on “the rehabilitation, modernization, or replacement of existing [city] infrastructure.”
But there’s also this – the board controlling that $1.62 billion pile could pay, from earnings on it, “managers, administrative staff, agents, attorneys, and employees, and … advisors.” For some reason, that calls to mind such words as “bonanza, jackpot and windfall,” possibly making the Cincinnati railway’s sale a gravy train – for the right Cincinnatians.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. You can reach him at tsuddes@gmail.com.
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