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Article published November 18, 2007
Proposals being pushed for Ohio’s 2008 ballot could emerge as a key subplot if Ohio reprises its role as kingmaker
IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING : This year’s attempt to ask voters to repeal a new law restricting the operations of strip clubs and other adult businesses failed and is not expected to be reincarnated anytime soon. There also had been talk by bars and private clubs about launching an initiated statute effort to poke holes in Ohio’s ban on smoking in indoor public places, but that has largely run out of time to get the issue before lawmakers at the start of the year.

By JIM PROVANCE
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU

COLUMBUS — A proposal to guarantee sick leave for Ohio workers could be headed to the ballot just as the bellwether state expects to again play kingmaker in a presidential race.

And a proposed constitutional amendment to fund schools could keep taxes at the forefront of political ads in 2008, and yet another proposal to bring casino gambling to Ohio may draw conservative gambling opponents to the polls.

“All you have to do is go back to the ‘defining marriage’ issue during the last presidential election, which brought out conservatives in droves,” said Catherine Turcer of government watchdog Ohio Citizen Action. “It played a big part in the election in 2004 and played a major role in Ohio’s election of the President.”

At the same time that the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage passed by a landslide in 2004, President Bush narrowly won Ohio over Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, capturing the state’s 20 electoral college votes that put him over the top.

“Direct democracy is important,” Ms. Turcer said. “When you can’t get the legislature to take up an important policy issue, you take it to a vote of the people. But we all know these ballot issues affect who goes to the polls and who gets elected.

“Sick leave pulls at the heart strings, and it is so much more likely to bring out Democrats and maybe independents who are left of center,” she said.

Several potential issues are circulating and may or may not clear the hurdles to qualify for the November, 2008, ballot.

A coalition of labor and social service organizations, many of whom were involved in last year’s successful minimum-wage constitutional amendment, soon is expected to file petitions to put a proposed law before the General Assembly to allow most Ohio workers to earn seven days of paid sick leave each year to care for themselves and their families.

The mandate would apply to all employers with 25 or more workers. An estimated 2.2 million Ohioans work in jobs that provide no paid sick leave.

Business groups oppose the measure much as they did last year’s minimum-wage hike.

Lawmakers are likely to have the proposal before them when they return from holiday recess in early January. If the Republican-controlled General Assembly doesn’t act to the coalition’s satisfaction within four months, another round of petitions would put it on the November ballot.

Dale Butland, spokesman for the proposed Healthy Families Act, suggested people are reading too much into a possible correlation with the presidential election.

“I know this is the story that all political reporters want to write, that this is our wedge issue like the gay-marriage issue was for Republicans, but we hope the legislature passes this,” he said. “They’ll get this in January, and to that end we are reaching out to Republicans.

“We are prepared to go to the ballot if we have to, but that would be very expensive, and there are a lot of other things to spend money on next year,” he said.

A coalition of education organizations has set its sights on November, 2008, after running out of time to put a proposed constitutional amendment on this year’s ballot overhauling how the state funds schools. The amendment would empower the State Board of Education, a panel of elected and appointed officials, to determine what constitutes a “high-quality education” and how much it costs. The plan would obligate the state to make up the difference between the local tax revenues and the price tag the state board sets.

Since the proposal does not mandate that school districts roll back property taxes or identify funding sources for the state, the issue is likely to put taxes smack dab in the middle of a presidential campaign.

“It would highlight the fact that Governor Strickland has not led us out of the problem of how to fund schools, which is what he campaigned on,” Ms. Turcer said. “It highlights a weakness in his [Democratic] administration. We’ve been talking about this for so long, but there’s significant argument over how to take care of the school issue, whether it’s charter schools, better funding, or a mixture.

“It’s not as clean-cut as saying, ‘You’re sick, so here’s your seven days of sick leave,’” she said. “When an issue is less clean-cut, it has a lot more difficulty passing. How that’ll affect the candidates on the same ballot isn’t clear.”

A proposed constitutional amendment to authorize one full-fledged casino at a Clinton County resort between Columbus and Cincinnati hit a bump in the road last week when Attorney General Marc Dann rejected the summary of what the amendment would do that would be shown to would-be petition signers.

The objections raised by Mr. Dann, however, were relatively minor, and developers behind the casino plan are expected to submit revised language soon and begin the process of gathering signatures to qualify for next year’s ballot.

Contact Jim Provance at:jprovance@theblade.comor 614-221-0496.