“The requirement being proposed by the Constitutional Revision and Review Committee,” M. Dane Waters, a scholar of initiative and referendum processes, testified, “would make Ohio a lonely outlier both in this country and around the world.” And he wasn’t alone to oppose the committee appointed by the Ohio Legislature. In written testimony, for example, Pete Sepp, president of the National Taxpayers Union expressed “great concern” that “the Commission was considering a recommendation that would effectively create second-class ballot measure rights for the people of Ohio.”
This weekend at Townhall.com, Paul Jacob tells the tale of a successful, trans-partisan defense of initiative and referendum rights in the Buckeye State. Click on over. Learn why former State Representative John Adams quipped, “My past service in the legislature has taught me many things — one of those would be not to trust and definitely to verify.”
Footnote in the article:
* The tabling of the recommendation effectively killed it, because funding for the OCMC runs out at the end of this month and a House bill to fund state government contains no new appropriation for the commission established by the Ohio General Assembly.
Outbound Links:
- Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission: Full Video of June 8th Meeting
- Individual Videos of Those Testifying
- Cleveland Plain Dealer: New hurdles for Ohio citizen-initiated constitutional amendments must be resisted
- Common Sense: Delivering a Double Standard
- Townhall: The Heart of a Double Standard
- Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission