May 3: Rally launches from Trinity, Capitol Square at 12:30 as House prepares to vote on:
- SB 92 authorizing an August special election and
- SJR 2 significantly raising the obstacles for citizen-sponsored constitutional amendments
are both expected to come up for a vote on the floor of the Ohio House on Wednesday at 2. Ohio’s four living former Governors and five of the former Attorneys-General have come out in opposition to the changes and special election.
If the special election takes place and voters approve the higher bar to citizen-sponsored amendments, the new rules would be in place before this year’s reproductive rights amendment can reach the ballot. An October, 2022 Baldwin-Wallace poll of Ohio voters showed 59.1% of respondents said they would vote yes to make abortion a constitutionally-protected right.
Please call your Ohio Representative with your views on SB 92 and SJR2 before Wednesday afternoon. You can find his/her name by putting your address in the Who Represents Me box on the Ohio Legislature home page. Click on the picture of your rep and you’ll land on their home page connecting you to email and phone number.
The Ohio Voter Rights Coalition will meet at Trinity, Capitol Square at 12:30 then process across the street to the Statehouse to protest the plan. A similar rally in December caused legislators to abandon plans to vote in December on a similar proposal. The Coalition includes The League of Women Voters of Ohio, Common Cause Ohio, the ACLU and many congregations and faith-based organizations.
Both SJR 2 and SB 92 passed the Ohio Senate in April, despite an enormous outpouring of opponent testimony. SB 92 would need to be passed and signed by Governor DeWine by May 10 for the August election to take place. All four living former Ohio Governors – two Republicans and two Democrats – have come out in opposition to the changes and the special election. A bipartisan group of five former Attorneys-General sent the legislature a joint letter May 1 opposing the constitutional change and special election. Ohio’s bipartisan Ohio Association of Elections Officials voted to oppose the special election bill. Trustee Frankie DiCarlantonio cited the struggle to hire hundreds of poll workers and the fact that local boards must start processing candidate petitions, local levies, and issues for the November ballot the next day, August 9.
Last year’s August primary drew less than 8% of Ohio’s registered voters, but Governor DeWine has said he would sign the special election bill if it passes. The only matter on the August ballot would be the Legislature’s proposed constitutional amendment.
“As a former secretary of state of Ohio and Ohio governor, I urge you (1) not to revive the August special election and (2) not to support a constitutional amendment to raise from a simple majority to 60% the voter approval threshold for amendments to the Ohio Constitution,” wrote former Governor Bob Taft, a Republican, in an April 24 letter to the General Assembly.
“I believe the Ohio General Assembly made the right decision when it enacted legislation last December to outlaw August special elections except for fiscal emergencies facing school districts.”
Five former Ohio Attorneys-General –Republicans Betty Montgomery and Jim Petro and Democrats Richard Cordray, Lee Fisher, and Nancy Rogers – joined Taft in opposing the plan, sending a letter of their own May 1.
“If the increase in the passing percentage had been in effect, many important amendments that are part of our political heritage would have failed, including the initiative and referendum, home rule, civil service reform, the Clean Ohio Fund, the Third Frontier Project, and other important bond issues to support economic development, conservation, and housing,” they wrote.
“Different people may view these amendments differently, but the range of topics illustrates that the initiative is not designed to put any group’s political preferences into the constitution. What these amendments have in common is that they represent instances in which Ohio citizens had a means for amending the constitution to meet their concerns.”
“As secretary of state I was all too aware that August special elections are too costly for the very low voter turnout that they attract,” former Governor Taft added. “I also believe that it is especially bad public policy to revive the August special election for the purpose of voting on such a consequential constitutional amendment as Senate Joint Resolution 2 or House Joint Resolution 1 which would fundamentally change Ohioans’ voting and constitutional rights. For more than 100 years, amendments to the Ohio Constitution have been decided by a simple majority vote.“The decision to change such a deeply embedded practice should not be made at a low turnout election. Preferably, this type of issue should be submitted at a November general election when there is maximum voter turnout.”
Cincinnati Episcopalians host, sponsor community gun safety events
As horrifying news of gun violence reaches us almost every day, I’m overjoyed to share how Cincinnati Episcopalians are joining community colleagues to prevent it in two of Cincinnati’s worst-hurt neighborhoods. Please let me know if your congregation is working on gun violence prevention.
- May 6, Ride for Peace, Avondale 1 to 4 p.m., corner of Martin Luther King Drive and Reading Road. Christ Church Cathedral is sponsoring this awesome community event in Avondale with Pastor Ennis Tait, Save Our Youth, Cincinnati Police and Cincinnati Works. It’s a motorcycle and fancy car rally with a resource fair on preventing gun violence and food trucks. To volunteer or participate, email the awesome gun safety outreach leader Mitch Morris at mmorris@cincinnatiworks.org.
- May 17, National Trauma Survivors Day resource fair, St. Andrew’s Evanston, 5 to 7 p.m.: St. Andrew’s is hosting an amazing event including grief support, safe gun storage, art therapy, music, and free food. They are partnering with gun violence survivors, the Evanston Community Council, the Evanston Bulldogs (youth group), Cincinnati’s interfaith coalition EquaSion, and Amnesty International’s Ohio Ending Gun Violence Task Force. If you would like to volunteer, email Alyson Gerwe of St. Andrew’s.
Good news for K-12 public schools in House version of state budget: Ohio’s House passed their version of the next biennial budget last week. Public school funding will be more robust starting July 1 unless the Ohio Senate undoes the progress achieved by the House. Advocacy suggestions follow the update. Here are the highlights of the House version:
- The state would reach 66% of the Fair Funding Formula in the next biennium, substantial progress in overcoming the unconstitutional disparities in state funding for local school districts that has been litigated for decades. The Fair Funding formula was developed with considerable input from educators and parents and adopted on a phase-in basis in the current state budget.
- The House budget sets per pupil base costs at FY 2022 levels (it had been 2018), Increasing state funding by almost $500 million in FY 2024 and $607 million in FY2025
- Families making up to 450% of the Federal Poverty Level would become eligible for vouchers to use for non-public schools. This is not the entire universe of private or home-schooled children, as advocated by supporters of HB 11, the Backpack Bill.
- The House budget sidesteps the worst elements of HB1 by keeping state rollback funding intact to local governments, eliminating the flat tax, and reducing income tax slightly.
- The House budget funds aid for science of reading curriculum and coaching, but significantly below Governor’s request.
- It increases teachers’ minimum salary to $40,000, instead of $30,000.
We had reported on the large cuts HB1 would impose on local services, including a loss of almost a billion dollars a year to Ohio’s public schools, because it would have cut the state income tax, set a flat tax, and ended the state rollback funding to local governments. HB1 hasn’t progressed because legislators discovered the poorly-drafted bill would trigger a rise in local property tax on homeowners and farms.
K-12 Advocacy next steps: It would be super-helpful if you write to Senator Matt Dolan, Chair of the Finance Committee, and fellow Finance Committee member Senator Lou Blessing (in our Diocese), as well as ranking member Senator Catherine Ingram, a former Cincinnati School Board member. The Education Committee will probably hold hearings on K-12 funding. Senate Education Chair Andy Brenner of Delaware has served as a Vestry member of St. Peter’s Delaware. Please email me if you’d like to join our diocesan K-12 advocacy team.
Other important news from the House Budget
The House budget offers a response to critical shortages in key fields including teaching, and improves support for food security, child care, and affordable housing. Here are some highlights:
- Increases state funding for Ohio’s foodbanks from $25 million a year to $40 million as inflation continues to exacerbate hunger and the ability of our emergency food networks to respond.
- Increases working families’ eligibility for childcare vouchers to 160% of the Federal Poverty Level. Without subsidies, the cost of child care takes a giant share of lower-income famlies’ paycheck.
- Creates a nonrefundable state affordable housing tax credit to leverage the federal low-income housing tax credit.
- Increases wages for direct care workers
Advocacy briefings are compiled by Ariel Miller, a longtime community advocate and member of Ascension & Holy Trinity, Wyoming. Connect with her at arielmillerwriter@gmail.com
