Columbus
Dispatch...
House speaker calls
for updating Ohio Constitution
It’s been 40 years since revisions, Batchelder says
By Jim Siegel
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Like an old house, the Ohio Constitution may still have a lot of value
and character, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t use some serious
updates and a good cleaning.
Similar to a panel that convened 40 years ago and proposed a number of
amendments that were approved by voters, House Speaker William G.
Batchelder, R-Medina, wants to create the Ohio Constitutional
Modernization Commission.
The 32-member panel would spend the next decade gathering input from a
variety of people across the state and recommending to the legislature
how to alter or amend the constitution. The panel would be formed ahead
of 2012, when Ohio voters, as they do every 20 years, will vote on
whether to convene a constitutional convention.
Batchelder said he would prefer the commission not officially start its
business until voters get a chance to vote on a convention. Ohioans
have not sanctioned a convention since 1912.
“This particular time in Ohio history is a time of real challenge, in
my opinion,” Batchelder said. “Such a commission would be particularly
important at this juncture. It would have the ability to undertake
extensive hearings on very important issues that challenge us today.
“It’s time for us, perhaps, to re-examine some of the things upon which
our state government is predicated.”
The bill would create a politically balanced 32-member commission, 12
of whom would be appointed evenly by Democratic and Republican
legislative leaders. Those 12 members would pick the other 20.
The commission would need a two-thirds vote before any recommendation
is sent to the General Assembly, which could choose to place an
amendment on the statewide ballot.
Batchelder expects the commission to examine a wide variety of topics.
Topping the list, in his opinion, is the organization, size and scope
of local governments and schools.
For example, he said, some people support township government, but
others do not. He also sees the need to look at whether school
districts, or at least front-office management of districts, should be
consolidated.
“One would hope that we’d be able to bring out ideas that otherwise
might not come from the General Assembly,” he said.
The Ohio Constitutional Revision Commission met from 1972 to 1978,
after 62 percent of Ohioans voted in 1972 against forming a
constitutional convention. In 1992, 61 percent of voters said no to a
convention.
Rep. Ron Young, R-LeRoy Township, said he has concerns about
constitutional conventions, in which the uncertainty of elected members
can put the process up for grabs. Batchelder said his plan is a “more
moderate and intellectual approach.”
“The constitutional convention can result in a situation in which
people who are serving may not altogether be the type you would
necessarily want in such a situation,” he told the House State
Government and Elections Committee.
Senate President Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond, called the plan a
“thoughtful way to go about it.”
Read it at the Columbus Dispatch
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