Beware the upcoming lame-duck session
For an Ohioan, danger to his or freedom or bank account takes many forms.
As previously noted, a New York State judge wrote a guideline in the 1860s that applies not just in his New York, but in Ohio, too: “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”
The Statehouse peril to taxpayers peaks every other November, in even-numbered years, during so-called lame-duck sessions. That’s when the men and women of the Ohio General Assembly — some re-elected, some defeated, some moving on to even cushier offices — return to Columbus for a so-called lame-duck session. Lame-duck sessions are when the legislature may do things it wouldn’t dare do before an election. Examples: Giving itself a pay raise or passing sweetheart bills to favor fat cats.
(Base pay for a member of the legislature, a job that’s legally parttime, is $60,584; almost all Ohio state legislators are paid more. In contrast, the Census says Ohioans’ median household income is $50,674.)
Understandably, Ohioans aren’t likely to notice the antics of post-election General Assembly sessions. By then, if a voter sees or hears one more word about politics, it’s Maalox time for him or her. Besides, Thanksgiving’s near, Christmas looms, and the only competition that matters in much of Ohio is the annual Ohio State-Michigan game (this year, it’s on Nov. 24 at Ohio Stadium).
In fairness, the Ohio General Assembly could do virtuous rather than ... questionable ... things during 2018’s lame-duck session. After all, the clout is there — if the will is.The state Senate is 23-9 Republican. Ohio’s House is 66-33 Republican. So, in most respects, that mean means whatever Senate President Larry Obhof, a Medina Republican, and Republican House Speaker Ryan Smith, of Gallia County’s Bidwell, want done can get done.
So it’s a fair question for voters to ask of incumbent state senators and state representatives — those who already are members of the General Assembly and so will vote in 2018’s lame-duck session — what they do and don’t want to pass then, between Nov. 6’s election and Dec. 31 — when the current (132nd) Ohio General Assembly will lurch into the history books.
Meanwhile, at the Ohio Supreme Court...
An Ohio Supreme Court open-records ruling Wednesday demonstrates yet again why the Supreme Court matters so much.
In a case filed by the Cincinnati Enquirer, the high court decided that journalist may review the preliminary autopsy data pertaining to the unsolved, April 2016 killing of eight members of the Rhoden family in Pike County, south of Columbus.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of granting access to the data was 5-0, with Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and Justices Terrence O’Donnell, Patrick F. Fischer, Mary DeGenaro and Sharon L. Kennedy concurring. Justices Judith L. French and R. Patrick DeWine didn’t participate. (All seven justices are Republicans).
True, over the years, the court has had its plusses and minuses on open records and open meetings laws. But access to both is a check and a balance against outof-control agencies and bureaucracies, and the court itself is check and balance against other governmental units.
So, far more often than not, the Supreme Court has upheld, as it did last week, a principle about Ohio’s public records, state and local, underscored by this maxim: “In Ohio, public records are the people’s records, and officials in whose custody they happen to be are merely trustees for the people.”
The Statehouse peril to taxpayers peaks every other November, in evennumbered years, during so-called lame-duck sessions . ... Lame-duck sessions are when the legislature may do things it wouldn’t dare to do before an election. Examples: Giving itself a pay raise or passing sweetheart bills to favor fat cats.