Legislators play by own rules on guns, compensation

TThomas Suddes

he General Assembly won’t let your city or village fight Ohio’s gun plague. But don’t you try to carry a firearm into the Statehouse, where the legislature meets; that’s forbidden.

As to gun regulation, Ohio’s House and Senate recognize two classes of citizens: First class is composed of the 132 Ohioans in the General Assembly. Second class is the rest of us — the other 11,689,310 Ohioans.

In 2006, as noted last week, the General Assembly overrode Republican thengov. Bob Taft’s veto of a law that forbids cities and villages to regulate firearms. As usual, the Statehouse score was heads, gun-peddlers win; tails, Ohioans lose. Ohio’s House and Senate are more than OK fettering Ohio’s city and villages councils if they dare try to curb gun sales and gun crime.

Meanwhile, here’s the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board rule that applies in the Statehouse, where our highly principled state legislators meet when they aren’t carousing elsewhere in Columbus with campaign contributors and lobbyists:

“With the exception of those carried by peace officers in the course of their duties … firearms or other weapons, concealed or otherwise, are prohibited within the (Statehouse, Senate Building and Statehouse atrium) without the express written permission of the (Capitol Square board).” To date, nobody has sought such permission, the board reports.

First things first: The Capitol Square board and its employees do a superlative job maintaining and embellishing Ohio’s Statehouse, an architectural and historical jewel magnificently restored in the 1990s after decades of neglect. Today, the Statehouse is more than a capitol. It’s a classroom that can teach visitors about Ohio’s history and government and the state’s many achievers. The board and its staff are faithful stewards of a special place that belongs to all Ohioans.

The 12-member panel is chaired by state Sen. Bob Peterson, a Washington Court House Republican. The vice chair is House Speaker Larry Householder, a Republican from Perry County’s Glenford. Other legislators on the board are Rep. Janine Boyd, a Cleveland Heights Democrat, and Sen. Hearcel Craig, a Columbus Democrat. Also on the panel: The Senate and House clerks; former Ohio House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson, a suburban Columbus Republican; and former Ohio Senate President Thomas Niehaus, a suburban Cincinnati Republican. (In 2006, Niehaus, then in the state Senate, was among the General Assembly members who voted to override Taft’s veto of the law that today forbids Ohio’s cities and villages to regulate guns.)

All told, eight of the board’s 12 members are legislators, legislative employees or legislative alumni. That is, it’s fair to assume that the Cap Square board’s no-weapons-inthe-statehouse rule almost certainly reflects what the Ohio General Assembly wants (or, rather, doesn’t want) in its vicinity.

In Ohio politics, privileges are reserved for the privileged. If you live in Cleveland, Columbus, Akron, Mansfield, Youngstown — in any of Ohio’s 900-plus cities and villages — there’s only one sure way that the legislature will let you have any real say-so over what kind of lethal firepower someone near you may carry: You have to win a seat in Ohio’s premier gun-free zone, the Ohio General Assembly.

Footnote: This is what the Ohio Constitution says about the salary of a General Assembly member: “Members and officers of the General Assembly shall receive a fixed compensation, to be prescribed by law, and no other allowance or perquisites, either in the payment of postage or otherwise …”

In contrast, here’s what a recently adopted Ohio House policy says: “Each member of the House residing 60 miles or more … from the Statehouse may receive reimbursement up to $65 per day for lodging expenses for each day a standing committee or standing sub-committee on which that (House) member serves meets and each day on which a (House) voting session occurs.”

It’d be interesting to see how the Ohio Supreme Court could OK those reimbursements. It’ll be even more interesting to watch taxpayers react — considering the juicy pay raise (to $63,007 this year, rising gradually to $76,208 in 2028) that the General Assembly voted itself in December. Meanwhile, the Census reports that Ohio’s median household income is $52,407.

Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com