LET’S FINISH STRONG AFTER A TERRIBLE YEAR
Lame duck priorities: HB 6 repeal, school funding and smarter sentencing
Ohio lawmakers could do a lot to restore an election-weary public’s faith in government by getting some important work done before the term ends on Dec. 31. h The so-called lame duck session typically is crowded with last-gasp attempts to get bills passed, including those that for one reason or another got little attention over the previous two years. It could be especially busy this time around because the coronavirus pandemic interfered with legislative work for much of the spring and summer. h We’re glad to note that legislative leaders seem focused, among other priorities, on a capital works budget, school funding, criminal sentencing reform and repeal of the House Bill 6 nuclear plant bailout. We’re disappointed, yet again, that they’re unlikely to take any meaningful action to curb gun violence.
The simplest item of business should be repealing HB 6. It's simple because it clearly is the product of unprecedented corruption: a U.S. District Attorney in July revealed an investigation that charged then-house Speaker Larry Householder and four associates with bribery and racketeering. Since then two defendants have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the ongoing investigation.
In addition, Firstenergy Corp., which is implicated but not charged in the investigation, has fired four top executives including its CEO, citing unethical behavior. Firstenergy once owned the power plants that are subject to the bailout and was the parent company of a new entity that now owns them.
Some lawmakers have urged a “repeal and replace” of HB 6, but no time should be spent debating what parts to keep. No bailout money should go to the power plants without a full understanding of Firstenergy's role in the scandal, and the rest of the bill — undermining the development of clean energy in Ohio — is terrible policy that shouldn't have been enacted in the first place.
Repeal the bill and come back in January to consider a forward-looking energy policy.
Another priority — approving a new formula for funding public schools — isn't nearly so simple. Given that general assembly after general assembly has failed for decades to agree on a fair and sustainable formula, it's fair to ask why the 133rd thinks it can do the job.
It helps that Rep. Bob Cupp, co-author of a proposed plan with Rep. John Patterson, is now house speaker. Cupp, a Republican former state senator and supreme court justice from Lima, and Patterson, a Democrat from Jefferson, set out to do what many public education advocates long have wanted: to establish the cost of a basic education and ensure that every school district can afford it. Past formulas weren't based on any defined cost.
The plan also attempts to do two other important things:
h Change the way charter schools are funded. Since charters first appeared in Ohio, the state has allocated funding to traditional school districts based on every child who lives in the district and then required districts to count how many kids opted for charters and pass their share of the funding on to the charter schools. This has been a burden on school districts and has heightened the conflict between districts and charters. Lawmakers need to clarify how and when a charter school's enrollment would be determined for funding, but separating charter funding from district funding would be fairer and more transparent.
h Give extra help to high-poverty districts by taking into account average income, not just property values, in determining how much local revenue each district should be expected to generate. Overreliance on property taxes and inadequate funding for poor districts were key flaws cited when the Ohio Supreme Court declared Ohio's school funding system unconstitutional 23 years ago.
Paying for the plan would require hiking education spending by nearly $2 billion per year. Given that lawmakers are looking at a deficit of about the same amount because of pandemicshrunken revenues, the plan likely would have to be phased in over several years.
Passing the Cupp/patterson plan won't solve every problem with funding Ohio's schools, but it would mark the most substantial progress in many years.
Perhaps the most overdue item on the lame duck agenda is criminal sentencing reform, in the form of Senate Bill 3. It was introduced in February 2019, after a ballot effort to change sentencing via a state constitutional amendment failed by a wide margin.
SB 3 finally was approved by the Senate in late June of this year and introduced in the House a week later, but has seen no committee hearings. The recalcitrance may be because the House had its own criminal sentencing reform legislation, House Bill 1, which has been ignored in the Senate since the House passed it in September 2019. The Senate measure, which has broad bipartisan support, aims to tackle addiction by reclassifying most low-level drug felony charges to misdemeanors.
That gives people with addiction a better chance at rebuilding their lives by focusing on treatment and avoiding the stigma of a felony offense, which can rule someone ineligible for many jobs. It also avoids the expensive use of jail and prison space for people who don't belong there. As with all major reforms, SB 3 may need tweaks in the future, but Ohio has waited too long already for this more sensible and humane approach to drug laws. The House should pass Senate Bill 3 as a starting point.
Perhaps the easiest lift for Republicans and Democrats to reach agreement will be a capital spending bill. Normally that budget is enacted midyear, but the COVID-19 shock to the economy in June prompted lawmakers to simply re-authorize existing levels of spending while also allocating some federal CARES Act relief dollars.
Ohio's economy needs a stimulus and the state has plenty of infrastructure that needs to be built or repaired; a reasonable spending bill would help with both of those needs.
Legislation with little hope of passage in the waning weeks of this legislative session is Senate Bill 221. It would enact Gov. Mike Dewine's STRONG Ohio plan to curb gun violence in the wake of the Aug. 4, 2019, mass shooting in Dayton with nine people killed in about 40 seconds. Dewine proposed the bill after angry Ohioans implored him to “Do something!” and predicted it could meet legislative approval, but he apparently underestimated the force of Ohio's gun lobby.
Now it seems the session will end without action on SB 221, which would have increased background checks for gun purchases and improved systems for temporarily disarming those deemed a danger to themselves or others due to mental illness or addiction. Not acting to curb gun violence in this legislative session gives new meaning to “lame duck.”