06/26/2015

Legislature winding up with good news, bad news

By Dennis Hetzel, Executive Director

We’ve asked editorial writers across the state to join us this weekend in urging Gov. John Kasich to veto language in the budget bill that would make information about concealed carry permits completely secret.

That’s not the only thing going on. Here is a quick wrap-up of pending matters, good news and some disappointments as the Legislature aims to go home for the summer by July 1.

Concealed carry
We weren’t surprised that this language remained in the budget once it was dropped in, late in the game, by the Ohio Senate. Some senators even told us privately that, while they agreed with our position, they saw too much risk in going public with it.

Sadly, this is testimony to the power of the gun lobby. We aren’t anti-gun. We are anti not having a realistic opportunity to make our case.

A number of ONA members have editorialized in the past few days. Please keep it up. (Here are links to editorials this week from The Columbus Dispatch and Toledo Blade.)

I also wrote an op-ed column that members are free to use. You can access the column by clicking here.

Tax reform
Everyone wants lower taxes, and everyone wants Ohio to thrive economically. We disagree with the Kasich administration that vast expansion of the sales tax to services is a good way to get there. The governor says business interests are being parochial in their opposition to his ideas – though never mind that expanding the sales tax was a disaster when Florida tried it. Perhaps our perspective is parochial, but there is no question that this would be devastating to media outlets and many local businesses.

In particular, expansion to services would inevitably lead to taxing advertising. Anyone who thinks advertisers will simply absorb new expenses without cutting their spending is smoking something that may or may not be legal in Ohio someday. I don’t know a single newspaper that can afford to take a 7 percent haircut on its advertising revenue.

So, we were glad to see both the House and Senate remove provisions that would have reduced advertising expenditures and raise expenses. The sales tax expansion also would have raised costs for more purchased services, such as market research. Meanwhile, the proposal to increase the Commercial Activity Tax, which is levied on total revenue, by more than 20 percent would have added thousands in new expenses for Ohio newspapers.

If there is one thing businesses of all sizes want it is predictability. Maybe it’s time to stop monkeying around with the tax code every year.

Charter schools
We have been among those leading the call for greater transparency in what happens to nearly $1 billion in public dollars once they get to charter schools. Just yesterday, a Senate committee adopted a much-improved version of House Bill 2. It includes far more financial disclosure than the vague footnotes charter schools have had to disclose.

We would like to see checkbook-level access to the spending of public money, or something quite close to that.While HB2 doesn’t go that far, the Senate version is a major improvement.  The fate of this bill is uncertain once it gets to the House in the closing days.

Public records appeals
One of the fascinating sideshows in the budget process was when a House committee tried to strip State Auditor Dave Yost of his authority to conduct public records compliance audits upon request. (Anyone, including journalists, can request an audit to manage disputes over records by filling out a simple form on Yost’s website.)

There was an outcry, led by a number of ONA members, and the committee backed down. Meanwhile, the problem has turned into an opportunity as a number of legislative leaders have hooked into our long-standing complaint: Ohio is among the minority of states that has no statutory appeals process for a records denial. Instead, your only recourse is to hire a lawyer and go to court with little chance you will recover your costs – even if you win.

We will keep pushing this issue in the coming months.

Other Sunshine Law matters
We were disappointed that the budget did not correct a simple change we sought to make it clear that secrecy surrounding the activities of a child fatality review board must be case-specific. In other words, general discussions and documents about policies, procedures and responses can’t be secret.

We will continue to work on a “fix” to correct language in the open records law that the Ohio Supreme Court has interpreted in a way to make it harder to collect attorney fees in records cases. There is a decent chance we can get this done this fall. Fingers crossed.

We are participating in meetings that will continue this summer on regulating body camera use by police. This is a minefield in terms of open records, and much of the legislation being passed around the country is not encouraging for those who believe in transparency. We’re distributing a discussion paper with our positions and suggestions. (E-mail me if you’d like a copy.) I’ll devote a full column to this sometime this summer.