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Sending ballots could mean fund cuts for counties
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Local governments that send out unsolicited absentee-ballot applications to voters would face state funding cuts under an amendment added to midbiennium budget legislation Monday.
The addition would be a slap at Cuyahoga County executive and Democratic gubernatorial challenger Ed FitzGerald, who earlier announced his intentions to send absentee applications to all voters in his home county regardless of law changes instituted by Republican lawmakers that authorize only the secretary of state to do so.
A frequent critic of GOP-backed election legislation Rep. Kathleen Clyde, D-Kent, questioned the amendment’s effect on Ohio’s home-rule communities.
“When will the attacks on Ohio voters stop?” she said. “To add voter-suppression to the [mid-biennium review] is just totally inappropriate. I thought we were done with these fights.”
But Rep. Ron Amstutz, R-Wooster, primary sponsor of the bill and chairman of the House finance committee, said the language would affect only counties that break state law, cutting 10 percent from the local-government fund allocation.
“This is not ... taking money away from the county unless they choose to violate the law,” Amstutz said.
The Ohio House finance committee added the language and other provisions Monday to House Bill 483, one of more than a dozen bills containing law changes proposed by Gov. John Kasich.
The chamber is expected to act on a number of the bills this week before lawmakers recess for their pre-primary spring break.
Another amendment would officially declare that student athletes are not public employees, a move that likely would block them from forming unions.
“I think this is a statement of what we all thought was obvious, that is, athletes are not employees of the university,” Amstutz said.