State lawmakers must resolve to keep politics at bay in 2014

The Ohio General Assembly has a diverse and zesty mix of meaty issues piling up on its plate as members of its House of Representatives and Senate reconvene in Columbus this week. But if history is instructive, it’s unlikely that the state’s lawmaking body will finish the year as a gold-star member of the clean-plate club.

That’s because in highly politicized years, productivity too often takes a backseat to partisan electioneering. Amid what promises to be acidic campaigning for governor, all major state executive offices and their own legislative jobs, Ohio legislators must resist the temptation to sidetrack or derail key projects or to grandstand for their political party or personal candidacy. Legislators must keep their primary focus aimed squarely at their elected duties of making public policy that serves the best interests of Ohio and its 11.5 million residents.

Unfortunately though, the partisan divide in the House and the Senate kept much business unfinished at the end of the first year of this Legislature’s session. That divide must be broken down in 2014 if the 130th General Assembly does not want to go down in history mockingly remembered as a Lazy-lature.

Money issues are expected to dominate the early months of state legislative activity. Gov. John Kasich is expected soon to propose revisions and additions to the 2014-15 biennium budget. In addition, massive state spending projects will be outlined soon in what is expected to be the heftiest capital spending bill in years. In those and other spending projects, Mahoning Valley legislators must work to ensure our region gets fair treatment and equitable allotments. That is particularly true in the capital spending bill that largely funds construction projects at state universities, prisons and other institutions.

The General Assembly also faces a laundry list of unfinished business and pending legislation to clear up before it adjourns. Among them are a proposed severance tax on oil and natural gas drilling, a measure to allot almost $1.9 billion for critically needed public works projects, plus a hodgepodge of bills to standardize city income tax levels in the state, to loosen clean-energy rules, to ban automatic ticketing traffic cameras, to establish syringe-exchange programs aimed at combating Ohio’s heroin epidemic, to add sexual orientation to state hate-crime statutes and many, many more.

Back burner

Given the voluminous agenda, debate and action on some misguided or at least less pressing state-law changes or additions rightly can move to the back burner. These include a variety of measures sponsored by Statehouse Republicans that seek changes in election practices that could weaken incentives to vote. In addition, measures to increase the arena of allowable uses of deadly force (so-called “Stand Your Ground” laws) and to decrease Ohio women’s access to their legitimate rights to abortion also can be moved to the bottom of the legislative priority list.

That, however, still leaves a heaping helping of work for legislators to tackle. At a time when many Ohioans are fed up with childish partisan gamesmanship in their state and federal legislatures, it is time for our state representatives and senators to dig in and commit themselves to meaningful progress — not misguided politics.