Bye-bye to bad bills
AMONG the parting gifts of the lame-duck Republican General Assembly to Gov. Ted Strickland were bills to raid the state's rainy-day fund to fund military bonuses and to unnecessarily complicate elections to prevent nonexistent voter fraud. Fortunately, the governor carried through on his threat to veto these unwarranted measures.
The outgoing Republicans, mostly interested in political posturing during their final days in the majority, sent Mr. Strickland the election and bonus bills despite the governor's warning that he would veto them.
The goal of the election bill was to eliminate the five-day period before an election in which Ohioans can register to vote for the first time and cast their ballot on the same day. Republicans claimed that eliminating the register-and-vote window was necessary to prevent voting fraud but the procedure, a Republican-backed measure that became law in 2005, was used during the Nov. 4 presidential election without significant problems.
The result of the corrective legislation - called "a convoluted mess" by one Cincinnati election official - would have been to place new obstacles in the way of Ohioans attempting to vote.
By vetoing the bill, Governor Strickland is allowing the new General Assembly to do what Linda Howe, Lucas County elections director, has advocated all along: "slow down and give the legislative process time to work."
The governor also turned away a bill that would have depleted the state's rainy-day fund by some $200 million to provide bonuses of up to $1,000 for veterans of the Persian Gulf war and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He said, correctly, that tapping into the state's reserves was a bad idea in the face of a potential $7.4 billion deficit in the next biennial budget.
There is no question that Ohioans who are called to fight America's wars deserve our gratitude and our help making the transition from the nation's military or National Guard to civilian life. But as we have said in the past, the best way to show our gratitude and help these brave men and women is to give them a hand up, not a handout.
Don't put a few dollars in their pockets that will quickly be absorbed in the day to day expenses of life. Instead, fund services to help returning veterans recover from their physical and psychological wounds, provide training and job services to set them on course for productive civilian lives, and invest in job creation so that they have something to come home to.
With a new General Assembly sworn in, lawmakers now have time to give each of these issues the attention it deserves.
Let's hope the result is thoughtful legislation that will have long-term positive results for voters and veterans.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Bye-bye to bad bills
