Ethics law update on Ohio lawmakers’ year-end list

ANN SANNER

Asso­ci­ated Press

COLUMBUS — Ohio law­mak­ers’ to-do list before the end of the year includes a pos­si­ble update to the state’s ethics rules and a bill to pro­tect young ath­letes against brain injuries.

Dur­ing the lame-duck ses­sion that con­tin­ues after Thanks­giv­ing break, leg­isla­tive leader are also tak­ing a hard look at pos­si­ble changes to the state’s elec­tion rules and a bill to shuf­fle how pub­lic family-planning dol­lars are distributed.

Repub­li­cans hold majori­ties in each cham­ber, and the GOP will have con­tin­ued con­trol when the newly elected Gen­eral Assem­bly starts its ses­sion in January.

Here’s a look at some issues per­co­lat­ing in the State­house as the year winds down:

ABORTION:

Lead­ers in both cham­bers are weigh­ing whether to act on a bill that would boot Planned Par­ent­hood to the back of the line for pub­lic family-planning money.

Sup­port­ers of the mea­sure say other qual­ity providers of women’s health care have sprung up around the state and the bill would give those cen­ters a chance at gov­ern­ment funds. But crit­ics, includ­ing Democ­rats, argue Planned Par­ent­hood pro­vides needed pre­ven­tive health care to low-income women that would be jeop­ar­dized by the bill.

Under­ly­ing the debate is Planned Parenthood’s role as a provider of abor­tions, a pro­ce­dure sup­port­ers of the bill oppose fund­ing with pub­lic dollars.

The bill has passed a House com­mit­tee and could be brought to the full House for a vote.

House Speaker William Batchelder says he’s yet to talk to his Repub­li­can mem­bers about the pro­posal, though he added he would be sur­prised if there weren’t enough votes to pass it out.

Repub­li­can Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Tom Niehaus said his cau­cus is mulling the bill, as well as what action — if any — to take on another mea­sure that would ban most abor­tions after the first detectable heartbeat.

The so-called heart­beat bill cleared the House and has been stalled in the Sen­ate for most of the year.

The heart­beat bill’s spon­sor, Rep. Lynn Wacht­mann, says he’s opti­mistic that a com­pro­mise could get the mea­sure mov­ing again. But Wacht­mann, a Repub­li­can from Napoleon, wouldn’t say what is con­tained in such a deal.

Niehaus said he planned to dis­cuss the bill with his mem­bers about whether the bill should be brought up. “I’ll give them a chance to go through the pro­posal, then I’ll meet with them one-on-one, then I’ll make a deci­sion,” he said.

ELECTION RULES:

A work­ing group of sen­a­tors has been review­ing whether to update the state’s elec­tion law after the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion was marked by sev­eral legal chal­lenges to Ohio’s rules.

Pro­posed changes to early vot­ing days and pro­vi­sional bal­lot rules sparked par­ti­san ran­cor in the Leg­is­la­ture this ses­sion. Sec­re­tary of State Jon Husted, a Repub­li­can, sug­gested the issue be set aside dur­ing the lame-duck ses­sion so lead­ers would have more time to find a bipar­ti­san consensus.

Niehaus hasn’t said whether his cham­ber would pass any changes in the final days, but he’s left the option open.

Batchelder has told reporters that he would rather take on the topic in the next session.

“Those are com­plex bills,” he said. “I think it’s some­thing that we would want to hold hear­ings on — exten­sive hearings.”

SCHOOL RATINGS:

A pro­posal pend­ing in the House would over­haul the aca­d­e­mic per­for­mance rat­ing sys­tem for Ohio school dis­tricts. Cur­rently, the state rates schools with such labels as “excel­lent with dis­tinc­tion” or “aca­d­e­mic emer­gency.” Under the phased-in plan, schools would instead receive an A through F grade based on state stan­dards. Dis­tricts wouldn’t receive an over­all grade for two years in new rat­ing system.

A House edu­ca­tion com­mit­tee has been revis­ing and debat­ing the bill. Batchelder has said the mea­sure is among the chamber’s pri­or­i­ties for the lame-duck session.

ETHICS LAW

Niehaus intro­duced a bill Wednes­day to update the state’s ethics rules, which he says haven’t been revamped since the 1990s.

The pro­posal was slated to get its first hear­ing next week.

Niehaus has said he wants to mod­ern­ize the law to make dis­clo­sure forms more transparent.

For instance, he said it’s an oner­ous process to go back and make a change to a paper finan­cial dis­clo­sure report, while cor­rect­ing a cam­paign finance fil­ing can hap­pen with the click of a button.

“Why don’t we do some­thing sim­i­lar with finan­cial dis­clo­sure?” Niehaus recently told reporters.

Posted by AP News on Nov 23 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.