Ohio Senate Dems eye guns, ballot access, economy

JULIE CARR SMYTH

AP State­house Correspondent

COLUMBUS — Bills to curb gun vio­lence, improve bal­lot access, sup­port sta­ble fam­i­lies and address how pub­lic schools are funded are among pri­or­i­ties of state Sen­ate Democ­rats headed into the new session.

Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­tic Leader Eric Kear­ney, of Cincin­nati, said at a Tues­day unveil­ing that the fact his 10 mem­bers are the first leg­isla­tive cau­cus to announce their pol­icy pri­or­i­ties shows they’re “ready to work” and put aside par­ti­san differences.

“It’s always best to work with peo­ple when you can and only fight with peo­ple when you have to,” said Kearney’s No. 2, Sen. Joe Schiavoni.

Repub­li­can Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Keith Faber said sen­a­tors of both par­ties want to improve Ohio’s econ­omy and will work together on that.

“I’m sure we’ll find areas of dis­agree­ment along the way, but I’m com­mit­ted to mak­ing sure that all points of view are con­sid­ered in the devel­op­ment of our pol­icy ini­tia­tives,” Faber said in a statement.

Kear­ney said Democ­rats are work­ing to craft a pro­posal to reduce gun-related tragedies, a par­tic­u­lar focus fol­low­ing last month’s New­town, Conn., ele­men­tary school shoot­ing, in which a gun­man killed 20 first-graders and six school admin­is­tra­tors before com­mit­ting suicide.

He said whether the bill rec­om­mends an assault weapons ban will depend on input Sen. Shirley Smith, of Cleve­land, is gath­er­ing from a host of inter­est groups on all sides of the issue, includ­ing gun rights groups.

Kear­ney said debate should not be cast as a bat­tle over the right to bear arms.

“I sup­port the Sec­ond Amend­ment of the Con­sti­tu­tion, as I do all the other amend­ments to the Con­sti­tu­tion and the Bill of Rights,” he said. “So that’s not really the issue, in my view.”

The cau­cus also will pro­pose a bill address­ing Ohio elec­tion prac­tices that its mem­bers saw as sup­press­ing the vote in 2012, includ­ing rules for count­ing pro­vi­sional bal­lots and a uni­form statewide vot­ing sched­ule that rep­re­sented reduced hours in some large counties.

State Sen. Nina Turner, of Cleve­land, said the vote is “the great equal­izer” and said it was “tram­pled upon last year” through intim­i­da­tion and lim­its to access. She said peo­ple “shouldn’t have to jump hur­dles to be able to vote.”

Sec­re­tary of State Jon Husted, a Repub­li­can who set the uni­form hours, defended the 2012 elec­tion process and ques­tioned Democ­rats’ alle­ga­tions of sup­pres­sion. He said Ohio res­i­dents had more oppor­tu­ni­ties than ever to vote, includ­ing more than five weeks of early vot­ing by mail.

Another Demo­c­ra­tic bill will pro­pose phas­ing down school dis­tricts’ reliance on local prop­erty taxes as a way to address Ohio’s uncon­sti­tu­tional fund­ing sys­tem, even­tu­ally requir­ing dis­tricts to kick in no more than 20 mills, or $2,000 for every $100,000 of prop­erty value, toward the cost of their schools unless they choose to. Spon­sor­ing Sen. Tom Sawyer said it’s a dis­tri­b­u­tion pro­posal, not a fund­ing pro­posal, and could dove­tail with “a wide range of fund­ing pro­pos­als” that might arise in Repub­li­can Gov. John Kasich’s upcom­ing school fund­ing bill.

State Sen. Charleta Tavares, of Colum­bus, said she’s propos­ing cre­ation of a state Fam­ily Sta­bil­ity Com­mis­sion aimed at tack­ling poverty by keep­ing more fam­i­lies together. She said two-thirds of black chil­dren grow up in single-parent homes, which increases their chances of being poor.

A sim­i­lar cen­tral Ohio com­mis­sion gath­ered a host of cre­ative ideas, includ­ing charg­ing less for a mar­riage license for those who receive pre-marital coun­sel­ing and 30-day time­outs before a divorce.

“The mar­riage con­tract,” Tavares said, “should be at least as dif­fi­cult to break as a con­tract for lawn services.”

Sen. Edna Brown, of Day­ton, said she’s got a bill giv­ing school build­ings with 50 per­cent of chil­dren or more receiv­ing free and reduced-price lunches the option of open­ing year-round as sum­mer feed­ing sites.

Requir­ing all Ohio pub­lic col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties to offer oppor­tu­ni­ties for course credit to mil­i­tary vet­er­ans for ser­vice expe­ri­ences, such as being a medic or pilot, is another pro­posal Democ­rats will bring forward.

Posted by AP News on Jan 15 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.