Term limits, gerrymandering have created an Ohio legislature that can’t do its job
Updated Dec 31, 2020;
Columnist Thomas Suddes has given us an unhappy summary of the recent actions and inactions of the Ohio legislature (”What’s done is done, but the undone is much worse,” Dec. 20), but only hints at what might be done about it.
As a former member of the Ohio House, I suggest that the combination of term limits and shameless partisan redistricting makes it possible to serve in the legislature on a kind of automatic pilot, governed by outside interests instead of independent, fact-based judgment of Ohio’s public interest.
Posted By Ruth King on December 28th, 2020
Americans dismayed by the mendacity and distortions of the 1619 Project are headed for a fall. A commendable desire to counter both civic illiteracy and the excesses of woke ideology has produced a new national movement to mandate history and civics standards. Unfortunately, that strategy will produce the very opposite of its intended effect. Far from restoring traditional understandings of American citizenship, the proposed history and civics mandates will entrench woke ideology nationally, imposing it on the reddest of red-state school-districts, and ultimately on private and religious schools as well.
The conservative-leaning American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is considering a model bill that would have state legislatures mandate history and civics standards. Bipartisan federal legislation to fund curriculum development and teacher training in civics has also been introduced. Com
Byrne Takes On New Leadership Role As Member of Ways & Means Written by Office of Assemblyman Kevin Byrne
Assemblyman Kevin Byrne (R, C, Ref-Mahopac) is pleased to report Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay has appointed him to the prestigious Assembly Committee on Ways and Means, in addition to reappointing him to various other leadership roles and committees. Byrne will remain the ranking minority member on the Assembly Health Committee and chair of the Assembly Minority Program Committee, in addition to maintaining his various positions on senior committees including the Insurance, Labor, Transportation and Governmental Operations committees.
“The Assembly Republican Conference has been the voice of reason in Albany, and I thank our Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay for entrusting me to these various leadership positions,” said Byrne. “Our state faces a crushing deficit and already has one of the largest state budgets in the nation. We know we can a
Absent Federal Aid, How Bad Are State Budgets? [Governing]
Dec. 22 Last week, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam revealed a two-year budget package that included no tax increases and substantial new spending. It would restore nearly half the nearly $3 billion in spending that Northam froze earlier this year, while increasing education spending by $500 million, mostly to help schools retrofit for the coronavirus pandemic. Northam’s budget even allows for more savings, devoting $650 million to Virginia’s rainy-day fund.
Most of the new spending is set for the second year of the proposed two-year budget. “By then, we hope most Virginians will be vaccinated, and our society and economy will have begun returning to more normal activities,” Northam said.
collaboration.
Ohio lawmakers faced fierce blowback last winter over a bill that would escalate criminal charges on fossil fuel protesters and threaten religious organizations or nonprofits that support such demonstrations with crushing fines.
By then, the state Senate had already passed the proposal, known as SB 33. At House hearings that lasted until early 2020, however, about 171 opponents testified against the effort they said risked chilling free speech and preventing the faithful from exercising their spiritual duties at a moment when scientists credibly argue that new fossil fuel projects doom humanity to hellish global warming. Just nine spoke in favor of the bill.