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Article
published June 4, 2001
Veto legislative
secrecy
Buried in the 1,600-page state budget bill
passed last week by the Ohio General Assembly is a measure wholly
unrelated to state finances or, for that matter, any legitimate
purpose of state government. Rather, it’s a provision that seeks to
keep the public from finding out what the legislature is up to, and
Governor Taft should use his line-item veto power to excise it when
the bill gets to his desk.
The provision in question would
bar court-ordered subpoenas of legislative staff members and their
communications with legislators. This secrecy measure was sneaked
into the bill after the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the state to
respond to inquiries from members of the coalition suing the state
over school funding.
The Coalition for Equity & Adequacy
of School Funding is seeking evidence of legislative intent - or,
more likely, lack of intent - which went into the funding plan that
gets a hearing before the high court on June 20. Legislative
leaders, in contrast, are trying to cover their
tracks.
Responsibility for this inexcusable betrayal of
Ohio’s long-standing history of open public records and meetings
falls squarely on the shoulders of Senate President Richard Finan
and the rest of the majority Republicans in the legislature. It was
Senator Finan who ordered the secrecy amendment inserted covertly as
the budget bill made its way through the Senate Finance
Committee.
Senator Finan evidently likes to legislate in
secret. In 1999, he ordered up an even worse amendment, also to a
budget bill, which exempted records of the Legislative Service
Commission from the open-records law. The effect was to make it
virtually impossible for reporters who cover the Statehouse to know
when lobbyists are feathering their own nests by writing legislation
that is then presented in committee and on the House and Senate
floor by compliant lawmakers.
Emboldened by Senator Finan’s
amendments, legislators routinely scurry behind closed doors to
conduct meetings that are supposed to be held in public, drafting
legislation in so-called "working groups."
The result is that
the public has no way of knowing whose interests are being served in
private. We can only assume the worst. To adapt a famous saying,
"Secrecy is the last refuge of scoundrels."
Ironically,
Senator Finan, who first came to the legislature as a member of the
House in 1973, was among Republicans who complained bitterly about
similar, but less venal, shenanigans when Democrats controlled the
agenda in Columbus. With the power shoe on the other foot, though,
the current GOP majority is acting with the same studied disregard
for legislative ethics.
Their time, and their usefulness, is
coming to an end.
Now that the legislature has misused its
power, it’s time for Governor Taft to step up and set things right.
He has the authority to veto the anti-subpoena provision without
negating the rest of the bill, and his spokeswoman already is on
record as saying he "doesn’t like" the measure.
Vetoing this
assault on the public’s legitimate right to know what goes on in the
legislature may be uncomfortable for the governor, because the
budget was passed solely with votes from his Republican colleagues
in the House and Senate. But that’s no excuse for Mr. Taft not to do
what’s proper for the people of Ohio.
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