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Photo ID laws justified by fake claims of fraud

May 26, 2017 by Cecilia D'Arms

Earlier this month, President Trump signed an executive order to form a voter-fraud investigation panel led by outspoken voter ID advocate Kris Kobach. Mr. Trump apparently enacted this investigation mainly to soothe his ego after his popular vote loss in the general election, but it will have far-reaching political consequences nonetheless.

“Voter fraud” is a new term to cloak an old strategy: voter suppression. Laws which require voters to show valid photo IDs at the polls, lauded by many Republicans as preventing fraud, actually depress turnout among poor, African-American, and Hispanic populations who are less likely to have valid government ID, but are more likely to vote for Demorats.

In Wisconsin, where a new voter ID law came into effect before the 2016 election, 300,000 eligible voters don’t have a photo ID. The state failed to educate voters about the new requirements, and one Navy veteran couldn’t cast a vote because he didn’t know his valid drivers’ license wouldn’t pass muster since it had been issued by another state. In the end, Wisconsin, which Trump won by only 22,000 votes, cast 91,000 fewer ballots in 2016 than in 2012. We’ll never know how many of those lost ballots were cast by voters turned away in 2016 for lack of valid photo ID.

It turns out that these laws, which are disenfranchising voters, are attempts to solve problems that are unlikely to exist. According to The Washington Post, out of more than 120 million ballots cast in the 2016 election, election officials found only four instances of actual voter fraud. Researchers at Arizona State University found only 10 instances of voter impersonation fraud (the only type of fraud photo ID is designed to prevent) in all US elections held between 2000 and 2012, or one out of every 15 million voters.

Given the lack of evidence of their necessity and their discriminatory outcomes, courts across the country have struck down strict voter ID laws. Most recently, the Supreme Court refused to hear a case in which a federal appeals court struck down a North Carolina voter ID law the court found was “target[ing] African-Americans with almost surgical precision.”

In Ohio, Republican lawmakers have been toying for years with similar photo ID legislation, and with up to 1,000,000 eligible voters without valid ID in the state (IO estimate), the results could be catastrophic.

How to Talk About the House Budget

May 18, 2017 by Janetta King

Every two years, Ohio’s Governor introduces and the legislature must pass a budget bill to set funding levels for every state agency and program. But the document is about far more than just money. The legislation is loaded with policy and law changes that can meaningfully impact people all across the state.

In our effort to empower and enlist constituents from across the state to watch the budget, and speak out to your representatives about programs and services that are vital for your family, friends and communities.

Today, start by downloading and saving a copy of our messaging guide for the House budget. Use it to talk to friends, lawmakers or even write a letter to the editor.

Over the next several weeks, members of the Ohio Senate are holding hearings and adding their changes to the House bill, before a Conference Committee works out differences between the two chambers.

To stay informed, sign up for our budget emails, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. We’ll let you know how you can be a champion for a budget that works for all Ohioans.

IO on the Budget: School District Funding in House Budget Proposal

May 17, 2017 by Stephen Dyer

Now that the Ohio House of Representatives has passed its (unbalanced) budget, new district-by-district funding projections for the 2018-2019 biennium have also been released. And, while the numbers are slightly better than the original proposal contained in Gov. John Kasich’s budget, overall, school funding remains far behind where it was for children in public school districts during the Great Recession.

These projections — available now in our Comparing School Funding database — are based on all state revenue sent to districts, not just state aid.

Some of the highlights (all Great Recession data is inflation-adjusted):

The House-passed version is $828.6 million short over the biennium compared with the state fiscal year (SFY) 2010-2011 biennium, at the depths of the Great Recession
In all, 395 Ohio districts will get less funding in 2018-2019, adjusted for inflation, than in 2010-2011
In 2019, the second year of the budget, districts will receive $447 million less than they received in 2011.
403 districts will see a funding drop in 2019 compared to 2011.
Cleveland loses $168 million over biennium and is $90 million short in second year.
The average Ohio district gets $1.3 million less over the 2018-2019 biennium, and $736,000 less in 2019 alone.

So while media coverage has been quick to point out how the House version provides more revenue than what the Governor proposed, what nearly all reports neglect to mention is how inadequate both versions are at meeting student needs.

View the Comparing School Funding 2010 vs 2018 Database and see how your district could fare.

Statehouse Preview – Week of May 8

May 9, 2017 by Terra Goodnight

To get breaking news about fast-moving developments in between our weekly updates, sign up for Legislative Alerts.

The House last week adopted its version of the two-year state budget, and the end product is a significant deviation from Governor Kasich’s original proposal, but still fails to make the needed investments in the state’s education system and threatens healthcare security for low-income Ohioans.

The House scrapped Governor Kasich’s tax shifting proposals and adds much-needed funding for the state’s addiction crisis. However, the package also holds funding for Ohio’s public colleges and universities flat, and ends the tuition caps which have kept costs low. Primary and secondary schools will receive $835 million less in the next school year, adjusted for inflation, than they received 8 years ago. House members also put major obstacles to the continuation of the state’s Medicaid expansion, the only viable form of coverage for over 710,000 Ohioans.

This week, the budget formally gets taken up by the Ohio Senate, which should conclude its work in early June, sending the package to a conference committee to work out differences between the two chambers and the Governor. View the complete schedule for Senate budget deliberations.

AT THE STATEHOUSE

On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary committee will hold a vote on SB4, a proposal to allow the expungement of criminal charges for victims of sex trafficking. There is word that the organization representing County Prosecutors, which opposes the legislation, has produced an amendment that would limit the bill’s applicability 1st or 2nd degree felonies. This would have the effect of leaving many sex trafficked victims with felonies on their records that will haunt them as they try to move forward. Please call your Senator and urge them to reject the prosecutors’ amendment to SB4.

Also on Tuesday, the House Federalism & Interstate Relations committee will hold its first hearing on HB93, the TRUMP (Tax Returns Uniformly Made Public) Act. The bill, introduced by Rep. Kathleen Clyde in February, would mandate the public disclosure of a presidential candidate’s tax returns before they could appear on Ohio’s ballot.

The House Economic Development, Commerce & Labor committee will hold a vote Tuesday on HB2, a proposal to significantly weaken Ohio’s protections against employment (read our earlier coverage). If your lawmaker sits on the committee, be sure to tell them to reject HB2, which represents a significant setback for Ohio workers.

On Thursday, Senate Finance Health and Medicaid subcommittee will hear public testimony on the mental health, developmental disabilities, Medicaid and board consolidation provisions in the budget (HB49) at 10am. If you’d like to submit written or in-person testimony, contact the office of Chairman Hackett.

TAKE ACTION

1. Call House Federalism and Interstate Relations Chairwoman Kristina Roegner and ask her to hold additional hearings on HB93, the TRUMP Act.
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2. Call the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and urge them to reject the prosecutors’ amendment to SB4 and protect victims of sex trafficking:

Kevin Bacon, Chairman (614) 466-8064
Matt Dolan, Vice Chair (614) 466-8056
Cecil Thomas, Ranking Minority Member (614) 466-5980
Bill Coley (614) 466-8072
John Eklund (614) 644-7718
Matt Huffman (614) 466-7584
Peggy Lehner (614) 466-4538
Scott Oelslager, Sponsor of SB 4 (614) 466-0626
Sean O’Brien (614) 466-7182
Michael Skindell (614) 466-5123
(not on committee) Stephanie Kunze, Sponsor of SB 4 (614) 466-5981

House Passes Fake Budget Full Of Unfunded Promises

May 2, 2017 by Terra Goodnight

FAKE BUDGET, REAL MESS

Last month, House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger stood alongside Governor John Kasich and Senate President Larry Obhof in what they wanted the public to believe was a united front that would address the disgraceful state of Ohio’s finances under their leadership.

In fiscal year 2017, the state is already $615 million short as tax revenues have come in below Kasich administration projections for eight of the last nine months. Last month, these leaders jointly announced that the proposed budget for 2018-2019, introduced in January and passed today by the House, is already so significantly out of balance they needed to break the news immediately. They then agreed to reduce spending $800 million over the next two fiscal years, promising to work together to pass a budget that was balanced at every step of the process:

Speaker Rosenberger:
“It is important that we are together as a team. At the end of the day, this team is not going to drop the ball…” [at 0:04]

“I’m committed to work with the Administration and the President to make sure we have a balanced budget that will pass out of the House, a balanced budget that will pass out of the Senate…” [at 1:21]

President Obhof:
“One, we’ve got teamwork and cooperation up here. And two, we’re all committed to making sure that at every step of the process the budget is something that is fiscally responsible and structurally balanced and sound.” [at 1:42]

Kasich Budget Director Tim Keen:
“All these things, we have to take into account, we have to get ahead of. We have to make sure we make the appropriate adjustments. This is not something that the leaders have determined we can wait until the conference committee to address. This is why we’re here today – to commit to work together to start to address this issue and ensure we have a balanced budget that is structurally balanced.” [at 4:10]

Now, instead of fixing the problems they’ve created with bad tax-shifting policies, the House Republicans have passed an unbalanced, fiscally irresponsible budget. By President Obhof’s own characterization, the House budget leaves “several hundred million dollars […] potentially more than that, open.” In fact, the House budget could not, by law, be enacted–because it is not balanced, according to the numbers they released at their press conference.

This budget is full of promises–more money for the addiction crisis, more money for schools, relief from state intrusion on local control–but no one should feel secure those promises are real if there are $200 million or more in unspecified cuts yet to come.

Unfortunately, this is the story of the Republican budget process this year: fiscal irresponsibility and intellectual dishonesty. There are ways to support public education, health care, the environment, local communities and shared economic prosperity without the Republican slash-and-burn approach–but Republicans have fallen down on the job, while also failing to responsibly address the budget hole they themselves have created.