Dayton Daily News Editorial: The statehouse is awash with slime as Republican lawmakers and their special-interest patrons grab for what they can get.

Our View: Republicans exit, still out of control

By Dayton Daily News

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Seasoned observers might call what's occurring in Columbus during the "lame duck" legislative session business as usual. The less cynical should see it for what it is: a corruption of the law-making process.

The statehouse is awash with slime as Republican lawmakers and their special-interest patrons grab for what they can get.

GOP lawmakers are acting quickly before a Democratic governor takes office — and while the public is preoccupied with holiday preparations.

Preposterous legislative proposals have been planted in seemingly innocuous bills, and then put on the fast track to becoming law. Decisions are happening so quickly that amended legislation is not made widely available until everything is over. Doing otherwise would defeat the goal — which is deception.

This week legislative amendments were introduced during evening hours and voted on immediately. That means the Legislative Service Commission — the Legislature's nonpartisan technical staff —didn't have time to prepare reports that offer lawmakers the straight dope on a bill's contents.

Many lawmakers might take more care — and be less brazen — if they thought the public really knew how cavalier and Machiavellian they were behaving. But part of the hustle is to keep voters in the dark.

Consider:

Consumers lose: Senate Bill 117 was introduced to deal with a narrow, technical question of evidence in criminal cases. It passed the Senate in October 2005, and there it sat until Wednesday evening, when Rep. Bill Coley, R-West Chester Twp., and Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, introduced an amendment that would keep injured consumers out of court, or limit the damages they can recover, in cases involving defective products and consumer fraud.

The amendment, among other things, would undermine the celebrated anti-predatory mortgage lending bill that passed this spring. It would place a $5,000 cap on "non-economic" damages consumers could recover — for such things as the personal trauma and inconvenience they suffer — even if a lender's or mortgage broker's misconduct results in the consumer losing his or her home.

The amended bill was put before the House committee Wednesday, hustled to the floor for a vote Thursday and then immediately brought to the Senate for concurrence — passing each time along party lines.

Behind closed doors: The capital budget bill (House Bill 699) is 696 pages long and doles out nearly $1.8 billion for hundreds of projects. It wasn't introduced until Dec. 5. Buried amid all the pork, there's a provision that would exempt partisan caucuses of House committees from Ohio's open-meetings law. That means the majority political caucus at the committee level could cut deals and conduct public business behind closed doors — turning the committee hearings into choreographed shams.

Fewer workers eligible: On Nov. 7, Ohio voters overwhelmingly passed Issue 2, a constitutional amendment that boosts the state's minimum wage. Shortly thereafter, Rep. Seitz introduced House Bill 690 that attempts to limit the definition of workers who are eligible for a wage increase and minimizes employers' duty to keep records — all of which quickly passed in committee on a party-line vote.

On Dec. 5, Sen. Steve Stivers, R-Columbus, advanced these restrictions and more in Senate Bill 401. He also would hamstring employees trying to enforce their rights to the minimum wage by limiting the ability of labor organizations to pursue lawsuits on behalf of members — instead requiring every abused employee to bring a separate case.

Thing don't end there.

GOP lawmakers are using the lame-duck session to try and strip Gov.-elect Ted Strickland of his ability to set law enforcement rules. There also are last-minute amendments to the public-records law that would allow journalists to review records of the suspension or revocation of a concealed weapon permit — but forbid them from copying the name or address of the permit holder who's been punished.

Gov. Bob Taft needs to stand up on his way out of office, and keep these and as yet undetected deceptions from becoming Ohio law.

Meanwhile, lawmakers shouldn't assume their misdeeds will be forgotten. What they're doing now is a part of their public record, and voters will be reminded — even if that's down the road.