Republicans Urge Blackwell to Delay TEL as Deadline Nears

Facing the potential for other hot political potatoes on the fall ballot and looking ahead to statewide elections in 2006, Republicans are urging Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to keep his powder dry on a tax expenditure limit ballot issue until next year.

Citizens for Tax Reform, the group spearheaded by Mr. Blackwell that's pushing the TEL to limit state and local government spending, says publicly that it plans to move forward with filing signed petitions by Aug. 10 to make this fall's ballot.

Detractors continue to poke holes in the proposed constitutional amendment, however, and some in the GOP keep pushing for a more moderate version that the Republican-controlled Legislature could place on the ballot in 2006 when all statewide offices are up for grabs along with all 99 House seats and half of the 33 Senate districts. Some strategists note the passage of the same-sex marriage ban in November 2004 and President George W. Bush's relatively narrow victory in Ohio - which was key to his reelection - when arguing to juxtapose the TEL, a statewide issue likely to be favored by conservatives, on the same ballot as key public offices.

House GOP Chief of Staff Scott Borgemenke said Friday he's not of that opinion, but acknowledged in regards to the TEL, "There are clearly people in the Republican Party who think it's better for this issue to go on the '06 ballot rather than the '05 ballot."

CTR spokesman Gene Pierce said the anti-tax group has been urged not to file the issue, or to combine it with another TEL proposal, since the initiative started. He said the group still plans to file an issue for the Nov. 8 ballot.

The group needs to collect nearly 323,000 valid signatures from registered voters across the state, based on participation in the last gubernatorial election, and must collect at least 5% of the number of votes for governor in 44 counties.

With just under three weeks remaining until the filing deadline, CTR has amassed more than 300,000 signatures, and citizens have been receptive to the proposal, Mr. Pierce said. "It's not a very hard sell. Signatures are flowing in pretty easily."

Still, it's always a challenge to get a constitutional amendment before voters, and historically local election boards invalidate a significant amount of signatures during the verification process.

And opponents to the proposal include Republican legislative leaders that believe the Blackwell TEL, which has been altered from its original version, still goes too far in tying the hands of policymakers and imposing constitutional restrictions in a variety of areas. With some doubts lingering as to CTR's ability to make the ballot, more than one public official has compared the back-and-forth between the General Assembly, Governor Bob Taft's office and Mr. Blackwell as "a big game of Chicken."

Republicans, meanwhile, are among critics that have noted several potential problems with the CTR proposal, including a provision that would mandate certain year-end transfers on non-general revenue fund monies unencumbered by governments. Some GOP legal experts have suggested the provision could apply to lottery and Bureau of Workers' Compensation funds.

Additionally, the issue faces stern opposition by a variety of government program advocacy groups that recently unveiled a Web site dedicated to defeating the TEL and providing information - including a comparison to Colorado's TABOR amendment - that argues why it's a bad idea for Ohio. The Coalition for Ohio's Future site also links to media stories on the proposal, lists members and urges opponents to get involved. Among other things, the group says the TEL "will encourage frivolous lawsuits."

Mr. Pierce said CTR hasn't updated its own Web site with advocacy information lately because of the focus on collecting signatures. "We're not in the sell part of our campaign," he said. "We're just getting the signatures together."

Complicating the matter further for Republicans and flavoring the debate over delaying the TEL is the possibility of other statewide issues on the fall ballot.

During a news conference staged Thursday by Reform Ohio Now, a group that's seeking statewide votes on three constitutional amendments to alter the political redistricting process and rewrite campaign regulations, supporters fielded questions on whether the package could inadvertently help the state-spending limit issue, which is also being sold as overdue and necessary governmental "reform," as voters mistakenly link the two efforts.

Republicans in general are especially concerned about the redistricting component of the RON package, which would replace the State Reapportionment Board with an independent panel charged with drawing congressional and legislative districts based on their competitiveness. (See Gongwer Ohio Report, July 21, 2005)

The House, meanwhile, is pressing forward with plans to hold a floor vote Aug. 2 on Mr. Taft's $2 billion combined "Third Frontier" research, development and local infrastructure bond issue, and the GOP doesn't want to have to spend money to defeat or support more than one issue this fall.

On that subject, Mr. Borgemenke acknowledged House Republicans are breaking with tradition in planning a vote on the package (HJR 2) without assurances they can obtain the necessary 60 votes for passage, but said it's a scenario that could play out more and more in the era of term limits.

"We've been on the defensive. We're going to take a jobs bill to the floor and let people vote their conscience," he said. "Just because it hasn't been done for a while doesn't mean it isn't the right thing to do."

In recent years, former Speaker Larry Householder's decision in May 2004 to hold a floor debate on slot machines at horse racetracks was one of the few times a measure was brought to a vote in either chamber with the results in doubt. The House came up short of the required three-fifths majority for a ballot issue.