Mike Curtin: Ohio August election on constitutional amendment a smoke screen to amass power

Mike Curtin is a former editor and associate publisher of the Columbus Dispatch, and a former two-term state lawmaker who served on the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission.

The Statehouse fog machine is on full blast.

The legislature's majority party, frenzied to strip power from Ohio citizens, emits endless fumes to condone a proposal to require 60% voter approval to enact future amendments to the state constitution.

The proposal also would expand signature-gathering quotas from 44 to all 88 counties, making it nearly impossible for citizen-initiated amendments to qualify for the ballot.

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As gaseous as previous excuses have been to emasculate a 111-year-old constitutional right, none has been as inane as one advanced May 10 on the floor of the Ohio House by state Rep. Bob Peterson, R-Washington Court House.

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The affable Peterson began by informing House colleagues he's learned the Ohio Constitution contains about 67,000 words. Too many, he discerned.

"I have a friend who did that 67,000-word count and he tells me the country of Iraq is mentioned 32 times in our constitution. That doesn't make sense to me. These are policy issues that should not be included in our constitution. I think we can do better."

Apparently, Peterson did not ask his friend why Iraq is mentioned many times in the constitution. Had he done so, he might have learned there are just as many references to the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan.

Why?

Because in 2009, by overwhelming votes in the Ohio House and Ohio Senate, lawmakers proposed a lengthy constitutional amendment to create a bonus program for about 200,000 Ohio military veterans who served in the conflicts in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq. On Nov. 3, 2009, Ohio voters approved the program, with 72.2 % of the vote.

The amendment authorized $200 million in bonds to create two fund s— the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq Conflicts Compensation Fund, and the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq Conflicts Bond Retirement Fund.

Like most contracts, it contains essential detail on appropriations, certifications, reimbursements, and transfers between funds. It spells out how veterans qualify, based on time served in the three conflicts. It specifies how funds will be governed.

Had Peterson thought to inquire further, he might have learned the Ohio Constitution contains nearly as many references to Vietnam, and plenty others on the Korean conflict and World War II.

Before November 1953, when Ohio voters removed obsolete language authorizing bonuses for World War I veterans, our constitution contained many words on it, too.

Bonuses for military veterans rank as the most popular voted debt programs in Ohio ballot history. All five bonus programs were approved with over 71% of the vote.

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Because of our constitution's archaic (1851) debt limit of $750,000, over the decades the legislature has sought funding for dozens of worthy programs – including bonus programs for Ohio's military veterans – through voter-approved bond issues in the form of constitutional amendments.

The bonuses never have been large. Those for World War I service were $10 per month. World War II bonuses were $10 per month for stateside service, $15 per month for overseas service, with a total maximum benefit of $400. Veterans of the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts were eligible for bonuses of $100 per month, up to a maximum of $1,000.

All bonus programs have run their course except that for Afghanistan veterans, who can apply until late 2024.

If Peterson and other lawmakers ever get serious about trimming the length of the Ohio Constitution, they could start with a proposal to delete all defunct language in it, including that for veteran bonuses.

Article VIII alone, the section on public debt and public works, contains more than 11,000 words — nearly one-fifth of the constitution's entire length — of obsolete language.

A straightforward legislature would ask voters to delete dead language on the sinking fund commission and courts of conciliation. It would seek deletion of outdated, offensive language denying voting rights to "idiots or insane persons." And lots more.

But our leading Statehouse politicians are not being honest with us. Their whole game plan is to amass more power, by taking it from us. That requires a lot of smoke.

Mike Curtin is a former editor and associate publisher of the Columbus Dispatch, and a former two-term state lawmaker who served on the Ohio Constitutional Modernization Commission.