Count on SB 5 being on ballot

[irishbobcat]

Screw you Dan.....you hate the poor, the unions, the middle class.....

[Dan Moadus]

I thought the article was a good one and had a lot of good information in it. I was surprised that it was actually posted by Dennis; that is until I read his comment that preceded the post, which was "true to form".  He really is a perfect example of the predominant mindset of the typical "anti SB5" supporter.  I predict that it won't be much longer until our country is flat on it's back like Greece, and when that happens it will be people like Dennis and the "anti SB5" supporters who you will see smashing window and burning police cars. It is a hallmark of the left.

[irishbobcat]

Screw you Neo-cons........We will beat back Kasich and the neo-con ultra right wing fascist agenda.....


Count on SB 5 being on ballot
Sunday, July 17, 2011  03:13 AM
By Ben Geier

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
It's (not quite) official: Ohioans will have the chance to vote yes or no on the controversial public employee collective-bargaining bill known as Senate Bill 5.

Based on preliminary numbers provided to The Dispatch by county boards of elections, the petition to place the referendum on the Nov. 8 ballot has enough valid statewide signatures from just two counties, Cuyahoga and Franklin.

Collectively, these two counties have validated more than 235,000 signatures. Fewer than 232,000 signatures are needed to place the item on the ballot. Additionally, at least 44 of Ohio's 88 counties must have signatures from 3 percent of the number of votes cast in each county in the 2010 governor's election.

When several of Ohio's biggest counties are added together - Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas and Montgomery - the number of validated signatures stands at 365,400, according to the local boards of election. From these counties, 494,070 signatures have been checked.

Story continues belowAdvertisement  The petition, circulated by the group We Are Ohio, had 1.3 million signatures when it was submitted to the secretary of state's office last month. The occasion was accompanied by a march and rally by several thousand people Downtown and a tractor-trailer truck pulling up to the secretary of state's building to unload the petition forms.

We Are Ohio says that Senate Bill 5 would kill jobs and that public employees are not overpaid to begin with. Building a Better Ohio, the group organized to lead the effort in support of the bill, says the law will protect the middle class and actually keep public employees like teachers and emergency service workers on the job.

We Are Ohio spokesperson Melissa Fazekas said in an email that the group is confident of qualifying for the ballot in November.

Building a Better Ohio doesn't disagree. Spokesperson Jason Mauk said he expected it to be on the ballot, and the group is working on the November campaign.

"Ohioans now have a choice to make about whether to keep these reasonable reforms or keep moving in the wrong direction," he said.

In recent weeks, two Republican presidential hopefuls have come out in support of Senate Bill 5. In June, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney posted on Facebook that he "(stands) with John R. Kasich and Ohio's leaders as they take on this important fight to get control of government spending."

Building a Better Ohio posted a YouTube video featuring former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich.

"Building a better Ohio is a very important challenge," Gingrich said. "Under Governor John Kasich's leadership the state legislature passed collective-bargaining reforms that's going to allow local governments to do much more effective jobs."

Gingrich went on to compare the fight in Ohio to similar battles in Wisconsin and New Jersey.

In addition to Senate Bill 5, the county boards of elections are also working to check signatures for the Ohio Health Care Freedom Amendment, aiming to eliminate the federal health care mandate in Ohio. This amendment still has several weeks until the results must be turned in to the Secretary of State, and several counties have not even started validating these signatures.

Franklin County has validated about 32,000 signatures, Lucas County 16,301 and Montgomery County 7,809. At least 385,245 signatures must be validated for the amendment to make the ballot. More than 546,000 signatures were turned in. In Franklin County, the validation rate is currently about 75 percent, with similarly high numbers in other counties.

The tea party groups that drove the petition are still collecting signatures, which can be turned in up to 10 days after the initial total is announced by the secretary of state's office.