Support for the statewide broadcast of the state of Ohio comes from Medical mutual providing more than 1.4 million Ohioans peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at med mutual dot com slash Ohio by the law offices of Porter Wright, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Now with eight locations across the country.

Porter Wright is a legal partner with a new perspective to the business community.

Maude Porter Wright dot com and from the Ohio Education Association representing 124,000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online at OHEA.org Lawmakers leave for spring break with work left undone, including a Republican backed plan for a constitutional change that could make it harder for reproductive rights amendment to pass this fall.

And is there a connection between rising electric rates and the House Bill six corruption scandal?

More on that this week in the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

State lawmakers are on a two week break, so no major movement on the two year state budget on House Bill one, which would overhaul the state's income and property tax system, which we delved into on this show last week, or on the plan to make it harder to amend Ohio's constitution.

There are now two proposals to require 60% voter approval to amend the Constitution.

House Joint Resolution one and Senate joint resolution to the House version also require signatures from all 88 counties instead of 44, as in law now, and would eliminate the ten day period after the deadline to gather more signatures if the initial drive falls short.

There are also two bills to revive the August special election that was eliminated in the law that took effect this week.

That law also requires voters to show photo ID and limits counties to a single secure ballot drop box.

The House version appropriates $20 million to pay for an August special election.

But both bills spell out the conditions under which an August election can be held, including to vote on a constitutional amendment proposed by state lawmakers, but not ones from citizens or groups.

Over the last few weeks, key players in this debate have talked about why they support putting such an important change to the Constitution up for a vote that will likely have a very small turnout.

Low summer turnout is a reason Republicans gave for proposing eliminating the August election last year.

But that August special election would be three months before a possible amendment on reproductive rights and abortion access.

A coalition of groups is gathering signatures to put that on the November ballot.

Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRosa announced just after he was reelected last fall that he supports the 60% voter approval idea, though he didn't mention that in his campaign.

He testified in favor of scrapping the August special election as wasteful and, quote, not how democracy is supposed to work.

But now LaRose says he's on board with the idea if lawmakers want to do it.

I have been clear that I share the position that I think that the chamber just articulated that we need to protect the Ohio Constitution.

It's not about one or two hot button issues today.

It's about the long term of protecting the Ohio Constitution against the kind of sometimes out-of-state activist groups that want to buy their way into the state constitution.

And I think a classic example of this is the fact that the Ohio Constitution has somewhere close to 70,000 words in it, and the U.S. Constitution has somewhere around 7000 words in it.

So there's a there's a I think there's a clear argument to be made that a lot of things that probably should be written in statute, in state law have ended up in the state constitution.

So to answer our Constitution, well, yeah, exactly.

Partial numbers for specific places where businesses that operate casinos may be located.

That's that's nonsense.

Right.

So the question of August, I think that the best determinant of turnout is how excited people are about the issue that's on the ballot.

Convenience is great.

We make our elections convenient.

We believe in convenient elections in Ohio.

But the single biggest factor that determines how much turnout you'll see is how excited people are about the candidates or the issues that are on the ballot.

I hope that if there's a question of changing the of our Constitution that Ohioans are excited to participate in that election and that we have a higher than normal turnout for an August election, if that's the decision that the General Assembly makes.

But as far as deciding when to hold elections, that's their business.

How do you reconcile regional.

Views of all of this election this year.

When you're going to more than happy to generally after the last.

Elections?

Because generally as a normal course of business, year in and year out, allowing local municipalities, for example, or or whatever, you know, local school districts or local tax, sewer districts or whatever else, to have a sneaky levy when nobody's paying attention is problematic.

A statewide issue is a very different thing.

And there will be, I can promise you a lot of coverage, a lot of news about it.

There will be very few people in the state not aware that there is a constitutional question on the ballot in August.

You'd have to be in a cave to perhaps not realize that that issue was there.

But again, this is up to the legislature as a course of action.

Normal course of doing business.

Yes.

I do not believe in having elections in August as a normal way of holding elections.

But if the state legislature decides to hold an election in August, it's not unusual.

It has happened throughout our state's history a number of times.

And if that's the decision that the people's representatives and the people senators make, then that's their decision.

Republican Senate President Matt Hoffman strongly supports the idea, saying a few weeks ago that if it cost $20 million to keep abortion out of the Constitution, it would be worth it.

Here are Huffman's comments from last week.

Frankly, I know that although I've known this been a problem for a long time, I didn't realize that Ohio is really one of the outlier states in allowing this constitutional change.

33 states do not allow constitutions at all by citizen initiative.

Of the remaining 17.

Six of those have some higher standard, either multiple elections or 55 or 60%.

And of course, the United States Constitution requires two thirds of each house and then 75% of the states.

So I think the best way to capsulize this is if we could change the U.S. Constitution by a 50% plus one standard of a popular vote in the United States, I think most people would be afraid of that, depending on whatever particular political whims would be in place.

So what we're really trying to do is recognize that remedy, something that's been around for a long time.

And, you know, no question, this is is to the forefront because of the of the abortion amendment that Planned Parenthood is putting on in November.

But it's also problem that needs to be permanently solved.

So I think that, you know, we're going to have a process here which started in earnest yesterday, continuing today.

And I think as people come in and talk about the importance of this, that, you know, there'll be some illumination on that excuse me in.

Particular, do you feel like you have the support to get it out of the Senate right now still by like mid to late this month?

And then just.

An update on when you expect to get that authority.

Oh, okay.

We yeah, I do think that that will be 20 votes, which is what we need for the resolution.

And the bill, of course, only 17.

But I think a substantial majority of the the the Senate and certainly the Republican caucus I don't I haven't asked everybody on on both of those matters, but I think we'll be able to do that and do that with plenty of time for the House to have consideration of that.

Republican House Speaker Jason Stephen said on March 23rd, because of the cost and negative comments from local elections officials, he was, quote, frankly, not interested in having an election in August.

Last week, he seemed to be backtracking on that.

Yeah, I mean, there's there are people who want to have an August primary.

And it's not just you know, there are other petitions that are that are out there, you know, And so so we want to be aware of that, I think from a from an administrative standpoint, another August primary is not the easiest for local governments.

I think, however, you know, the legislature does set the date and time and place of the elections.

So, you know that that is always a possibility.

Right.

So I think that's that's something that as we go forward into into the summer and we deal with this issue and all the other issues that we're able to look at and look at it in a way that's what's going to be best for Ohioans.

So you're saying it is.

What's always a possibility doesn't mean I like it, but it still means it's a possibility.

Yes.

Would you vote for it?

We'll have to see.

We'll see how there's a lot of other legal questions that what could happen with, you know, setting that election.

We want to make sure we do it right.

And so I think that's important that we do that.

I also think it's important that, you know, we are, you know, respectful of members opinions.

You know, I don't I as I said when I first became speaker, I think it's important that we allow that the speaker allow a platform for ideas for this is the arena of ideas.

And as we have a majority of the House looking for, you know, an August election or whatever the the issue may be, I think that's important that we don't dismiss it one off, that we we consider all those things.

So how likely of a possibility would you say I don't bet I'm not a gambler.

But House Minority Leader Alison Russo has been adamant in the Democratic caucus opposition to putting the 60% amendment plan before voters in August.

So what is your strategy for confronting that, especially since it could make the ballot this fall where it could potentially be on the ballot along with an amendment on reproductive rights?

Well, make no mistake about it, that this particular resolution, which will fundamentally change our ability to directly access democracy in the Constitution is undemocratic.

At the end of the day, it's unpopular, it's unnecessary, it's unfair.

So we will continue talking about that.

We learned in lame duck, you know, we had hundreds of people who showed up here at the state house.

I imagine that that's going to continue the public outcry against this measure, which would increase the threshold to 60%.

Listen, this is being done primarily because these legislators who have drawn themselves into districts that are uncompetitive understand that the legislation that they've passed around here is extremely unpopular and the citizens still have a direct path to make changes and ensure that we have rights that are protected and they want to take away that rights.

That is something that will be deeply unpopular, I believe is deeply unpopular, and we're going to fight it every step of the way.

Supporters of Republican Representative Derek Baron have claimed Stevens made a deal with Russo to win the speakership.

They filed a petition to try to force the resolution to a floor vote, and Stevens removed Marine supporter Scott Whigham as chair of the committee that was hearing the resolution saying Whigham was, quote, unable or unwilling to fulfill his responsibilities as chair.

Stevens then appointed as chair Marron supporter Representative Phil Plummer, who has said he was elected the House Republican Caucus as vice chair with Marron as chair.

Plummer talked last week with State House correspondent Joe Ingles.

If you're in charge of the committee, can't you pretty much assure that anyway?

No know my only ability to get it through the committee process, it's then up to the Speaker of the House, which bills he wants to take to the floor.

So the discharge petition has the authority to trump the speaker's decision.

So that's why that was enacted.

You know, but you need 50 signatures before it's legitimate.

Last I checked, we had 28 signatures.

Of course, people are off on break now, so we'll see how that goes.

But it's just a second option for members.

Okay.

So I'm being told by some people that there's questions as to whether you have enough votes among the Republicans to actually get that 50% passed.

What about that?

Yeah, that's the million dollar question.

You know, people have been whipping votes.

We've been very close.

You know, you also have the the hammer.

If it hits the floor and you're under the spotlight, you know, it's time to vote.

You know, sometimes a little outside pressure influences people's votes.

So we don't know if we have the votes.

But there's only one way to find out.

Whip the vote and take the bill to the floor.

Do you have members who are trying to decide who are worried that voting yes on this might make it harder for something like the Vaccine Freedom Amendment or something like that to pass?

Yeah, there are a couple members that are concerned with that.

You know, but again, you got to ask yourself, do you want that in the Constitution are going to just be a piece of legislation?

My opinion is we protect the Constitution and if you can run it through legislation, the best thing about writing legislation, then it can always be changed.

It's very difficult to change the Constitution.

Once you put something in the Constitution.

There are more than 100 groups that oppose the idea of requiring 60% voter approval to amend the Constitution.

A vocal opponent is former Columbus Dispatch publisher and Democratic former representative Mike Curtain, who notes some important amendments have been approved by less than 60%, including the ten mile limit on unvetted property taxes, bond issues for infrastructure, county home rule on minimum wage, eliminating straight ticket voting, and an anti-monopoly proposal in 2015.

Kirton also says the argument that the US Constitution has just over 7500 words, while Ohio's constitution is eight times longer, is not relevant because state constitutions have to deal with all the things not in the federal document, including education, state taxation, cities and counties and other issues.

Republican Governor Mike DeWine would not have to sign the 60% voter approval resolution to put it on the ballot, but he would have to sign a law recreating the August special election.

When asked about that last week, DeWine said he wouldn't comment because the legislature is working on that and that, quote, We'll see.

Still no sentencing date set for Republican former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio Republican Party chair Matt Burgess, who were each convicted last month of one count of racketeering in their federal trial in Cincinnati.

That case centered around a nuclear power plant bailout law that householder passed and Burgess protected.

For FirstEnergy, the state's largest electric utility.

FirstEnergy says ratepayers who buy electricity directly from the utility will see their rates nearly double starting in June.

AEP Ohio customers could see rates rise almost 30%.

Duke Energy customers got a slight increase in their electric bills to start the year, and s formerly known as Dayton Power and Light says what their customers pay to cover distribution of electricity will go up.

But an auction this week could bring overall bills down.

But is there a direct connection between rising electricity costs and the House bill sex scandal?

That was one question I asked Rachel Baltz, the executive director of Ohio Citizen Action, a progressive leaning organizing group that's active on environmental issues, utility matters and government transparency and accountability.

Let's do the basics here.

Why are electricity costs so high and going higher?

This problem goes back several months.

Yes.

So electric rates in Ohio are set by auctions.

And what that means is that they're going to be varying based upon what else is happening in the markets like natural gas.

Other providers as well as what's happening in the rest of the world wars, the the stock market, it's the stock market's not doing well at all and it's been getting worse.

That doesn't help.

All of these things play into Ohio's well, not all of Ohio's, but into the electric rates.

When each of the larger entities like FirstEnergy or American Electric Power, for instance, do their auctions.

So in this case, in the research that we've done at Ohio says action, it seems to be mostly timing of the auctions.

The entities that did auctions last late last in roughly November and then did some in March, they have to blend those rates.

So it means that the rates are not able to stay low and that at the very least it's going to affect people for a little while in exactly the worst time.

You know, you're getting into summer and season of, you know, allergies and pollen and everything and then heat.

I mean, it's just it's a tough time for people with, you know, any kind of health effects, any kind of issues to say, decide not to run their AC because they can't afford it.

That's that's really, really tough.

Also, there are fees that are involved in this.

And so the fees can also raise what people are paying, right?

Yes.

The fees and what they call writers.

There's so many on our bills.

This auction piece, though, the thing that's affecting what's happening right now is mostly about generation.

A lot of the things we've seen over the past few years, even going back was maybe five or six years ago when there were several, including AEP and others, who wanted to raise what we call the fixed rate.

We call it the you know, that the charge on your bill before you even turn on a light, it's usually somewhere between six and $8, something like that.

And in certain instances, they wanted to double and triple this elsewhere in the state.

We fought against that because it was not at all.

There's nothing you could do to control it.

You couldn't you know, you couldn't be more efficient and and reduce that.

So the interesting part is they they stepped away from those fixed rate increases was great.

We won that.

Now we're talking about the generation.

So that means where does the power come from and how does it compare, for instance, to natural gas prices?

How does it compare to solar and wind?

How does it compare to energy efficiency?

And in Ohio, the the generation and the timing issue here is what's causing these rates to skyrocket, at least for a little while.

It'll be different based upon the different providers and their options as to how long that that will be the case.

But that's that's that's it's a very complex system.

It's also why so many communities have done community choice, because then they have in their own power the negotiation power to go get the power for their community, but they also get to decide the source if that's something that they're interested in.

With these auctions, that's not the case.

So the standard service offer is basically everybody else who isn't serviced by a choice or another plan.

You're not only a utility watchdog, but also a government watchdog.

So obviously, you've been watching what was happening with the first energy House bill six nuclear bailout scandal, the trial and everything.

Is there a connection between the first energy nuclear bailout scandal that resulted in the convictions of Republicans Larry Householder and Matt Burgess and the higher costs that now our customers are now seeing?

Is there any connection?

That's a great question.

I will say that we did a whole lot more than watch.

First energy has been we've battled for energy for decades.

Literally.

And and that House Bill six fight was a big fight that we were part of at the legislature.

And since I don't I don't have any indication that they're directly tied together.

One of the things I think that does make sense, though, is, you know, how you run your business, what you look to invest in.

What kind of values does your business have, you know, ideologies and that sort of thing.

So as an example, FirstEnergy, you know, has has not been really has not been advocating for solar and wind, for instance.

And they've owned, you know, very old coal plants and nuclear plants, and they've sold them and they've been sold and all these things have happened.

I think it's a it's a it's an interesting time that this is all happening.

But I don't think they're directly I don't have any indication that they're directly tied together.

It's just another bad blow for in this case, FirstEnergy customers especially.

But really it's just it's more I think it's a really good example of why we need these power companies to not dump money into the legislature, whether it's bribes or illegally.

It really it just it just changes everything.

And there are so many folks I mean, all of us all of us have an electric bill.

At least some folks also have a gas bill.

But, you know, everybody pretty much has an electric bill and they're not going down.

You know, it's not it's not it's not an easy time to try to get by when we're still in a pandemic.

We're not all the way through that.

And we're heading into probably a pretty hot summer.

The public utilities Commission has a site featuring charts comparing costs from utilities and suppliers.

That's an energy choice that Ohio dot gov.

And that's it for this week from my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Radio and Television.

Thanks for watching.

Please check out our Web site at state news dot org and follow us and the show on Facebook and Twitter.

And please join us again next time for the state of Ohio.

Support for the statewide broadcast of the state of Ohio comes from medical mutual providing more than 1.4 million Ohioans peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at med mutual dot com slash Ohio by the law offices of Porter Wright, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Now with eight locations across the country, Porter Wright is a legal partner with a new perspective to the business community.

More at Porter Wright dot com and from the Ohio Education Association representing 124,000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online at OHEA.org