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Ohio's legislature is back to work holding hearings on bills about everything from education reform to cosmetology training.

We'll have an update on what they're considering and we'll take a closer look at a proposed controversial resolution that would make it harder to pass citizen led constitutional amendments in the future.

It's all this week on the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Joe Ingles sitting in for Karen Kasler.

Lawmakers are expected to spend the next two weeks fitting in what remains of the legislative priorities before session ends.

As we head into the final days of the lame duck session, State House correspondent Andy Chow has a look at what's gaining momentum and what's put off until next year.

There have been Senate and House committee meetings for hundreds of bill hearings in the past few weeks and the picture of what will and will not pass out of the state house by the end of the year is beginning to look a little clearer.

A bill to overhaul the state's Education Department is seeing traction in the Senate legislation to shift power away from the State Board of Education and into the governor's office has been circulated for years.

Governor Mike DeWine says he's for the bill.

What the public expects is accountability.

And it's hard to have accountability under our current system.

You know, having the Department of Education, you know, with kind of a joint control between the governor's office and the governor on certain areas and other areas, be the state elected board of Education, I think is a very significant improvement.

Another issue that Republican lawmakers have tried to pass for years is a reduction in the minimum training required to receive a cosmetology or barber license.

An amendment was added to a bipartisan bill to include those controversial changes, reducing the hours for cosmetology and barber license to 1000 hours.

That's down from 1500 hours for cosmetologists and 800 hours for barbers.

Republican Senator Christina Rohner says this is something that will grow the industry and is supported by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

That'll translate into individuals achieving licensure more expeditiously without compromising safety or hygiene.

Democratic Senator Cecil Thomas says Republicans took a widely supported bipartisan bill and added measures that made it unacceptable to Democrats.

Were they an impetus I was all ready to support the bill and did the amendments that were brought in.

And then we had folks coming from all over the state saying, whoa, this is going to kill us.

The bill passed the Senate and moves back to the House, where leaders are unsure if it will get a vote or not.

The House bill to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls sports received its first hearing in the Senate.

There are talks of last minute changes being added to the bill before it gets a vote out of committee.

A bill to include another factor to be considered in gun purchase background checks received another Senate hearing.

But Republican Senate President Matt Huffman does not expect that to move out of the chamber by the end of the year.

Lawmakers are also working on other measures, including one that could make sweeping changes to the state's criminal justice system and a spending bill that could appropriate what's left of Ohio's $1.8 billion in federal COVID relief funds.

Although there are many unknowns, one thing that's certain is that lawmakers will be very busy all the way up to the end of session.

Andy Chow Statehouse News Bureau.

There was surprising news from Ohio State University this week.

Its president, Christina Johnson, announced she'll be stepping down at the end of this academic year.

OSU isn't saying whether Johnson was asked to resign, and she's not divulging the reason for her departure halfway through her five year contract.

For more than $1 million a year, including benefits, Johnson is the first openly LGBTQ woman to serve as OSU's president and the second woman to be in that role.

During her short tenure at the university, Johnson has increased spending on university research and increased scholarships for students.

And she's worked with Ohio's leaders to attract new jobs to Ohio.

I've had a good working relationship with President Johnson.

We've been involved in a number of things that impact not only the Ohio State University, but I impact the entire state.

And the point that I've always made to her and I think she's agreed is that, look, Ohio State is so important to the state.

We have to take a big picture look when we're looking at Ohio State.

So I've had very good relationship in working with her.

I was not involved in any way in the deliberations nor involved in the decision.

That's up to up to the trustees.

I had some knowledge of this as it was going on, but not in detail.

I was kept informed.

But, you know, never, never really got into the details about about that.

I think going forward, which is what we always have to do, we to live in the present.

The picking of a president of any state university is very, very important.

It's very important when it's Ohio State.

And so I would just urge the trustees to be very careful.

I would urge them to move as quickly as they can.

I would urge every trustee and I think it's essential that every single trustee, the hands on, involve in the selection of the next university president.

That is not always occurred.

Every one of them has been appointed by a governor.

Every one of them has equal responsibility.

The buck stops with them.

Democratic U.S.

Senator Sherrod Brown expressed his disappointment that Johnson will be leaving the university.

I'm heartbroken.

I think that she's a.

Very good president.

I count her as a friend.

I've counted the last two presidents as friends, President Drake and President Johnson.

I. I. I'm sad about it.

I don't quite know exactly what happened, but I'm hopeful for her and Veronica, for their futures and I know it looks to me like Ohio State didn't treat them very well.

The Ohio Republican Party is also looking for a new leader.

Its current chairman, Bob Pidcock, announced he'll be stepping down soon.

Hamilton County GOP Chair Alex Tryon.

Taffy Lou says he'll seek the state chairmanship.

Summit County GOP chair and statewide party vice chair Brian Williams, who tried to challenge Perdue after the August primary, said he won't run for chair but is working with a coalition to support what they consider the best candidate.

A bill that would restrict affirming medical care for transgender children will not be taken up during the lame duck session of the Ohio legislature.

Its sponsor, Republican Representative Gary Click, says he's made a decision to hold off on consideration on his bill because he thinks it would be too much of a rush to get it through the lame duck session.

Hundreds of people testified on the bill in recent months, many of whom were against it for many reasons.

Click says he intends to bring the bill back next year in the new General Assembly because he thinks it's essential to protect children from what he believes are permanent medical risk.

Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman says a bill that would ban abortion at conception is highly unlikely to move in the lame duck session.

He says lawmakers do want to clarify Ohio's existing ban, which has been put on hold by a court for now.

That law bans abortion at the point fetal cardiac activity can be detected after an around six weeks into a pregnancy.

Governor DeWine, who signed the current ban that's now on hold, says he thinks lawmakers need to clarify the exception for life of the mother.

But he cautions they shouldn't go too far.

We are in a state where you can have referendums where the people can ultimately make a decision where they want to go.

So I would hope that the General Assembly would pass something that could last, that would not be overridden by the vote of the people.

And I think it's important that the legislature think about that as they put this bill together.

Ballot issues are on the minds of some Republicans right now as the legislature considers a bill to make it harder to pass a citizen led constitutional change.

Ohio's secretary of State Frank Rose back some resolution in the legislature that would require a citizen led constitutional amendment to receive a 60% supermajority instead of a current 50% plus one in order to be enacted if Ohio lawmakers pass it during the lame duck session with a 3/5 majority.

It would be on the May 2023 ballot and could pass with a simple majority.

La Rose says it would keep special interest from injecting proposals with narrow support into Ohio's constitution.

More than 140 groups signed on to a letter to legislative leaders this week asking them to kill the resolution, saying it takes away power from the people to hold legislators accountable.

Former Democratic Ohio House representative and former newspaper editor Mike Curtain worked on a constitutional modernization committee which considered the issue of revising the process for constitutional amendments before it concluded at the end of 2017.

I spoke with him earlier this week.

What are your thoughts on the resolution that's being considered in this 60% threshold?

Well, it's a monumental abuse of power for the supermajority that controls the legislature in lame duck session to rush something to the May primary ballot in an odd numbered year without for public participation, for public debate.

When you're talking about amending or asking Ohio voters to amend their foundation document the state constitution, there should be a process that honors tradition, honors custom and and takes the time needed for full participation.

So when Secretary of State La Rose and Rep Stewart announced they were going to do this in a lame duck, it immediately struck me as monumental, bad faith and abuse of power.

We have not had a General Assembly sponsored proposed amendments to our state constitution on a primary ballot in an odd numbered year for 50 years.

A half century.

The last time we had that was in May of 1973, when Ohioans were asked to approve the Ohio lottery because we had to amend the Constitution to allow that to happen.

Since then, Republican and Democratic legislators have honored tradition, honored custom, and they've put these proposals for the most part in November elections fall elections of even numbered years.

When you have maximum voter participation in a gubernatorial year, we have 60% plus or minus turnout.

In presidential years, we have 70% plus or minus turnout in odd numbered primaries.

We have 15, 17, 19% turnout.

And so this is bad faith and they should take their time.

And if you want to make the case for creating a supermajority to amend your state constitution through citizen led initiatives, which only one other state has, by the way, Florida then respect the voters and go out and make your case, make it laboriously, and give the voters a time to study it, to get up the learning curve and to participate in the debate and discussion.

And that's not happening.

And to me, that's bad faith.

When you were on the Constitutional Modernization Committee, you proposed changing the process for in the initiated statutes to make them more attractive to people who want to enact a change in policy.

Can you explain that and what you wanted from that?

Why?

Well, I was one of 32 members of our Constitutional Modernization Commission who was 32 members bipartisan, appointed to study the Constitution and to make recommendations for changes, because we have an old constitution, an 1851 Constitution.

There's a lot of dead language in there.

There's a lot of stuff needs to be cleaned up.

And the statutory initiative, Ohio, is one of the few states that have the direct constitutional initiative.

There's only 18 states that have it.

The indirect statutory initiative and the referendum.

The statutory initiative is very seldom used because there's nothing to protect it.

Once you go to the time and trouble of getting the voters to approve a statute the next month, the legislature can eradicate it.

Many states that give their citizens the right of the statutory initiative also have a safe harbor provision so that if the voters are going to amend their revise code, their state revised code and add a law, it is in place for at least five years, say more the legislature can touch it.

And then it requires oftentimes a supermajority of the legislature to change it or to eliminate it.

Because Ohio has no such protections for the statutory initiative, citizens who want to enact laws usually use the constitutional route.

So we in the Constitutional Modernization Commission studied the possible proposal of requiring a 55% as opposed a simple majority vote to amend the state constitution through citizen led initiatives.

But in exchange for that to make the statutory initiative much easier to use, it's cumbersome now, and that's why very few groups use it.

So it would have been a tradeoff to make the statutory initiative easier and the constitutional initiative a little more difficult because the statutory initiative is so seldom used.

We get a lot of statutory like changes in our state constitution, like livestock care standards for, for example, things that don't belong in a foundation document, don't belong in a state constitution, but rather, you know, belong in statute and Ohio's constitution is relatively long at 60,000 words.

It's about the 10th longest state constitution in the nation.

There's a lot of clutter in there.

But because of the statutory initiative is not user friendly, it's very seldom used.

And so we were studying that.

But then, then Senate President Keith Faber pulled the plug on the commission and it died.

And we never got a chance to make that case to the public.

Hmm.

You know, some of the people who oppose this are saying that they're kind of turning the argument around, if you will, and they're saying it gives power to 41%.

You know, the minority.

If you start talking about, you know, going to a 59% or 60%, you know, of the majority approving an issue.

Does this give more power to a minority opinion?

And is that a dangerous thing?

Oh, absolutely.

If this were enacted and made part of the Constitution, we'd have minority rule, not majority rule when it comes to proposed amendments to our state constitution, when they're led by, you know, citizen initiatives.

That is a very fundamental change.

Only one other state in the union, Florida, has such a provision.

And there's a reason there's only one other state that has it, because it's it's atypical.

It's you know, we live in a country in live in most states where simple majority rules.

That's what Americans are used to.

That's what Ohioans are used to.

So if you're going to propose changing that, then you should take the time to educate the voters on what is the case.

Well, you know, what's the problem?

And that's not being done.

This thing is being rushed through in lame duck.

Without that voter education, without time for full debate and discussion.

And to me, that just smacks of bad faith.

You know, we have a legislative supermajority right now and we have a legislative supermajority going into the next General Assembly.

What do you say to people who believe a citizen led petition is the only way to bypass a legislative majority supermajority?

Well, it essentially is.

I mean, the the initiative, which in our state, the statutory and the constitutional initiative are 110 years old.

We've had them since 1912.

And when they were adopted in 1912 by a very progressive General Assembly, we had progressive Democrats and progressive Republicans back then.

They were trying to overcome base rule.

They're trying to overcome the trusts, the banking trust, the railroad trusts, the utility trusts that had legislators in their pockets, literally on their payroll oftentimes.

So the 1912 amendments were a great reform era in our state, where the citizens were taking back power from the corrupt politicians.

And now you take that tool away.

The citizens have very little in their arsenal, if anything, to go to.

So this is this is very fundamental.

It's not something you rush.

Is it political?

I mean, the resolution could have been passed any time in the last decade and been put on the ballot at that point.

And now when groups want to change abortion laws or, you know, allow legal marijuana in this state, it seems like the majority Republicans are making this move.

So is this a politically motivated move?

There are several issues out there that are being organized for the ballot for potential proposed amendments to the state constitution.

One is creating an independent redistricting commission to reform gerrymandering.

As you know.

We thought we reformed gerrymandering in 2015 and 2018.

Guess what?

Didn't work?

We still have super gerrymandered districts and so folks are organized to go back to the ballot to create a truly independent redistricting commission.

There's a movement to go back to the ballot to raise the minimum wage, the state minimum wage.

There is a movement to go to the ballot to guarantee reproductive freedom for for Ohio women and other things that are in the organizing stages in this very much looks like an attempt to undercut those efforts that are not supported by majority Republican rule right now in the state.

Now, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and the sponsor of this bill, they say that this is about blocking powerful special interests.

But how powerful could special interests be when you look back at constitutional amendments and in the recent history, very few if passed.

Well, when Secretary of State LaRosa and Representative Stewart were asked, what powerful special interests are you talking about?

Interestingly, they didn't name one.

So who are they?

As you might recall, in 2015, I was the co-sponsor, along with Representative Ryan Smith, of a proposed constitutional amendment that was placed on the November 2015 ballot that was called the Anti-Monopoly Amendment.

We brought that amendment to the voters because we are battling the marijuana monopoly boys who use the initiative process to try to urge Ohioans not just to legalize marijuana, but to give them an exclusive so that the owners of ten properties would be the only properties in the state by the Constitution that could grow marijuana for commercial purposes.

Well, my issue wasn't marijuana.

My issue was owners of ten plots of land trying to put their business plan into a state constitution.

Because of that.

Representative Smith and I led the effort to put a counter amendment on the ballot, which essentially raises the bar very, very high for special interests to use the initiative process to create an exclusive economic benefit.

So basically, the Ohio Constitution now says thou shalt not use the initiative to create a monopoly oligopoly cartel or exclusive economic benefit not available to similarly situated people, organizations, etc..

But if you did bring one to the ballot through the initiative process, then you how Ballot Bowl would have put two questions on the ballot.

One would be asking the voters, Do you want to overturn the anti-monopoly amendment that you adopted in 2015?

And two, if you do, do you want to approve what these guys are trying to sell you in a way of an economic benefit for themselves?

So it's a very high bar that exists now because of our work in 2015.

And because of that, Secretary of State La Rose and Rep or Representative Stewart are not able to name what interests they're talking about.

We solve this problem in 2015 unless they're able to come forward and say, Here's what we're trying to stop.

Then you have to conclude.

What they're trying to stop is the Reproductive Freedom Amendment, the minimum wage amendment, and the anti gerrymandering amendment that's now that are all in the organizing stages right now.

Now, if they are successful in getting this resolution through the lame duck session by the end of this year, they could put it on the May ballot, as we were talking about earlier.

We also know that in in primaries, in those off elections, those tend to favor Republicans.

So do you think that if they are successful, that this has a realistic chance of passing in May?

I think if the Republicans do put this on the ballot in 23, you're going to see a massive organizing effort statewide to defeat it.

And I think it will be defeated.

Typically, you're right, typically low turnout, Republican leaning electorate in an odd numbered year in a primary.

But this thing is so fundamental that, you know, just a few days ago, over 100 groups came out and signed a letter sent to Speaker Cupp and Senate President Hoffman saying, don't do this, because if you do, we're going to be organizing the state to defeat it.

And I think it will be defeated because it's it is what it is.

It's bad faith.

It's arrogance of power.

It should not proceed.

That's it for us this week for my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau.

Thanks for watching.

Please check us out at state news dot org.

You can follow the show.

Karen Kasler, Andy Chow and me on Facebook and Twitter.

Be sure to join us again next time for the state of Ohio.

And we leave you this week with highlights from the holiday tree lighting ceremony that took place earlier this week at the Ohio State House.

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 Right.

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 OGA, dawg.