SB5 Opponents Begin Referendum Effort

Senate Bill 5 Opponents Begin Signature Drive for Referendum Effort

With the recent passage and signing of Senate bill 5, an effort has been ignited to prevent the measure from taking effect and to place the issue before Ohio voters during the November 2011 election. You may be asked to sign such a petition to help bring this issue to a referendum. In that instance it's very important that you know what you're being asked to sign.

A referendum is the practice of placing a measure that already has been passed by a legislative body before the entire electorate for a vote of acceptance or rejection. Opponents of collective bargaining reform have begun a petition drive in order to trigger a referendum for the Ohio election in November of 2011.

The provisions in Senate bill 5 will take effect 90 days after the governor signs the legislation (which happened last week), although proponents of a referendum can stop the bill from taking effect if they are are able to collect and submit enough valid signatures to the Ohio Secretary of State's office before the bill's effective date.

Proponents will need to submit a signature petition containing valid signatures from Ohio voters representing a number equal to at least 6 percent of the total number of ballots cast in the most recent gubernatorial election. In this case, proponents of a Senate bill 5 referendum expect they'll need to collect at least 231,149 signatures. Ohio law requires that signatures for a referendum must be collected from at least 44 of Ohio's 88 counties with specific minimum numbers of required signatures set for each county based on the number of ballots cast in that county during the most recent gubernatorial election.

Bringing an issue to a referendum vote is a difficult task, but not an impossible one. The framers of Ohio's government meant to make the task difficult in order to prevent an abundance of ballot issues and to prevent the legislative process from losing relevance.

The clock already is ticking on the 90-day waiting period before which Senate bill 5 would take effect, and during which proponents of a referendum must collect and submit their signatures. As this process unfolds, be sure that you understand any petitions you may be asked to sign and continue to check www.NFIB.com/OH for updates.

I believe the contract was for only the handful of "civilian" police department employees but the precedent has been set -- these folks get 1%, Donham Plaza folks get 1% raise, and pretty soon the FOP will as well. 

Wow. The city used the tools Columbus gave them effectively didn't they. Hello city council...hello....hello....anyone home?

addendum - I 'm not vouching for the validity of the argument, I'm just saying that if you wanted a strategy to run on, that would be pretty good!

TonyB, don't think that one would work. They tried that one before and it failed. I am convinced this go around, enough people have gotten it. Middletown;ssurely had its share of entitelemnt, maybe the kingpin of Ohio, but the excuses, the cronyism, the glory of the Atrium move, its all been exposed now. When I saw such few people out with AJ Smith, I finally think people are so on to Middletown, all the mud thrown around, they have had enough.

Tony B you are right in thinking that the city should be working with the unions , but my experience with unions is they are not going to give up anything, they just want try to blame someone for this situation. Those ever fault it may be that city is over budget they are still broke.

The cuts need to come. and they haven't improved public saftey a bit with the increase. What burms me up is the nepotism on the force. Former Sgt retires, moves his daughter (I will keep her nameless bu most know who she is), from Oxford to Middletown, in paer under age 30, making in mid $70's. Newlin;s son, former clerk deleiveing summons cutting his teeth in Dad's civil court, now a Sgt, under 30, making about $76,000. This levy will fail, but of course, we know the strategy and the cry wolf. Why do you think city council was praising police and fire for he incident at Frish's/ Its all we will hear until it is defeated.