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OML Board Opposes TEL Amendment. On February 10, 2006, the Ohio Municipal League Board of Trustees passed a unanimous motion to oppose the Tax Expenditure Limitation Proposal (TEL) which follows. While the spokesperson for this Constitutional Amendment has said that the amendment is designed to rein in state spending, the proposal’s hardest and most impractical provisions gut the funding of local governments and school districts. While at no time in the debate over this amendment has the case been made that local and school spending is “out of control,” the amendment makes it virtually impossible for any local government to ever again pass, by a vote of the people, any tax increases. This proposal to devastate local government financing comes despite the fact that local governments and school districts in Ohio have been cutting back, rather than increasing spending. For instance, in Ohio, on January 1, 2005, there were fewer full-time police officers and firefighters than there were on September 11, 2001. If voters approve the TEL, the prospects of voters throughout Ohio having the last say on whether they wish to increase the size of their safety forces or the quality of their school district diminishes. Rather than enhancing the voters’ right to rein in government taxing and spending, the TEL proposes to subject the vote of the people to a devilish competition with the non-voter. In this scheme, so foreign to American Democracy, all local tax levies for schools, police, mental health or any other local tax levy, a majority is defined as the majority of those registered in the local jurisdiction, not a majority of those voting. Should 4000 voters show up and unanimously vote for a school or police levy, the levy would fail, if, say there are 10,000 registered voters in the district or city. For a levy to pass in such a district, it would take a majority of those registered to vote for the levy, i.e. 5001 voters. Having a result of 4000-0 on Election Night would mean the levy fails. Local Government Fund. Under the proposal, there is a guaranteed Local Government Fund that receives 5% of the state’s aggregate state expenditures. Those expenditures include every dime the state gets from taxes, licenses, permits, fees and sales, according to the proposal. Thus, all taxes, including gas taxes, licenses, including fishing, hunting and driver’s licenses, permits, fees, such as those paid to the state Supreme Court, the Ohio EPA and tuition paid to every state university and college, or sales, such as Ohio State Football tickets and television revenue and state park lodge hotel rooms will, apparently, be subject to a 5% tax to pay for the new Local Government Fund. Though this might be more money, once all the court suits, questioning what’s in and what’s out, are settled, the new LGF would include more partners. The new fund wipes away all local government fund formulas and opens the whole thing up to the General Assembly passing a new formula. With that formula in place, each Ohio county is given a proportionate share of the local government fund to hand out “to one or more, but not necessarily all, political subdivisions in that county.” However, while there is no guarantee than any city or village will ever see a dime of this new LGF, school districts, mental health agencies, regional planning agencies, conservancy districts, libraries, hospitals and “any other taxing district of the state which is directly supported by tax funds” are eligible for LGF dollars. Constitutional Preeminence. “In any case of conflict between any provision of this section and any other provision contained in this constitution, the provisions of this section shall control.” Unlike the founders of our state and nation, the supporters of the TEL amendment evidently believe that all the rights and rules in the current Ohio Constitution are valid only if, when passed through the prism of the TEL, they prove to be not in conflict with the TEL. Thus, earmarking gas taxes for highway use only might have been a good idea once, with the TEL in place, part of those taxes must be set aside for the undetermined uses of the new Local Government Fund. While guaranteeing that a thorough system of schools be adequately funded might have been a keen idea in the past, TEL would, instead, try to guarantee that not too much money is spent on schools or anything else. While the Constitution today might define a “majority” in one way for all elections, the TEL would redefine a “majority” for local tax issues in a totally new way and be right. All that is embodied in the Ohio Constitution, from debt limits to the right to bear arms to Home Rule, are but quaint, out-of-date concepts unless they successfully pass through the light of the TEL. The TEL is a Constitutional amendment that would place itself above and superior to all other provisions of our current Constitution. The TEL goes on to say, as if it is more scriptural than democratic, any future tinkering with it, just the sort of thing democratic societies do, would result in an automatic repeal of the entire TEL. So the TEL is not subject to amendment, unless the voters are warned that any amendment to the TEL or any amendment to any other part of the Constitution that “might” conflict with the TEL would result in the repeal of the entire TEL amendment. So much for the fallibility of human thought. The League urges a “NO” vote on the TEL amendment, which is currently scheduled for a statewide vote in November, 2006. |
