How new Ohio laws affect you

By 

Jim Siegel

The Columbus Dispatch

Sunday June 24, 2012 11:02 AM

State lawmakers have been an active bunch.

In the previous two-year session, a politically divided government set a modern record for
legislative inactivity, passing just 58 bills. This session, with an aggressive agenda from Gov.
John Kasich’s office and now-solid GOP majorities in the House and Senate, the legislature so far
has passed about 150 bills.

There was serious partisan fighting over issues including collective bargaining, election laws
and the drawing of new legislative and congressional districts. But Senate President Tom Niehaus
highlights that 80 percent of the nearly 200 bills that passed his chamber got at least one
Democratic vote. The Senate has 23 Republicans and 10 Democrats.

The House, which has 59 Republicans and 40 Democrats, passed 65 House-sponsored bills since
March, 75 percent with 15 or fewer “no” votes.

“We’ve seen Democrats and Republicans standing together on landmark reforms, from the education
plan brought to us by the Democratic mayor of Cleveland to the pension reform bills,” said Niehaus,
R-New Richmond.

However, Democrats do not equate voting for some legislation with bipartisanship.

“Democrats generally have not been permitted an opportunity to meaningfully participate in the
process of crafting major pieces of legislation,

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