Ohio voters: statewide ballot issues

Great Debates
1

From my brother-in-law, a politically savvy lawyer, with his permission, and with some minor editing of my own. FWIW, I agree with him on these…

This deals only with the first five issues on the ballot, some of which are very confusing and misleading. The real nature of some of these issues are buried so deep that you’d never be able to figure it out in the polling booth. These are just my thoughts.

ISSUE 1 [vote NO]: Change the workers compensation laws, again.
This referendum would allow a number of already existing laws to actually be enforced, and most of them are bad for workers (such as reducing certain types of compensation from 200 to 52 weeks, reduce the time period that a claim remains open, and making it much harder to reopen a claim due to pre-existing injuries). Overall, this seems to have more bad than good in it, and why are we having to vote on this at all? Isn’t this why we have a state legislature in the first place?

Because this issue will appear very long and confusing on the ballot, it will probably be defeated by a large margin anyway. Ohio voters hate voting for anything complicated. If the issue said something simple like: “To pass a law requiring injured workers to lie in their own filth and never get a penny for their injuries because it was probably their fault anyway” – well, that would probably pass by wide margin.

ISSUE 2 [vote YES]: Raise the minimum wage to $6.85 per hour.
We are at a 50-year low in the actual purchasing power of the minimum wage, and it is about time to make some adjustments. Nineteen states have raised the minimum wage above the current federal level of $5.15, and ten of them have raised it to over $7.00. It is time for Ohio to step in line and make the minimum wage a meaningful wage. Given how seldom it is that this issue ever comes up for a vote, it’s probably now or wait another 20 years. The federal government does not want to fix this problem, and the states have to take charge.

ISSUE 3 [vote NO]: The “smoke and mirrors"? gambling amendment.
This one really makes me mad. It is a constitutional amendment to legalize gambling, and yet, all the advertising about makes it seem like an educational funding amendment. It is about getting Ohio into the gambling industry, and the amendment would create a gambling monopoly. You can bet that nary a penny of gambling revenue would ever go to education. Oh yeah, the amendment says that gambling revenue would also be exempt from state and local taxes. Big surprise there, huh. And the supposed high school scholarships that are the big selling point would only last for 12 years!!! After that, the money goes back to the casinos. And of course, the casinos get to ultimately decide how much “revenue” they are taking in. How can this kind of thing even be on our ballot at all?!?!?

ISSUE 4 [vote NO]: The evil tobacco industry smoking amendment.
This is also a horrible amendment which basically makes public smoking a constitutional right that can’t be challenged on any local or regional level in Ohio, and immediately overturns any city no-smoking ordinances. This is bad all around, and was drafted by the tobacco industry, so you’ll probably develop cancer if you vote for it.

ISSUE 5 [vote YES]: The real no-smoking legislative initiative.
This is the no-smoking law supported by the American Lung Assoc., Amer. Heart Assoc., the Ohio Health Commissioners Assoc., the Ohio Hospital Assoc., the Ohio State Medical Assoc., the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and hundreds of supporting organizations to create smoke-free public places and workplaces in the state of Ohio. [Note: for your vote to be truly effective, you have to vote NO on Issue 4, and YES on Issue 5. Vote properly on both issues.]

Agree? Disagree? Let 'er rip.

2

I’m not debating, just asking for quick clarification. You say that this is the no-smoking law to create smoke-free public places and workplaces. What extent would this law go to? I ask because there are actually groups at two colleges (at least) in the tristate area (ky, wv, and oh) that are saying these laws should extend to completely ban the sale of any tobacco. I don’t imagine this is such an extremist move, but would this law ban smoking in all public places in the state, or only some? I just ask because of curiousity, I really have no dog in this fight…just one of the issues I am less informed about.

Brendon

3

WC in Ohio is the biggest mess I’ve ever seen. Employees should be treated and compensated when they are injured on the job. They shouldn’t be treated (by BWC) and compensated when they aren’t injured, or when their injuries have nothing to do with the job.

My company, for example, has to pay money into BWC because an employee quit, then was diagnosed with hyperthyroid. Then he filed a BWC claim for the hyperthryroid. Now, he’s not collecting on it. It was rejected by the BWC. But even so, money is put into a fund (a reserve) in case it later turns out to be true, and it goes against our experience rating.

We have another former employee who sprained his ankle four years ago. He has never gone back to work. His wife sprained her knee three years ago. She has never gone back to work (she didn’t work for us).

Another employee claimed to have hurt his back. Doctors could find nothing wrong. He went to a chiropractor. The chiropractor said that he was horribly injured and needed chiropractic treatment 3 times a week. He went occasionally, never showed up for any BWC rehab, and refused any potential jobs. BWC continued to pay him until we offered a settlement. He ended up with approximately $40,000 in BWC payments for an injury that had no medical documentation.

I have no quarrel with ODJFS, EPA, IRS, OSHA, or any other government agency. But the BWC needs razed and completely rebuilt. Throw in the incredible mismanagement of money and it’s just bullshit.

Yes to minimum wage increase. No to anything that makes any company tax free, especially casinos. No to protecting smoking. I don’t know to 5.

4

I worked on the 2004 Columbus smoking ban and lived in Ohio for most of my life. Here is a link from one of the groups advocating a yes vote on issue 5. During the Columbus smoking ban campaign, the tobacco lobby was throwing around similar outrageous claims such as you can be arrested for having a pack of cigs while you’re in a bar.

5

Here’s the relevant ballot language:

Seems pretty damn extreme to me, but YMMV.

6

His actions aside, an injury isn’t always detectable by doctors. I was injured in a car accident and my back has never been right since. I live in pain, but there’s no way to prove it. I have that vague diagnosis of “soft tissue damage” which not even an MRI can detect.

Again, I’m playing devil’s advocate. I went to a chirpractor for about three months. It did me no good so I stopped going. (And yes, the chiropractor had diagnosed my back as being mangled in medically useless jargon.) I also went through two rounds of rehab (over 50 visits, actually). I got no results.

I’m not saying this is the case here, but I can say that the hopelessness settles in after a while and makes you say, “Why bother? Nothing helps. I’m spending all this time trudging from appointment to appointment for nothing.”

As for refusing jobs, well, again, there could be a legitimate reason. There isn’t much work I could do without pain.* Leaning over a desk hurts. Standing for long periods hurts. Lifting things hurts. Reaching for things hurts. Bending hurts. Just about the only thing that doesn’t hurt is lying down.

I work anyway. Yeah, I could go off on disability, but I don’t want to. I like working, so I grin and bear it. But I will say that if I were a bit worse, I probably wouldn’t.

7

Then how can it be detectable by a chiropractor?

I don’t want people who are legitimately hurt to get screwed over. But there should be more to it than “My back hurts” for someone to get money.

Karma is a bitch, however. He went hunting with his kid, who then shot him. Okay, it was only a flesh wound, but since he claimed he couldn’t even walk, it was funny.

Yeah, I’m mean.

Both his brother and his next door neighbor were willing to testify to BWC that he was faking. The brother claimed that he told him it was a fake. The BWC said it didn’t matter, and that even if we had video evidence it wouldn’t change anything.

8

While the tobacco lobby may have thrown around ridiculous threat/claims and all before, I was told about the “tobacco illegal idea” by a person in a group that is working for that goal…

I have heard about several others.
As I said, I have no dog in that fight, I was just asking clarification. I found a couple decent resources for ohio issues though. Specifically, here .

Brendon

9

Beats the hell out of me. I have a report from my chiropractor which I gave to both my PCP and my attorney. It uses a lot of complicated jargon which both of them say is meaningless. We won’t be calling him as a witness when my case goes to court.

I getcha. The problem is that any sort of rules or laws to this effect WOULD screw over people like me. There’s no way around it. Should we deny an ailment exists simply because our technology isn’t able to detect it?

10

We should withhold any money until there is proof. It’s not denying the ailment exists; it’s denying that there is any proof. On a message board, I can afford to believe you. In the world of BWC, I can’t afford to hand money to anyone who claims to be hurt on the job without a shred of proof. No other agency would allow someone to collect money without evidence.

11

Lissa, I’ve been thinking about your question and I’m going to start a new GD topic on it. I hope you’ll chime in.

12

I agree with almost all of your OP, Elendil’s Heir except the part about smoking.

I still can’t understand why a man who owns a bar and grill isn’t allowed to decide for himself whether he wants smoking there and let the market back him up or close him down.