Below is something I received from the Ohio Municipal League. This proposed amendment MUST be defeated. It takes local control completely away from us. For instance, if voters in SB/EP want to pass a school levy and there are 4,000 registered voters, guess what? If 2,000 vote yes, and ZERO vote no, it does not pass. It takes a majority of registerd voters to pass, not a majority of those voting.
It's somewhat long, but worth reading. A related link is:
http://www.omunileague.org/2006_Meetings/TEL/OML%20Opposes%20TEL%20Amendment.htmIn November, Ohio voters will face a proposal called the Tax Expenditure Limitation (TEL). Touted as a magic solution to end "out of control" state spending and high state taxes, this fantasy is, for the most part, a vicious attack on local services of all kinds. The proponents of this issue have made no claim that Ohioans are spending too much on police and fire services, economic development, education, services for the mentally retarded and developmentally disabled and other essential services at the local level. Yet, while the sizzle of their scheme is to cut back state government spending and taxation, the meat of their amendment puts an axe to all local government services. The proponents make their case for their amendment by faking an attack on state government fat, while really aiming the dagger of their amendment at the heart of those who, everyday, might want a firefighter at their door for an emergency or an education for their child.
This proposal caps all local government expenditures at the rate of population growth, plus the rate of the consumer price index or 3.5% per year. To exceed that cap, a local government has to go to the voters for their support annually. That support must equal a majority of all voters registered in the jurisdiction. While this proposal, on its face, may make sense to many, the details of the proposal will make sense to none.
The impact of those details will be devastating to local services, such as fire protection, police protection, education, mental health, parks and recreation, senior citizens services and the many other everyday services that are and can be only provided by local governments of all forms.
In addition, the proposal is the most anti-democratic idea on government spending and taxation to be floated, in any state of the nation, at anytime, since the founding of the United States. Unlike past repressions that sought to disenfranchise those who wanted the vote, this measure actually gives veto power to those who choose not to vote. This new definition of "majority" makes it impossible for any local government to ever exceed its expenditure cap or pass a levy for needed services. For Americans, this "new" majority is no majority, but a new dictatorship of the non-voter.
Specifically, for local governments, the TEL amendment to the Ohio Constitution would: Cap on Local Government Expenditures
• Limit local government spending for all funds (with only a few minor exceptions) to an annual rate of growth equal to the consumer price index plus the rate of population change or 3.5%.
• Allow no exceptions for utility funds, capital improvement funds, debt retirement funds, etc. Expenditures from each of these funds would compete with each other and the general fund for priority spending within the cap. Setting local priorities will become merely a process of choosing which services will be inadequate and which will be eliminated.
What impact will this have on debt financing? Since expenditures is the word used and not taxes, all revenue and mortgage revenue bonds, as well as general obligation debt will be indirectly restricted due to the cap on "aggregate political subdivisions expenditures". What will this mean? Well, it means a lot of things, including severe inability to finance capital improvements such as roads, streets, water treatment facilities, police and fire stations, city and village halls, recreation facilities and any other capital improvement. It also means that purchasers of debt issued by local governments and, perhaps, state debt as well, and the agencies that rate debt, will look at Ohio with a different view as to the credit worthiness of Ohio debt.
Imposition of an Outrageous Vote Requirement to Exceed Cap or Raise Revenue.
• Allow all local governments (counties, municipalities, townships, school districts, libraries and special districts) to exceed the spending cap only if approved by the majority of all registered voters in that local jurisdiction, not a majority of those voting on Election Day.
• Require all local tax increases to be placed before the voters and, for approval, receive the support of a majority of registered voters, voting and not voting. While local tax increases require extraordinary majorities from voters and non-voters, there is no requirement that the state seek voter approval of any kind for any tax increase. The proponents of the amendment will say, "that's not what it means". That's what it says and that's what will be in the Constitution, which cannot be "fixed" by statute.
New Local Government Fund - Empty Promise or Sham?
• Require the state to place in a new Local Government Fund (LGF) five per cent of all revenues received by the state in the form of taxes, licenses, permits, fees or sales. The amendment does not make any exceptions for revenues received by state universities or fees and taxes, such as college tuition, hunting licenses or gas taxes, that are currently earmarked for other uses. Five per cent of all state revenues must go into this fund. The funds would be proportionally sent to all counties and distributed, from there, by a formula established by the General Assembly.
• Make all local governments, including schools and special districts, eligible for some of this money. However, the TEL promises nothing to voters in municipalities, counties, townships and libraries, which have relied on LGF money to proved essential services for decades. If passed, the General Assembly, which, apparently under the TEL is no longer obligated to adequately fund schools through the state budget, given the Constitutional primacy of the TEL, could earmark all LGF money for school districts.
• Dictate that all state moneys appropriated to the LGF are subject to the state's expenditure limitation.
Mandate Relief- Probably Not Much
• Require the state to pay for all state mandates on all local governments, including schools, or the local government is not required to follow those mandates. Any money sent by the state to fund those mandates counts against the state government's expenditure limit, but not the local government's cap.
• Not define "Mandates."
The End of Local Control
• Declare that the TEL constitutional amendment has primacy over all other parts of the state constitution. Should adequate funding of schools, Home Rule or any of the fundamental Bill of Rights conflict with the TEL, those sections of the Constitution are pushed aside, as rhetorical baubles, in favor of the provisions of the TEL.
For State Government, the TEL May Be More Flexible and less Oppressive
• Limit state spending for all funds to an annual rate of growth equal to the consumer price index plus the rate of population change or 3.5%.
• Allow the state to exceed that rate of spending if the majority of Ohioans, voting on such a measure, approves such spending. Instead of needing a majority of all registered voters in Ohio like local government, the state only needs a majority of those showing up on Election Day to increase spending. Since the problem, according to the proponents of the TEL, is "out of control" state spending, why is the "majority" for "excess" state spending but a fraction of the number of votes needed to pass a local government measure of the same kind? Be sure to ask the proponents why the vote requirement is so dramatically lower for the state than for local government.
• Allow the state to approve tax increases without a vote of the people.
• Require the state to give all money left over at the end of each fiscal year to either a budget reserve fund or those who paid Ohio income taxes. Should the excess ever exceed fifteen per cent of the state's total budget, all that money must be refunded to those who paid Ohio income taxes. Those who only paid sales, gas, business or other state taxes never receive a refund.
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Unlike the Colorado TEL, which allowed local governments, through a vote of the people, to opt out of some of the more onerous restrictions in the measure, the Ohio TEL has no such option. For local governments, the Ohio TEL assumes all local governments start from the same place in their ability to fund services and should never be allowed, through the voice of those showing up at the polls, to raise the revenues necessary to add new services or increase the quality of services.
For poor communities, the TEL promises to keep you poor. For growing communities, struggling with the price of growth, the TEL promises to make that struggle impossible. For central cities, hoping to make their communities safer, the TEL makes sure that will never happen. And for all communities, the TEL guarantees that, any state LGF money you have relied upon, may soon disappear completely.
While, perhaps, some version of this amendment has merit, this TEL amendment rides on the back of stemming "out of control state spending," while, in reality, breaks the back of all local government services.
Every Constitutional Amendment must deliver with certainty on its promises or it should not be placed in the Constitution.
The TEL is just the kind of phony promises that do not belong in our Constitution.
Local control will become a concept and practice sacrificed on the alter of some draconian political agenda.
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