Senate Passes Resolution Protecting Ohio Constitution

COLUMBUS—State Senator Bill Reineke (R-Tiffin) announced that this week the Ohio Senate passed a resolution to protect the Ohio Constitution from well-funded special interest groups.

Senate Joint Resolution 2 proposes a constitutional amendment, that would, if approved by Ohio voters, raise the threshold for future constitutional amendments to 60% while preserving the ability for the voters to enact a statute with a 50% vote. The resolution places the issue on the ballot during an August 8th special election.

"The Constitution is not designed as a policy document. The process to amend it should be more difficult than what is used for statute," Reineke said. "In the interest of good governance, the threshold for changing our founding document should be 60%."

Ohio is one of only 17 states to permit petition-initiated amendments to their state constitution and one of the only ones not to have additional requirements outside a simple majority. Under current law, only a simple majority (50% plus one vote) is required to adopt constitutional amendments.

The Senate also approved Senate Bill 92, which establishes and provides the necessary funding for conducting the one-time special election on August 8th and permits future uses of August special elections for additional, narrowly-defined purposes.

Both Senate Joint Resolution 2 and Senate Bill 92 now move to the House for consideration.