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01/30/2015

What’s up with sales taxes, charter schools and body cameras?

Dennis Hetzel Executive DirectorBy Dennis Hetzel, Executive Director

Those of us who get paid to pay attention to state politics are anxiously awaiting Monday, and you should be, too.

That’s when Gov. John Kasich will release his two-year budget, and we’ll find out if really bad ideas like the expansion of the sales tax to services such as advertising will make return appearances.  The governor already has dropped hints about income tax cuts, small business tax breaks and other items in the budget, but the administration has not completely described how they are going to pay for these things.

It’s just as true today as it was in 2013: A sales tax on advertising would be devastating to ONA members and many others in our communities. It’s a job killer that also lowers consumer demand and hasn’t worked in any state that has tried it. From small weeklies to the largest dailies, ONA members are unanimous in believing no cut in the state income tax or any other new tax break will make up for the impact of taxing the fundamental relationships we have with our advertising partners. 

Sales tax expansion to services also will mean new expenses for every ONA member if the same approach from 2013 returns in 2015.

So, if you see a “legislative alert” from us in your email inbox early next week that probably will mean the news isn’t good.

There also are a number of items beginning to take shape in the areas of open records and open meetings. We are working on a comprehensive document on priorities that we will share soon.

A modestly encouraging sign is House Bill 2, which was just introduced this week, to improve administration and transparency of charter schools. This has been a thorn in the side of many members for a long time. We often hear complaints from education reporters about the difficulty of getting information on how tax dollars are being spent by these schools.

A quick look at HB 2 tells me the bill doesn’t go far enough to help citizens know how tax dollars are being spent, and we will be working with legislators to improve it.

Another issue I will write a fuller column about in the future is the increased use of body cameras by police agencies.

We believe that the video shot by these cameras is presumptively open under Ohio law.  The early drafts of police policies we are seeing are disturbing, and probably illegal, leaving release of body camera footage to the discretion of the police chief. This should be unacceptable for reasons I don’t have to explain to ONA members.

On the other hand, we have to agree that body cameras raise new levels of potential intrusion into problematic situations in which people would rightfully expect privacy.

We don’t have all the answers, but it seems obvious that access to body camera footage is a public records battle waiting to happen.  We welcome your feedback as we prepare our positions.

 

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