To the editor:
Ohio's democracy is built on its state constitution. As a small business owner, I believe it's too easy for special interests to change our constitution. That's why I support Issue 1 in the Aug. 8 special election.
Ohio is in a substantial minority of states that allow the direct amendment of its constitution directly by voters. And the process is so simple that our constitution has been amended 170 times in 172 years. Issue 1 would raise the standards by which Ohio's constitution could be altered. Rather than passing with a simple majority on a statewide ballot, future amendments would require a 60 percent majority of the vote, effective immediately. This threshold is substantially less than the 75 percent of states necessary to amend the U.S. Constitution.
In addition, Issue 1 would require at least 5 percent of eligible voters in every county to sign a petition before a proposed amendment would appear on the ballot beginning on Jan. 1. Currently petitions require voter signatures from only one-half of Ohio's counties.
Supporters of Issue 1 include a host of business organizations representing a cross-section of Ohio's economy. These include the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Ohio Farm Bureau, the Ohio Hotel and Lodging Association, Associated Builders and Contractors, the Ohio Restaurant Association, the Ohio Pork Council and my association, the National Federation of Independent Business, for which I serve as the chair of the NFIB's Ohio Leadership Council, an advisory panel of small business owners like me -- I am the managing partner of Albert Macre Certified Public Accountants in Steubenville.
I believe the current process for amending Ohio's constitution makes it too easy for special interests to impose anti-business policies and advance their own agendas outside the ordinary legislative process. For example, there's currently an effort to increase the state minimum wage and eliminate the tipped wage even though the vast majority of Ohio's businesses already offer starting pay well above the minimum wage.
Our focus should be on growing Ohio's economy. That means safeguarding Ohio's constitution from frivolous and short-sighted amendments that would create new problems rather than eliminate existing ones. Put simply, if a proposed state constitutional amendment is going to impact all 11.8 million Ohioans, then it should have the broad-based support of a super-majority of voters and grassroot support in all of Ohio's counties.
The commonsense reforms laid out in Issue 1 would lead to more deliberate amendments going forward and ensure that any changes to our state constitution have broad, bipartisan voter support, not just that of special interest groups.
Albert F. Macre
Steubenville