COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A newly released report attributes initiatives to limit collective bargaining, require citizens to present identification to cast ballots, privatize prisons and diminish public education through private school voucher programs and tax credits in Ohio to the efforts of a conservative group pursuing such proposals in other states.
The report, released Monday by People For the American Way Foundation, Common Cause, the Center for Media and Democracy and ProgressOhio, shows the "deep ties" between the American Legislative Exchange Council and Ohio's legislature. Through a side-by-side comparison of ALEC legislative models and actual Ohio bills, the report, ALEC in Ohio: The Corporate Special Interests that Help Write Ohio's Laws, shows how Ohio's legislators are working in tandem with corporate leaders to deregulate key industries, privatize education and dismantle unions, the liberal advocacy groups say.
ALEC's website states its mission as advancing "the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty, through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America's state legislators, members of the private sector, the federal government, and general public." The group reportedly is funded by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers.
"It's appalling to find out just how large a role corporate special interests play in writing Ohio's laws," said Brian Rothenberg, executive director of ProgressOhio. "ALEC and their Ohio legislators are well aware how outraged the public would be, which is why the entire operation is cloaked in secrecy."
The report, the advocacy groups said, "demonstrates ALEC's policy-making influence with an in-depth analysis of the organization's ties to key Ohio lawmakers, as well as a side-by-side comparison of nine ALEC 'model' bills and actual Ohio legislation." These include what they characterize as "attacks on workers" and, among other initiatives, severe limits on collective bargaining. Last fall, Ohio voters overwhelmingly rejected limits on collective bargaining enacted by the Legislature and signed into law by Kasich.
Ohio's working families "have no appetite for such politically motivated attacks" as represented by Senate Bill 5, the bill that contained the collective bargaining changes, said Tim Burga, Ohio AFL-CIO president. "Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the continued push for such laws is coming from out-of-state, corporate-funded groups that seek to impose an extreme agenda on Ohioans by trying to divide working families," he said.
"A vast majority of Republican legislators in Ohio are card-carrying members of ALEC and Gov. Kasich has been involved with the organization since its formation," he added. "Likewise, it comes as no surprise that ALEC's fingerprints are on many of the laws that this General Assembly has introduced and, in some cases, signed into law, such as S.B .5." He called on all Ohio legislators to cut their ties with ALEC and for the governor and General Assembly to take their cues "from those they are elected to serve."
Other initiatives include outsourcing and privatizing of government functions, "diminishing public education" through voucher programs to benefit private schools and "voter suppression bills designed to disenfranchise thousands of eligible Americans." They also include "draconian" anti-immigrant measures, barriers to consumers and injured parties seeking justice from corporations in court, and measures to prevent the implementation of health-care reform.
The Brennan Center for Justice reported that 34 states introduced voter ID bills in 2011, of which seven passed. The center estimates that these changes, in addition to restrictions on voter registration and early voting could affect more than five million people in the 2012 election. More than 21 million individuals, or 11% of U.S. citizens, do not currently possess a government-issued photo ID. During 2010, the 22 firms on ALEC's private enterprise board put nearly $7.6 million into campaigns in 12 states in which legislators later enacted bills to toughen voter identification requirements.
"A bill to require a picture ID to vote was nothing more than a solution in search of a problem," said Pat Clifford, an organizer for Common Cause in Ohio. "We knew immediately that the effort did not originate in Ohio, and that ALEC was pushing it from behind the scenes."
"Under a shroud of secrecy, ALEC provides wealthy corporations a voice and a vote at our lawmakers' table," said Marge Baker, executive vice president at People For the American Way Foundation. "These special interests are drowning out the voices of the citizens of Ohio and Americans across the country. As a result, ordinary people are suffering from policies that transfer the public's resources into a few private hands and leave American citizens in the dust."
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.