Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich has used his line-item-veto power to strike a provision from the state transportation budget Democrats claimed would discourage out-of-state college students from voting. Ohio Public Radio's Andy Chow reports.
The transportation budget bill doles out about $5 billion for improvement projects and other needs around the state. About $600 million will go towards local road and bridge repairs. And another $105 million is set aside for public transportation efforts.
But it was what Governor John Kasich took out of the bill that’s getting the most attention.
Previous language said: if an out-of-state college student registered to vote, then they had 30 days to get an Ohio drivers’ license and register their car in the state.
Kasich vetoed that provision—drawing applause from Democratic leaders like Cincinnati-area Representative Alicia Reece.
Reece: “With that being out it allows us to have a transportation budget to focus on jobs at the same time taking out a barrier that would impact college students.”
Kasich wouldn’t provide comment on the veto but, in a written statement included in the veto message, he said the new language could be too confusing.
Sandy Theis is with the liberal-leaning think tank consortium ProgressOhio. She says the voter registration language—which the Senate Republicans added late in the committee process—is just one in a series of efforts to make it tougher to vote.
Theis: “All the efforts we’ve seen from the Republican Legislature erect hurdles that disproportionately affect people who tend to vote Democratic. That’s wrong—it’s unconstitutional and it’s a poll tax.”
Theis says Kasich did the right thing by hearing the voice of the people and vetoing the measure.
John Fortney—the Senate Republicans’ press secretary—defends the provision. He says Democrats in the General Assembly tried to confuse the issue.
Fortney: “This has nothing to do with voting. This all started out as a driving issue and I really feel that they were not being honest with Ohioans. It’s certainly something that made a lot of headlines.”
Fortney adds that the language already exists in Ohio’s administrative code and the bill would’ve just added the same rules to Ohio’s revised code with a misdemeanor penalty attached.
Aside from the provision he vetoed—Kasich believes the transportation budget as a whole will boost economic growth by connecting businesses from around the state.
Kasich: “You’ve got to be able to move right. If you have and you have the location you’ve got to be able to move and that’s exactly what this bill does.”
The governor says the bill includes other projects and provisions to increase public safety such as better signage on the highway and increased education on the dangers of distracted driving.
Kasich: “You know we all have these cell phones and texts and you know we all forget it and you take your eyes off the road and bad things can happen and so this bill strengthens driver training—driver education—some other common sense restrictions that I think need to be in place.”
Kasich adds that there are other measures in the bill that help streamline construction projects.
