State Auditor David Yost says he wants to make it harder to amend Ohio's constitution through ballot initiatives that provide economic benefits to few individuals or create monopolies.
Yost testified Thursday before a state panel about his ideas to curb such amendments from getting through Ohio's ballot initiative process. Yost's testimony follows the opening of four voter-approved casinos and efforts to legalize marijuana. Two proposed constitutional amendments to legalize marijuana would designate grow sites around the state. Yost told a committee of the Constitutional Modernization Commission that such initiatives limit competition and supply, while allowing the privileged few to profit from their constitutional status. He says he believes Ohio has seen its initiative process taken over by special interests in recent years.
