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Ohio's House Bill 33 took months to come to the public's attention, having been sneaked into a nearly 6,200-page budget bill where only those who knew about it and knew where to look for it would find it.
There can be no more perfect argument for the need to repeal HB 33 than the public's lack of awareness of state government's efforts to hide its work.
As summarized by the Public Notice Resource Center, HB 33 "allows municipalities to publish many or most of their notices on their own websites and social media feeds or on the Ohio News Media Association's statewide public notice website, instead of publishing them in local newspapers or legal journals." In other words, it allows municipalities to do as was done with HB 33 itself -- indulge in sleight of hand with the public's information to keep it hidden until it is too late.
Given lawmakers eagerness to gain this foothold, Ohioans can't help but wonder how much more ground they are hoping to win. It started with municipalities. How many other levels of government will be given a pass to conduct the public's business … out of sight of the public?
"Sneaking controversial, non-germane provisions into a humongous spending bill at the last minute is an opaque tactic practiced by many legislatures to bypass opposition to controversial measures," the PNRC wrote in a report on HB 33.
It should come as no surprise, as elected officials repeatedly demonstrate their desire to curate what information is given to the public. But should responsible lawmakers fail to address the significant problems with HB 33, voters will have to wonder: What are they hoping to hide?