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> As we wrote earlier this month, the Ohio Senate approved a version of the budget containing an amendment that would have forced existing municipal broadband s
by threatofrain 5y ago
> As we wrote earlier this month, the Ohio Senate approved a version of the budget containing an amendment that would have forced existing municipal broadband services to shut down and prevented the formation of new public networks. The proposed law was reportedly "inserted without prior public discussion," and no state senator publicly sponsored the amendment.
> It was approved in a party-line vote as Democrats opposed the restrictions in municipal broadband.
- CameronNemo 5y agoHow can an amendment get proposed without a legislator publicly sponsoring it? That is insanity.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dvtrn 5y agoBallot initiatives are one way it happens in some states. A means for the population to ask their legislators to enact a law or statute absent the legislature making such a proposal on their own.
- kissickas 5y agoThis is an amendment to a bill.
- dvtrn 5y agoI’m aware of that. I was answering the question that was asked, not intimating this was the way it happened in Ohio.
- ummonk 5y agoThe question was "How can an amendment get proposed without a legislator publicly sponsoring it?". You did not answer that question.
- dvtrn 5y agohttps://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/initiative-referendum-and-recall-overview.aspx https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/initia...
- IncRnd 5y agoSorry. That's different kind of amendment. I don't think you've read what people have written to you. You are misunderstanding the subject of "amendment to a bill". PS Intimating is the wrong word. I think you meant infer instead of imply.
- perl4ever 5y ago>You are misunderstanding the subject of "amendment to a bill" Probably. >PS Intimating is the wrong word. I think you meant infer instead of imply. ...no, I don't think they did? They denied implying anything about Ohio. Incidentally, it seems like the usage of both imply and intimate in this way comes from about the same time, ~1580s.
- emodendroket 5y agoIt seems pretty obvious, in this context, that he's referring to this specific instance, and not a completely different scenario where there's popular support enough to get through a ballot question.
- adamcstephens 5y agoThe only ballot initiative we have in Ohio is constitutional amendments, which is a pretty blunt instrument.
- bluejekyll 5y agoI had the same question, I found this site to try and answer it: https://legislature.ohio.gov/publications/rules-of-the-senate https://legislature.ohio.gov/publications/rules-of-the-senat... I read everything that mentions amendments, and it appears that they either must come out of committees, or be sponsored by a single senator. It looks like the Clerk would know who sponsored an amendment. Though, I'm not sure how this plays in, but at least one of the rules specifically says, "This rule does not apply to the President Pro Tempore, the Majority Floor Leader, the Minority Leader, or the Assistant Minority Leader of the Senate," in regards to limits on number of amendments to a bill. My guess is that it's not "anonymous" in the sense that no-one knows who added it, but that it's not "transparent", i.e. came out of a committee or was put in by one of the leaders (above) in the Senate. I'm sure they know who added it, the question is do they have to tell anyone (they should have to for government transparency).
- cat199 5y agoseems like a clear case where version controlling & signing changes to draft legislation would be useful
- TeeMassive 5y agoAs a Canadian I've always found it weird (and worrisome to some extent) that the two dominating political parties in America go all the way up from the Presidency to all the way down to municipal politics. I mean the term "conservative mayor" is pretty much unheard of in terms of party lines.
- ur-whale 5y agoIf only that was the only weird thing about American politics.
- ramraj07 5y agoAll fine and dandy but you do see the irony of a Canadian showing American problems with legislation affecting broadBand speeds right? Canada has one of the shittiest broadband scenes of any developed country! And it probably ties directly to the systemic problems Canada faces, just like the US and every other country does. No place is heaven, only that most developed countries put in sufficient social nets before the internet came so they're more livable than the US.
- pbourke 5y ago> I mean the term "conservative mayor" is pretty much unheard of in terms of party lines. Is that true? The current mayor of Toronto was the leader of the Ontario PC party.
- TeeMassive 5y agoYes, he can be conservative as in the political philosophy, but not in the sense of being a member of the Conservative Party of Canada.