Millions to Benefit from Repeal of Ohio SB-5

With less than three weeks until the Nov. 8 election, the fight to repeal Ohio Senate Bill 5 (SB-5) is gathering momentum. Enacted in March by the Republican-led legislature, SB-5 sharply limits collective bargaining rights for public employees, including police, firefighters and teachers.

“If enacted by voters, [SB-5] will impact more than 180,000 school teachers and another 123,000 school district workers, 30,000 cops and firefighters, 57,000 state workers and more than 300,000 general government employees,” reports the Dayton Daily News on just how far-reaching SB-5 is. “The new law has the potential to impact 11 million Ohioans who pay taxes to operate 3,700 different government jurisdictions across the state.”

The SB-5 Veto Referendum, also called Issue 2, will appear on the ballot thanks to workers across the state who went door-to-door gathering more than 1.3 million signatures, a million more than needed to put the measure on the ballot.

“The public sees Senate Bill 5 for what it really is,” said Ohio Senate Minority Leader Capri Cafaro, “a highly-political assault on the rights of middle-class workers.”

“We Are Ohio, the group behind the effort to place the proposed repeal on the ballot, states: “Instead of creating jobs to fix our economy, politicians like Gov. Kasich gave away hundreds of millions in corporate tax breaks – draining our state budget without creating jobs – and passed flawed laws like SB-5 to pay back their campaign donors. Teachers, nurses, firefighters are not the reason Ohio’s budget is in trouble. Big corporations, their high-paid lobbyists and the politicians they fund are blaming middle class Ohioans for a problem they caused.”

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