| First and Ten and the Governor has the ball |
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| Written by Jeff Garvas | |
| Wednesday, 06 December 2006 | |
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December 5th marked Day 1 after Governor Bob Taft officially "received" House Bill 347. Despite intense news coverage an immediate veto didn't happen. He now has ten days, not including Sunday, to make a decision or the Act will pass without his signature. The Ohio Constitution gives the Governor three options including signing the Act into law, vetoing it and sending it back to the Ohio House, or he can do nothing through December 15th when it will pass without his signature. The law would go into effect ninety days later in March. Should the Governor Veto the bill, which is expected at this point, the House would need sixty votes (3/5ths) to override that veto. With 74 original yes votes and others who were absent we believe the House has the votes to override Governor Taft. We can not become complacent and we must continue to call our Representatives. The Ohio Senate needs twenty votes to do the same. They passed HB347 by a 19-10 vote with four people absent, two of which we believe would have voted for HB347. Our biggest concerns are in the Ohio Senate. Please focus your phone calls asking for HB347 support to every Senator and the Governor Phone numbers for every Senator can be found in this story When calling the Governor's office we want to stress support for the bill and ask him to let it become law without his signature or veto it promptly. The more time we have to get the necessary votes to override the better and session ends the week after the 15th. (we'll have three days) When you're done calling, please get everyone you know who is remotely interested in this issue to call members of the Ohio Senate and then the Governor's office. Get your friends and family to help us get our point across to the legislature that all we want for Christmas is statewide preemption! |