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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 few 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 fix -- even better, repeal -- HB 33 than the public's extended lack of awareness of state government's work to lengthen the shadows in which it hides.
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 to undo the damage.
Given lawmakers eagerness to gain this foothold without being caught, 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 business in service to themselves rather than to the people in their schools, communities, counties and the state as a whole?
"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 the public knows about their work. But should responsible lawmakers fail to address the significant problems with HB 33, voters will have no choice but to wonder: What are they hoping to hide?