Wednesday, May 10, 2006
TEL Proponents Now Seem to Agree, Universities Covered
Recently in a May 9, 2006 OSU Lantern story, Gene Pierce spokesperson for Citizens for Tax Reform, acknowledges for the first time that public universities are covered by the TEL. He says, "Too often what happens is that people are bulldozed by public administration and don't have the means to get people's attention. So, what this does is it gives the individual the ability to take a university to court if they believe the university is not adhering to the rules and the laws of the state."
Mr. Pierce is referring to one section of the amendment that creates legal standing for anybody to sue any state or local governmental entity for not complying with the TEL amendment. In effect, he is saying that the TEL amendment does then apply to public universities.
Previously TEL proponents have claimed in their written materials (http://www.kenblackwell.com/media/pdf/tel-thetruth.pdf) that TEL spending limits don’t apply to public universities. So either Mr. Pierce is suggesting that only certain parts of the amendment applies to public universities or Citizens for Tax Repeal has finally come to understand what the amendment actually says.
The Coalition for Ohio’s Future, the main group opposing the amendment, has maintained from the beginning that state universities are covered by the amendment. Why is that? It’s because that’s what the amendment actually says.
Section 14 (F) of the amendment is the definition section of the proposed amendment, it is where the authors defined who was to be covered by the TEL. In Section 14 (F) (E) of the amendment they define State to mean “the state government, including any branch, state office, authority, agency, board, commission, institution, instrumentality or any other unit of state government which is directly supported with tax fund.”
The word instrumentality is important in this instance because Ohio Revised Code Section 4115.31 defines colleges and universities as state instrumentalities.
So there you have it, the Ohio Revised Code defines colleges and state universities as “instrumentalities”, and the TEL amendment includes “instrumentalities” in its definition of the “State”, and then includes the “State” among those entities covered by the TEL amendment.
In short, in the case of constitutional amendments, words matter, definitions matter, and state colleges and universities are covered by the proposed amendment. Case closed.
Mr. Pierce is referring to one section of the amendment that creates legal standing for anybody to sue any state or local governmental entity for not complying with the TEL amendment. In effect, he is saying that the TEL amendment does then apply to public universities.
Previously TEL proponents have claimed in their written materials (http://www.kenblackwell.com/media/pdf/tel-thetruth.pdf) that TEL spending limits don’t apply to public universities. So either Mr. Pierce is suggesting that only certain parts of the amendment applies to public universities or Citizens for Tax Repeal has finally come to understand what the amendment actually says.
The Coalition for Ohio’s Future, the main group opposing the amendment, has maintained from the beginning that state universities are covered by the amendment. Why is that? It’s because that’s what the amendment actually says.
Section 14 (F) of the amendment is the definition section of the proposed amendment, it is where the authors defined who was to be covered by the TEL. In Section 14 (F) (E) of the amendment they define State to mean “the state government, including any branch, state office, authority, agency, board, commission, institution, instrumentality or any other unit of state government which is directly supported with tax fund.”
The word instrumentality is important in this instance because Ohio Revised Code Section 4115.31 defines colleges and universities as state instrumentalities.
So there you have it, the Ohio Revised Code defines colleges and state universities as “instrumentalities”, and the TEL amendment includes “instrumentalities” in its definition of the “State”, and then includes the “State” among those entities covered by the TEL amendment.
In short, in the case of constitutional amendments, words matter, definitions matter, and state colleges and universities are covered by the proposed amendment. Case closed.
