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Pat’s ability to build partnerships and solve problems earned the respect of his colleagues who elected him Assistant Majority Leader in 1996 and then promoted him in 1998 to Majority Leader-the third highest ranking post in the Ohio House of Representatives-even though serving as a term-limited member.On issue after issue, Pat has put common sense to work and put people and families first. Pat has sponsored legislation:
Protecting Our Children * Allow state agencies, political subdivisions, and public officers and employees to reject bids submitted by vendors who are delinquent in the payment of taxes, workers' compensation insurance premiums, unemployment compensation contributions, child support, court costs, or any other obligation discoverable in a public record. * Prohibit the conveyance or attempted conveyance, or possession of a deadly weapon or dangerous ordnance to or on a school bus, to prohibit the possession of an object that is indistinguishable from a firearm on school premises or a school bus or at any school activity. * Create the Save Our Sight Fund to support eye health and safety programs for children, to require the Registrar of Motor Vehicles and deputy registrars to request contributions, to require the Department of Health to develop informational material on eye care and safety.(Lead Co-sponsor) * Require the Registrar of Motor Vehicles to notify the Department of Education, and the Department of Education to notify the appropriate board of education of a school district when a person employed as a school bus driver violates a traffic law and has points assessed against the person's driving record.
Reforming Education * Eliminate the twelfth grade proficiency tests. * Revise the law governing the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program and to establish requirements for receipt of state funds for providing adult education services to persons sixteen years of age or older. * Establish the Education to Work demonstration project and a tax credit for employers who provide training to participants of the project, and to establish requirements for receipt of state funds for assisting an individual seeking a high school equivalence diploma.
Fighting Crime * Established the Ohio DNA Database to track violent criminals and sexual predators. * Increased penalties for those who financially exploit elderly and disabled people. * Prohibit a person from issuing or transferring or causing to be issued or transferred a counterfeit check. * If an offender is convicted of a drug trafficking or possession offense, illegal manufacture of drugs, or illegal cultivation of marijuana when the offense is a felony, the sentencing court generally must sentence the offender to a specified mandatory prison term based on the entire amount of involved controlled substances. * Establish a rebuttable presumption against bail that applies in determining whether a person charged with a capital offense is entitled under the Constitution to bail and to specify that, if the person does not rebut the presumption, the person is not entitled to bail. * Increase the maximum fine that a juvenile court may impose to $100 and to distribute fines imposed by a juvenile court to the court and the law enforcement agency that took the child into custody. * Increase the penalty for the offenses of felonious assault, aggravated assault, and assault in certain specified circumstances.
Reforming Government * Prohibit a political subdivision from requiring its employees to reside in any specific area of this state. * To increase the penalty for theft in office in all cases to a felony of the third degree. (Lead Co-sponsor) * Increase the maximum amount the Administrator of Workers' Compensation must pay for funeral expenses for firefighters, police officers, and emergency medical technicians who die from work-related injury or occupational disease.
Reforming Health Care * Provide for the internal and external review of health care coverage decisions made by a health insuring corporation and expand "fast tack" appeals process. Allows women to obtain services from an obstetrician or gynecologist without referral from her primary care physician Permits deduction from the Ohio income tax for certain medical expenses and long-term care insurance. (Lead Co-sponsor) * Authored the Ohio Long-Term Care Consumer Guide, helping Ohioans determine the best long-term care for their needs. * Allow HMO patients direct access to the doctors of their choice. * Establish the Adaptive Equipment Review Committee to review denials under the Medicaid Program of adaptive equipment for certain Medicaid recipients and to make other changes to the law governing the Medicaid Program. * Memorializing Congress to amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to enable Ohio and the other states to enact health care reform that provides citizens with access to affordable and quality health care and to implement any federal health care reform enacted by Congress.
Leading the Fight to Bring Civil Justice Reform to Ohio * Author of the effort to bring common-sense legal reform to Ohio’s civil justice system.
Reforming Burdensome Taxes &Providing Incentives for Personal Growth * Granted a personal income tax deduction for investment earnings and capital gains on Ohio Corporations’ stock. * Authorized a deduction from the personal income tax for charitable contributions. * Exempted small and moderately sized estates from the estate tax or be subject to a reduced tax. * Excluded from the state’s adjusted gross income certain interest or dividends from deposits in financial institutions. * Removed a limitation on a person’s right to hold the assets in, and the payments from, an IRA exempt from execution, garnishment, or attachment.
Reducing the Power and Influence of the Federal Government * Petitioned the Congress of the United States to adopt an amendment to the Constitution to require that the federal budget be balanced. * Memorialized Congress to return any motor vehicle taxes to the states and request Congress to consider eliminating or restructuring any duplicative or inefficient federal highway-related agency. * Petitioned Congress to propose an amendment to the Constitution to grant the President line-item veto. * Petitioned Congress to enact federal legislation to abolish the current federal tax code. * Petitioned Congress to strengthen the oversight authority of the Postal Rate Commission in order to prevent the United States Postal Service from unfairly competing with private taxpaying businesses. |
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Paid for and Copyright by Tiberi 2000, John and Karen Kasich, Co-Chairmen
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