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Joe
Uecker
State
Representative
12/18/06
Mad Rush to End of Year
Well I thought that two weeks ago I experienced the
busiest three days of my life. Yes, even those days after
my wife gave birth to our four children, busy though they
were, these were even busier. And just when I thought it
could not get much worse, it did. Last week held the
absolute busiest three days of my life. Why? Because these
last couple of weeks were the last that anyone from the
126th General Assembly could get any bill
passed. Only a handful of bills were going to see a
Governor’s signature but there was quite a race to see
which ones those would be. As fate would turn, four of my
bills were in the race. I certainly did not mean for
this to happen, fate just turned fickle. I expect two of
them to actually get signed.
The “race” included running back and forth between
committees where I was supposed to give sponsor testimony
or supporting testimony. Unfortunately, all the
committees that my bills were in happened to be meeting at
pretty much the same time. This took a lot of
coordination with the various committee staff and my
Aide. After giving a floor speech and passing one bill on
the House floor (yea!), I had to rush over to a Senate
Committee to give sponsor testimony on another bill, all
while the House was still in session.
To the credit of a lot of good people helping out, Senator
Tom Niehaus included, one particular bill, House Bill 251,
the State’s Energy Efficiency Bill, passed both the House
and the Senate and is waiting the Governor’s signature.
This was the first bill that House Leadership asked me to
sponsor and manage through the process of becoming law.
This bill marks Ohio’s first official Energy Policy and
mandates the State’s use of energy efficient design and
products in the millions of dollars it spends each year on
construction and operations.
Another bill that has a good chance of becoming law is an
omnibus (collection of many parts) bill for the Ohio
Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). This bill helped
clean up the decades of old laws with out-dated language
and helps ODNR operate more efficiently. This bill will
also increase the fees that open surface aggregate mine
operators (gravel pits) must pay into a special fund that
is used to reclaim and clean up lands in areas of the
State where past strip mine operators destroyed the
landscape then went “out of business”. This is so we the
taxpayers don’t have to pay for it ourselves. This bill
is currently in Senator Tom Niehaus’ Natural Resource
Committee. Senator Niehaus is considering adding pieces of
other pending bills to make this good law even better for
the citizens of Ohio.
Lastly, as I have said frequently, about 90% of my time in
Columbus is working on education related topics.
Similarly, a high percentage of these last two weeks has
been spent on the issue of The Ohio Core. This is the
concept being considered for adoption into law that will
require all Ohio High School seniors to have a certain
number of math and science credits in order to be eligible
to enter an Ohio state sponsored college. This new
curriculum of rigorous study will better prepare our
graduating high school students for entrance into
college. While it is being questioned and condemned by
our high school staff and administration’s, it is being
hailed as a guiding light for the future by area business
leaders, college presidents, and most curiously, our local
vocational school directors. Since I am still gathering
facts and information for a possible vote in a few days,
I’ll let you know later how and why I voted the way I did.
By the way, if you get a chance, check out my website for
the “Watchdog of the Treasury Award” that I received from
the United Conservatives of Ohio.
As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or
comments about any item in this article, please give me a
call or drop me a line.
Joe
Uecker
State
Representative
Ohio’s
66 District
Representing
Batavia, Goshen, Miami and Union Townships as well as the
Cities of Loveland and Milford and the Villages of Batavia
and Amelia.
Columbus Phone:
614-466-8134
Email:
Joe@JoeUecker.com
Website:
http://JoeUecker.com |
