Necessary Roughness

Not knowing whether I would even be in the Eastern time zone on November 6, I took one of my daughters to the county seat and absentee voted. Among the items was a referendum on Senate Bill No. 16 (PDF), which dealt with adult entertainment.

The first bullet was mischievous enough for me to vote No (emphasis mine):

Requiring the State of Ohio to compensate local governments (townships cities and villages) who enforce local laws regulating adult entertainment establishments when those local laws have been adopted with the guidance of the Ohio Attorney General and when those laws are found unconstitutional or invalid by a court, with certain exceptions for payment of such compensation,

This puts a significant amount of power into the Attorney General’s office with little accountability. It also takes pressure off of local authorities to consider the effects of the laws they write.

Whether or not a local government’s laws are unconstitutional, that body need to pay for its effects. If SB16 is passed, a local government has the incentive to mandate a severe crackdown, have it invalidated by a court, and get paid for the crackdown. The affected businesses do not receive compensation in this bill for being victims of unconstitutional law.