Ohio Bill To Privatize Government Information, Services

An Ohio state legislator last month reintroduced legislation to force taxpayers to pay companies for services and information that taxpayers already receive more efficiently and cheaply directly through the government. An anti-government conservative group, the American Legislative Exchange Council, originally drafted the legislation and saw it introduced in at least five states in 2003. It previously failed in Ohio. The Electronic Government Services Act, introduced as H.B. 188 in the current session of the Ohio General Assembly, could require state agencies to stop providing hunting, sport fishing and business licenses and re-using inexpensive furniture in government offices if private companies are trying to sell similar services. The proposal would limit access to important information held by government if two or more private companies were providing similar services or information. It would limit government information only to those who could afford to pay. In the legislature's last session the bill passed through the Ohio House of Representatives. It was attached to the state Senate's budget bill before being pulled at the last minute after drawing public criticism from many groups and the community, including the Ohio Public Interest Research Group and a scathing editorial in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. When the legislation was originally introduced two years ago, a number of good-government groups denounced the legislation in a letter to Bill Harris (R), chairman of the Ohio Senate's Finance and Financial Institutions committee, because it would "undermine one of the most fundamental tenets of American democracy -- that public access to legal and government information is the bedrock of our society and crucial to the ability of citizens to participate in their government."
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