The spirit of bipartisanship lives on at the Statehouse. It just needs more nurturing: editorial

On the same day last week when Republicans and Democrats came together in the Ohio House to pass, unanimously, an overdue measure ensuring female inmates in Ohio prisons and jails dignity during menstruation, including free menstrual products and daily showers, another bipartisan measure also sailed out of the House on a 91-0 vote.

 
House Bill 131 - co-sponsored by state Reps. Kevin Miller, a Newark Republican, and Bride Rose Sweeney, a Westlake Democrat - bars the imposition of ticket-writing or arrest quotas on police officers in Ohio.

The bill literally zoomed through the House, from its Feb. 24 introduction to unanimous passage barely three months later -- showing that bipartisanship can be a powerful force for change at the Statehouse, despite Republicans’ overall dominance.

 
 
“Passing this legislation would give Ohioans confidence that their police force is looking out for their best interest and issuing tickets for the sole purpose of furthering public safety – not to meet an arbitrary ticket quota or generate additional revenue for the city, Miller and Sweeney argued in their sponsor testimony.

 
 
The House agreed without a single dissenting vote.

 
Part of the secret sauce of bipartisanship are lawmakers open to compromise. Kevin Miller was also co-sponsor, with Democrat Joe Miller of Amherst, of House Bill 44 providing more hiring and promotion flexibility to police departments, which sailed out of the House last month on a 95-1 vote. And Bride Rose Sweeney was a key driving force behind 2021’s bipartisan Fair School Funding plan, introduced with Republican Jamie Callender of Lake County.

 
 
State Rep. Sean Patrick Brennan, a Parma Democrat, is another who’s willing to do the groundwork to find bipartisan legislative partners. The latest example is House Bill 265, introduced last month by Brennan with co-primary sponsor Republican Tex Fischer of Mahoning County to fill a regulatory vacuum that can leave submetered utility customers vulnerable to exploitation. The bill has already attracted an equal number of Democratic and Republican co-sponsors.

 
 
Let’s keep this spirit of bipartisanship going, Columbus!