GOVERNOR VETOES SENATE BILL 4
COLUMBUS (December 12, 2003) - Governor Bob Taft today vetoed Amended Substitute Senate Bill 4. Please see following veto message.
VETO MESSAGE
STATEMENT OF THE REASONS FOR THE VETO OF
AMENDED SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 4
DECEMBER 12, 2003
Pursuant to Article II, Section 16 of the Ohio Constitution, which states that
the Governor may disapprove any bill, I hereby disapprove of this act and set
forth below the reasons for so doing.
Amended Substitute Senate Bill 4 (SB 4) would enact the recommendations of the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (MR/DD) Victims of Crime Task Force formed at my direction in April 2002. The task force's charge was to make recommendations with regard to the investigation and prosecution of crimes perpetrated against mentally retarded and disabled people. The task force took its charge seriously and worked for more than a year to make recommendations to further protect our vulnerable MR/DD population.
The task force recommendations, later to be embodied in SB 4, would improve coordination and communication between local agencies and county boards of MR/DD; ensure thorough reviews of deaths of individuals with MR/DD; strengthen protective services for individuals with MR/DD and Ohio's MR/DD abuser registry; and toughen criminal statutes.
On January 16, 2003, I stood with Senate President White and Speaker Householder to announce our joint legislative priorities for the 125th General Assembly. We agreed to support legislation that would enact the MR/DD Victims of Crime Task Force's recommendations. Legislative leaders shortly thereafter determined that SB 4 would be the vehicle for this enactment.
I commend Senator Bob Spada, the bill's sponsor, and Representative Jeff Wagner, the House sponsor, for their leadership in taking up the cause of MR/DD crime victims and their families. Their work on behalf of these vulnerable citizens should not be overshadowed by my veto of this otherwise important legislation.
Unfortunately, unrelated amendments were added to SB 4 which will interfere with my ability as Governor to balance the state's budget and which will also disrupt the orderly process of closing the Springview and Apple Creek Development Centers. These provisions would interfere with the substantial progress already made to transfer residents from these facilities to other developmental centers where their care will be provided in the same way, or, if they so chose, to move into a community setting.
Senate Bill 4 would prohibit the Governor from ordering the closure of a developmental center until the Legislative Service Commission has performed an independent study and a MR/DD Developmental Center Closure Commission has provided a report and recommendation. These processes, when added to the 90-day effective day delay, would prohibit any action to close an MR/DD developmental center for a minimum of nine months. This would undermine my ability to manage within the budget and could raise false hopes for remaining residents and their families.
In February of this year, we announced our intention to close the Springview and Apple Creek Development Centers. Prior to selecting these two facilities for closure, the Department of MR/DD performed the same kind of thorough review that is called for by the revised version of SB 4. The Department considered all 12 developmental centers and examined such factors as operating costs, amount of un-reimbursed costs, capital needs, demand for admissions, and proximity to other centers. After very careful consideration, it was determined that Springview would close in 2005 and Apple Creek in 2006.
These developmental center closures were accounted for in our FY 2004-2005 budget. The net savings from closing these two facilities is $2.38 million for the current biennium and $20.7 million for the next biennium. Our ability to balance the state's budget relies, in part, on these savings.
Since the February closure announcement the Department of MR/DD has worked closely with families to develop transition plans. Fifty residents have already transitioned out of either Springview or Apple Creek, and for most of these facilities' residents, family decisions have already been made to move residents to another developmental center, another public or private intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded, or into community settings with the proper support. To further delay these already difficult decisions would disrupt this process and would be an added burden on these residents and their families.
Furthermore, closing these facilities is consistent with my Administration's overall policy goal of caring for vulnerable citizens - not in institutions, but in the least restrictive (community) settings. The State is scheduled to go to trial in January 2004 in the Martin v. Taft case, a 14-year-old class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of persons with MR/DD seeking to move from institutions into community settings.
It is unfortunate that the inclusion of facility closure language in SB 4 leaves me no choice but to veto the bill. I strongly urge the General Assembly to pass another bill that includes only the task force's recommendations and to send such a bill to my desk at the earliest possible date in the new year.
For these reasons, I am vetoing Amended Substitute Senate Bill 4.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto subscribed my name and caused the Great
Seal of the State of Ohio to be affixed at Columbus, this 12th day of December
in the year Two Thousand and Three.
________________________
Bob Taft
Governor
This will acknowledge my receipt of a copy of this Veto message of Amended Substitute
Senate Bill 4 that was disapproved by Governor Bob Taft on December 12th, 2003.
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Name and Title of Officer
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Date and Time of Receipt
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Contact: Orest Holubec, press secretary, at (614) 644-0957.