Ohio Governor Strickland, Senator Sherrod Brown and the SEIU President called a surprise press conference at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday September 4 to announce the withdrawal of the Ohio Healthy Families Act from the November ballot. The original proponents of the measure filed the Notice to Withdraw the Ohio Health Families Act Ballot Initiative (Issue 4) with the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office, officially requesting the withdrawal of their ballot initiative from the November Ohio General Election Ballot.

The Ohio Secretary of State has processed the withdrawal and notified the Ohio Ballot Board. According to the SEIU’s President, it was decided to pull the issue from the ballot to avoid an inevitable costly and highly contentious ballot campaign this fall.

Bricker & Eckler will continue to monitor the federal version of the Healthy Families Act, H.R. 1542, which contains many of the same provisions in the Ohio Healthy Families Act, including mandating that certain employers provide 7 paid sick days for full-time employees and a pro-rated amount for certain part-time employees.

Ohter issues on the November 2008 Ohio statewide ballot

Please contact Jim Petrie at 614.227.2373 or jpetrie@bricker.com or Betsy Swift at 614.227.8850 or bswift@bricker.com, with any questions.