Campaign finance reports filed with Secretary of State Jon Husted on Thursday show:
• Building a Better Ohio, the GOP- and business-backed group in favor of Issue 2, raised $7.6 million and has spent $5.97 million through mid-October.
• We Are Ohio, the Democrat- and labor-backed group campaigning against Issue 2, raised $30.5 million and spent $19.75 million through Oct. 20. Those figures include money reported in July.
Senate Bill 5, the controversial collective bargaining reform package, will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot as Issue 2. A yes vote is to enact the bill into law. A no vote is to defeat the bill.
SB 5 would outlaw strikes by Ohio’s 360,000 public employees, impose a merit-pay system and require workers to pay at least 15 percent toward their health care costs.
It would also let management impose its last offer as a contract if the two sides reach impasse, eliminate fees paid to unions, and give management sole authority over shift assignments, teacher-student ratios, minimum staffing in prisons, police cars and firehouses.
Building a Better Ohio’s political action committee reported receiving all its money from Building a Better Ohio Inc., a nonprofit that is not required to disclose its donors or expenditures to Husted’s office.
The campaign voluntarily released a list of companies, organizations and individuals that donated but did not provide addresses, employers or amounts. The public cannot determine if a donor contributed $10 or $1 million.
“There is no context to it. The reason we want contributor information is we want to be able to understand their economic interests, to connect the dots,” Turcer said.
Fifty-one organizations contributed, including the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Owens Corning, Ohio Automobile Dealers Association, Ohio Farm Bureau, Motorists Mutual Insurance, The Andersons, and Jones Day law firm. Motorists Insurance and The Andersons reported in separate filings that they each contributed $50,000 to Building a Better Ohio.
Outside, independent groups also helped Building a Better Ohio, including Alliance for America’s Future. The GOP-friendly nonprofit spent millions of dollars to mail millions of fliers to voters, urging a yes vote on Issue 2.
Most of the money raised by We Are Ohio between mid-July and Oct. 20 came from unions, which contributed $18.6 million of the $19 million in cash and 98.8 percent of the $4.6 million in in-kind help. Roughly $5 million in cash came from the national offices of labor organizations.
The single largest chunk of cash came from the Ohio Education Association, which also pitched in $487,160 in in-kind assistance. The teacher’s union assessed $54 in fees on active members to raise nearly $5 million for the effort against Issue 2.
It wasn’t just big checks rolling in to We Are Ohio. The group received contributions from more than 7,100 individuals whose average donation was $46. It also raked in donations from more than 200 unions, including local chapters from across the country.
The most money ever raised for a state issue was the 2009 effort to build four casinos in Ohio.
Gambling interests alone spent more than $47 million that year. Combined, both sides raised nearly $61 million.
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