By Marc Kovac
Record-Courier Capital Bureau
COLUMBUS — Sen. Tim Grendell is a fiscal conservative who regularly rails against out-of-control government spending and tax hikes.
But the Chesterland Republican plans to vote “Yes” on Issue 1, which would provide cash payments to Ohioans who have served in recent military conflicts in the Middle East. The issue would allow the state to borrow money to pay those bonuses.
“That’s why this choice is being left up to Ohioans to decide,” said Grendell, primary sponsor of the legislative resolution that put Issue 1 on the November ballot. He added, “I think it’s the right thing to do, to show that we support those who go out and defend our country.”
Issue 1 is a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the state to borrow up to $200 million to pay cash bonuses to Ohio military men and women who served in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The bonuses would cover residents who served in current conflicts in the area, plus those involved in Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s.
Veterans would be paid $100 per month, up to $1,000, for time served in those areas or $50 a month, up to $500, for those serving in the military at the time in other locations.
Families of veterans who died in action would be eligible for a $5,000 death benefit.
Similar cash bonuses have been approved by voters and paid to veterans of other wars and conflicts, dating back to World War I.
The issue was supposed to be decided by voters last year but was blocked by the then-Republican-controlled Ohio House. Instead, representatives passed a bill calling for the state to use its rainy day savings to pay for the bonuses — a move that was later vetoed by Gov. Ted Strickland.
The Democrat-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate made the veterans’ bonus issue one of their priority issues this session and adopted the resolution early in the year, paving the way for a November vote.
But during the final floor vote on the issue, Republicans who opposed it continued to voice concern about borrowing money to pay the bonuses.
“I think we dishonor them by doing what we’re proposing here today,” Rep. Gerald Stebelton, a Republican from Lancaster, said at the time. “...What we will be doing is asking for them to help pay their own bonuses... . This is not the time to be borrowing money to do this. We should have done this three months ago with the money we had in the rainy day fund.”
But Grendell said the bond issue, in this instance, is warranted.
“When it comes to recognizing those who put themselves in harms way to defend our country, I think it’s one of those times I think it’s worth doing,” he said.