What is the Role of the State Legislature?

1. What is the Role of the State Legislature? How are state legislatures organized? What powers do state legislatures have? How can citizens influence state government? How are state governments financed?

2. During the first 100 years of the nation, states were mostly rural with small populations. As a result, demands placed on state governments were low. The legislators were regular citizens (farmers, lawyers, and business people) who would leave their jobs for a few weeks each year to attend legislative sessions.

3. Growth of cities, populations, and industries lead to increased state responsibilities and more demands placed on legislators. Currently, most state lawmakers are full time politicians who have studied political science, law, or public administration.

4. Basic qualifications for officials: • Must be US citizens. • Most state senators serve 4 year terms while representatives serve for 2 years. • Live in the state and district they represent • Minimum age of 21 for representatives and 25 for senators* • Some states have lowered ages to 18 and 21

5. Basic Organization: All states except Nebraska have two houses: an upper house (senate) and a lower house (house of representatives) although sometimes called the assembly, general assembly, or house of delegates.

6. Basic Organization: • Like Congress, the upper house has a smaller number of members. However, the proportion of representatives found in the lower house varies. EXAMPLE: The lower house of New Hampshire has 400 members to serve a population of 1.2 million. California has a house of 80 members representing a population of 33 million.

7. Representation: Seats in state legislatures are apportioned or divided among districts on the basis of equal representation. Prior to Reynolds v. Sims (1964), apportionment was based on geography- often resulting in on person representing a few hundred people in rural areas with another individual representing thousands in a large city.

8. From 2002-2012, Ohio is divided into 99 House of Representative districts. The Senate District map is comprised of 33 districts with a population of 630,730 represented in each. Every ten years, the district maps are redrawn based on the United States Census.

9. Making Laws Just as in the federal government, the purpose of the state legislature is to create laws. Similar to the process in Congress, bills are introduced, discussed in committees, debated on the floor, and approved by both houses before the governor can approve it.

10. A major difference between law making in Congress and that in state legislatures is the power or voice citizens have. In the early 1900’s, “Progressives” pushed to “return government to the people” by giving state citizens more power through initiative.

11. In 24 states, this process allows citizens to gather signatures of registered voters on a petition in support of a new law. When enough (usually 5-10% of registered voters) have signed the petition, it is put on the ballot in a statewide election. If the voters approve, it becomes a law.

12. A second way is through a referendum. This allows citizens to approve or reject a a law proposed or passed by the state legislature. Example: Ohio’s rejection of Issue 2 (originally H.B. 5) *Both initiative and referendum are critical, as it gives power directly to the citizens. If enough people believe a law is needed or a bad law should be rejected, the people can have a direct say.

13. A third power given to state citizens is the power to recall, or remove elected officials from office. If people believe an elected official is not doing a good job, they can start a petition to have a recall election. In the election, if majority of voters agree with the recall, the elected official must leave office.