CLICK HERE to view Ohio Auditor Keith Faber’s video about the dos and don’ts of using public money in campaigning

The number of public complaints to the Ohio Auditor’s Office about tax money being improperly spent on campaign or election issues routinely increases around this time of year, according to Ohio Auditor Keith Faber.

Those complaints typically address things like school districts or government entities using public money or resources to promote tax levy campaigns.

This is such an important issue, and one that I think often is misunderstood or even widely accepted as “no big deal,” or “common,” that I wanted to address it here today – especially since this year’s primary election is quickly approaching.

“It is illegal in Ohio to use any government resources or government money to advocate either for or against a candidate, for or against a ballot initiative, for or against a levy,” Faber told our politics reporter David Skolnick last week. “Put it another way, you can’t put yard signs on school property. You can’t use school personnel during school time to promote the levy. You can’t use school resources to print your levy materials. You can’t use school resources to send out emails or phone bank” to “promote a levy.”

While Faber acknowledges these types of mistakes are “generally inadvertent,” they still cannot be dismissed as permissible.

Faber, in fact, is so aware of the problem of broad misunderstanding of the law that last week he released a YouTube video explaining the basic ins and outs of the law.

“You cannot campaign or influence the outcome of a levy or bond issue using tax dollars,” Faber said.

Here are some of the items Faber outlined in his video and via a press release he sent last week to media across the state.

• Public money should not be used to support or oppose the passage of a levy or bond issue. This includes compensating employees for time spent on influencing the outcome of a bond or levy.

• Information that supports or opposes the outcome of a levy should not be published by the entity or posted on official social media accounts.

• The entity cannot spend money to create and send home political subdivision sponsored levy-related communications that support or oppose the passage of a levy.

• Employees cannot speak at levy committee meetings during regularly paid work hours if they are advocating for a preferred outcome.

• A levy committee is not allowed to use its subdivision’s resources, such as equipment and supplies, free of charge. The committee must pay for the usage, and the committee with the opposite position shall have the same opportunity.

• Public funds should not be used to support or oppose the nomination or election of a candidate for public office.

• Public funds should not be used to support a particular campaign committee or fund, political action committee, political party or candidate.

Of course, all the details are more specifically spelled out in Ohio law under Ohio Revised Code Section 9.03.

On the other hand, what are allowable expenditures of public money, according to that ORC section, are things like publishing and distributing newsletters to communicate information about plans, policies or operations of the political subdivision to constituents or people affected by the political subdivision, so long as it’s not defamatory, obscene, discriminatory or libelous, and it does not promote alcohol or tobacco products, or anything that’s illegal. It also may not take a position on labor organizations or actions, and, of course, campaign issues, including the supporting or opposing of any election issue or candidate, including the incumbent, or passage of a levy or bond issue.

It also may not take a position on the possible recall of an official.

And, while public employees or officials may not be compensated with public money for any time spent working on a campaign or election issue, they may, of course, do so on their own time.

blinert@tribtoday.com