Government of Ohio | |
|---|---|
 Logo of the Ohioan government .svg) | |
| Polity type | Presidential republic Federated state |
| Constitution | Constitution of Ohio |
| Legislative branch | |
| Name | General Assembly |
| Type | Bicameral |
| Meeting place | Ohio Statehouse |
| Upper house | |
| Name | Senate |
| Presiding officer | Rob McColley,President |
| Lower house | |
| Name | House of Representatives |
| Presiding officer | Matt Huffman,Speaker |
| Executive branch | |
| Head of state andgovernment | |
| Title | Governor |
| Currently | Mike DeWine |
| Appointer | Election |
| Cabinet | |
| Name | Cabinet |
| Leader | Governor |
| Deputy leader | Lieutenant Governor |
| Headquarters | Ohio Statehouse |
| Judicial branch | |
| Name | Judiciary of Ohio |
| Courts | Courts of Ohio |
| Supreme Court | |
| Chief judge | Sharon Kennedy |
| Seat | Thomas J. Moyer Ohio Judicial Center,Columbus |
Thegovernment of the U.S. state ofOhio consists of the executive,[1] judicial,[2] and legislative[3] branches. Its basic structure is set forth in theConstitution andlaw of Ohio.
The daily administration of the state’s laws are carried out by sixelected statewide officials; the chief executive theGovernor, and their second in command theLieutenant Governor, theSecretary of State, theAttorney General, theState Treasurer, theState Auditor, and by the staff and employees of the executive branch agencies.
All are elected statewide for four-year terms, all on a partisan ballot, with theGovernor andLieutenant Governor elected on a single ticket.
The state government is primarily organized into several cabinet or administrative departments:[4][5]
Notices and proposed rules are published in theRegister of Ohio,[6] which are codified in theOhio Administrative Code (OAC).[7][8]
The legislative branch, theOhio General Assembly, is made up of two houses: theSenate and theHouse of Representatives. The House of Representatives is composed of 99 members elected from single-member districts of equal population. Each of the 33 senate districts is formed by combining three house districts. Senators serve four-year staggered terms and representatives serve two-year terms. The General Assembly, with the approval of the Governor, draws the U.S. congressional district lines for Ohio's 15 seats in theUnited States House of Representatives. TheOhio Apportionment Board draws state legislative district lines in Ohio.
In order to be enacted into law, a bill must be adopted by both houses of the General Assembly and signed by the Governor. If the Governor vetoes a bill, the General Assembly can override the veto with a three-fifths supermajority of both houses. A bill will also become a law if the Governor fails to sign or veto it within 10 days of its being presented. Thesession laws are published in the officialLaws of Ohio.[9] These in turn have beencodified in theOhio Revised Code.[10]
The judicial branch is headed by theOhio Supreme Court, which has one chief justice and six associate justices, each elected to staggered six-year terms.
There are several other levels of elected judiciary in the Ohio court system:
Judges in Ohio are generally elected, except for the Court of Claims, for which judges sit by assignment of the chief justice. When there are temporary vacancies in elected judgeships, those vacancies are also filled by assignment by the chief justice.
There are also several levels of local government in Ohio:counties, municipalities (cities andvillages),townships, special districts and school districts.
Ohio is divided into 88 counties.[11] Ohio law defines a structure for county government, although they may adopt charters for home rule.[12][13]Summit County[12] andCuyahoga County[14] have chosen an alternate form of government. The other counties have a government with a three-member board of county commissioners,[15] a sheriff,[16] coroner,[17] auditor,[18] treasurer,[19] clerk of the court of common pleas[20] prosecutor,[21] engineer,[22] and recorder.[23]
There are two kinds of incorporated municipalities, 251 cities and 681 villages.[12][24][25] If a municipality has five thousand or more residents as of the lastUnited States Census it is a city, otherwise it is a village.[12][26] Municipalities have full home rule powers, may adopt a charter, ordinances and resolutions for self-government.[27] Each municipality chooses its own form of government, but most have elected mayors and city councils or city commissions. City governments provide much more extensive services than county governments, such as police forces and paid (as opposed to volunteer) fire departments.
The entire area of the state is encompassed by townships.[12] When the boundaries of a township are coterminous with the boundaries of a city or village, the township ceases to exist as a separate government (called apaper township).[12] Townships are governed by a three-member board of township trustees.[12] Townships may have limited home rule powers.[28]
There are more than 600 city, local, and exempted village school districts providing K-12 education in Ohio, as well as about four dozen joint vocation school districts which are separate from the K-12 districts. Each city school district, local school district, or exempted village school district is governed by an elected board of education.[12] A school district previously under state supervision (municipal school district) may be governed by a board whose members either are elected or appointed by the mayor of the municipality containing the greatest portion of the district's area.[12]
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