Government of Ohio - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The government of the state of Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

comprises three branches executive, legislative, and judicial. Its basic structure is set forth in the Ohio Constitution

Ohio Constitution

The Ohio Constitution is the basic governing document of the State of Ohio, which in 1803 became the 17th state to join the United States of America. Ohio has had two constitutions since statehood was granted....

Executive Branch

The executive branch of Ohio government comprises six officers elected statewide for four-year terms, all on a partisan ballot:

Governor and lieutenant governor
Lieutenant Governor of Ohio
The position of lieutenant governor of Ohio was established in 1852. The lieutenant governor becomes governor if the governor resigns, dies in office or is removed by impeachment. Before 1852, the president of the Ohio State Senate would serve as acting governor if a vacancy in the governorship...

, elected jointly on a single ticket
- The governor appoints a cabinet
  Cabinet of the Governor of Ohio
  The statutes of the State of Ohio have established 26 departments of government which are responsible to the Governor. These departments are led by the Director, or in some cases the Commissioner, who must inform and assist the governor in the operation of the state...
  
  whose members direct a number of state regulatory agencies.
Secretary of state
Ohio Secretary of State
The Secretary of State is responsible for overseeing elections in the State of Ohio. The Secretary of State also is responsible for registering business entities and granting them the authority to do business within the state, registering secured transactions, and granting access to public...
Attorney general
Ohio Attorney General
The Ohio Attorney General is the chief legal officer of the State of Ohio in the United States. The office is filled by general election, held every four years. The Ohio Attorney General is Mike DeWine.-History:...
Auditor
Ohio State Auditor
The Ohio State Auditor is responsible for auditing all the public offices of the state of Ohio. The auditor is elected to a four-year term. The current Auditor is Dave Yost....
Treasurer
Ohio State Treasurer
-List of Ohio State Treasurers:...

Legislative Branch

The legislative branch, the Ohio General Assembly

Ohio General Assembly

The Ohio General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio. It consists of the 99-member Ohio House of Representatives and the 33-member Ohio Senate...

, is made up of two houses: the senate and the house of representatives

Ohio House of Representatives

The Ohio House of Representatives is the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio; the other house of the bicameral legislature being the Ohio Senate....

. 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.

In order to be enacted into law, a bill must be adopted by both houses of the assembly and signed by the governor. If the governor vetoes a bill, the 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.

The Legislative Service Commission is one of several legislative agencies. It serves as a source for legal expertise and staffing. The commission drafts proposed legislation.

In addition to the General Assembly, laws in Ohio may be enacted through the initiative

Initiative

In political science, an initiative is a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote...

process.

Judicial Branch

The judicial branch is headed by the 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:

State court of claims
Ohio Court of Claims
The Ohio Court of Claims is a court of limited, state-wide jurisdiction. The court's jurisdiction extends to matters in which:#the State of Ohio is a party, and#the state has waived its sovereign immunity by statute....

, which has jurisdiction over all civil actions against the State of Ohio in situations in which the state has waived its sovereign immunity
Sovereign immunity
Sovereign immunity, or crown immunity, is a legal doctrine by which the sovereign or state cannot commit a legal wrong and is immune from civil suit or criminal prosecution....

.
State courts of appeal (12 district appeals courts): These are the intermediate appellate courts.
County courts of common pleas: 88 county common pleas courts These are the principal courts of first instance for civil and criminal matters. In populous areas, there are often several divisions, such as general, juvenile, probate, and domestic relations.
Municipal courts and county courts these court primarily handle minor matters, such as traffic adjudication and other misdemeanor and small claims.

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.

Apportionment

The General Assembly, with the approval of the governor, draws the U.S. congressional district lines for Ohio's 18 seats in the United States House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

. The Ohio Apportionment Board

Ohio Apportionment Board

The Ohio Apportionment Board is an administrative body which draws the single-member legislative districts for the Ohio General Assembly every ten years following the census...

draws state legislative district lines in Ohio.

State Board of Education

The Ohio Department of Education is run by the Ohio State Board of Education

Ohio State Board of Education

The Ohio Department of Education is the state education agency of Ohio, headquartered in Columbus. The Ohio State Board of Education is the governing body of the department....

, which has 11 elected members and eight appointed members. The state is divided into 11 districts by combining three contiguous Ohio Senate districts. The governor appoints eight members. All serve four year terms. The elected members' terms are staggered so that half of the board is elected in each even-numbered year. Vacancies in the elected membership are filled by appointment by the governor. The chairman of the Ohio House of Representatives

Ohio House of Representatives

Education Committee and his or her counterpart in the Ohio State Senate are ex officio members. The board employs a Superintendent of Public Instruction, who runs the Ohio Department of Education.

Local government

There are also several levels of local government in Ohio. Elections for county officials are held in even-numbered years, while elections for officials in the municipalities, townships, and local boards of education are held in odd-numbered years.

County Government

Ohio is divided into 88 counties. Ohio law defines a structure for county government, although each county may choose to define its own. Summit County

Summit County, Ohio

Summit County is an urban county located in the state of Ohio, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 542,899. In the 2010 Census the population was 541,781. Its county seat is Akron...

and Cuyahoga County

Cuyahoga County, Ohio

Cuyahoga County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. It is the most populous county in Ohio; as of the 2010 census, the population was 1,280,122. Its county seat is Cleveland. Cuyahoga County is part of Greater Cleveland, a metropolitan area, and Northeast Ohio, a...

have chosen an alternate structure, while all of the other counties have a structure that includes the following elected officers:

Three county commissioners (the County Board of Commissioners)
County sheriff: The highest law enforcement officer in the county. Many cities and villages, and even some townships, have their own police forces which take over the sheriff's patrolling and response duties in their own areas, but the sheriff remains responsible for the remaining areas of the county. In some counties with large municipalities, the sheriff may have no patrolling and response duties, but the sheriff remains responsible for running the county jail, and acting as an officer of the local courts (serving warrants, transporting prisoners, acting as bailiff, etc.)
County coroner: Responsible for determining the cause of death in suspicious circumstances. Is the only person in the county with the authority to arrest the sheriff.
County auditor
County treasurer
County clerk of courts
County prosecutor: The equivalent of a district attorney in other states. The prosecutor is charged with acting on behalf of the state in criminal matters and also acts as the county government's legal counsel. In rural areas, the elected prosecutor may choose to take a reduced salary and act as a "part-time" prosecutor. In such cases, the prosecutor may offer private legal services, but only in non-criminal matters.
County engineer
County recorder: Keeps records of changes in title of real property within the county.

Municipal Government

In Ohio, there are two kinds of incorporated municipalities, cities and villages. If a municipality has five thousand or more residents as of the last federal census it is a city, otherwise it is a village. 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 professional (as opposed to volunteer) fire departments. Additional municipal services are often financed by local income taxes that townships cannot impose except in a Joint Economic Development District

Joint Economic Development District

A Joint Economic Development District is an arrangement in Ohio where one or more municipalities and a township agree to work together to develop township land for commercial or industrial purposes. The benefit to the municipality is that they get a portion of the taxes levied in the JEDD without...

with a municipality. Not all municipalities levy income taxes; those that do range from 0.3% in the Village of Indian Hill

Indian Hill, Ohio

The Village of Indian Hill is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and an affluent suburb of the Greater Cincinnati area. The population was 5,907 at the 2000 census. Prior to 1970, Indian Hill was incorporated as a village, but under Ohio law became designated as a city once its...

to 3.0% in Parma Heights

Parma Heights, Ohio

There are seven council members serving at large. Every two years there is an election. Four positions are open. The top three candidates are each elected for a four-year term. The fourth candidate is awarded a two-year term.[Effective January 2008]...

http://das.ohio.gov/hrd//localtax.html.

Township Government

The territory of each county is divided into townships

Township (United States)

A township in the United States is a small geographic area. Townships range in size from 6 to 54 square miles , with being the norm.The term is used in three ways....

. There are more than 1,000 townships in Ohio, ranging from the very small with only a few hundred inhabitants (e.g. Washington in Warren County

Washington Township, Warren County, Ohio

Washington Township is one of the eleven townships of Warren County, Ohio, United States. Located in the east central part of the county, it is the only one of the eleven that does not contain a municipality...

) to gigantic townships with tens of thousands of residents and bigger than most cities of the state (e.g. Colerain

Colerain Township, Hamilton County, Ohio

Colerain Township is one of the twelve townships of Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The 2000 census found 60,144 people in the township, more than in any other township in Ohio.-Geography:...

and West Chester

West Chester Township, Butler County, Ohio

West Chester Township, formerly known as Union Township, is a township located in the southeast corner of Butler County in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio, one of thirteen townships in the county. It is situated between Sharonville and Monroe, about 18 miles north of Cincinnati, and...

). All land in Ohio is nominally part of some township. However, in many cases, a municipal government has chosen to withdraw from the township as a governmental jurisdiction, by establishing a paper township

Paper township

A paper township is a type of civil township under Ohio law that does not act as a functioning unit of civil government. Such townships usually exist due to annexation by cities and villages.-Defunct townships:...

coextensive with the municipality. As a result, there are many townships that do not exist as functioning legal jurisdictions (e.g. City of Cincinnati

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

is in Millcreek Township but does not exist separately).

Townships have four elected officials: A three member board of trustees and a clerk. All are elected to four-year terms in non-partisan elections.

Local Boards of Education

There are more than 600 city, local, and exempted village school districts providing K-12 education in Ohio. The borders of the school district do not strictly follow county, township, or municipal borders. A school district can exist in multiple townships, municipalities, or counties. Each school district is headed by an elected board of education which has direct authority over the local schools and appoints the local superintendent of schools. There are also about four dozen joint vocation school districts which are separate from the K-12 districts. Although most tax-financed schools are funded through property taxes, districts may also impose income taxes http://das.ohio.gov/hrd//localtax.html, which are up to 1.75% of earned income.

In 1914, the Ohio General Assembly created county boards of education to provide support services to local school districts. Subsequently, in 1995 the county boards of education were renamed Educational Service Centers and allowed to merge with neighboring ESCs to form regional agencies. Each ESC is supervised by a locally elected governing board and headed by a superintendent. The majority of each ESC's operating funds are generated from fees paid by school districts which contract with the ESC to provide services http://www.oesca.org/vnews/display.v/SEC/About%20OESCA.