In 1992, Ohioans passed several constitutional amendments limiting a politician’s ability to serve either eight years or two consecutive terms in office.

These amendments were designed to ensure that politicians would be more in tune with the people they serve; what John Green described to the Columbus Dispatch as “citizen legislators.” Green is the director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron.

Gone are the days of one person being a career politician for one elected office. Now, many people can run for offices and not feel the pressure of running against a politician who has served in the same position for 30 years.

Term limits enable the legislature to be more diverse and accepting of people who have a passion for public service but do not want to be career politicians. Because of term limits, lawmakers who want to be career politicians can face financial difficulties after they reach their term limit.

In recent years, some lawmakers have began to seek alternative income in preparation for these limits.

According to a May 9 Dispatch article, 57 of 132 Ohio lawmakers earned a minimum of $10,000 in 2004 from jobs other than their elected offices. Of these 57 lawmakers, 17 had an income source that topped $100,000. Or, in the case of Rep. Michelle G. Schneider, R-Cincinnati, a reported minimum total income of $544,000.

Allowing lawmakers to have both an elected position and a separate job can create conflicts of interest that could taint the legislative process. However, this is only a small hurdle to overcome for the price of having a more diverse legislature.

According to the Dispatch article, Tony Bledsoe, the legislative inspector general, said he is asked several times a week by lawmakers to offer an opinion on whether they should abstain from voting on certain legislature because of perceived conflicts of interest. Though this causes problems, The Lantern believes it is only a small inconvenience.

In a perfect world Ohio could pay lawmakers better. But because Ohio cannot, expecting lawmakers to not secure their own futures is absurd.

Until Ohio can pay lawmakers more money or rid the state of term limits – which we oppose – dealing with reasonable conflicts of interests is the best solution.

Though there are questions into whether all lawmakers are abstaining from issues that can be seen as conflicts of interests, it would be unfair to say that all lawmakers are not doing their jobs appropriately.

The Lantern supports lawmakers who want to secure financial success for themselves as long as legislative bodies adopt stringent rules that drastically punish individuals who knowingly participate in events that are conflicts of interests. These would include persons such as Schneider, who operates a nursing home and sits on the House Finance Committee, that calculates the formula that Ohio uses to annually pay nursing homes and Rep. James Aslanides, chairman of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, who according to the Dispatch article, earned between $37,000 and $95,000 last year from dealings with the oil and gas industry.