Committee Hears Proponents for Bill to Bar ‘Release Time’ Paid by Taxpayers

Chair Manchester convened the Senate Government Oversight and Reform Committee and called up Senate Bill 8 for a second hearing.

Hannah Cubbins, legislative director for Americans for Prosperity Ohio, testified in favor of the bill, saying the measure “prohibits the practice of release time,” which she described as government employees being “released from the jobs they were hired to do and instead conduct business for their respective organized labor unions while still receiving their full salary and benefits paid for by the taxpayers.”

Cubbins told the committee the bill “does nothing to change the ability for public employees to join unions and participate in union functions,” and that it “merely clarifies that the cost of such membership and representation should be borne by those who voluntarily give their support to organized labor operations rather than…