Contact Info for The Columbus Dispatch:
letters@cd.columbus.oh.us
FAX: COLUMBUS DISPATCH COLUMBUS OH 16146210708;

Gov. George V. Voinovich yesterday signed without comment
a pair of hot potatoes bills bailing out
financiallytroubled Central State University through June
and repealing a state law that allows marijuana to be
used for medical purposes.

Senate Bill 6 funnels $ 10.3 million to Central State to
keep it operating for the rest of the school year and
forgives repayment of a $ 1.5 million state loan to the
1,700student institution at Wilberforce, near Dayton.
Sponsored by Sen. Merle G. Kearns, RSpringfield, the bill
also sets up an early warning system, effective June 20,
designed to prevent all state universities from falling
into the red in the future.

The Central State appropriation will be administered by
a representative of the state Office of Budget and
Management sent to the campus to oversee fiscal operations
of the university, now estimated to be $ 15 million to $ 20
million in debt.

The longterm fate of the university is still being
debated in the legislature. The House, in passing the
199899 budget yesterday, tucked $ 28 million in a special
escrow fund to await a Senate decision on whether the
institution should continue to be independent or be
attached to another university.

The new law creates an oversight committee to warn the
Ohio Board of Regents if one of the 13 statesupported
universities faces a fiscal problem.

The committee will include the state auditor, director
of the Office of Budget and Management, four top members of
the Ohio House and Senate finance committees and
representatives of fouryear and twoyear universities and
colleges. Upon determination of a ''fiscal watch,'' the
governor will be empowered to appoint a conservator and
suspend university trustees and the president. After 30
days, the governor will appoint a fivemember governing
board for the university.

The bill establishes a voluntary training program for
university trustees. Concern was voiced in the legislature
that trustees do not always understand their
responsibilities for university finances.

The bill also assigns the Board of Regents to review
quarterly financial reports furnished by the universities.
The board may withhold the subsidy of any institution more
than 30 days late submitting a report.

Senate Bill 2, authored by Sen. Louis Blessing,
RCincinnati, and effective June 20, repeals a portion of
law enacted last session in a 1,000page overhaul of the
state's criminal sentencing guidelines.

That provision has allowed a marijuana user, with a
doctor's prescription, to offer the legal defense that use
of the illegal substance is permissible for medical
reasons. Lawmakers claimed they were unaware that the
medical marijuana provision was in the criminal sentencing
bill. But House committee meeting minutes show it was
discussed in June 1995.

The lawmakers were begged not to repeal the law by
people using the drug to ease the effects of glaucoma and
curb nausea brought on by treatments of various diseases.