Bill McMillen's Blog

These are serious times in the state legislature. Ohio is facing a budget shortfall of a billion dollars or more in this year’s budget, which ends on June 30th. At the same time, the legislature is attempting to create a balanced biennium budget for 2010-2011.

Nevertheless, normal state business continues and many bills of varying importance are introduced daily by state legislators.Two such new bills were referred the week of May 4th by the full Senate to the Senate’s State & Local Government & Veterans Affairs Committee.

Senate Bill 125 if ultimately passed by the Senate and the Ohio House and then signed by the governor will designate January 26 as Paul Newman Day. Meanwhile, Senate Bill 127 if passed and signed will adopt the Ohio Tartan as the official tartan of the state.

I like Paul Newman—both his movies and his spaghetti sauce. He won his only Oscar for his role as an aging pool hustler in The Color of Money, based on the novel by Walter Tevis. Walter Tevis was one of my creative writing professors when I was in graduate school at Ohio University. Newman, who passed away on September 26, 2008, was a native of Shaker Heights. He was born on January 26, 1925.

I also like Scottish tartans since both my father and mother were part Scot. My mother was from the MacKenzie clan, which has a beautiful green and blue tartan. However, my father’s MacMillan tartan is a garish red and yellow. Fortunately, if you didn’t know, clans are matriarchal and I can officially wear my mother’s tartan.

But if SB 127 passes we can all wear the official Ohio tartan, which you can view at this Web site.

Next week, back to the Ohio budget and more serious legislation.