A proposal to provide pay raises to state, county and township officials, giving some their first pay increase in a decade, was amended Wednesday into a bill dealing with survivor benefits for police and firefighters.
But law enforcement is not pleased that House Republicans are using a bill aimed at helping their families and those of firefighters to play a game of chicken with Gov. John Kasich, who opposes the idea and may veto the bill.
“We are concerned that this will be a poison pill,” said Mike Weinman, legislative director for the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio.
Linda Pope of Cincinnati, whose husband, Cincinnati Officer Daniel Pope, was shot and killed in 1998 while serving a domestic violence warrant, said she’s been working on the bill for seven years.
“For us to be this close and for them to do that to us, it’s very heartbreaking,” she said of the pay raise amendment. The bill extending benefits “is our livelihood. It is our future. It is for future officers and their families. It just needs to be done.”