New tuition rates to be tied to student voters?

As you are well aware,  Republicans believe that only Republicans and maybe the few remaining 90-year-old Reagan Democrats should be permitted to vote.  That is particularly true in Ohio, where the GOP class has shown restricted voting  to be their most promising rite of passage to public office. Sort of like an entitlement they earned simply by being Republicans.  And it magically eliminates the less productive exercise of expanding the party's base, which has shown no signs of working.

During the last presidential campaign, Secretary of State Jon Husted led an assault on those profiled as Obama voters.

Next came an inventive plan  to shorten the period for amassing signatures for a referendum.

Now, we learn, there is a provision in the Republican House budget  down in Columbus that would offer out-of-state college students with a  30-day residence in the state  the same tuition as in-state students if they decided to vote.  To achieve this wacky windfall,  the student would have to produce a utility bill or letter from the university confirming legal status.

That drew immediate fire from the Inter-University Council that estimated schools  would lose up to $15,500 for each qualifying student.  It's not an appealing thought to the folks who run the universities.  Besides, out-of state students who are denied  the ID's from their schools  could sue.

How do the medieval rustics in modern dress come up with these ideas?

Well, House Speaker Bill Batchelder  framed the idea in terms of good government.  He told the Columbus Dispatch there was a risk that  out-of-state students may not be up to speed on ballot issues.

When Buckeye lawmakers, of all people,  start talking about being up to speed on anything at all,  isn't it adding more darkness to the Statehouse tunnel?