The governor’s plan to take his annual State of the State speech on the road got mixed reactions in the state legislature. Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler reports.Criticism for the move of the State of the State speech came from an unlikely corner in the House.
“I love Steubenville, but I love my taxpayers even more,” says Conservative Republican Lynn Watchmann, who wanted to know how much it would cost to move the speech 150 miles away from the Statehouse.
But fellow Republican Rep. Lou Blessing suggested the governor’s mission might be more important than the money, “I think the message to the students and the other people outweigh what any additional cost might be.”
The cost wasn’t the concern for Democratic Rep. Ron Gerberry.
“To take the State of the State out of this chamber is wrong,” says Gerberry.
The final vote in the House was fairly close in a chamber dominated by Republicans – and if some Democrats who had voted for it voted against it, it might have failed. But in the Senate, there was no debate at all, and it passed easily.