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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2009 > March > 30
Monday, March 30, 2009
Greene takes his ballot battle to Ohio Supreme Court
Attorney James R. Greene III appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court on Monday, March 30, to try to get his name on the May 5 primary ballot for the Dayton mayor’s race.
Greene asked the Ohio Supreme Court for emergency relief and to hear oral arguments in his case against the Montgomery County Board of Elections.
The elections board invalidated more than 200 signatures on Greene’s nominating petitions, leaving him short of the 500 required to qualify for the ballot. Greene filed suit, contending that the elections board violated the Dayton City Charter. After losing before the 2nd District Court of Appeals, Greene is taking it to the supreme court.
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Wright Brothers’ great-grandniece at White House for bill signing
Amanda Wright Lane spent two years arguing that the national park devoted to her great-grand uncles Wilbur and Orville needed two more sites to fully tell their story.
On Monday, March 30, her arguments bore fruit: President Barack Obama signed into law a massive parks bill that included a provision adding Hawthorn Hill, which is the Wright Brothers’ home and the Wright factory buildings to the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park. Wright Lane and U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, the key proponent of the measure in Congress, sat in the audience in the White House’s East Room for the bill-signing ceremony.
Wright Lane beamed as Obama signed the bill, and as the audience applauded the bill’s passage, she turned to Turner and shook his hand.
“I’m really happy for our community,” she said, adding that visitors to the park can now learn about her great-granduncles’ family life and learn about how they manufactured commercial airplanes in Dayton. Not many people, Turner said, knew the latter.
Hawthorn Hill, in Oakwood, was designed by Wilbur and Orville Wright and was the family’s home until 1948. The Wright Company factory buildings are the first U.S. buildings designed and built for the manufacture of airplanes.
The park currently includes Huffman Prairie, the Wright Cycle Company, Carillon Park, the Wright Memorial and the Paul Laurence Dunbar House.
The bill also allows community organizations including Dayton History, which operates Carillon Historical Park, Aviation Trail and other partners that operate the park’s sites to receive grants from the National Park Service to help operate the park. Turner, R-Centerville, said such partnerships may become necessary as government funds become tighter and tighter, because it’ll help national and local governments team up to fund similar preservations.
As for adding the sites?
“It should’ve been done when the park was created,” Turner said.
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State announces business loans
Projects in Springboro, Franklin, Wilmington and Dayton are expected to receive $3.7 million in low-interest loans from the state of Ohio, Gov. Ted Strickland announced Monday, March 30.
“Like the federal transportation stimulus projects announced last week, these projects build upon Ohio’s logistical strengths, enhancing our infrastructure and creating good jobs for Ohioans,” Strickland said. “Strategically investing in growth industries like logistics and distribution will boost today’s economy and position Ohio for sustainable growth after the recovery.”
Pending approval by the State Controlling Board the following projects will receive money:
City of Franklin has been awarded a $1.6 million loan, which may be forgiven if certain project terms are met. The money is for the purchase of equipment and facility renovations for the Franklin Yards project, which is expected to create five construction jobs and 10 permanent positions.
Klosterman Baking Co. in Springboro has been awarded a 10-year, $900,000 low interest loan for the equipment purchases and construction costs. Klosterman is one of the largest family-owned bakeries in the midwest, producing more than 400 varieties of baked goods. This $1.4 million project is expected to create 10 positions and retain 42 jobs. Airborne Maintenance and Engineering Services, Inc. in Wilmington has been awarded a five-year, $600,000 low interest loan. The company will offer maintenance, repair and overhaul services at the Wilmington Air Park in the wake of DHL ceasing operations there. The $2.2 million project is expected to create 430 jobs.
Stratacache, Inc., in Dayton has been awarded a 10-year, $585,000 low-interest loan to help purchase the company’s new headquarters. This $1.9 million project is expected to create 15 positions and retain 14 jobs.
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Boyce to Obama: try this Ohio program
Treasurer Kevin Boyce likes Ohio’s linked deposit program so much that he’s passing on a tip to President Barack Obama: try using the federal bail out money this way.
Boyce, a Democrat, wrote to Obama to pitch the idea that troubled asset relief program (TARP) money could be used to sustain and grow small business by adopting a linked deposit program like Ohio’s 25-year-old program.
The Ohio treasury gives banks incentives to offer loans at below-market rates to small businesses and farmers. The program allows the treasury to invest in certificates of deposit and accept a reduced rate of return on them. In turn, the banks agree to pass on the savings to approved borrowers.
Ohio’s linked deposit program has invested more than $365 million in small businesses since 2008. These investments helped create more than 6,500 jobs and retain nearly 10,000 workers, according to Boyce’s office.
The deposits are linked one-for-one with approved loans, making it easy to track where the government money goes, Boyce’s office said. If adopted by the U.S. Treasury, this program will ensure participating banks are using the TARP funds as they were intended, to lend capital to qualified borrowers.
“While not a panacea, the linked deposit program has been one of the Ohio Treasury’s most successful initiatives,” Boyce wrote to the president. “We look forward to hopefully working with you to bring its benefits to the entire nation.”
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Ohio senators on auto bailout
Here’s Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, on President Obama’s announcement Monday on the auto bailout. Both, essentially, applauded Obama for insisting the auto companies create a better plan to become self-sufficient and refused further long-term rescue plans for GM and Chrysler.
Brown, D-Ohio, said Obama understands the auto industry is “too important to fail.”
“Today’s announcement represents the President’s commitment to protecting taxpayers while ensuring the auto companies come out of this economic downturn stronger and more competitive,” he said. “This short-term assistance will give the auto industry the time it needs to make long-term plans that will allow it to compete in the global market. It will require shared sacrifice across all stakeholder groups.
“For too long, cuts have been balanced on the back of workers - who have already made many concessions and are prepared to make more. It’s time for bondholders to come to the table so debt can be restructured to manageable levels.”
Voinovich, R-Ohio, meanwhile, expressed sympathy for employees of GM and Chrysler.
“Although I am extremely disappointed that the administration believes GM and Chrysler did not go far enough in their viability plans, I give them credit for insisting that American auto companies receiving taxpayer dollars can stand on their own two feet eventually,” he said.
He said he’s hopeful that “a restructured GM will become healthy and competitive and that Chrysler will come together with Fiat as supported by the administration.”
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Updated - Strickland, lawmakers near deal on transportation budget
Gov. Ted Strickland and legislators appear close to a deal on a transportation budget, House Bill 2, and a House-Senate conference committee began meeting about 2:15 p.m. on Monday, March 30 to finalize agreement.
In Toledo, Strickland told the Associated Press that compromises have been reached on all the major issues during negations over the weekend and that he expects to sign the bill. Once the conference committee acts, the House and Senate would have to approve the bill. Strickland has said he wants to sign the bill by Tuesday, March 31.
Total spending in the bill is expected to be more than $9 billion.
The budget must be approved before the more than $900 million in federal stimulus projects for transportation projects can be spent. Strickland announced the projects last Thursday, March 26.
“I will not get everything I wanted,” Strickland said. “The Senate will not get everything it wanted.”
In Columbus, Rep. Peter Ujvagi, D-Toledo, chairman of the House-Senate conference committee working on the budget, also was optimistic.
“I think that we’re in good shape,” Ujvagi said. “We’re just crossing the i’s and dotting the t’s.”
The committee agreed that the the final plan will not include Strickland’s proposal to give law enforcement the authority to pull over motorists solely for failing to wear a seatbelt or the governor’s proposal to allow the use of cameras to catch speeders in construction zones on interstate highways.
Strickland, however, got support for his plan to keep the Public Safety Department budget, which includes money for the Ohio State Highway Patrol, in the bill.
The conference committee also went along with a Senate proposal to raise the speed limits for trucks on interstate highways from 55 miles per hour to 65 miles per hour.
Also, the committee is expected to give the Controlling Board, not the legislature, the authority to spend any federal stimulus money for infrastructure and equipment for passenger rail service, Ujvagi said.
The vote to go ahead on the seven-member board, however, would have to include support from two of the three House members on the board and two of the three Senate members, Ujvagi said. This would encourage bipartisan support, he said.
The budget includes more than $2 billion in federal stimulus money that Strickland wanted to keep in the bill.
It also includes a provision to designate Dayton and Montgomery County as “an Ohio hub of innovation and opportunity for aerospace and aviation.”
The conference committee also adopted a provision that the Strickland administration said would help an estimated 35,000 unemployed Ohio workers qualify for 20 weeks of extended federal benefits after they’ve used up their state and emergency federal benefits.
Under the federal economic stimulus package, the federal government will pick up 100 percent of the tab for these extended benefits through the end of 2009.
The provision will enable the workers to qualify by changing the way Ohio sets the threshold for getting such extended benefits. Under the change made by the committee, the state would qualify if its unemployment rate is above 6.5 percent for three consecutive months, which has happened in Ohio.
Ohio’s February unemployment rate was 9.4 percent.
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Husted announces redistricting proposal
State Rep. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, on Monday, March 30 announced that he plans to introduce a plan to change how Ohio legislative and congressional districts are drawn. It would require voter approval.
Husted, a possible candidate for secretary of state in 2010, said the plan would create a “true, bipartisan seven-member commission” to oversee the creation of district boundaries for both state legislative and congressional districts.
To promote bipartisanship, the resolution would require a five vote super majority for the adoption of any redistricting plan. In addition, at least one of the required five votes must come from each of the three groups represented on the commission: two Republican legislative leader appointments; two Democratic legislative leader appointments and three remaining members, who would be selected by the four legislative leaders.
“We can’t change the hyper-partisan ways of government unless we change the system that demands it. This change would allow the voters to pick their politicians rather than letting the politicians pick their voters.” Husted said in a press release.
“I hope this will serve to stimulate bipartisan debate and action. The cost of inaction in 2009 will lead to the preservation of a system that values partisan advantage over problem solving-Ohioans can no longer to afford to live this way.”
The plan would replace the five-member Apportionment Board for drawing legislative districts and the legislature for drawing U.S. House districts. New districts are drawn after each census. The next time will be after the 2010 census.
Husted has said the goal is for the House and Senate to agree to put the issue on the Nov. 3 ballot for voter consideration.
The Apportionment Board is made up of the governor, secretary of state, auditor and a member of the legislature from each party. Right now, Democrats would hold a majority on the board, 3-2.
However Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is running for the U.S. Senate in 2010 and Republican Auditor Mary Taylor is considering a run for the U.S. Senate. Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland is expected to seek re-election in 2010.
The proposal adds and defines what a competitive district is to the factors the commission must consider when creating new districts. It also would make commission meetings open to the public and the date used in the process available for review.
The proposal also prohibits redrawing congressional district lines between censuses. Now the Ohio Constitution prohibits mid-census changes to General Assembly districts but not congressional districts.
Catherine Turcer, director of the Money in Politics project for Ohio Citizen Action, a government reform group, called the proposal “a significant improvement over the status quo.” She said she would like to see more independence from the three members who are to be appointed by consensus. For example, lobbyists, former legislators and political consultants should not be considered for the spots, Turcer said.
Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, applauded the plan.
“It is not easy to take an issue that is inherently political, bring opposing sides together and come up with a thoughtful proposal for the General Assembly to consider,” Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, said in the press release.
“I appreciate the tremendous amount of time and hard work Jon Husted has put into his resolution and look forward to working with him to reform Ohio’s redistricting process.”
