Division I regional track finals
Fenwick graduation 2012
Ponitz graduation 2012
Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2009 > May > 08
Friday, May 8, 2009
Strickland won’t fly solo on spending cuts
Gov. Ted Strickland won’t fly solo when it comes to identifying cuts to balance the state budget in the wake of plummeting tax revenues.
“I’m not willing to do that because that’s the kind of decision that we need to make together. As I told Sen. (Bill) Harris, I accept my responsibility to work with the Senate and the House so that together we can make decisions and find solutions and so that’s my position,” the Democratic governor said on Friday, May 8.
He also dodged a question on whether he should have briefed House Democratic leaders after he learned on April 28 that income tax revenues were falling sharply. The House approved a two-year budget on April 29 that included more money that Strickland had proposed.
“We can spend the next several days and weeks and even months arguing and laying the blame or we can come together and work in common purpose and try to solve a serious problem and do what’s right for our state….,” Strickland said.
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Bill Batchelder, R-Medina, continued the GOP criticism of Strickland and the House over the budget.
“While it’s unfortunate for House Democrats that the governor allegedly chose to withhold information, there were clear signs that revenues would continue to decline,” Batchelder said in a press release.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment |
TweetDeRolphs urge support for Strickland school plan
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan was the headliner but it was a father-son team from Perry County who gave Gov. Ted Strickland what he wanted.
Dale DeRolph and his son Nathan, whose lawsuit led to four Ohio Supreme Court decisions declaring Ohio’s school funding system unconstitutional, urged a crowd of 500 gathered outside at Ohio State University on Friday, May 8, to support Strickland’s plan for schools and school funding.
“Let’s put politics aside and do what’s right for the children of Ohio once and for all,” Nathan DeRolph told the crowd. He was 15 when the lawsuit was filed in 1991 and is 33 now. While some improvements have been made, much remains to be done, he said.
At a press briefing following his speech, Duncan said he wasn’t in Ohio to endorse Strickland’s plan. At the briefing and in his speech he urged the state to apply for some of the $5 billion in competitive grants from the Obama administration for education reform.
Johnnie Kimberlin, a member of the Jefferson Township Local School Board, was among the first to arrive at the rally, and said Strickland’s plan sounded “very encouraging.”
The crowd also included opponents such as Amy Price of suburban Columbus who said funding reductions to the charter school her two sons attend would force the school to close. One son is autistic and the other has autism-related problems,she said.
Strickland’s plan calls for all-day kindergarten and longer school days and and school years and over time is supposed to pay a greater percentage of the cost of education.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment |
TweetOhioans back gambling, medical marijuana and death penalty
Ohioans are ready for some social change, but they aren’t quite ready to shed their traditional Midwestern views on everything, a new poll indicates.
They want casinos and medical marijuana, but don’t want to abolish the death penalty, allow 18-year-olds to buy booze, or legalize men marrying men and women marrying women.
The Ohio Poll, released Friday May 8, asked 818 Ohioans a series of questions about social change.
The results: 73 percent favor allowing doctors to prescribe medical marijuana, 60 percent favor casino gambling, 70 percent oppose doing away with the death penalty, 78 percent oppose a lower drinking age, 61 percent oppose legalizing marijuana and 57 percent oppose legalizing gay marriage.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percent and was conducted April 16 to April 27. The Ohio Poll is conducted by the University of Cincinnati.
Permalink | Comments (128) | Post your comment |
Tweet
