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June 2009
Ganley launches U.S. Senate campaign; GOP chairman DeWine objects
Cleveland-area car dealer Tom Ganley on Wednesday, July 1, is to launch his campaign for the Republican nomination for the U.S Senate in 2010
Ohio Republican Chairman Kevin DeWine doesn’t think much of the idea. DeWine said that the state GOP leadership has unanimously recommended endorsing former U.S. Rep. Rob Portman for the Senate nomination.
In a press release, Ganley, 65, said he is a businessman who never had thought much about becoming a “professional politician.”
“But that’s what’s needed in Washington now - someone who understands financial responsibility and what it takes for a business and a country to be competeitve,” Ganley said. “Someone who has built a business from scratch. Someone who knows how to create jobs….”
Ganley started with a Rambler dealership in 1968 and now has 32 dealerships in the Ganley group, the release said.
“Ohio and American have been good to me,” Ganley said. “What I want is a chance to repay that by using my 41 years of experience in the business world to help solve the problems we face today.”
In an e-mail, Chairman DeWine, who no doubt would like to avoid a primary, said that he met with the party leadership last week and “they made a unanimous recommendation that we endorse Rob Portman,” former budget director and trade representative for President George W. Bush.
DeWine did not mince words:
“With all due respect to Tom, I don’t believe a seat in the United States Senate is an entry-level position, and I don’t think it’s something you can buy.”
He cited Portman’s public service record and consensus-building ability.
“That’s something we desperately need right now,” said DeWine.
Jeff Longstreth, a Ganley spokesman, responded:
“An endorsement from the party won’t do anything to scare Tom Ganley out of the race.”
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher are seeking the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate.
TweetHusted defended by Harris
Ohio Senate President Bill Harris released a statement Monday, June 29, supporting Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, who faces an investigation by elections officials over whether he lives at the house in Kettering where he is registered to vote.
State law requires that legislators live in their districts. It would be up to the Ohio Senate to determine if Husted is a 6th District resident or if he should forfeit his seat.
“Jon Husted is a duly elected Senator from Kettering; end of story,” Harris, R-Ashland, said in the written statement. “After eight months of foot dragging and wasting tax dollars, it is time to put an end to this political witch hunt and let Jon Husted get on with the job his constituents elected him to do, especially considering the great challenges this state is facing.”
The news release from Maggie Ostrowski, spokeswoman for the Senate Majority Caucus, also quoted the Ohio Constitution, saying, “Each House shall be the judge of the election, returns, and the qualifications of its own members”. It went on to call the residency investigation “prolonged” and “politically-motivated.”
On Monday the Montgomery County Board of Elections deadlocked along party lines for a second time on the matter of Husted’s residency for voting purposes, again sending the question back to Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat.
The investigation was prompted by two complaints filed last year just prior the the November General Election.
Husted says he lives in Kettering but stays with his wife and children in her Upper Arlington home because the demands of his Statehouse job keep him in Columbus. He said his home is in Kettering and he intends to return there once his public service ends. Husted has been in the legislature since 2001 and is running for secretary of state.
TweetUPDATED: Strickland signs budget - House approves 7-day budget, sends to Strickland
Gov. Ted Strickland on Tuesday, June 30, signed a temporary seven-day state budget.
He acted after the House approved the budget 94-2 earlier on Tuesday.
The Senate approved the interim budget 32-0 on Monday.
The budget will keep state government operating while negotiators try to end an impasse between Strickland and Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, over video slot machines at Ohio’s seven racetracks.
The gap hadn’t narrowed on Tuesday. Strickland blamed Harris and Republicans for forcing him to sign an interim budget.
“It is time for the Senate majority to stop avoiding hard choices and say what taxes they would increase or what services they would further reduce if they will not support the budget proposal,” Strickland said in a press release.
Harris told reporters Strickland has the authority to set up slots at the tracks without the legislature’s approval and that’s what he should do.
“I’m hoping the governor does what he said he was going to do,” Harris said.
The budget will be in effect until July 7. It funds most state agencies at 70 percent of current spending levels. However, there are no cuts to debt service and big-ticket budget items including K-12 education, higher education and Medicaid.
Also Tuesday, Budish said a bill was introduced to authorize a second, seven-day budget. He said legislators were “just being prepared.” The second bill, which would require approval by the House and Senate, would continue state government operations through July 14.
He said the situation on slots was a “stalemate.” Strickland wants the legislature to authorize putting slots at the tracks. Harris says Strickland has the authority to do it on his own.
Strickland projects that the slots would raise $933 million over two years.
TweetMike Turner’s constitutional amendment
U.S. Rep. Mike Turner wants to amend the constitution to keep the United States government from owning stock in corporations.
Turner is the lead co-sponsor of “Preserving Capitalism in America” amendment in the U.S. House of Representatives, which so far has 102 cosponsors.
He said the federal government has reached beyond the original intent of lawmakers, particularly with the Troubled Asset Relief Program, and cites government intervention into GM as an example. “;A majority of Americans oppose the government take-over of the auto manufacturers and want the government out as soon as possible,” Turner said. “Just as troubling as the government’s rapid control over private industry, is its failure to present an exit strategy.” Eight states currently have constitutional prohibitions against government investment in private corporations. Those states are Arkansas, Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and West Virginia. Turner said a constitutional amendment would ”guarantee that the government could not gain control of private enterprise and place our capitalist system at risk.”
TweetInterim state budget gets Senate OK; disagreement on slots persists
The Ohio Senate voted 32-0 on Monday, June 29, for a seven-day interim state budget and the House is expected to go along on Tuesday.
However, there appeared to be no room for compromise between Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, on video slot machines at racetracks.
Strickland told reporters he wants the legislature to give him authority to set up the slots.
“I’m not going to do it,” Harris said after the vote.
Strickland projects the slots will raise $933 million over two years to balance the new budget.
Most other issues have been settled, Harris and Strickland said.
Asked if libraries would take the deep cuts proposed by Strickland, Harris said:
“Hopefully they do not.”
It also appeared that Strickland will get at least part of his “evidence-based” model for overhauling K-12 education. Harris said the budget would be a “win-win” in education, indicating both sides will get something.
A meeting of the House-Senate budget conference committee scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday was cancelled.
TweetBoehner uses bathroom expletive to describe climate change bill
House Minority Leader John Boehner, occasionally prone to bouts of alarming frankness for an elected leader, was asked by Capitol Hill newspaper why he read portions of the climate change bill Friday night.
Boehner, R-West Chester, told reporter Molly Hooper that he did it because Americans deserve to know what’s in “this pile of s—t.”
Language, language!
Read the full story here.
TweetUpdated with Strickland comments -Vote set on interim state budget
The Ohio Senate on Monday, June 29, is expected to approve a seven-day interim state budget. The House is expected to give its approval on Tuesday, June 30.
The interim budget is necessary because lawmakers and Gov. Ted Strickland have not reached agreement on a permanent two-year state budget and the new fiscal year starts Wednesday, July 1.
While going along with the seven-day plan, Strickland said he and lawmakers should stay at work until they reach agreement on a final budget. They should skip July 4 parades and celebrations, he said.
Spending for most agencies in the interim budget will be based on 70 percent of current spending levels, “which is generally consistent with the levels of spending both chambers are working toward as part of a two-year budget,” Maggie Ostrowski, spokeswoman for Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, said in an e-mail.
However, debt service and big-ticket spending items such as basic state support for K-12 education and higher education will be exempt from what amounts to a 30 percent cut.
The interim budget also will authorize the governor to use the “rainy day fund” to help balance the budget for the last two days of this year.
The budget would run through Tuesday, July 7.
Harris continues to be at odds with Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and the Democratic-led House over Strickland’s plan to raise an estimated $933 million through video slots at Ohio racetracks.
Strickland wants legislative authority for the slots. Harris said Strickland can do it unilaterally by expanding the Ohio Lottery. Harris also doesn’t want the legislature to authorize a gambling plan without a vote of the people.
Voters have rejected gambling proposals four times since 1990.
TweetWashington Post profiles Portman
Former U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, the presumptive Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in 2010, was profiled in The Washington Post this morning. Read the article here.
TweetSurprise! Track owners back Strickland in budget flap
Gov. Ted Strickland’s office on Sunday, June 28, tried to turn the heat up in budget negotiations by releasing a letter from owners of Ohio’s racetracks to Strickland and legislative leaders.
In the letter, dated June 25, the owners backed Strickland’s view that new legislative authority is needed to OK video slots at the tracks. Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, says Strickland already has the authority under the Ohio Lottery.
Here’s what the letter said:
“Senate Republicans continue to make the false argument that the governor can single-handedly permit video lottery terminals at state racetracks without legislative authority.
“Without a clear law authorizing VLTs, investors will not risk spending tens of millions of dollars for VLT licenses and operating expenses, as outlined in the letter from six of the seven track owners, attached.
“This means that the state won’t generate $933 million in estimated revenue, leaving the budget out of balance.
In addition, opponents to VLTs have already publicly declared that they will bring every lawsuit they can imagine to slow down or stop VLT implementation.
“We must have the strongest legal authority - which means an authorizing law passed by the General Assembly - to assure that we realize the revenue necessary to accomplish our constitutional obligation to balance the budget.
“Based on these two points, the governor cannot authorize video lottery terminals without legislative approval, because without clarity in the law, VLTs will not produce the revenue needed to bring the budget to balance.
“The governor will not sign an out of balance budget. He continues to wait for the Senate to indicate if they will support his proposal, raise taxes or make further cuts to state programs in order to balance the budget.”
TweetDem, GOP leaders fire away in state budget brouhaha
The chairmen of the Ohio Democratic and Republican parties, who served together in the Ohio House, are far apart when it comes to assigning blame for Ohio’s budget crisis, still unresolved on Sunday, June 28.
Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern blames the GOP; GOP Chairman Kevin DeWine of Fairborn blames Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland.
Here are statements from each:
Redfern
“With time winding down to the June 30 budget deadline, Senate Republicans continue to demonstrate that they are the ‘party of no.’
“Gov. Strickland outlined his budget proposal one week ago and the only response from the Senate Republicans is to propose no ideas, offer no cooperation and take no accountability.
“If Senate Republicans don’t like Governor Strickland’s proposals for balancing the budget, they owe it to the people of Ohio to offer alternative ideas.
“Time’s a wasting!”
DeWine
“The sad reality here is that Gov. Strickland has largely abdicated his legal duty to responsibly balance Ohio’s budget.
“The governor sent a reckless, unsustainable budget to House Democrats, who then larded it up with more spending before shipping it off to majority Senate Republicans to make the tough decisions.
“Fortunately for Ohio, the Senate did what the governor and his Democratic colleagues were unable to do and passed a responsible budget.
“The Democrats can try to spin their tired talking points about Republicans lacking leadership and ideas, but the record shows it’s Republicans who are the only ones leading Ohio right now.
Now is the time for good faith negotitiations and quiet leadership to achieve an important task.
“I’m proud of President Harris and Leader Batcheleder for the way they are conducting themselves during this negotiation. It too bad that Gov. Strickland has chosen to put politics over the important work being done his weekend on behalf of 11 million Ohioans.”
TweetInterim state budget “likely” - could be for 7 days
An interim state budget now appears likely, possibly for seven days, Keary McCarthy, spokesman for House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, said on Sunday, June 28.
House and Senate negotiators continue to make progress but they may not finish in time for Gov. Ted Strickland to sign a new budget before Wednesday, July 1, start of the new fiscal year, said McCarthy.
Strickland and Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, continue to disagree on video slots at the racetracks, Strickland’s plan to raise $933 million to help plug a $3.2 billion budget hole, said McCarthy.
“That’s more of a prominent issue. That is still unresolved,” McCarthy said.
A meeting of the House-Senate budget conference committee scheduled for 7 p.m. Sunday has been postponed until 7 p.m. on Monday, June 29, said McCarthy.
Strickland wants the budget to include language authorizing slots at the tracks. Harris maintains Strickland already has the authority to OK slots by expanding the Ohio Lottery.
While Harris has said the Senate would agree to appropriate money generated by the slots, he doesn’t want lawmakers to give approval to legislative language because voters four times since 1990 have rejected gambling proposals. Gambling shouldn’t be expanded without a vote of the people, according to Harris.
Amanda Wurst, Strickland’s spokeswoman, has said the governor would agree to an interim budget for only “several days.” On Sunday, she said Strickland was thinking in terms of “seven days.”
If Strickland declined to go along with an interim budget for more than seven days, most of state government could come to a halt and employees would have to be laid off “instantaneously,” said Dennis Morgan, who was Legislative Budget Officer in 1991, the last time the state had an interim budget.
TweetBattle of the budget: Strickland, Harris duel on slots at the tracks
Gov. Ted Strickland and Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, issued dueling statements in Ohio’s battle of the budget on Saturday, June 27.
Here they are:
Strickland:
“It has now been more than one week since I outlined a balanced budget framework to address the $3.2 billion state budget gap without raising taxes and without undermining our commitment to K-12 education. “I am pleased by the progress the legislative conference committee has made this week. “Regrettably, Senate President Bill Harris informed me this afternoon that he does not support my balanced budget proposal.
“I believe that he and the Senate Majority have an obligation to say what taxes they would increase or what services they would further reduce in order to balance the budget.
“I look forward to hearing from the Senate what other source of revenue, or what additional cuts, they will suggest in the three remaining days of the legislative conference committee.
“I continue to be available around the clock and will remain accessible to the legislative leadership.”
Harris:
“We have been working day and night with the House and the Governor to balance our state budget and we have been making significant progress.
“Let’s be clear: The issue that divides us is whether or not the legislature should authorize expanded gambling without a vote of the people.
“I have acknowledged many times that the Governor has the authority to expand the lottery.
“He has done it before and should he decide to exercise his authority again in allowing VLTs at racetracks around the state, the Senate will account for the revenues to balance the budget.
“However, I cannot get past the fact that the voters of Ohio - our constituents — have spoken on expanded gambling time and again.
“Asking the General Assembly to circumvent their will in such a short time frame when there has been no formal public debate and there are so many questions left unanswered is unreasonable.”
TweetState budget talks hit snag
State budget talks hit a snag on Saturday, June 27. The disagreement appeared to focus on the plan to raise $933 million by putting slot machines at racetracks.
The budget battle has become a standoff between Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and the Republican majority in the Ohio Senate.
It raises the prospect of an interim budget and, although unlikely, a shutdown of state government.
Strickland said in a prepared statement that he and Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, met without reaching agreement on Saturday.
“Regrettably, Senate President Bill Harris informed me this afternoon that he does not support my balanced budget proposal,” Strickland said.
“I believe that he and the Senate Majority have an obligation to say what taxes they would increase or what services they would further reduce in order to balance the budget.”
Harris also issued a statement that said in part:
“Let’s be clear: The issue that divides us is whether or not the legislature should authorize expanded gambling without a vote of the people.”
The disagreement could make it tough to reach a final deal in time for Strickland to sign a new budget before Wednesday, start of the new fiscal year. This would force passage of an interim budget, probably from three to five days, something that hasn’t happened since 1991.
Amanda Wurst, Strickland’s spokeswoman, said the governor would agree to an interim budget for only “several days.” Without a budget of some kind, most state government operations might have to come to a halt.
Strickland wants language in the budget giving him legislative authority to put the video slots at racetracks. Harris maintains that Strickland can go ahead with the slots on his own as an expansion of the state lottery. Harris has said a vote of the people should have taken place before putting slots at the tracks.
Ohio voters have rejected gambling proposals at the polls four times since 1990.
The $933 million from the slots plus $2.4 billion in budget cuts make up Strickland’s framework to fill a $3.2 billion budget hole.
Keary McCarthy, spokesman for House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, said that without the $933 million the budget can’t be balanced.
McCarthy said it’s possible a meeting of a House-Senate conference committee on the budget set for Sunday will be postponed.
TweetFili-Boehner!
House Minority Leader John Boehner was getting downright senatorial on the floor of the House of Representatives Friday night, doing the House version of a filibuster by reading portions of the cap and trade bill Democrats are trying to pass.
By tradition, three Members of the House have the right to deliver unlimited floor remarks - the Speaker, the Majority Leader, and the Minority Leader.
That means Boehner’s got the podium - and he isn’t going to give it up quickly.
His staff is calling it a “Fili-Boehner.”
UPDATE: The “Fili-Boehner,” as it were lasted around an hour before the House voted, and narrowly passed, the bill.
We welcome bets or guesses on how long Boehner, R-West Chester, can talk about this bill before Democrats get to vote on the bill. .
TweetState budget talks delayed until Sunday
The House-Senate conference committee trying to come up with a new state budget won’t meet until 10 a.m. on Sunday, June 28.
“We’re making progress but we need more time,” said Keary McCarthy, spokesman for House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood. The meeting had been set for Saturday, June 27.
The goal is for Gov. Ted Strickland to sign a new two-year budget before Wednesday, July 1, start of the new fiscal year. If agreement isn’t reached by then, legislators will have to pass an interim budget.
TweetOhio voters believe campaign cash influences judges
More than two-thirds of Ohio voters - 69 percent - believe campaign contributions influence judges’ courtroom decisions but voters don’t favor a public finance system for judicial elections.
Those were two conclusions from a survey from Public Policy Polling of Raleigh, N.C. released on Thursday, June 25.
In the poll, 49 percent opposed a public finance system with $1-$3 checkoffs from state taxes to pay for Ohio Supreme Court elections while 24 percent favored this approach.
The poll also found that 53 percent said Ohio Supreme Court candidates should disclose their party affiliation during campaigns while 39 percent said candidates should only talk about their stances on issues. Currently, Supreme Court candidates are nominated in partisan primaries but run on the general election ballot without party affiliation by their names,
“Ohio voters are certainly aware of the power that big donations can have on their state Supreme Court elections, as can by seen by the election last year,” Jonathan Crook of PPP said in a press release.
“They want to know where these candidates stand on the issues without having to do a whole lot of research, and party affiliation disclosure is the easiest way to do that.”
The poll was taken June 17 through Friday, June 19, with 619 voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percent.
TweetAustria helps restore funding for fire grant program
U.S. Rep. Steve Austria successfully pushed an amendment this week that increased funding for the Fire Grant Program.
Austria, R-Beavercreek, a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, introduced an amendment to the Homeland Security Appropriations bill after seeing a proposal by President Barack Obama to cut the Fire Grant Program by about 70 percent. Last year, Congress appropriated $565 million for the program; this year, Obama had requested $170 million. The program goes to purchases of fire equipment, including trucks and equipment.
Austria joined forces with Reps. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., Jason Altmire, D-Pa., and Peter King, R-N.Y. to increase the funding by $40 million. The House Rules Committee reduced that amount to $10 million, and the House passed that funding late Wednesday, June 24.
Austria, in a statement, said the funding wasn’t enough, but called the increase “an important first step in the right direction.”
TweetAnti-gambling group says Ohio needs a new governor
If Gov. Ted Strickland moves forward with a plan to put video lottery slot machines at Ohio’s seven racetracks, then Ohio needs a new governor, an anti-gambling group said Thursday, June 24.
“I think Ohio needs a new governor. I think he has forfeited his credibility as governor in this state,” said David Zanotti of the Ohio Roundtable and co-chair of the Vote No Casinos Committee.
Since 1990, Ohio voters have defeated four ballot issues proposing casino gaming, including one in 2006 that would have put video lottery slot machines at the racetracks.
“What will the people of Ohio think if this governor over turns the results of four elections and trashes their constitution in the process?” Zanotti said. “At the end of the day this is about the rule of law.”
Strickland had long said he opposed expanding gambling in Ohio, particularly since voters had said no four times. But facing enormous pressure to balance the state’s upcoming two-year operating budget, Strickland switched his position last week. His administration estimates the slots could bring in $933 million to the state coffers over two years.
Zanotti said his group will sue to block the slot machine plan.
“My guess is we’ll tie them up in court long enough that they won’t see a penny of the revenue projections,” Zanotti said.
TweetHope flickers for state budget deal before deadline
Despite apparent disagreement over how to authorize putting slot machines at Ohio’s seven racetracks, legislators and Gov. Ted Strickland are forging ahead with efforts to reach agreement on a new state budget by June 30, end of the current fiscal year.
A meeting of the House-Senate budget conference committee has been tentatively set for 9 a.m. on Saturday, June 27, Keary McCarthy, spokesman for House Speaker Armond Budish, said on Thursday, June 25. The conference committee first must reach approval on a new budget before the House and Senate vote.
McCarthy and Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, on Thursday both expressed hope that the budget gets done by the Tuesday deadline.
Harris, however, continued to say he believes Strickland already has the authority to expand the Ohio Lottery to include the slot machines without putting language in the budget giving the governor that authority.
Strickland’s office has said the governor needs legislative approval for the slots. Strickland has said the slots would generate an estimated $933 million over two years to help fill a $3.2 billion hole in the proposed budget.
Meanwhile, protests against an estimated $2.4 billion in cuts continued at the Statehouse, with backers of nursing homes and libraries holding rallies.
TweetCasino backers file petitions to get on Nov. 3 ballot
Backers of a proposal to put casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo on Thursday, June 25, filed petitions that they said contained more than double the 402,275 signatures from registered voters needed to get on the Nov. 3 ballot.
The lousy economy, including the state’s 10.8 percent unemployment rate, give the ballot issue a better chance of passing than the four gambling proposals voters have rejected since 1990, said Charlie Luken, chairman of the Ohio Jobs and Growth Committee and a former Cincinnati mayor and congressman. Luken said the petitions included about 850,000 signatures.
Luken said the plan would create 20,000 new jobs and the four casinos would be open by 2013.
Jim Laemmle, 32, an out-of-work electrician from the Columbus suburb of Hilliard, was at the secretary of state’s office to help unload the truck with the petitions and agreed with Luken.
“I know it will create more jobs,” said Laemmle.
Brunner now will send the petitions out to county boards of elections to have the signatures verified.
Join the discussion on the casino proposal.
TweetCordray sues three “predators”
Attorney General Richard Cordray filed suit against three companies that he says are preying on Ohioans facing home foreclosure.
Cordray filed suits against Michael Brotherton, who operates Financial Emergency Inc. in Greene County, and against 21st Century Legal Services in Franklin County and Foreclosure Home Assistance in Cuyahoga County.
“Ohio has zero tolerance for these predators,” Cordray said in a written statement. “They prey on Ohioans who are vulnerable and are seeking answers during desperate times. We issued warnings last month ordering them to stop their illegal practices, but they continued anyway. Now, we will work through the courts to stop them permanently.”
The companies charged consumers $1,500 to $2,600 to help them restructure their home loans and other foreclosure prevention services but didn’t deliver, Cordray said.
The lawsuits allege the companies violated Ohio’s consumer sales practices act and debt adjusters act. Cordray is asking the court to force the companies to reimburse the consumers and assess $25,000 fines for each violation.
TweetOhio workers pension fund may sue if contributions cut
The Ohio Public Employee Retirement System would likely sue the state if it reduces state workers pension contributions to help balance the budget, the pension system director told lawmakers.
In a move designed to help balance the upcoming budget, Gov. Ted Strickland has proposed writing an IOU to 60,150 state workers, promising to pay back contributions to the OPERS down the road. Reducing the contribution rate from 14 percent to 8 percent over two years would save the state more than $250 million, according to the Strickland administration.
But OPERS Director Chris DeRose said this move would cut into the fund’s ability to provide retiree health care benefits and erode the system’s financial solvency.
And DeRose said OPERS would consider suing the state if it follows through on Strickland’s proposal. Similar lawsuits in other states, such as California and North Carolina, were won by the pension systems when the courts found the state was obligated to pay and make up for lost investment income, according to OPERS.
TweetUPDATED: Turner, placed on porker list, defends project as worthy
It appears U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, has filled the shoes of retired U.S. Rep. David Hobson in at least one respect: The anti-pork groups that once bashed Hobson for his earmarks now have Turner in their sights.
Take the June 24 release from Citizens Against Government Waste, the watchdog that looks out for so-called “pork” projects in authorization and appropriations projects. The group previously bashed Hobson for a gas station he sought an earmark for near Wilberforce and Central State Universities, as well as a handicapped-accessible bathroom at a park in Springfield.
This year, they tagged Turner for a $4 million earmark he sought in the House version of the Defense Authorizations Act. The earmark is for “Open Source Research Centers” for Radiance Technologies in Fairborn.
Say what?
According to Turner’s description, posted on his web-site the program will establish 75 living wage jobs in Ohio. The center’s primary focus will provide relief for federal and state government analysts currently over-burdened with dual research requirements on classified and open source information.
This program is aimed at helping the intelligence community collect information vital to national security while expanding job training and employment in Dayton.
Turner says the project is aimed at helping GM and Delphi workers who’ve lost their job find new jobs supporting Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
“This is important for our community to recover from job loss and to support Wright-Patterson Air Force Base expansion,” he said.
Turner’s earmark was lumped in with requests to build a chapel complext at Fort Campbell in Kentucky; $7 million for Marine Mammal Awareness, Alert and Response Systems and $2.5 million for whale and dolphin hearing and echolocation projects in Hawaii.
The release also lauds the fact that the Joint Strike Fighter’s alternative engine program, which received $465 million in earmarks in fiscal year 2009, received nothing this year. That may be good news for Citizens Against Government Waste, but it’s not great for GE in Evendale, Ohio: That’s where the second engine is being developed.
UPDATE: Rick Tincher, CAP chair for the Dayton Metropolitan CAP Council and a United Auto Workers official with Local 696, said the project will help a community that is struggling for jobs. He’s supportive of the project, and has worked with Turner and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, in hopes of seeing the Open Source Research Center become a reality.
“This is not a Bridge to Nowhere,” he said. “This is not just finding out the breeding habits of fish. This establishes jobs from day one and training at the same time.”
TweetSenate passes DNA testing bill
The Ohio Senate voted 31-1 on Wednesday, June 24, in favor of a bill that would expand convicted felons’ access to DNA tests, encourage police to video or audio tape interrogations, and establish statewide standards for how long police and prosecutors should keep biological evidence in the most serious felony cases.
The bill would also require blind administration of suspect line ups, to avoid police giving subtle hints to witnesses about who the suspect is. Roughly three-quarters of wrongful convictions are attributed to mistakes by eyewitness identifications.
Three men who spent a combined 111 years behind bars for crimes they didn’t commit sat in the Senate chambers and applauded the bill. State Sen. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, called the men living proof that the criminal justice system doesn’t always work. Seitz said the bill will help improve the system.
It now moves to the Ohio House for consideration.
TweetCasino backers to turn in ballot signatures on Thursday
Backers of a ballot proposal to put casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo are “very confident” they’ll have more than the required 402,275 valid signatures needed to get the issue on the Nov. 3 ballot, Bob Tenenbaum, spokesman for the group, said on Wednesday, June 24.
The casino backers plan to turn the petitions with the signatures in to Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner on Thursday, June 25, ahead of the July 1 deadline. Tenenbaum said they will have far more than the required numbers. Challenges to signatures frequently occur.
The Ohio Jobs & Growth Plan, backed by Penn National Gaming of Wyomissing, Pa. and Dan Gilbert, Cleveland Cavaliers’ principal owner, say the plan would create 20,000 new jobs and additional revenue for the state, all 88 counties, the eight largest cities and all school districts.
The group is continuing its efforts despite a proposal by Gov. Ted Strickland to put video slot machines at Ohio’s seven racetracks.
TweetOhio voters (barely) OK with Obama; Sens. Voinovich, Brown slump
Ohio voters are OK with President Barack Obama’s job performance but aren’t as happy with their two senators - Republican George Voinovich an Democrat Sherrod Brown.
Public Policy Polling of Raleigh, N.C. on Wednesday, June 24, released a poll that showed 51 percent of voters approved of Obama’s performance and 40 percent disapproved.
Approval ratings for Voinovich and Brown were below 40 percent. Brown registered 38 percent approval and 36 percent disapproval. Voinovich did slightly worse, with 44 percent disapproving and 37 percent approving.
The poll was taken from Wednesday, June 17 to Friday, June 19 with 619 voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percent.
TweetAdvocates rally to restore budget cuts
Advocates, patients and recovering addicts gathered outside the Statehouse on a sunny Wednesday, June 24, to protest cuts in the proposed state budget and even implored lawmakers and Gov. Ted Strickland to raise taxes - an option Strickland and lawmakers say is off the table.
Donna Thielman, 80, of Dayton, told the crowd of about 300 that she recently was diagnosed with cancer and is worried about her son, 47, who lives in a group home. Funding for the program supporting the home would be cut.
“I don’t want him to become a street person,” Thielman said.
Hope Manley, 33, of Troy, a recovering heroin addict and rape victim who suffers from post-traumatic stress, said she would be lost without the help she receives at the SafeHaven Mental Health Support Center in Piqua.
Asked what she’d do if she couldn’t go there for counseling, she said:
“I’d cut myself.”
The rally was one of several events staged in an effort to influence Strickland and lawmakers as they try to fill a $3.2 billion hole in the proposed budget. Strickland wants to sign the new budget before Wednesday, July 1, start of the new fiscal year.
TweetHow to fill state budget hole: cuts, slots, taxes?
Gov. Ted Strickland and state legislators are racing toward a Tuesday, June 30, deadline to come up with a new two-year state budget.
Their biggest problem is filling a $3.2 billion hole in the projected budget. Here’s a chance to join the debate.
TweetFour House Dems want tax hikes “on the table”
Four House Democrats broke ranks with the Statehouse’s “no tax hike” mantra on Tuesday, June 23.
The four, including Rep. Mike Foley of Cleveland, a Dayton-area native, said tax increases must be considered as part of the solution to the $3.2 billion shortfall in the proposed state budget.
The other three were: Reps. Ted Celeste of Grandview Heights; Dan Stewart of Columbus and Robert Hagan of Youngstown.
Their possible solutions included rolling back some of the personal income tax rate reductions - particularly for the wealthiest Ohioans - that were part of the 2005 overhaul of the tax code.
“We all agree that there should be a sharing of the pain,” said Celeste.
They all said that the $2.4 billion in cuts proposed by Gov. Ted Strickland would inflict too much pain on those least able to bear it. Strickland also wants to raise revenue by putting video slot machines at racetracks.
House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, leader of the four, remains opposed to tax hikes, said Keary McCarthy, his spokesman.
“The Speaker doesn’t think tax increases on Ohioans is the best approach during an economic downturn,” said McCarthy. “He appreciates his colleagues’ willingness to present solutions during a difficult budget.”
TweetPoll: Dems doing well in U.S. Senate race
A new poll by Public Policy Polling finds that Democrats have a slight edge in the race for the U.S. Senate, with 32 percent of Ohio voters viewing Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher favorably; 32 percent viewing Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner favorably and only 22 percent viewing Republican Rob Portman favorably.
Thirty-one, percent, meanwhile, viewed Democrat Fisher unfavorably; 32 percent viewed Brunner unfavorably and 34 percent viewed Portman unfavorably, according to the poll of 619 Ohio voters taken from June 17 to June 19.
Fisher and Brunner also lead Portman in matchups among those polled. In a race between Fisher and Portman, Fisher holds a 41-32 percent edge. In a matchup between Brunner and Portman, Brunner holds a 40-32 lead.
More than half of independents, meanwhile, had no opinion about Fisher or Portman. Forty-four percent had no opinion of Brunner.
The automated telephone poll has a margin of error of 3.9 percent.
TweetVoinovich to meet Sotomayor
The White House just released its schedule for Judge Sonia Sotomayor for Tuesday, June 23, and one of Ohio’s U.S. senators is on the list.
Sotomayor, the White House’s Supreme Court nominee, will meet with Sen. George Voinovich around 2:30 p.m, his office confirmed. Voinovich is not on the Senate Judiciary Committee, but Sotomayor is meeting with a variety of senators as her nomination awaits Senate approval.
She will also meet with Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Tim Johnson, D-S.D., Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Mark Warner, D-Va. today, according to the White House.
“Sen. Voinovich is looking forward to meeting with Judge Sotomayor today as he continues to review her impartiality, integrity, legal expertise and judicial temperament,” said Voinovich spokeswoman Garrette Silverman.
TweetPolitical harmony breaks out on livestock care
Gov. Ted Strickland and state legislators are struggling to come up with a balanced budget for the next two years but they’ve found something they can agree on:
Taking care of chickens, cows, sheep, pigs and other animals.
Strickland, a Democrat, and legislative leaders on Monday, June 22, announced support for putting a proposed constitutional amendment on the Nov. 3 ballot that would determine and enforce guidelines for taking care of livestock and poultry.
The goal is to protect food safety and locally produced food. The amendment would create the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board.
“The board will ensure that Ohioans continue to have access to a safe and affordable local food supply and will make our state a national leader n the level of animal care and responsibility,” Strickland said in a press release.
Strickland, House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, House Minority Leader Bill Batchelder, R-Medina, and Senate Minority Leader Capri Cafaro, D-Hubbard, all support the proposal, the release said.
TweetStrickland approval rating dips to 43 percent
Gov. Ted Strickland’s approval rating has dipped to 43 percent and Republican John Kasich is nipping at Strickland’s heels in a hypothetical matchup for the 2010 governor’s race.
Public Policy Polling of Raleigh, N.C., on Sunday, June 21, released results of a poll with the disappointing results for Democrat Strickland.
The survey found that 43 percent approved Strickland’s performance while 42 disapproved. A January survey found 48 percent approved and 35 percent disapproved.
In the hypothetical matchup with Republican Kasich, Strickland led 44-42, a virtual dead heat with the survey’s margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percent. In January, Strickland led Kasich 45-39 percent.
Dean Debnam, PPP president, said in a press release that midwestern states have been hit hard by the recession and that governors are paying the political price.
“We are seeing pretty low approval ratings for chief executives across most of the region as voters wait to see what they will do to turn things around,” said Debnam.
The survey found Strickland support waning among the state’s critical bloc of independent voters. Kasich led 54-33 percent among this group. Kasich appeared to be gaining even though a plurality of voters said they didn’t know enough about him to have an opinion.
Among those who had an opinion, 31 percent viewed him favorably and 30 percent had an unfavorable opinion.
Strickland also got just 52 percent among black voters- usually a reliable Democratic constituency - against Kasich. However, there was good news for Strickland among white voters. He was basically running even with Kasich. According to a PPP analysis, “any Democrat who can split the white vote in Ohio is going to win statewide.”
The survey was taken from Wednesday, June 17 to Friday, June 19, with 619 voters. The poll concluded on the day Strickland proposed putting video slot machines at Ohio tracks to help fill a $3.2 billion budget hole. He also proposed $2.4 billion in budget cuts.
TweetLocal state senator dies
By Dave Larsen
Staff Writer
DAYTON — Ohio State Sen. Robert Schuler was remembered on Saturday, June 20, as a good man and public servant who helped to rewrite Ohio’s electric industry regulatory system.
Schuler, who represented all of Warren County and parts of Hamilton County, died at 7:13 p.m. Friday after a long battle with cancer. He died peacefully at home surrounded by his family. He was 66.
“Bob was a dear friend, a true public servant and a very good man,” said Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland.
Schuler, R-Sycamore Twp., Hamilton County, represented the Senate’s 7th District since 2003. He served as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives from 1993 to 2000.
Share your condolences and memories of Sen. Schuler.
“His experience and common sense approach to the most complex of problems were invaluable to our caucus for the more than six years he served in the Senate,” Harris said. “Bob had strong opinions and was never shy about expressing them, but he was never one to grandstand. His constituents benefitted from his effectiveness.”
Harris plans to cancel Tuesday’s session to allow members and staff to attend funeral services.
Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, worked during the last General Assembly with Schuler on legislation to develop a comprehensive energy policy for the state.
Schuler, then-chairman of the Senate Energy & Public Utilities Committee, sponsored the bill that passed last session.
“;I got the chance to know him and he did some quality work on that piece of legislation,” said Husted, who at the time was speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives. “We have a new energy law in the state of Ohio that came on his energy bill last year.”
Husted praised Schuler as a good man. “People on both sides of the aisle appreciated his kindness and good nature,” Husted said. “He will be very missed.”
Gov. Ted Strickland called Schuler a committed advocate for the people of Southwest Ohio.
“Sen. Schuler was a sincere, kind man,” Strickland said. “He reached across the aisle, always valuing progress over politics.”
Strickland also noted Schuler’s role in Ohio’s energy legislation. “I deeply appreciated his thoughtful foresight on the importance of this bill for the future progress of Ohio,” Strickland said.
In the Senate, Schuler also served as chairman of the Senate Reference Committee and as a member of the Senate Rules Committee and the Senate Ways & Means & Economic Development Committee. In the House, he served as the chairman of the Local Government Committee.
Schuler’s public service career also include terms as a Deer Park Council member and a Sycamore Township trustee.
Born June 15, 1943, in Cincinnati, Schuler worked as a real estate appraiser. He is survived by his wife Shelagh, two children and five grandchildren.
Calling hours are Monday, June 22, from 2 p.m.-4 p.m. and from 6 p.m.-8 p.m. at Thomas-Justin Memorial Funeral Home, 7500 Montgomery Road, Cincinnati.
The funeral mass will be 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at St. Vincent Ferrer Church, 7754 Montgomery Road, Cincinnati, with a service at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Cincinnati immediately following.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2419 or dlarsen@DaytonDailyNews.com.
TweetSlots’ proposal doesn’t stop plan for casinos
Backers of a ballot issue to put casinos in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo and Columbus aren’t deterred by Gov. Ted Strickland’s recommendation that the legislature OK video slot machines for Ohio racetracks.
Bob Tenenbaum, spokesman for the casino backers, said so Friday, June 19 in an e-mail, just hours after Strickland’s press conference.
” We are in the final stages of gathering petition signatures and will be filing our petitions prior to the July 1 deadline,” Tenenbaum said. They must file petitions with signatures from 402,275 registered voters by the deadline to qualify for the November ballot.
TweetHarris dubious about slots at tracks
While House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, gave Gov. Ted Strickland’s plans for video slots at Ohio racetracks a warm reception, Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, isn’t convinced it’s a good idea.
Here’s a prepared statement from Harris released after Strickland’s press conference on Friday, June 19:
“I have been very open in my skepticism of using gambling to solve our state’s revenue problems.
“While I understand why this option was the most attractive to the Governor, until today, he himself had made convincing arguments as to why expanded gambling was a bad idea for Ohio.
“In the short time I have had to look at his new proposal - I have yet to be convinced otherwise.
“To serve the best interests of the people of Ohio, I have always approached my job as President of the Senate with an open mind and a willingness to listen. In the days ahead, I will continue to review the details of the Governor’s proposal. Today, I have serious concerns.”
TweetStrickland to balance budget with $2.43 billion in cuts, slot machines
Gov. Ted Strickland on Friday, June 19, announced $2.43 billion in “painful” budget cuts that will significantly resize state government and he is proposing putting video slot machines at Ohio’s racetracks, which along with other changes will bring in $765million.
Overall, Ohio has to plug a $3.2 billion hole in the proposed budget.
Strickland said the budget will be balanced without increasing taxes or arresting tax rollbacks that are underway.
The Ohio State Racing Commission has developed a plan for putting 14,000 video slot machines at Ohio’s seven racetracks. The slot machines can be added through legislative action and using the Ohio Lottery Commission, Strickland said.
Ohio votes have rejected gambling proposals four times since 1990 and any plan to put slots at tracks without a vote of the people would be expected to spark a backlash.
“The cuts outlined today are indeed painful, but I am pleased with Gov. Strickland’s willingness to consider offsetting some of this pain through an additional, non-tax revenue source,” House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, said in a written statement. “While I look forward to reviewing the details of this proposal, I do believe that allowing video lottery terminals at Ohio’s seven racetracks will help save Ohio jobs and avoid detrimental tax increases on Ohio families.”
The budget cuts are expected to bring lay offs for state workers, who have already accepted a two-year pay freeze and 20 unpaid furlough days over two years. The number of workers likely to lose their jobs was not disclosed.
Separately, gambling proponents are gathering petition signatures to put yet another casino proposal before Ohio voters. The four-casino plan is being pitched by Penn National Gaming, Inc of Wyomissing, Pa., which operates the Argosy in Lawrenceburg, Ind., and Dan Gilbert, majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and founder of Quicken Loans. This deal would help generate $600 million a year for counties, cities and school districts.
TweetSources: Strickland to announce support for slots
By Laura Bischoff
Gov. Ted Strickland on Friday, June 19, announced $2.43 billion in “painful” budget cuts that will significantly resize state government and he is proposing putting video slot machines at Ohio’s racetracks to help generate $933 million over the two-year state budget.
Overall, Ohio has to plug a $3.2 billion hole in the proposed budget.
Strickland said the budget will be balanced without increasing taxes or arresting tax rollbacks that are underway.
The Ohio State Racing Commission has developed a plan for putting 14,000 video slot machines at Ohio’s seven racetracks. The slot machines can be added through legislative action and using the Ohio Lottery Commission, Strickland said.
Ohio votes have rejected gambling proposals four times since 1990 and any plan to put slots at tracks without a vote of the people would be expected to spark a backlash.
Separately, gambling proponents are gathering petition signatures to put yet another casino proposal before Ohio voters. The four-casino plan is being pitched by Penn National Gaming, Inc of Wyomissing, Pa., which operates the Argosy in Lawrenceburg, Ind., and Dan Gilbert, majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and founder of Quicken Loans. This deal would help generate $600 million a year for counties, cities and school districts.
TweetSenate Dem faceoff on health care
Both Democrats hoping to replace retiring Sen. George Voinovich in 2010 weighed in on the health care debate Thursday, June 18.
Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher fired off a letter to Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee; Sen. Ted Kennedy, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee; Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee and Sen. Mike Enzi, ranking member of Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee urging them to quickly move to pass health care legislation aimed at lowering cost and providing universal affordable coverage to all Americans.
And Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, meanwhile, also sent out a statement calling for bipartisan health care reform. She called for a public option for health insurance. “Having no public option should not be an option,’’ Brunner said.
Fisher, meanwhile, said any reform has to lower costs, allow patients their choice of doctors and health plan, expand affordable coverage to every American, improve quality of care, and offer voluntary long term care coverage. He also said any solution cannot increase taxes on the middle class, instead suggesting allowing tax cuts to expire for Americans making more than $250,000 and implementing electronic medical records to save costs.
TweetMaurice Clarett seeks clemency
Former Ohio State University football star Maurice Clarett is asking Gov. Ted Strickland for clemency so he can get out of prison early and take a shot at being a motivational speaker or return to football on either an arena or Canadian professional team.
Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien opposed Clarett’s request in a two-page letter sent to Strickland and Ohio Parole Board Chairwoman Cynthia Mausser on Thursday, June 18.
Clarett, 25, is serving a 7 1/2 year sentence for aggravated robbery at Toledo Correctional Institution. Sentenced in September 2006, Clarett has yet to serve the mandatory three years of the sentence, O’Brien said.
The prosecutor noted that while out on bond awaiting trial in the armed robbery case, Clarett was arrested after a police chase.
“He had an AK-47 with 30 live rounds in the magazine and three pistols in his vehicle, and was wearing a Kevlar bullet-proof vest…an open bottle of Grey Goose vodka and a hatchet,” O’Brien told Strickland. “Those facts do not suggest the kind of conduct that warrants the intervention of executive clemency.”
Clarett’s application for clemency is under review by the Parole Board, according to prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Culp.
TweetSheriff Jones twitters decision not to run for Congress
Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones, who has been hinting for months that he might challenge House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, has apparently decided not to run.
This from his twitter feed:
“I have decided not to turn in my petitions for congress. This is not the time.Congressmans office has been notified this date. Sheriff Jones”
We’ve got calls into Boehner’s office and Jones’ office for additional detail.
Jones has gained fame for his hard-charging push to crack down on U.S. immigration violations in Butler County.
TweetTurner brings Democratic congresswoman to tears
….But they’re happy tears, so no worries.
Here’s a video of U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, startling fellow lawmaker U.S. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., with an unexpected amendment honoring her service on the House Armed Services Committee.
Tauscher, who was clearly touched by the amendment, has been nominated Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.
TweetGay rights bill clears hurdle
A civil rights bill to protect gays from discrimination passed out of a House committee on Wednesday, June 17, by an 8-5 vote, according to Equality Ohio.
House Bill 176, co-sponsored by state Reps. Ross McGregor, R-Springfield, and Dan Stewart, D-Columbus, would prohibit housing or employment discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Equality Ohio Executive Director Lynne Bowman said the vote marks the first time in Ohio history that a gay rights bill has gotten a vote in the General Assembly.
“With their passage of this legislation, the members of the (House) State Government (Committee) sent a clear message today,” Bowman said. “Discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity will not be tolerated in Ohio, regardless of where a person lives, works or plays.”
The bill now moves to the House for a full vote, which has yet to be scheduled.
TweetHouse bans campus credit card marketing
Credit card marketing activities on the campuses of Ohio’s public and private universities would be prohibited under legislative approved Wednesday, June 17, by the Ohio House.
The vote on House Bill 12 was 59-25. It now goes to the Senate.
Students get taken advantage of, said Rep. Matt Lundy, D-Elyria, the bill’s sponsor.
“The playing field is grossly uneven,” said Lundy.
Rep. Bill Coley, a Republican from Liberty Township in Butler County, disagreed that the prohibition is needed.
“We do not need to infringe more on freedom,” said Coley.
Wright State University has not permitted credit card vendors on campus for several years, said spokeswoman Stephanie Ely. The ban is to protect students, Ely said.
At the University of Dayton, the only credit cards that can be marketed on campus are those with UD’s name on them, said spokeswoman Teri Rizvi.
TweetBrown “open-minded” about nuclear power plant, wants more details
When a coalition of energy companies meet in Ohio Thursday, June 18, to announce plans to build a nuclear power plant in Pike County, Sen. Sherrod Brown will be absent.
It’s not that Brown, D-Ohio, wasn’t aware of the plant. It’s just he’s holding out on approval until he knows more.
“I want to look at what are the specifics of what they’re doing,” he said. “I’m always interested in economic development, of course, and I want to listen to what local residents say and see plans for the facility…I want to know more.”
He said 20 years ago, he was “not at all” convinced that nuclear energy was safe, but today characterizes himself as “open-minded” about it.
“I think they’ve made major strides,” he said. “I’m not 100 percent sold but I want to see what they’re doing.”
Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland and Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland plan to be at a 10 a.m. press event Thursday announcing plans to build a nuclear power plant at the site of the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon.
TweetBipartisan House bill aims at cutting “red tape”
With unemployment soaring and jobs leaving, Democrats and Republicans in the Ohio House have joined forces to cut red tape for businesses.
House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, on Wednesday, June 18, announced that a bipartisan regulatory reform bill is being introduced with support from business.
Reps. Mike Moran, D-Hudson, and Jim Zehringer, are the sponsors, Budish said in a press release. The bill would streamline regulatory oversight and the process of making state rules that affect businesses. It also would encourage transparency and communication to make sure rules aren’t duplicative or burdensome.
The bill would expand the Ohio EPA’s compliance assistance program for small businesses and create the Ohio Small Business Roundtable to improve communication. It also would establish an ombudsman in each state agency to help solve problems for businesses.
“The success of Ohio’s economy is tied to the success of Ohio businesses, and when entrepreneurs are given a chance to compete, Ohio prospers,” John Mahaney, longt-time president of the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants, said in a press release.
TweetSupreme Court rejects Morgan mediation request
State Rep. Seth Morgan, R-Huber Heights, will have to continue his efforts to learn more about Gov. Ted Strickland’s “evidence-based” model for reforming education without the help of the Ohio Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday, June 17, denied Morgan’s request for mediation in Morgan’s efforts to get public documents from Strickland relating to the plan. Strickland already has turned over many documents.
Morgan said in a press release that he was not surprised.
“Since I filed the motion for mediation on April 29 and sent another letter threatening more action because of unresponsiveness, Gov. Strickland’s office turned over more documents in a ‘final’ release and declared that he has finished and fully complied with my public records request,” Morgan said in the press release.
He said that he would continue to work with Strickland’ s office to resolve what he called “inconsistencies.”
TweetBare chested Lee Fisher hits YouTube
Check out 44 seconds of your Ohio lieutenant governor shirtless on YouTube! Click here.
That’s right folks. A clip of a hairy-chested Lee Fisher sitting in front of a laptop now has nearly 60 hits on YouTube. In the video, Fisher worries about being filmed late at night when he’s exhausted but he doesn’t mention any concerns about being caught on tape shirtless.
The footage comes from ‘Swing State,’ a documentary co-directed by Fisher’s son during the 2006 campaign. It was posted on YouTube by RightOhio.com, a conservative blog run by Matt Naugle.
Fisher, 57, is now campaigning for the Democratic party’s nomination for U.S. Senate against Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.
So will Brunner be shown partially clad in video clips any time soon?
“I don’t think so. Not at all,” said Brunner campaign spokeswoman Pia Brady.
TweetStudy: Ohio losing its future as grads flee
Well-educated young people may be the key to Ohio’s economic future but unless things change, they’ll continue to flee the state.
That’s the conclusion of a new survey, released Monday, June 15, by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and has an Ohio office in Dayton.
The study, based on online interviews with 811 college students, is titled “Losing Ohio’s Future: Why college graduates flee the Buckeye state and what might be done about it”.
Key findings include:
*88 percent of native Ohioans say they are proud of Ohio but 51 percent plan to leave after graduation.
*Overall, 89 percent say good jobs will be very important in deciding where to live after graduation, but just 11 percent give Ohio excellent prospects.
*60 percent like the idea of a state cash grant for a down payment on a home as an incentive to stay in Ohio.
*More than half - 59 percent - are interested in local business internships while 53 percent like co-op programs.
*65 percent like a state income tax credit for those staying in Ohio for 10 years.
Release of the survey comes with Gov. Ted Strickland and legislators trying to fill a $3.2 billion shortfall in the new state budget without cutting support for higher education. The Senate version of the state budget already cut out a $94 million internship program aimed at keeping bright college students in Ohio.
“The survey shows that the young people are interested in things like co-ops and internships,” said Terry Ryan, Fordham Institute vice president for Ohio programs and policy. “They want to understand how what they’re learning in schools ties into real work.”
The FDR Group, a non-partisan New York city based research group, used Facebook and random samples provided by seven Ohio colleges to do the survey with sophomores, juniors and seniors. The colleges were: University of Dayton; Miami University; Oberlin College: Ohio State University; Ohio University; Case Western Reserve University and Kent State University.
The survey cost about $75,000, said Ryan.
TweetBrown talks Dayton at the White House
Sen. Sherrod Brown went to the White House Friday, June 12, to meet with President Barack Obama.
The two had a “productive” meeting, according Brown, and discussed the Ohio economy, manufacturing and the state’s clean energy economy.
They also talked about Dayton, specifically NCR’s closing and DHL’s decision to pull jobs out of Wilmington. Brown said the two did not talk about Columbus, Ga.’s request for $5 million in stimulus money to offset its promise of more than $6 million in city money to attract NCR manufacturing jobs. However, Brown said the president asked him about DHL.
TweetMike DeWine considers AG race - decision soon
Former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, the Cedarville Republican, is considering a return to politics as a candidate for Ohio attorney general in 2010.
“I’ve not made a final decision,” DeWine said in a telephone interview on Friday, June 12. “I’m certainly thinking about it.”
The interview came after DeWine on Thursday designated a treasurer - J. Hadden - for a state campaign fund, a fund DeWine will need to run for statewide office in 2010.
The filing did not say which office DeWine was seeking.
DeWine said the law and legal issues have “always been a real passion of mine.” His first elective office was Greene County prosecutor. Also, he served on the Judiciary Committee in Congress for a combined 20 years, first in the U.S. House and later in the Senate.
DeWine was interviewed on his way home from a humanitarian trip to Haiti. He had gone there with his wife Fran and their son Pat to dedicate a school in the name of the DeWines’ deceased daughter Becky.
He lost his bid for a third U.S. Senate term in 2006 to Democrat Sherrod Brown. In addition to his service as county prosecutor and in Congress, DeWine has served as lieutenant governor.
Delaware County Prosecutor David Yost already has announced he will run for the GOP nomination for attorney general in 2010. Democratic incumbent Richard Cordray is expected to seek re-election.
TweetPledge of Allegiance policy slipped into state budget bill
The ACLU of Ohio is calling on lawmakers to remove a provision added to the state budget bill that would prohibit Ohio’s 613 public school districts from passing policies against reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in classrooms.
State Sen. Gary Cates, R-West Chester, inserted an amendment in the budget bill after hearing that Oberlin city schools near Cleveland decided in May to stick with its no pledge policy.
Currently, school districts set their own policies on whether the pledge is recited.
If Cates’ amendment becomes law, districts would be barred from passing policies that would prevent teachers from requiring the pledge be recited in their classrooms. The legislation also would prohibit anyone reciting the pledge to alter it in any way, such as adding or removing words, according to the ACLU.
“This is a transparent attempt to force all school districts into mandating the pledge to be recited in all classrooms. Local school districts know their communities best and should be permitted to make decisions that they feel are consistent with those they represent,” ACLU of Ohio Executive Director Christine Link said in a press release.
“In addition, mandating that people may not alter the pledge in any way is a clear violation of their First Amendment rights. The Ohio General Assembly should not be in the business of dictating what people may or may not say and how they may choose to recite the pledge,” Link added.
In a landmark free speech decision in 1943, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that students could not be required to recite the pledge. The legislation would still allow individual students to choose not to recite the pledge.
“I hope they come to their senses or there’s just going to be a lot of expensive and unnecessary legal work coming forward,” Link said.
TweetBoehner on high-speed rail in Ohio
What does House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, think about high-speed rail between Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus and Cleveland?
The question’s pertinent - after all, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland was in town just this week lobbying Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in hopes of garnering some $400 million to establish passenger rail service between the four cities as soon as the first quarter of 2011.
Here’s what he had to say Thursday, June 11.
“I’ve been involved this issue for 25 years,” he said. “If it’s only going to go between Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland, it’s nothing but a boondoggle. But if it’s connected to a national high speed rail system, now you’re talking about something that will make it worthwhile.”
TweetMayor, City Commission candidates plan fundraisers
With city elections just five months away, candidates for Dayton mayor and City Commission seats are hosting events to raise money for the campaign.
Upcoming events:
A “Pie Auction Extravaganza” for Mayoral candidate Gary Leitzell will be Thursday, June 18 from 7-9 p.m. at Dolcessa, 1106 Brown St.
Pies from local Dayton businesses such as Mehaffies Pies, Deserts by Ann and others will be up for auction. One of the pies will be thrown at the candidate.
Get more information on Leitzell’s Web site at www.daytonmayor.org
Leitzell is challenging Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin in the November election. McLin’s campaign site is www.rhinemclin.com
City Commissioner Joey Williams is hosting a BBQ bash on Tuesday, June 30, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event is at Montgomery County Democratic Headquarters, 131 S. Wilkinson Street. Food is provided by Huffies BBQ. Tickets are $10. To purchase tickets or for more information, call 285-0686 or visit Williams’ Web site, www.joeydwilliams.com
City Commissioner Nan Whaley is hosting a fundraiser on Thursday, June 25, at Jimmie’s Cornerstone Bar, 1001 Brown Street. The event is from 5 to 7:30 p.m. There is a $20 donation. For more information, visit her Facebook page.
Williams, Whaley and David Esrati are running for two City Commission seats in the fall.
Whaley’s Web site is www.nanwhaley.com
Esrati’s Web site is Esrati.com
TweetState budget shortfall could be $3.2 billion
House and Senate budget negotiators today, June 11, got the bad news: they’ll have to fill a hole that could be $3.2 billion deep to come up with a balanced two-year budget before July 1, start of the new fiscal year.
How much money is that? It’s more than the nearly $1.9 billion it costs each year to operate Ohio’s prison system.
Rep. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, chairman of the House-Senate conference committee trying to put the budget together, said after the committee’s meeting on Thursday, June 11, that the gap appeared to be about $2.6 billion, compared to the Senate version of the budget. Sykes based his estimate on information from Strickland administration and legislative budget reports.
However, budget director Pari Sabety told the conference committee that the shortfall could be $3.2 billion. Later in the afternoon, Amanda Wurst, spokeswoman for Gov. Ted Strickland, confirmed that the $3.2 billion gap was compared to the Senate’s $53.5 billion version of the budget. In her committee testimony, Sabety added a caveat.
“However, the exact size of this gap is dependent upon substantial differences between the House and Senate versions of (the budget) in education and Medicaid that this committee will be reconciling in the days ahead,” she said.
Sabety painted a grim economic picture for the committee. The amount of revenue now coming into the state is the same as it was 10 years ago, she said.
The committee’s goal is to get a budget to Gov. Ted Strickland in time for him to sign it before July 1, start of the new fiscal year. If they don’t, legislators and Strickland would have to agree on an interim budget, something that hasn’t happened since 1991.
The conference committee is working off the Senate’s version of the budget.
TweetRatings agency downgrades Ohio bonds
Fitch Ratings, which rates the bonds Ohio sells to borrow money, has downgraded the rating on outstanding general obligation bonds to “AA” from “AA+”. A lower rating generally makes it more expensive for the state to borrow money.
“The downgrade reflects the long-term deterioration in the state’s economy; in particular, the structural decline of the state’s large manufacturing sector and the resulting negative impact on state financial operations,” the ratings agency said on Wednesday, June 10.
The downgrade came as a House-Senate conference committee today began work on a compromise state budget. Budget director Pari Sabety said the budget shortfall could be $3.2 billion.
Sabety told the committee that recent low interest rates for borrowing would give the state “adequate comfort”, despite the ratings downgrade.
TweetUPDATED -Dayton meeting on post-NCR state help delayed
When plans are discussed on how to help Dayton and Montgomery County recover from NCR’s departure to Georgia and other recent job losses, everybody needs to be in the room.
That seems to be the reason why a meeting set for Friday, June 12, between public officials and business leaders and Lisa Patt-McDaniel, interim state development director, has been postponed.
“We had a problem getting all the parties to be able to be there,” Montgomery County Commissioner Dan Foley said on Thursday. “We want to make sure that everybody can be there.”
An aide to Patt-McDaniel said it now appears the meeting will be held next Thursday, June 18. Foley has said the meeting was expected to be rescheduled for the morning of Tuesday, June 16. City, county and state elected officials are expected to attend, said Foley.
TweetForbes gets six-month law license suspension
The Ohio Supreme Court gave former Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Oversight commissioner George L. Forbes a six-month suspension from practicing law after his conviction on six charges of ethics violations.
Forbes may continue practicing law during the suspension as long as he refrains from further misconduct, the court said on Thursday, June 11.
Forbes, a Democrat who served 26 years on the Cleveland City Council and served 10 years on the BWC Oversight Commission, took an active role in shaping the bureau’s investment policies. Brokers and money managers, anxious to get a slice of the BWC’s $20.9 billion investment portfolio, often made sales pitches to Forbes and other Oversight Commission members, investigators said.
But Forbes crossed ethical lines when he accepted freebies, including charter flights, limo rides and meals, from brokers and failed to report the gifts on his annual financial disclosure statements. Forbes was convicted in 2007.
TweetHouse rejects Senate budget; conference committee next
The Ohio House on Wednesday, June 10, rejected the Senate’s $53.5 billion version of the state budget.
The vote sets the stage for a House-Senate conference committee to try to come up with a compromise version of the budget for Gov. Ted Strickland to sign before July 1, start of the new fiscal year.
House Finance Committee Chairman Vern Sykes, D-Akron, identified the conference committee’s big problem. Gloomy, revised revenue projections, expected to be released on Thursday, June 11, will force the committee to cut “hundreds of millions” and possibly billions from the final version of the budget, Sykes said.
Rep. Matt Dolan, R-Novelty, a former House Finance Committee chairman, cast the only vote in favor of accepting the Senate’s version of the budget. Senators said they had cut more than $600 million from the version passed earlier by the House.
Earlier Wednesday, Gov. Ted Strickland and the two legislative leaders- House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, and Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, said the goal is to reach agreement by the June 30 deadline and avoid having to pass an interim budget. The last time the state had an interim budget was in 1991.
“It doesn’t get any easier for us to do and it continues to put us further in debt,” said Harris.
TweetCourt upholds ban on residency rules
In a 5-2 decision, the Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday, June 10, ruled that a 2006 state law banning residency restrictions is constitutional.
Cities such as Dayton have long required their employees to live within the city limits as a condition of employment. In 2006, the General Assembly passed a law banning local jurisdictions from imposing residency requirements. Cities, including Dayton, Toledo, Akron, Lima and Cleveland, challenged the law, saying it violated cities’ home rule authority to self-governance.
The court decided the Akron and Lima cases on Wednesday. The other cases, including Dayton’s, had been held pending Wednesday’s decision but it’s expected the court will apply the Akron-Lima decision to those cases.
Dayton City Manager Rashad Young said he is disappointed in today’s Supreme Court ruling.
Young said the city has always considered residency a home-rule issue and because of that disagrees with the Supreme Court ruling today. The city is reviewing the ruling currently and will have a press conference at 2:30 p.m. at City Hall after city leaders have had a chance to read the entire ruling.
Justice Judith Lanzinger and Chief Justice Thomas Moyer dissented. Lanzinger wrote that the court was opening the door for the General Assembly to possibly “eviscerate municipal home rule.”
Joanne Huist Smith contributed to this story.
TweetStrickland sees “embryonic” signs of recovery in Ohio
NCR has decided to pull out of Dayton and GM is closing three facilities in Ohio. But Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland said Tuesday, June 9, that he’s seeing some signs of recovery in Ohio.
Strickland said a foreign technology company recently selected Ohio as its North American headquarters, a decision which will bring “significant” jobs to the Buckeye State. But he wouldn’t spill the beans on who the company is, where it plans to locate or how many jobs are on the way. He said if all goes as planned, that company will bring jobs as soon as the first quarter of next year.
He said he’s also hopeful that plans for passenger rail between Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus and Cleveland spur economic development. Ohio Department of Transportation Director Jolene Molitoris said the state is in the running to manufacture rail cars.
Strickland, who spoke to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke Tuesday about NCR, also cites JPMorgan Chase’s decision to bring more than 1,000 new jobs to Ohio as evidence of recovery.
“Some things are beginning to happen that show signs that recovery may be on the way,” he said.
TweetHigh-speed rail in Ohio? Strickland is optimistic.
If all goes well, Ohio passengers could be riding the rails between Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati as soon as the first quarter of 2011, Gov. Ted Strickland said Tuesday, June 9.
Ohio;s governor was in Washington to try to ensure that all goes well. He met with the Secretary of Transportation and the president of Amtrak as part of his bid to garner $400 million in economic stimulus dollars to redevelop passenger rail service between the four cities.
The last time the state had passenger rail service between those cities was in 1971, according to the state’s transportation director, Jolene Molitoris.
The “Three-C” corridor, which Strickland called the “Three C and D” corridor, has already been selected by the Federal Railroad Administration as one of the nation’s designated high-speed rail corridors. Strickland said current best estimates indicate it will cost $400 million or less to relaunch passenger rail between the four cities.
Amtrak is currently studying the cost and interest in such a corridor. The economic stimulus bill set aside about $8 billion nationally for passenger rail, and Strickland hopes that fund will foot the bill entirely for the development of the rail corridor. Currently, Amtrak operates passenger rail between Chicago, Toledo and Cleveland. Strickland said Tuesday he’s working to expand that service as well.
He’s also been working with Norfolk Southern and CSX about using their right of way.
On Tuesday, Strickland met with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Amtrak President Joseph Boardman. Strickland has already talked to LaHood about the proposal. He said he’s also talked to President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden about passenger rail service in Ohio.
Molitoris, who served as the head of the railroad administration during the Clinton administration, said operating costs are $11 million or less annually in 12 of the 14 states with passenger rail service.
As for the high-speed: Molitoris said passenger rail initially would top out at 79 miles per hour. Over time, the state hopes to be able to ramp up to speeds as high as 120 miles per hour, she said.
State officials are hopeful that development of passenger rail could spur additional economic investment in the state. Ohio is among the states in competition to have passenger rail cars manufactured in Ohio, Molitoris said.
Strickland said a handful of states are clamoring for stimulus dollars to develop passenger rail. Ohio, he said, can’t be left behind or it will be an “island.”
“The fact that Ohio is largely devoid of passenger service is intolerable,” he said.
TweetU.S. Commerce Secretary gives Strickland hope
Gov. Ted Strickland spoke for half an hour on Tuesday, June 9, with U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and was pleased with what Locke had to say about efforts to revive Ohio’s economy.
“He told me that he was personally impressed with some of the efforts that we’ve undertaken in Ohio. He would like to see Ohio used as a model in terms of how the state may try to mobilize following this kind of economic dislocation,” Strickland said.
He said he spoke to Locke specifically about Dayton, hit hard by NCR”s decision to move its headquarters to Georgia, and also about Moraine, Mansfield and Twinsburg, communities affected by auto industry cutbacks.
Strickland said he asked Locke, former governor of Washington, to make sure that applications for federal aid from these communities “were given an appropriate hearing and evaluation.”
“I felt like he was being sincere and and not just pandering to me,” said Strickland.
Strickland said he also told Locke of his opposition to the use of federal stimulus money to lure jobs from one state to another.
“He assured me that he felt very strongly the same as I did, that stimulus dollars should be used to create and retain jobs,” not to lure jobs from one state to another.
Columbus, Ga., has applied for $5 million in federal stimulus money to buy a building to house some NCR employees and to build a second building to accommodate 870 NCR manufacturing jobs.
Also Tuesday, Strickland said he spoke personally with Bruce Langos, chief operating officer of Teradata Corp., and Langos told him “they had no interest in thinking of any kind of relocation.”
“He expressed to me his great satisfaction with being in Dayton, his ability to attract the kind of talent that Teradata needs. Teradata split off from NCR in 2007. It specializes in data warehousing.
TweetOhio AFL-CIO endorses four-casino ballot proposal
The Ohio AFL-CIO on Tuesday, June 9, announced that it has endorsed a ballot proposal for casinos in Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Toledo.
“When enacted, this casino proposal will bring a much-needed major private investment infusion into Ohio’s struggling economy,” Ohio AFL-CIO President Joe Rugola said in a press release.
The Ohio AFL-CIO represents about 700,000 workers in 40 national unions, the release said.
The four-casino plan is backed by Penn National Gaming of Wyomissing, Pa., and Dan Gilbert, majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Supporters of the plan must turn in 402,275 signatures from registered voters by July 1 to get the issue on the November ballot.
TweetDevelopment director heads to Dayton for post-NCR help
Lisa Patt-McDaniel, interim director of the Ohio Development Department, will meet with local officials and business leaders on Friday, June 12, in Dayton to discuss state help for the area in the wake of NCR’s decision to move its corporate headquarters to Georgia, Montgomery County Commissioner Dan Foley said on Tuesday, June 9.
The meeting is in addition to the proposal for state aid that state Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, has been developing, Foley, a Democrat said. It will be a public meeting, said Foley.
“We don’t want to wait on this,” said Foley. “We need some short-term assistance.”
Possible state help, said Foley, could include: tax breaks for businesses, job training money and help from the Ohio Department of Transportation.
State legislators, county and city of Dayton officials and representatives from U.S. Rep. Mike Turner’s office are among those being invited to the 9 a.m. meeting, said Foley. Representatives from the Dayton Development Coalition and the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce also are being invited, said Foley.
“What we’re trying to do is get all the stakeholders around one table,” said Foley.
An aide to Patt-McDaniel confirmed that she will be at the meeting.
TweetOPERS investments chief out
The woman in charge of investing more than $60 billion for nearly a million public workers and retirees resigned.
The Ohio Public Employees Retirement System announced Monday June 8 that Jennifer Hom, the pension system’s chief investment officer since 2005, has resigned for personal reasons
OPERS Chief Executive Chris DeRose praised Hom’s work ethic and accomplishments and said he would coordinate investments with senior staff until a new investment officer is hired.
Hom joined OPERS in 2002 as the fixed income portfolio manager, became senior investment officer of global bonds in 2003 and landed the top investment job in 2005.
Hom could not be reached for comment on Monday.
TweetTrial for former Dann aide scheduled
Tony Gutierrez, a central character in the Marc Dann administration scandal, is scheduled for trial Aug. 17 on criminal charges before Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Laurel Beatty.
Gutierrez, 51, faces six felony and four misdemeanor charges alleging he ran his private construction company on state time, filed fraudulent workers’ compensation paperwork, and illegally converted campaign money for personal use.
Beatty, who was appointed to the bench by Gov. Ted Strickland, is the step-daughter of former House Minority Leader Joyce Beatty, who was among those who called for Dann’s resignation a year ago.
In February 2007, Dann hired Gutierrez, his friend and neighbor, to run the mail room, purchasing, maintenance and vehicle operations for the attorney general’s office. Dann, Gutierrez and Leo Jennings III, another Dann friend and top aide, shared a condo in suburban Columbus the Dann for Ohio campaign rented.
A year later, two female junior staff members accused Gutierrez of sexual harassment, including for behavior at the apartment. In January, the state agreed to pay the two a combined $495,000 to settle the case.
The charges against Gutierrez include two counts of unauthorized use of property, two counts of receiving improper compensation, single counts of theft in office, prohibited election activities and filing a false financial disclosure statement, and three counts of workers’ compensation fraud. He faces up to eight years in prison and $20,000 in fines if convicted on all charges.
TweetBrunner supports gay rights legislation
Democrat Jennifer Brunner, who is running for her party’s nomination for the 2010 U.S. Senate race, is supporting a bill in the Ohio House that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
“Our state and our nation have long banned discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender and religion,” Brunner said in a press release. “These matters are not matters of choice, but of the diversity of the human condition. Discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity are incompatible with our laws guaranteeing freedom from discriminatory treatment. We must become a more tolerant society, respecting one another and guaranteeing equal rights to the freedoms and prosperity of our society to all.”
House Bill 176 is expected to pass the Democrat-controlled House but it may stall in the GOP-controlled Senate. This is the fourth time in eight years that such legislation has been introduced in Ohio.
At the federal level, the Employee Non-Discrimination Act is expected to be introduced in Congress this year.
Brunner, who is secretary of state, is up against Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher for the Democratic nomination. On the Republican side, the leading contender is former U.S. Rep. and White House budget director Rob Portman.
TweetEx-con turned lawyer gets off probation
Derek Farmer, an attorney who served 18 years in prison as an accomplice to two Dayton murders, got his law license back a year ago on a probationary status. On Friday, June 5, the Ohio Supreme Court took him off probation.
In November 2006, the supreme court suspended Farmer for a year for misconduct and reinstated his license in April 2008. The complaints against Farmer stemmed from two imprisoned clients and their families, who paid Farmer for work in 2002. He later withdrew from representing them and his work for his fees was disputed.
Farmer was sent to prison for his role in the 1974 shooting deaths of Dayton police Sgt. William K. Mortimer and civil rights leader W.S. McIntosh in the wake of a jewelry store robbery in downtown Dayton. Farmer was 16 at the time.
McIntosh was outside the jewelry store as Farmer and his nephew, Calvin Jerome Farmer, then 18, ran from the shop and he told them to stop. Derek Farmer complied. His cousin shot McIntosh. That same morning, Derek Farmer surrendered seconds before his nephew fatally shot Mortimer, 43, as police closed in on a housing project in Dayton.
Calvin Farmer was convicted of murder, but served the then eight-year minimum before he was paroled in 1983.
While in prison Derek Farmer earned his high school and college diplomas before his release on Oct. 29, 1992. He passed the bar in 1999.
TweetTurner, Boehner fire off letter criticizing Georgia NCR stimulus request
U.S. Reps. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, and House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, have fired off a letter to President Barack Obama to protest the fact that Columbus, Ga., has requested stimulus money to help pay for the purchase of a building that will house NCR jobs.
“We think you would agree that federal stimulus dollars should not be used to allow one state to gain jobs at the expense of another state,” the two wrote in a letter dated June 3. “It appears federal stimulus funds played a role in NCR’s decision to relocate jobs from Ohio and centralize its operations in Georgia. Certainly luring jobs away from one state to another state violates the spirit of the law.”
Their letter comes one day after a handful of Ohio lawmakers sent angry press releases denouncing Columbus, Ga.’s request of about $5 million to help fund the purchase of a building and construction of another building to house NCR manufacturing jobs.
Those jobs would not come from the Dayton facility - Dayton’s jobs are going to Duluth, Ga. - but would come from a company in Columbia, S.C. that NCR has contracted with to manufacture ATMs.
Columbus, Ga., mayor Jim Wetherington said Wednesday that the city sent in the proposal to NCR fully prepared to foot the city’s $6.5 million share itself. It hopes to get stimulus money, he said, to offset the city’s $6.5 million tab. The state of Georgia also expects to commit $1.5 million to purchase the building and construct the other building, he said.
Wetherington said the city didn’t apply for stimulus money until after it was selected for the NCR site.
An Obama administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, reiterated that no money has been awarded yet and “the administration obviously had no role in the relocation. “
The administration “does not provide funds to incentivize a corporate relocation from one U.S. region to another, and will review every request very carefully,” the Obama administration official said.
Still, lawmakers are prepared to continue to make hay of this. Boehner, in a weekly press conference with national media Thursday, June 4, denounced the stimulus request as an attempt to lure a Fortune 500 company from Dayton, and used it as an example of how flawed he believes the stimulus bill is.
TweetStrickland, Kasich agree - sort of - on stimulus bucks and NCR
Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and former Republican U.S. Rep. John Kasich, Strickland’s potential challenger next year, don’t seem to agree on much but they may have one thing in common.
Both think using any federal stimulus money to help NCR leave Dayton and consolidate its world headquarters in Atlanta stinks.
“The governor believes federal Recovery Act resources were provided to states to create and retain jobs in their communities, not to be used as a tool to raid jobs in other states,” Amanda Wurst, Strickland’s spokeswoman, said in a prepared statement.
Rob Nichols, Kasich’s press secretary provided this:
“Ohioans will remember that Gov. Strickland led his fellow governors to Washington, D.C. to beg for federal stimulus money to bail him out. Now that same money is being used by the state of Georgia to lure NCR away from its 125 years home in Dayton, Ohio.”
The federal bucks haven’t exactly landed in Georgia yet.
Columbus, Ga. Mayor Jim Wetherington told Dayton Daily News Washington correspondent Jessica Wehrman that his city has requested $5 million in stimulus money to go toward buying a building for NCR employees and also for construction of a building for an NCR manufacturing operation.
See Wehrman’s story for details.
TweetTurner drafting letter to Obama on NCR
U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, is drafting a letter to President Barack Obama to protest Columbus, Ga.’s request for federal economic stimulus money to buy a building that would hold NCR manufacturing jobs.
Turner said he planned to send the letter Wednesday, June 3.
He said he was “very concerned that this stimulus money may be used by states to steal jobs and buy jobs from other communities.”
Columbus, Ga., has said it will pay for $6.5 million of the $8 million to buy a building that once held Panasonic in Columbus. The money will also go towards the construction of a new 100,000 square foot building, according to Columbus Mayor Jim Wetherington.
Wetherington said the city has requested about $5 million in stimulus money, but does not know if it will receive it. The money would go toward their $6.5 million tab if they received it. Georgia’s two U.S. senators have written to Vice-President Joe Biden supporting the request.
NCR said it does not expect many, if any, of the 870 jobs expected to come to Columbus to be jobs currently located in Dayton. Instead, those jobs are manufacturing jobs that currently are being performed in Columbia, S.C.
Still, Turner argued that any federal money going toward the consolidation of NCR’s world headquarters in Atlanta was money that would cost Dayton jobs.
TweetBrown protests stimulus money for NCR move in letter to Commerce Secretary
Sen. Sherrod Brown is concerned about reports that the city of Columbus, Ga., has requested economic stimulus money to pay for the purchase of a building and the creation of another building to bring NCR jobs to Georgia.
Here’s why: NCR announced earlier this week that it plans to consolidate its world headquarters in the Atlanta suburbs. That means 2,000 jobs currently in Dayton will go south.
The 870 jobs Columbus, Ga., expects to get are manufacturing jobs that are currently being performed in Columbia, S.C., by a company that contracts with NCR. Jim Wetherington, the mayor of Columbus, Ga., said the city plans on footing $6.5 million of the $8 million bill to purchase the building, with the state kicking in the rest of the money. They haven’t received any stimulus money yet, nor does it know if it will get any, but Wetherington said should he get the approximately $5 million requested, he would put it toward the city’s share of the $8 million.
Still, Brown and other Ohio lawmakers argue that stimulus money should not be used to relocate jobs.
Brown, D-Ohio, fired off a letter to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke Wednesday, June 3, saying as much.
“The purpose of the (economic stimulus bill) is to create or retain jobs, not to relocate them from state to state,” Brown wrote. “Stimulus funds should not be used in a manner that benefits one local economy at the expense of another.‚”
Full letter after the jump:
June 3, 2009
The Honorable Gary Locke Secretary U.S. Department of Commerce 1401 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20230
Dear Secretary Locke:
I write to express my deep concern that funds provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) might be used to relocate jobs from Ohio to Georgia.
NCR Corporation, a manufacturer of ATMs headquartered in Dayton, Ohio for the past 125 years, has announced plans to consolidate its operations and build a new global headquarters and manufacturing site in Columbus, Georgia. NCR’s departure from Dayton will result in the loss of 1,300 Ohio jobs.
NCR has stated that the planned relocation of its headquarters has been made possible Recovery Act funding. The City of Columbus, Georgia, apparently has requested ARRA funds, provided by the Economic Development Administration (EDA), to purchase the building for the new plant, which will be leased back by NCR.
The purpose of the ARRA is to create or retain jobs, not to relocate them from state to state. Stimulus funds should not be used in a manner that benefits one local economy at the expense of another, whether the request comes from Columbus, Georgia or Columbus, Ohio.
I urge you to consider this matter carefully and take measures to prevent ARRA funds from being used for this purpose.
Sincerely,
Sherrod Brown
Yates drops out of Senate race
State Rep. Tyrone Yates, D-Cincinnati, ended his campaign for U.S. Senate, saying he felt he didn’t have enough time to run for Senate and do his job in the Ohio House.
Yates’ departure leaves the Democratic primary a two person race between Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher.
They are vying for a chance to run in 2010 for the seat now held by U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, who announced he won’t seek re-election.
TweetSenate approves budget; conference committee next
The Ohio Senate on Wednesday, June 3, approved its version of a $53 billion state budget but the vote was just a prelude to a House-Senate conference committee that will try to reach a compromise version of a two-year spending plan for Gov. Ted Strickland to sign before July 1, start of the new fiscal year.
“I’m not going to stand up and say this is the greatest budget in the world,” said Sen. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, as the more than three hours of debate drew to a close. “I’m also not going to say it’s terrible.”
All Republicans voted “yes”, including Sen. Jon Husted of Kettering. All Democrats, including Sen. Fred Strahorn of Dayton voted “no.”
The battle lines on the budget, House Bill 1, are are drawn between the House version, passed earlier, and the Senate version. The Democrat-controlled House version modified but kept intact Strickland’s “evidence-based model” for a school funding overhaul. The GOP-controlled Senate mainly dismantled Democrat Strickland’s plan for schools. The Senate also restored spending for charter schools that wasn’t in the House budget or the one proposed by Strickland.
The Senate budget also would permit drilling for oil and gas in state parks and on other state property.
TweetWatch this: $8 billion coming to Ohio
Although Ohio is expected to receive $8 billion in stimulus money, federal authorities have yet to develop a spreadsheet listing who is getting how much, according to state Auditor Mary Taylor.
Taylor, who is responsible for auditing state and local government spending, including the stimulus money, said Wednesday June 3 that such a spreadsheet would be helpful.
Taylor set up a system to start tracking and auditing the stimulus money that is expected to flow into Ohio in the coming months. She notified local governments and state agencies that they must report what they receive, how they plan to spend it and how they actually spend it to her office.
The online system, OhioStimulusTracker.com, allows Ohioans to look up stimulus money projects and to report instances where they see fraud or waste.
“Ohioans deserve to know how that money is being spent,” Taylor said. “Accountability and transparency are important to the proper function of government and my office is making this site available to the public as we gather information necessary to properly audit the receipt and use of those monies.”
TweetUmbilical cord blood bill passes House
Pregnant women in Ohio would be told about the benefits of donating their newborn’s umbilical cord blood, if a bill adopted by the Ohio House on Wednesday June 3 becomes law.
The House voted unanimously in favor of the Cord Blood Education Bill.
“This critically important health care bill will promote steps that save lives,” said Rep. Todd Book, D-McDermott. “Cord blood donation is easy, and parents can donate it to a public bank or store it for possible family use.”
Cord blood is from a newborn’s umbilical cord and the placenta. It is collected after a baby is delivered and the cord has been clamped and cut.
There are more than 75 diseases that can now be helped through cord blood transplantation, including sickle cell anemia, diabetes, and blood cancers, according to Book.
Ohio Right to Life, the Catholic Council of Churches, and the National Cord Blood Registry support the bill, which now goes to the Senate for consideration.
TweetHow not to hold a press conference
Ohio and federal environmental officials staged a press conference at the Statehouse Wednesday June 3 that could be used as a case study in a public relations textbook on what not to do.
First, nobody told reporters about it until after it was scheduled to start. Second, nobody brought press releases.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson came to Ohio to announce the state would receive $5 million in federal stimulus to retrofit 280 diesel trucks to make them cleaner and Hamilton County would receive $1 million to retrofit 60 school buses.
As she spoke on an outdoor plaza on the Statehouse grounds, a firetruck siren drown out part of her remarks and wind blew over some of the displays. And half a dozen protesters complaining about mountaintop coal mining positioned themselves to get in the TV camera shots.
At least it wasn’t raining.
TweetRomney to stump for Portman in Cincinnati
Prospective 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will spend part of his day in Ohio stumping for U.S. Senate candidate Rob Portman.
Republican sources confirmed that the 2008 Republican candidate and former Massachusetts governor will be in Cincinnati today to stump for Portman at a private fundraiser.
Democrats, unsurprisingly, leapt on the visit.
“Last year, Mitt Romney was arguing against ‘sending the same people back to Washington’ who got us into the situation we are in today,” said Ohio Democratic Party Chair Chris Redfern. “We’ll take that to be a stinging rebuke of Rob Portman and an endorsement of our candidates. After all, sending Rob Portman back to Washington will get us the same irresponsible economic policies he masterminded during his decades there.”
UPDATE:
This from Portman campaign manager Bob Paduchik: “Gov. Romney’s in town to help us raise money for what we know is going to be a very expensive and hard-fought campaign….the Democrats are going to use the same old playbook of negative attacks while Rob Portman is talking about the future, how to create jobs, and how to get the economy back on track in Ohio.”
TweetUPDATED: Senate plan calls for oil and gas drilling at state parks
The Ohio Senate on Wednesday, June 3, is expected to approve a version of the state budget, House Bill 1, that will permit drilling for oil and gas at state parks and other state properties.
“Drilling technology has come a long way and can be done safely and unobtrusively,” Sen. Keith Faber, R-Celina, said in a press release. “This proposal provides a new and stable revenue source for our state parks that doesn’t burden taxpayers and will increase domestic fuel production.”
However, Jack Shaner, deputy director of the Ohio Environmental Council, objected.
“It’s hard to simultaneously preserve parks and drill our parks,” said Shaner.
After the Senate approves its $53 billion version of the state budget, a House-Senate conference committee is expected to be formed to work out a compromise with the version of the budget passed earlier by the House.
The goal is to have the budget passed and signed by Gov. Ted Strickland before July 1, start of the new fiscal year.
This is from Sen. Keith Faber, R-Celina, sponsor of the proposal. It could bring in $20 million in lease bonus payments initially and annual revenue to the state between $3 million and $5 million.
TweetBrown becomes the latest to Twitter
Just don’t call them Twits.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has become the latest Ohio lawmaker to join “Twitter” - that one-sentence blogging mechanism that lawmakers have increasingly relied upon to update constituents on what they’re doing.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester twits. So does U.S. Reps. Steve Austria, R-Beavercreek and Jim Jordan, R-Urbana. And don’t forget Kevin DeWine, chair of the Ohio Republican Party.
What do these “tweets” say?
It’s hardly philosophical stuff. Instead, most just give people an update as to where lawmakers are, or what they’re doing.
Austria wrote Wednesday, June 3: “Had opportunity to visit opening of ATK new facility. Another example of a business growing and creating new jobs during an economic crisis.”
Here’s Boehner, on Tuesday, June 2: “NCR to leave Dayton after 125 years. 1,300 jobs lost. Ohio needs pro-jobs leadership in Columbus: http://is.gd/MxYO”
As for Brown, here’s his maiden tweet: “Sen. Brown at CAF conference health care reform ‘public option MUST be part of health reform.’
TweetBrown on NCR
Sen. Sherrod Brown went to the White House Tuesday, June 2, for a meeting on health care. He wound up bending the ear of two White House aides on NCR.
Brown, D-Ohio, is calling for a coordinated federal response to NCR’s decision to move operations from Dayton to Atlanta. He spoke to Phil Schiliro, assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs, and David Axelrod, a senior advisor to President Barack Obama, he said Tuesday night.
“It’s another hit to Ohio,” he said. “They’re real concerned.”
He said he will call for a coordinated federal response, with one coordinator leading the federal effort to help Dayton. He made a similar request when DHL decided to pull out of Wilmington. Brown has also introduced legislation calling for federal coordination of cities that have suffered significant economic distress.
Brown said he had only heard rumors about NCR pulling out before company officials announced they were doing so.
“This was a company that didn’t work well with the community,” he said. “And the company used to be the community.”
TweetJohn Boehner weighs in on NCR
TweetLawmakers look to close payday lending loopholes
State lawmakers are looking to pass a new law that would close off loopholes that the payday lending industry is using to continue charging high-interest, high fee loans in Ohio.
A year ago, Gov. Ted Strickland signed into law a measure designed to cap short-term loans at 28 percent annual percentage rates, down from as high as 391 percent. And last fall Ohioans voted by nearly a 2 to 1 margin to uphold that law.
But it didn’t quite do the trick.
Payday lenders are now offering short-term loans under other sections of Ohio’s laws and charging extra fees.
The loan industry calls it perfectly legal. State Rep. Matt Lundy, D-Elyria, calls it thumbing their noses at the law.
Lundy is introducing a bill Wednesday, June 3, that would require all loans of 90 days or less and $1,000 or less to be interest only - no fees. It would also extend protections in Ohio’s Consumer Sales Practice Act to payday borrowers.
Currently, Ohio has 959 payday lending stores, down from 1,571 in April 2008, according to state data.
In March, the Housing Research and Advocacy Center in Cleveland issued a study that said payday lenders got licensed through the Small Loan Act and the Mortgage Loan Act, which allow them to make 14-day loans with an APR of 423 percent to 680 percent, respectively. Some stores started issuing loans through a money order or check and then charged a fee to cash the order or check, the study said.
Bill Faith, executive director of the Coalition on Housing and Homelessness in Ohio, ran the successful campaign to pass Issue 5 only to find that payday lenders found a way to pile on fees. “It is just a way to get back to charging the rates they were charging before. It’s a way for them to circumvent the law,” Faith said.
Jamie Fulmer, spokesman for Advance America, the largest payday lender, said Lundy’s bill “is designed to, quite frankly, eliminate branch-based lending in Ohio. We certainly don’t support that. It would put the 3,000 workers out of work and limit the choices that consumers have.”
Payday lenders offer loans with a 28 percent APR but it’s up to the consumers to decide which financial product they need, Fulmer said.
“We are trying to meet the needs of consumers in Ohio by providing products they find value in,” Fulmer said.
TweetOn heels of NCR announcement, Brown announces more money for unemployed Ohioans
One day after NCR announced it is moving its headquarters to Atlanta, Sen. Sherrod Brown announced $88.2 million in new federal funds that will help unemployed Ohioans. The money is part of a pool of money approved as part of the economic recovery package earlier this year and will provide unemployment insurance benefits to unemployed workers.
“Help for unemployed workers couldn’t come at a better time,” Brown, D-Ohio, said. “These funds will provide critical assistance to Ohio workers while stimulating the economy. They will be used to help unemployed Ohioans and their families make ends meet and will help displaced workers find new employment opportunities.”
TweetLawmaker reactions to NCR leaving Dayton
Quotes in reaction to NCR’s announcement that it will pull out of Dayton and relocate to the suburbs of Atlanta, Ga.:
“I have called Mr. (Bill) Nuti many times without a single response…The first time the state government spoke with Mr. Nuti was in the last 24 hours,” Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher
“We are extremely disappointed to hear that NCR, a company with a 125-year history in our state, announced today that it will be moving its headquarters to Georgia. NCR’s history in Ohio is rooted in the Dayton region’s skilled work force, and our focus and concern now turns to the workers that are impacted by this news. These workers have served the company with dedication and loyalty, and the state stands ready and willing to help Ohioans in any way we can.” Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland
“NCR has been part of the Dayton community for 125 years and has helped shaped the city’s manufacturing identity. Ohio’s economy is suffering a death by a thousand cuts as job losses pile up around the state. This dismaying news, coupled with a state unemployment rate of more than 10 percent, is a definitive statement that Ohio’s current economic policies are driving essential businesses and valuable jobs out of our state.” House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester.
“NCR’s legacy is directly tied to the innovative spirit, ingenuity and hard work of the region. The NCR workforce deserves much credit for the company’s success, and its mark on our community remains strong today. NCR may be leaving Dayton, but the creative spirit that gave birth to it remains in the Miami Valley.” U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville
“The Miami Valley has already been greatly affected by the economic crisis. The closing of NCR represents an economic disaster that should be treated with the same level of response that the federal government gives to a natural disaster. We need to ensure that workers and communities receive coordinated and timely assistance from the federal government. We need to connect workers with retraining resources and work together to find a productive use for the NCR facility,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio
“I am very concerned for the workers, families and communities who will be negatively impacted by NCR’s announcement. I am also very disappointed that neither state officials nor my office were given a legitimate opportunity to take every step necessary to try to save those jobs prior to the company’s announcement. After 125 years in our community and state, Ohio should have at least been given the chance to compete with Georgia to keep these jobs and this business in our area,” U.S. Rep. Steve Austria, R-Beavercreek
TweetCarl Wick to leave state education board
After eight years on the State Board of Education, Republican Carl Wick is calling it quits.
Wick, 69, said he wants to travel to see his children and grandchildren and spend more time with his harness racing business. He said he also serves as chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank in Cincinnati, which has been taking up more of his time.
“So many things kind of piled up and I thought ‘Gee, I need to clean my plate.’ And the state board was it,” said Wick, of Centerville.
In the spring of 2001, then-Gov. Bob Taft appointed Wick to fill unexpired term of Diana Fessler, who had been elected to the Ohio House. When Wick stood for election, he lost to John Griffin in a three-way race. Taft then appointed Wick to board seat. The board is a mix of appointees and elected members.
Wick, a former science teacher and NCR Corp. manager, helped the state write and adopt academic standards, including controversial science standards that triggered a hot debate over whether creationists were trying to insert religion into the science curriculum.
Wick will serve until July 31. State Board of Education President Jennifer Sheets announced she’ll leave at the end of June.
Wick said he’ll continue to serve as treasurer for state Sen. Jon Husted’s campaign committee but he is also pulling back from his involvement in local and Ohio GOP politics.
TweetWorkers canned for just cause can’t sue for age bias
Workers fired for just cause can’t turn around and sue their former employer for age discrimination, the Ohio Supreme Court said in a 6-1 ruling Tuesday, June 2.
The court ruled that former United Parcel Service employee Robert Meyer can’t sue for age discrimination because of a state law that bans such suits when the worker’s termination has been arbitrated and found to be for just cause.
After a union-management grievance panel rejected his claim that he had been fired without just cause, Meyer filed suit in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court in May 2004. Meyer won $113,000 in back pay and $200,000 in damages plus attorney fees, court costs and interest.
But UPS then won an appeal in the First District Court of Appeals and the company asked the Supreme Court to review the case.
Meyer filed a separate claim of wrongful termination in retaliation for filing a workers’ compensation claim. That part of the case was sent back to the trial court.
TweetKasich blasts Strickand as “caretaker”; enters race for governor
WESTERVILLE - Blasting incumbent Democrat Ted Strickland as a “caretaker” who held out a “tin cup” for help from Washington, D.C., Republican John Kasich on Monday, June 1, launched his campaign for governor with a pledge to, over time, wipe out Ohio’s income tax.
Kasich, 57, a former U.S. House member for 18 years, drew loud applause from a crowd his aides estimated at about 2,000. They gathered outside the Everal Barn and Homestead in the first rally of his campaign.
Democrats earlier Monday already started trashing Kasich as a tool of Wall Street. He served as a managing director of Lehman Brothers, the investment banking firm that went bankrupt in 2008, after leaving Congress.
“Ohio does not need a governor from Wall Street,” said Chris Redfern, Ohio Democratic chairman.
Ohio, however, needs Kasich, said Braden Black of Vandalia, CEO of Skilled Trade, a company that provides skilled trade workers to companies. He had never met Kasich but attended the rally and liked the speech.
“It was very good,” said Black.
State Sen. Kevin Coughlin, R-Cuyahoga Falls, also is seeking the GOP nomination for governor.
TweetKasich’s fans include South Lebanon’s Carbo
Sherri Carbo of South Lebanon in Warren County has known John Kasich since she was 17 years old. She helped Kasich win his first race to the Ohio Senate in 1978.
Now 47, Carbo, a village councilwoman, was on hand Monday, June 1, at the Everal Barn and Homestead in Westerville to hear Republican Kasich officially launch his campaign for governor.
“Any one who can balance the budget for the country can only have good things in store for Ohio,” said Carbo, chair of a “Kasich for Governor” leadership group in Warren County.
Kasich led efforts to balance the budget while serving as U.S. House Budget Committee chairman in the 1990s.
Hundreds of Kasich backers gathered on a slightly muggy day to await Kasich’s appearance, set for about 6 p.m.
TweetSenators on GM
Sens. Sherrod Brown and George Voinovich both send out statements today expressing their sympathy for Ohio workers whose livelihoods are at risk because of GM’s bankruptcy filing.
Here’s Brown, D-Ohio: “A bankruptcy filing by General Motors will test our nation’s resolve in rebuilding our manufacturing base. GM is a crucial part of our nation’s economy. As we work to help GM through bankruptcy, we must also work to rebuild a thriving domestic manufacturing industry.”
He said the federal government must ensure that taxpayer dollars go to build cars at home, not abroad, and promised to work toward rebuilding the nation’s manufacturing base.
“We need to ensure that GM emerges as a stronger company that utilizes Ohio’s talented auto workers and suppliers to build the fuel-efficient vehicles of the 21st century,” he said. “More government assistance to GM is about supporting domestic manufacturing, rather than just upholding a brand.”
And, as he called for with DHL, Brown called for a “timely,” “targeted” coordinated federal response.
Voinovich, R-Ohio, meanwhile, expressed sadness that three Ohio facilities - in Mansfield, Groveport and Parma - were targetedd for closing, and promise to work with his fellow senators and the administration to get displaced auto workers assistance.
“I am hopeful that this bankruptcy process will result in a strong, viable General Motors that contributes to the communities in which it operates,” he said.
TweetDems, GOP battle as Kasich enters race for governor
Ohio Democrats and Republicans warmed up for Republican John Kasich’s entry into the 2010 governor’s race on Monday, June 1, by bashing each others’ candidates.
Hours before Kasich was to formally enter the race with an announcement in Westerville, the Ohio Democratic Party released a web video trashing Kasich for serving as a managing director for Lehman Brothers after Kasich left the U.S. House in 2001. Lehman Brothers, the investment banking firm, went bankrupt in 2008.
“Ohio does not need a governor from Wall Street,” Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern said at a press conference.
Meanwhile, GOP state chairman Kevin DeWine fired back in a press release, noting that since Democrat Ted Strickland became governor in 2007 that Ohio has lost about 300,000 jobs.
“The only Ohioan who deserves to lose a job in this economy is the guy who promised to turn it around and failed miserably,” DeWine said in the press release.
Kasich invited Ohioans to watch his announcement in Westerville live on his campaign Web site about 5:30 p.m. on www.KasichforOhio.com.
TweetCongressmen weigh in on GM
U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan responded to the GM bankruptcy filing today, June 1, with concern specifically about a Richland County stamping plant set to close in June 2010.
Jordan, R-Urbana, expressing concern about a stamping plant in Ontario, Ohio, which is just west of Mansfield, called the plant “a top-notch facility with recent capital investment, and its employees are among the best workers in the nation.”
He said the decision reinforced his opposition to President Barack Obama’s handling of the Big Three’s problems, saying Obama was “trying to micromanage the American auto industry from the White House.”
“This industry, like any other, is best run by those who know it best - not the federal government,” he said.
He demanded the administration, which has been touring Midwest auto facilities, visit Ontario’s plant, “to tour the facility and look our workers in the eyes to tell them why they chose to close their plant.” And he also called for a a five-year moratorium on the newly-proposed CAFE standards, more incentive for Americans to buy trucks and SUVs and an end to the push for “cap and trade” programs aimed at curbing global warming.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, also pooh-poohed GM’S decision to file for bankruptcy.
“This agreement may buy some time, but does nothing to ensure GM’s success,” he said. “The only thing it makes clear is that the government is firmly in the business of running companies using taxpayer dollars. Does anyone really believe that politicians and bureaucrats in Washington can successfully steer a multinational corporation to economic viability?”
Like Jordan, he criticized the administration for vowing to work to keep GM afloat while increasing CAFE standards that toughened requirements on auto emissions.
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