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Friday, November 20, 2009
Chief Justice Moyer, allies promise campaign to change selection of Supreme Court justices
Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer, the Ohio State Bar Association and the Ohio League of Women Voters want to change the way state Supreme Court justices are selected.
On Friday, Nov. 20, they announced that they will work to build a coalition to support a constitutional amendment to replace statewide elections of the justices with a new system where justices are appointed and stand for a retention election.
“Early next year we will propose a specific plan that we will take back to the partner organizations for formal consideration,” Moyer said in a press release.
The announcement came at the end of a two-day conference in Columbus, “A Forum on Judicial Selection: A Time for Action.”
“What we have learned these two days is that we can do better in Ohio,” Moyer said.
Moyer has said the current system needs to be replaced to remove the perception that campaign contributions influence judicial decisions.
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TweetOhio AFL-CIO president blasts Senate GOP budget plan; threatens legal action
Ohio AFL-CIO President Joe Rugola said on Friday, Nov. 20, that the labor federation will take legal action if Senate Republicans succeed in substituting $200 million in casino licensing fees for money the state already is spending on regional economic development and job creation plans.
“We simply will not tolerate the Ohio Senate or anyone else diverting money from job creation at a time when working families so clearly need all the help they can get,” Rugola said in a press release.
“We are prepared to litigate this issue on behalf of our 700,000 members and workers in our state.”
Tim Burga, Ohio AFl-CIO chief of staff, said the $200 million in the ballot issue approved by voters on Nov. 3 is supposed to be used for new regional job creation efforts, not to replace money for jobs programs already underway.
The ballot issue calls for casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo.
Rugola said that the Ohio AFL-CIO supports the plan passed by the Democratic-controlled House to fill an $851 million budget hole by delaying for two years a 4.2 percent state income tax cut.
Using the $200 million to help fill the hole is part of a Senate GOP plan unveiled this week.
Senate Finance Chairman John Carey, R-Wellston, said that the AFL-CIO has the right to litigate anything it wants to, but added:
“We don’t legislate by threat of lawsuit.”
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TweetOhio pensions sue ratings agencies
Ohio’s public pension systems are suing Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch - companies that provide credit ratings for investments.
The lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Richard Cordray in U.S. District Court, alleges that the three credit rating agencies wreak havoc on U.S. financial markets by providing unjustified and inflated ratings for mortgage-backed securities in exchange for lucrative fees.
“The rating agencies were central players in causing the worst economic crisis in Ohio since the Great Depression. The rating agencies assured our employee pension funds that many of these mortgage-backed securities had the highest credit ratings and the lowest risk,” Cordray said in a written statement. “But they sold their professional objectivity and integrity to the highest bidder. The rating agencies’ total disregard for the life’s work of ordinary Ohioans caused the collapse of our housing and credit markets and is at the heart of what’s wrong with Wall Street today.”
The agencies gave triple A ratings and assured the pension funds and others that the investments were extremely safe, the lawsuit alleges. But the misleading ratings cost Ohio’s pension funds more than $457 million, the suit said.
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., which owns Standard & Poor’s, said, “We believe the claim has no legal or factual merit and we intend to defend ourselves vigorously against it. A recent SEC examination of our business practices found no evidence that decisions about ratings methodologies or models were based on attracting or losing market share.”
The pension systems collectively hold $186 billion in investment portfolios and represent 1.7 million workers, retirees and beneficiaries.
The lawsuit says that the rating agencies knowingly gave favorable reviews to the mortgage-backed securities in part because they received big fees from the same groups that they were supposed to be objectively evaluating.
Cordray said the lawsuit is an attempt toward holding Wall Street accountable for its wrongs.
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