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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2009 > December > 04
Friday, December 4, 2009
Slots-at-the tracks plan appears headed for November 2010 ballot
Gov. Ted Strickland’s slots-at-the-racetracks plan appears to be headed for the November 2010 ballot.
“We’ve got the magic number,” Gene Pierce, treasurer for LetOhioVote.org, said on Friday, Dec. 4.
Pierce said his group has gathered the 241,366 signatures needed to put the issue on the ballot with two weeks to go before a Dec. 20 deadline. They’ll continue gathering signatures to make sure there’s a cushion if, as usually happens, some signatures are thrown out, said Pierce.
The group is committed to defeating the plan, said Pierce.
Dec. 20 is on a Sunday but Jeff Ortega, spokesman for Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, said the secretary of state’s office would open on Sunday if necessary for the group to turn in the signatures.
The campaign to put the issue on the ballot is at the root of the current crisis to fill an $851 million state budget hole.
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled on Sept. 21 that the slots plan is subject to a public referendum, delaying the collection of any revenue from the slots and creating a potential $851 million state budget hole. The plan called for putting the video slots at Ohio’s seven racetracks.
The House has passed a plan to freeze an income tax cut for two years to fill the hole but Senate Republicans are insisting that the plan also include construction reform and prison sentencing reform measures.
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U.S. Rep. Austria forming commission to examine Wright Patterson contracting
U.S. Rep. Steve Austria, R-Beavercreek, is forming a “Blue Ribbon Commission” to examine the contracting process for Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Austria announced on Friday, Dec. 4. The launch will be on Monday, Dec. 7.
The commission’s charge will be to come up with recommendations to increase the number of contracts awarded to local companies to bring more jobs to the area, a press release said.
Commission members will include a “broad cross section of community leaders with extensive experience including those who worked on the base, business leaders and (those) in academia,” the release said.
The commission is expected to include from 15 to 20 members, Austrias office said.
Austria will hold a press availability at 10 a.m. following the commission’s first meeting. The availability will be outside room 270 in Allyn Hall at Wright State University.
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Budget fix becoming legislative “Christmas tree?”
Is the plan to fill an $851 million state budget hole becoming a legislative Christmas tree?
Senate Republicans say they’ll provide five votes for House Bill 318, which would fill the hole by postponing an income tax cut but only if provisions for construction reform and prison sentencing reform are tacked on.
On Friday, Dec. 4, three House Democrats released their own wish list.
Reps. Mike Foley, D-Cleveland (and a Dayton-area native), Ted Celeste, D-Grandview Heights and Denise Driehaus, D-Cincinnati, said they would push to add House Bill 3 - which provides a six-month moratorium on mortgage foreclosures - and House Bill 9 - which requires landlords to notify their tenants if the landlords face foreclosure.
The House has passed both bills but the Senate hasn’t.
“If the Senate is going to pick and choose add-ons….in order to ram them through both chambers - quickly and with little debate - I think it’s reasonable to insist that the House add on foreclosure prevention as well,” Foley said in a press release.
Keary McCarthy, spokesman for House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, said it’s still the Speaker’s preference to keep the bill as clean - free of amendments from the House or Senate - as possible.
