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Thursday, February 10, 2011
Snitchler named PUCO chair
Gov. John Kasich picked state Rep. Todd Snitchler, R-Uniontown, to replace Alan Schriber as chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
Snitchler, an attorney since 2003, has served on the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee since joining the General Assembly in 2009.
Schriber led the 400-employee PUCO for nearly 18 years before announcing his retirement in November. Schriber served as chairman 1983 to 1989 and rejoined the commission in 1999.
The PUCO regulates electric, natural gas, telecommunications, water, and commercial transportation in the state.
Snitchler’s salary, which has not yet been set by Kasich, will be in the range of $73,715 and $157,955. If his appointment is confirmed by the Ohio Senate, Snitchler will serve the remaining three years on Schriber’s term.
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TweetGovernor will outlaw strikes by state workers if he doesn’t get collective bargaining bill he likes
If lawmakers don’t pass a collective bargaining bill that he likes, Gov. John Kasich on Thursday said he is prepared to wrap his own reforms into his budget bill next month.
“We have got to restore balance (between labor and management,)” Kasich said.
Kasich said his own bill would outlaw strikes and penalize those who do walk off the job by firing them or docking their pay. He also noted that he wants fact-finding reports produced during contract negotiations open to the public so taxpayers know the details.
He declined to provide further details or to comment on Jones’ bill.
While speaking to the Ohio Newspaper Association, Kasich promised reforms that would help governments control their labor costs so that they can keep taxes down, which he sees as essential to helping businesses create jobs in Ohio.
Jones’ bill would prohibit collective bargaining state government’s 40,000 workers, weaken binding arbitration for cops and firefighters, ban public employee strikes, limit local unions right to bargain for health insurance, eliminate automatic step increases, and take away teachers’ right to pick their classes or schools.
The first hearing on the bill drew hundreds of public employees, who protested it as an attack on workers. Unions represent roughly 1 million workers in Ohio, including 130,000 teachers.
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TweetLebanon Raceway operators blast Penn National plans for Dayton track
The operators of Lebanon Raceway on Thursday blasted plans by Penn National Gaming to build a new thoroughbred horse racing track in north Dayton on the grounds of a former Delphi Corp. automotive plant.
“We will strongly oppose” Penn National’s plan to relocate its Beulah Park racing track near Columbus to the north Dayton site, Lou Carlo told a meeting of the the Ohio Racing Commission.
It would detract from Lebanon’s appeal and upset plans to move its operation to a newly built facility if plans go through to permit video slot machines at racetracks, he said. A final decision on a new site has not been made, Carlo said.
“I expect some respect for the work we’ve done,” said Carlo.
Penn National officials have scheduled a 3 p.m. press conference Thursday in Dayton on their plans for the new track.
The Lebanon Trotting Club, owned by the Carlo family, and Miami Valley Trotting, owned by the Nixon family, operate Lebanon Raceway now located at the Warren County fairgrounds in Lebanon.
Carlo’s comments came after Tim Wilmott, Penn National president and CEO, outlined plans to move the Beulah operation to north Dayton and to move Toledo’s Raceway Park operations to a new track near Youngstown. The moves are contingent on allowing the video slots at the tracks.
Wilmott said the relocations would annuallly increase Ohio’s gambling taxes by $209.2 million and racing purses by $18.4 million.
The plans “benefit the state of Ohio and benefit the racing industry in Ohio,” said Wilmott.
He said Penn National didn’t inform other tracks of their plans because the presentation to the racing commission was informational and the company is not formally seeking permission to move the two operations.
Wilmott said he knew there would be some “consternation.”
Penn National’s plans call for investing $200 million to build the new track in Dayton , generating 1,500 jobs in the Dayton area, in addition to 1,000 construction jobs.
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