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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > December > 16 > Entry
Editorial: Ohio’s GOP Senate to blame if cuts come
While you’re consumed by the holidays, the politicians who represent you in Columbus are doing nothing to solve a big, urgent financial problem.
They hope you will not notice.
They don’t see things this way, of course. But if they are doing something, it’s not getting the job done.
When the Ohio Supreme Court rightly said Gov. Ted Strickland couldn’t unilaterally put thousands of slot machines at racetracks, that created an $850 million hole in the current two-year budget. The governor was delusional in counting on that money, and doing so has cost him politically.
The court’s decision, however, came down Sept. 21. That means that for almost three months now, everyone has known that something sigfnicant and painful was going to have to be done. You don’t find almost $1 billion under a mattress.
That painful thing is suspending the last increment of a five-year, 21 percent cut in the state personal income tax. Doing so would raise almost exactly the amount that the state is short.
But the decision must be made by Dec. 31 or it won’t affect this year’s tax collections.
The Democrat-controlled Ohio House has voted in favor of a suspension. Gov. Strickland is publicly asking for it. In short, the Democrats went first and got behind the tough decision.
But the Republican-controlled Senate is in chaos.
Some senators don’t want to vote for what they’d like to label a tax increase. Some are worried about disqualifying themselves from being John Kasich’s running mate when he runs for governor against Mr. Strickland next year.
Some are willing to vote for the suspension, but only if they can exact one or more things from the Democrats.
(Five Republican votes are needed; you watch, in the end, if the suspension is adopted, there will only be five votes. That is, no one is going to do the right thing just because it’s the right thing.)
The stakes are this:
If the suspension doesn’t happen, the state will have to cut most of the needed money from schools. And public colleges will be looking at taking big hits, too.
Education in Ohio could be looking at cuts on the order of 10 to 15 percent.
It’s hard to exempt schools and colleges when they’re such a big portion of the budget and considering that other areas — libraries, prisons, mental health services and so forth — have already been clipped hard.
The people who have been intimately involved in the back-and-forth about what to do — including Kettering’s state Sen. Jon Husted — know there is only one reasonable way out.
If the Republicans knew of another path, they would have suggested it. They have not and that’s the outrage. If you’re not for a tax cut suspension, well, what are you for?
The things some Republicans are demanding as a condition of getting their votes — public construction reform and changes in Ohio’s sentencing laws — are not small matters. They deserve to be vetted, not crammed down the public’s throat.
If the changes are so good, they can be passed on their merits — not as a ransom.
Gov. Strickland was reckless in counting on slots for so much money when he knew the idea might not pass constitutional muster. In doing so, he put off hard choices for himself and for the Republicans, too.
The Democrats haved faced those facts. Now the Republicans need to do so.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Education, Ellen Belcher, Ohio government, Ohio politics
Comments
By drunken orangetree
December 16, 2009 5:01 PM | Link to this
The GOP needs to man up and say what they mean: “We think people should be put out of work.”
By Unimpressed
December 16, 2009 5:17 PM | Link to this
For the DDN to use the term”crammed down the public throat” is galling. We have been subjected to the 2009 spectacle of Democrats in Congress & The White House doing the same thing, even as we speak, but there’s no reference or apologies for that since it’s about a liberal, big spending/big government agenda. If Ohio Senate Republicans force cuts to reflect what the private sector has suffered, then so be it. I want my tax cut and reduced state spending as the law and the state’s economy would dictate.
By drunken orangetree
December 16, 2009 9:41 PM | Link to this
“what the private sector has suffered”?! You mean our bailing out the banking industry to the tune of $700 billion? I want some of that suffering.
By Dusty
December 17, 2009 4:53 AM | Link to this
We are taxed enough. We continue to throw money at the Public School System with no results. History
By Melody
December 17, 2009 7:22 AM | Link to this
Shame on you DDN. You call Strickland to blame first, then end with how the Repubilcans are not cooperating. As politics go, you don’t get something for nothing. That is what Repubs are doing…the same thing the Democrats are doing in Washington. Shame on you for making Republicans the bad guys. You get that Strickland is incompetent and now you want to blame the right? I don’t think so…..
By davidss2
December 17, 2009 8:41 AM | Link to this
DDN says: “That is, no one is going to do the right thing just because it’s the right thing.”::::::::::::does that apply to Democrats and BO in healthcare and global warming fakery and the takeover of US economy with lots of taxes too? Or is it just when the DDN wants to lambast republicans in the state level? ———————————-DDN says: “are not small matters. They deserve to be vetted, not crammed down the public’s throat.”::::::::::::::Does that apply to healthcare, prohibiting Canadian safe drugs to protect US pharma who import drugs from China and elsewhere in exchange for not protesting healthcare? Does that apply to the fake climate change tax to benefit Al Gore and Strong of the UN in making huge amounts of money? Or it it just to apply to republicans in Ohio?—————————————Me thinks I see hypocrisy on the part of the soothsayers at DDN?
By Jeff
December 17, 2009 8:54 AM | Link to this
Excessive spending created this problem, not tax revenue shortage. Strickland’s budget was based on $870 million that doesn’t exist. What Ms Belcher refers to as chaos in the Senate is what most people consider fiscally responsible. They are exposing the Governor’s attempt to spend more money than what is available. There are plenty of pet programs to cut besides education, but education is probably the most bloated line in the budget.
By Scott
December 17, 2009 10:39 AM | Link to this
This article represents all of the liberal media bias. They blame the GOP for wanting to continue with a tax cut that was voted in. The article should concentrate on how the Dems decided they needed more money and can’t figure a way to get it so they will stop helping you with the tax cut and have you pay more taxes to bail the governor out of a situation he got the state into in the first place.
By malarkey
December 21, 2009 11:31 PM | Link to this
I love how people ALWAYS fall for we will give you tax cuts and keep all of the same programs. It doesn’t run that way with your checkbook at home or anywhere else. If it is running that way for you then you will soon get a foreclosure notice nailed to your front door.