Badin vs. Fredericktown
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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 > 2010 > April > 13
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Martin Gottlieb: What to do if the folks next door vote wrong?
The next thing that happens in this country’s ongoing political disintegration — movement away from oneness — is that people start deciding what state they want to live in according to politics. Or, at least, according to the juncture of politics and culture.
We already see people picking communities -— if not states — by politics partly. Think Yellow Springs, the charming liberal bastion whose loss of lefty Antioch College hasn’t really changed the flavor much.
Or take Warren County. It isn’t precisely politics that draws people to such “ex-urbs,” the bedroom communities far from urban downtowns. But the fact is that places like it — including Delaware County, north of Columbus — are hugely Republican. John McCain beat Barack Obama in Warren County by well over 2-1. And that was the worst Republican year in a long time.
As these places grow, the central metropolitan counties, by contrast, become more Democratic. Franklin County — automatically Republican for so long — is suddenly Democratic. And Hamilton County is moving that way.
Montgomery County used to swing back and forth between the parties. Now it has gone Democratic five presidential elections in a row, if not by much.
So, apparently the people who like the wide-open spaces and the new communities are politically different from those who like to be in or near a city.
In 2008, Oakwood — that famously Republican bastion a stone’s throw from downtown Dayton — seemed to have more Obama than McCain signs.
Besides the geographical divisions, we see a lot people picking their media outlets according to politics. What’s next? Phone directories made up of good liberal — or conservative — businesses with which to deal?
Listen to the hyper-partisans. There’s a level of personal hatred that sounds like war. I once wrote that I often hear liberals portrayed as dishonest, lavishly-funded, arrogant, self-serving people who hate the American people and their values and hate the country, and are cutthroats in pursuing their goals. One e-mail I got said, “You left out hypocritical.”
One has to wonder what level of hatred is left over for characterizing, say, foreign enemies.
We see the country’s failure to land the Olympics celebrated by a political faction (the one that claims to be more patriotic) because the city in question was Chicago. In a time when hate speech about race and ethnicity is largely shunned, the venom is funneled into politics.
That a few violent acts happen after something like the health care vote is not surprising. What’s surprising is how little violence there has been so far.
So how long will it be before the people pick their states on politics? Then how long before we start seeing secessionist movements because the states have less in common?
After the 2004 presidential election, a few people on the left — noting the big swaths of blue across the top of the electoral map — started talking about joining up with Canada. It was mainly a joke. But not entirely. It was, with some, more like an instinctive response that collapsed upon thought.
More recently, the governor of Texas felt obliged to tell people in that state who flirt with secession that he hears them.
Neither of those phenomena was big. But both were pretty new; I hadn’t heard about anything like them in decades.
Then there was the Virginia flap. The governor issued a proclamation about celebrating the Confederacy, the Southern side in the Civil War. He didn’t mention that the war was largely about slavery and that the South was on the wrong side of that issue. Then he apologized.
Just guessing here, but the original proclamation seemed not a meaningless slip-up, but a reflection of something in the air these days: the bitter reaction in some quarters to “big government.” Some southerners hung on for generations to the notion that big government was what the Civil War was all about.
The Civil War — along with the century that followed it — is the first subject that comes to mind when one thinks about times when the divisions between Americans were more intense than now. “Yankee” may have been even a dirtier word than “liberal.” And there were certainly worse words in common use.
Instead of a civil war, we now have a cold war. The last one of those never became a real war because one side collapsed.
Permalink | Comments (19) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Martin Gottlieb, Miami Valley Politics
Editorial: Trotwood’s levy a good investment
2010 ELECTION
At first glance, Trotwood schools might not seem to have a very good case for their 7.5-mill additional levy on the May 4 ballot.
The community has been hammered by the recession and especially the foreclosure crisis. The levy is large. It will cost the owner of a $100,000 home $229 a year, raising $1.8 million annually for the district’s $41 million operating budget.
Voters soundly defeated two large levy requests from the district last year, including an identical issue in November.
Meanwhile, the district’s finances are not yet desperate. While expenses will outpace revenue starting next year, Trotwood’s projections show it could live off its reserve funds until 2013. The district also paid employees a 3 percent raise this school year, a nice bump at a time when many other employers have cut pay, frozen wages or given more modest increases.
But there is more to the story.
Trotwood’s stable finances are partly the result of aggressive moves, including tough cuts. Since 2002, the district has cut $5 million, or about 12 percent, from its operating budget. And while the employees are getting a healthy raise, their latest contract switched them over to a much higher $4,000 deductible for health insurance, with the district’s contribution toward insurance shrinking each year. The net effect is higher insurance costs for the employees.
The fact that Trotwood has not asked voters for new operating money since 1996 is also evidence that it has managed funds well. Very few districts can go that long without asking for a levy.
The district’s revenue has been badly hurt in the past two years. The foreclosure spike has caused tax collections for schools to plummet dramatically to 87 percent of the amount due, down from 98 percent in 2007.
At the same time, academic performance has actually improved, with the district moving from the lowest state ranking of “academic emergency” up two rungs to “continuous improvement.” That’s a good sign.
Perhaps the district would have been politically smarter to come back with a smaller levy this time. But Trotwood’s goal is to get beyond a patchwork solution. This levy should allow the district to establish long-term financial stability. Officials say they would be in the black through 2018 if the levy passes.
This a big chance for Trotwood voters to move their district ahead and perhaps set the stage for it to achieve long-term academic respectability. Rexann Wagner, a 19-year administrator with a reputation as the district’s best problem-solver, takes over as superintendent this summer.
The district’s school construction program (paid for by construction-only bonds approved by voters in 2002), is complete, giving the district state-of-the-art facilities.
A big levy is tough to swallow, but the community’s future is its kids.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: 2010 endorsements, Editorials, Education, Scott Elliott, Suburban Communities
Editorial: Northmont deserves help with fiscal crisis
2010 ELECTION
Northmont schools are facing a tough financial road the next two years.
The district is asking voters to replace a 9-mill levy on May 4. Because of the vagaries of Ohio’s property tax laws, a previously approved levy that is expiring has been gradually rolled back to a lower level. If this request is approved, it will go back up to 9 mills, resulting in $130 in new taxes for the owner of a $100,000 home.
But the sacrifice does not end there.
School officials say even with the levy replacement, they face a deficit in 2011, which means an additional levy can be expected next year. The district then will likely be on the ballot next year for a bond issue for the local share of the cost to build new schools.
The state would pick up about half the tab of the district-wide construction project, provided the Ohio School Facilities Commission doesn’t run out of matching funds. School officials are worried that they have to get moving, lest they lose out. To make it easier on voters, officials are considering “segmenting” the project, which would allow smaller bond issues for portions of the project over time.
In 2012, Northmont will be on the ballot again for a renewal levy. The three operating levies in three years must pass for the district to avoid a fiscal crisis. In anticipation, Northmont has begun a series of cost-cutting steps.
The district’s big move was the painful decision to close Phillipsburg Elementary School last year, resulting in savings of $800,000 per year. It also cut $2 million from its $52 million budget last year. Another $2 million will be cut this year by reducing working hours for some employees, curtailing purchases of textbooks and technology, and a salary freeze for administrators.
Unionized workers, on the other hand, are getting healthy raises. Their contracts call for teachers to get a 2.95 percent pay hike and 4 percent for support staff. Superintendent Doug Lantz said those raises were negotiated before the recession began. Talks about potential cuts in medical benefits as a way to reduce costs as a cost saver are underway, but asking for a tax increase is made tougher when school district employees continue to get raises at a time when many voters have had their pay frozen, taken cuts or even lost their jobs.
For voters, lots of tough decisions lie ahead about what kind of district they expect and how much they are willing to pay for it. The district has a quality academic program, ranking among a small group of districts to receive Ohio’s highest report card ranking of “excellent with distinction.” That’s something for the community to be proud of.
This levy is the easiest choice among the difficult decisions ahead. The replacement levy doesn’t come with an unreasonable cost, and it will keep a fine academic program largely intact.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: 2010 endorsements, Education, Scott Elliott, Suburban Communities
