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Kasich visits Dayton to rally support for Issue 2

Governor welcomed by crowd at Dublin Pub; protesters across street.

Opponents of Issue 2 and those supporting the Occupy movement gather across the street from the Dublin Pub in Dayton where Gov. John Kasich rallied conservatives in support of ballot measure on Sunday, Oct. 16.

Chris Stewart/Dayton Daily News Staff Photogra Opponents of Issue 2 and those supporting the Occupy movement gather across the street from the Dublin Pub in Dayton where Gov. John Kasich rallied conservatives in support of ballot measure on Sunday, Oct. 16.

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Gov. John Kasich rallies conservatives in support of Issue 2 on Sunday, Oct. 16 the Dublin Pub in Dayton.

Chris Stewart/Dayton Daily News Staff Photogra Gov. John Kasich rallies conservatives in support of Issue 2 on Sunday, Oct. 16 the Dublin Pub in Dayton.

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By Ken McCall, Staff Writer 11:11 PM Sunday, October 16, 2011

DAYTON — Gov. John Kasich visited Dayton on Sunday to motivate his Republican base to support state Issue 2 in the upcoming election.

The Dublin Pub on East Fifth Street was packed with Kasich faithful who gave him an enthusiastic welcome, while a group of protesters chanted slogans and beat drums from behind barricades across Wayne Avenue.

The governor gave an energetic defense of Issue 2 as well as other initiatives that he said were all aimed at reviving the state’s economy.

“Look, if things aren’t going great, you’ve got to bring about change,” Kasich said. “That’s the way it is.”

Issue 2 is a referendum on Senate Bill 5, the collective bargaining reform package signed by Kasich in March.

It would outlaw strikes of public workers, limit public employee negotiations to wages, hours, terms, conditions and personal safety equipment, require workers to pay at least 15 percent toward their health care premium expenses and 10 percent of their wages toward their pensions, and other changes.

Supporters of Issue 2 say that the changes restores rights to management’s side of the bargaining table and will allow cities, counties, school districts and other jurisdictions to better manage their costs.

Issue 2, like everything his administration is doing, is about creating jobs, Kasich said.

“It’s fairness, but it’s really jobs,” Kasich said of Issue 2, “You see, if we cannot control our costs at the local level like we’re beginning to do at the state level, we’re not nurturing our businesses. They’re not going to grow.”

And the only way “out of this mess,” Kasich said, is by bringing more jobs to Ohio.

Issue 2 will help, he said, by requiring public employees — teachers, police, firefighters and other government workers — to pay at least 15 percent of their health care and 10 percent of their pension.

The governor said he also wants Issue 2 to pass because it eliminates seniority as a consideration for layoffs, and gets rid of mandatory mediation in labor disagreements.

“We’re one of the first states to engage in this,” Kasich said. “And no one’s going to escape it over time, because the costs are not sustainable.”

But Mark Owens, chairman of the Montgomery County Democratic Party, said Kasich needs to get his facts straight.

First, he said, 94 percent of all public workers are already paying at least 10 percent toward their pensions.

“Many are already paying more than 15 percent,” Owens said. “He should do his homework.”

Owens called the mandatory mediation point a “manufactured issue.”

Mediation is used in contract disputes with police and firefighters who aren’t allowed to strike, Owens said.

“It’s basically what settles disagreements if they can’t do it at the table, without going on strike,” he said.

Just taking away mediation and declaring strikes illegal won’t work, Owens said, because the state has tried it before.

“Look at history,” he said. “There were hundreds of strikes involving police and fire and teachers in the late 70s and early 80s before this (current mediation) law was passed.”

While some political observers see the Issue 2 vote on the November ballot as a referendum on his young governorship, Kasich didn’t care to weigh in on the vote’s importance to his administration.

“I’m out here promoting something,” he said. “I don’t pay attention to those kind of comments. They don’t mean much to me.”

But in his speech to supporters, Kasich included a bit of a warning.

“Win or lose this thing, together, there are so many more things we have to do to fix Ohio,” the governor said.

“We’re going to work like the dickens. We’re going to be creative. We’re going to be tough. We are beginning to solve our problems.

“If we work together, and lift together, Ohio is going to be the greatest state in the Midwest. I have no doubt.”

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