- Diverted hundreds of millions of what should be state aid to local public schools to private, often religious schools, which a Franklin County Common Pleas judge has ruled breaches the Ohio Constitution’s demand that churches and public schools must be strictly separated. Who has to make up the state money public schools lose to non-public-school “vouchers?” Homeowners.
- Broken a pledge to fully fund the Cupp-Patterson Fair School Funding Plan, devised by ex-House Speaker Robert Cupp, a Lima Republican, and ex-Rep. John Patterson, a Democrat from Ashtabula County’s Jefferson. Refusal to fully fund Cupp-Patterson forces school boards to seek more, and bigger, property-tax levies from voters; and,
- With enthusiastic collaboration from non-school local government officials, authorized enormous tax gimmicks to limit or shunt property taxes away from schools to help developers. Gobbledygook: Tax Increment Financing; Community Reinvestment Areas; and Enterprise Zones. Great irony: The single best investment in improving Ohio is investing in its public schools.
Of course, reforming or abolishing any of those Statehouse-imposed burdens on homeowners would step on the toes of Capitol Square lobbyists. And that’s just not done in Columbus.
Legislators, regardless of party, typically kowtow to developers. Example: In 1986, a bipartisan General Assembly did Central Ohio billionaire Leslie S. Wexner a huge favor by, in effect, helping block annexation of New Albany (Plain Local) schools to Columbus city schools.
Beginning in the ‘80s, Wexner developed New Albany, once a dusty crossroads where U.S. 62 intersects Ohio 161, into a posh, new-money suburb. One-time Wexner friend Jeffrey Epstein was once a New Albany resident and, according to Epstein pal Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein “ran New Albany.”
Median household income in Columbus is $65,327; in New Albany, it’s $232,524, and neo-Williamsburg architecture is de rigueur.
Credit: LARRY HAMEL-LAMBERT
Credit: LARRY HAMEL-LAMBERT
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. You can reach him at tsuddes@gmail.com.
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