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COLUMBUS — Republicans had a lock on Ohio’s state government for 12 years from 1995 to 2007, but the new GOP-led government that begins taking over today with the start of the 129th General Assembly will have a new look.
The Republican governors during those earlier 12 years, George Voinovich and Bob Taft, pushed tax increases through the legislature to keep state budgets in balance and protect what they considered to be essential state services.
This time around, any kind of tax increase is absolutely off the table this year, according to incoming Gov. John Kasich and incoming GOP legislative leaders.
They’re opposed to tax hikes in principle, and with the state and nation slowly recovering from the greatest economic slowdown since the Great Depression, now’s not the time to be taking any more money out of the wallets of Ohio taxpayers, they say.
“Ohioans are not in shape so that we can afford to hang out a sign, ‘whatever you’re doing here is subject to higher taxation,’ ” said incoming House Speaker Bill Batchelder, R-Medina.
The no-new-taxes mantra also is part of Kasich’s and the GOP legislators’ efforts to make Ohio more business friendly. Those efforts also will include legislation to ease regulations on businesses, said Batchelder and incoming Senate President Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond.
Looming deficit will bring spending cuts
Kasich and lawmakers will face a potential revenue shortfall of $8 billion — equal to about 15 percent of the current two-year, $52 billion state budget — in putting together a new budget and that is expected to mean steep spending cuts. Big-ticket items, including Medicaid, the health insurance for the poor, and education, will face tough scrutiny.
Also, there will be an effort to save money as part of criminal sentencing reform that would move low-risk, nonviolent offenders from adult prisons to other punishments, said Batchelder.
Another priority for both Kasich and the GOP-controlled legislature will be repealing or at least weakening the 1983 public employee collective bargaining law, passed with only Democratic support and signed by Democratic Gov. Richard F. Celeste.
Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Clearcreek Twp., said that she already is drafting legislation that would repeal collective bargaining for state employees and modify bargaining rights for police and firefighters.
State employees, said Jones, would work under a system of “merit-based pay.”
Her bill also would “in essence” end binding arbitration in negotiations for police and firefighters, who don’t have the right to strike.
Negotiations would continue to use fact finders but if either side didn’t approve a fact finder’s recommendation, workers would continue to operate under the current contract while negotiations continue, said Jones. Also, management would have the right to implement parts of the fact-finders report, Jones said.
While the bill wouldn’t end collective bargaining for teachers and local government workers, Jones said school boards and other local government employers are welcome to make the case for changes affecting their work forces.
“I am all ears and open to hear that,” said Jones.
“Everybody agrees that the revenue streams we’ve been operating under aren’t in existence anymore,” said Jones. “If that’s the case, we have to change the system under which we operate.”
The efforts to weaken public employee collective bargaining rights already has grabbed the attention of organized labor.
“There’s no question that there’s an effort to portray public employees as overpaid and under worked,” said Joe Rugola, president of the Ohio AFL-CIO, the statewide labor federation that includes unions with 650,000 members.
The AFL-CIO plans to talk to Ohioans about public employees and the jobs they do.
“We’re going to ask Ohioans to talk to their legislators, once they know the truth,” said Rugola.
Democrats will be in a minority in the legislature, but they won’t be silent, said Rep. Clayton Luckie, D-Dayton, who’ll be Montgomery County’s senior legislator, serving a fourth term.
“I think we have to be their (Republicans’) conscience,” said Luckie. “I think it’s important that we can’t be the party of ‘no’, as they were..., we have to be the party of ‘yes.’ We have to work together.”
GOP holds executive, legislative power
Democrats in 2006 ended 12 years of GOP dominance of state government when Strickland was elected governor and Democrats also were elected secretary of state, treasurer and attorney general.
Two years later, Democrats added control of the Ohio House, gaining a 53-46 majority. Republicans kept control of the Senate.
In November, Republicans took back the House and will have a 59-40 majority in the new term.
Also in the November elections, Republicans added two Senate seats and will have a 23-10 Senate majority. One of the pickups was Republican Bill Beagle of Tipp City, who defeated Democratic incumbent Fred Strahorn in the 5th District, that includes parts of Montgomery and Darke counties and all of Miami County.
Besides taking the governor’s and lieutenant governor’s offices from the Democrats in November, Republicans also took back the secretary of state, treasurer and attorney general offices and held on to the auditor’s seat.
The incoming GOP statewide lineup besides Kasich includes: Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, Secretary of State Jon Husted; Attorney General Mike DeWine; Treasurer Josh Mandel and Auditor Dave Yost.
Husted, a state senator from Kettering, and DeWine, a former U.S. senator from Cedarville, give the lineup a Dayton-area flavor.
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