Spinelli on Assignment

Federal cuts could hurt Ohio even more

2010-06-09T15:20:00.001-04:00

Now that the clarion call to be mindful of federal spending, hammered home by Republicans and Tea Party backers since President Obama took the oath of office, has sunk in with Democrats fearful a backlash from voters upset with big spenders in Washington will sink their hopes for election, Ohio public service unions are saying doing do would compound the hurt the state is already experiencing from The Great Recession.

in reference to:

"nearly $940 million in additional funding for an already hurting Ohio."
- News - Federal funding to states brutally stripped from House jobs bill. Tell Congress they are making a HUGE mistake! 888-340-6517 (view on Google Sidewiki)

Could $64M for schools, govs be endangered if Columbus Stands Up to Penn National casino plan?

2009-12-30T06:18:00.000-05:00

Penn National Gaming (PNG), backers of a $250 million casino in Columbus, contradicts claims made on a new Web site launched Monday by opponents that claims key local business leaders were not consulted for their input before the authorizing amendment to the Ohio Constitution, known as Issue 3, was subjected to a statewide vote this November.

Issue 3 authorized building a casino each in Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland and Toledo at specific geographic coordinates and won 53 percent of the statewide vote. Voters in Franklin County, who opposed it by 58 percent, are being marshaled by a new city-wide group in Franklin County -- Stand Up Columbus! (SUC) -- that wants to dissuade PNG from building its Central Ohio casino where voters statewide approved building it, to an alternative site within the county.

Claims, corrections on who met with who and when

Former Franklin county commissioner and president of the local and national Fraternal Order of Police, Dewey Stokes, now a co-chair of SUC, said on the Web site, "...all of us agree it's not right that an out-of-town casino operator – without any community input -- gets to decide where a casino will be built in our city."

In a statement provided to this Examiner from PNG's Ohio spokesman Bob Tenenbaum, it appears key local leaders were not left out in the cold on the issue as much as some say they were.

"We have heard the allegation from this newly formed affiliate of Mr. Wolfe's and the Columbus Partnership that we did not seek community input on our site prior to the election. We find that curious given that we met personally with Mike Curtin of the Dispatch before Issue 3 was qualified for the November ballot and discussed the Arena District site. We also extended the same courtesy to Mr. Brian Ellis at Nationwide. We figured that given Nationwide's prior involvement in a proposed casino project in Pittsburgh's Arena District, he would understand the merits of our plan."

Contrary to protestations made by Curtin on a local radio talk show Tuesday morning that PNG ignored or failed to take into consideration community concerns, PNG sought to correct that viewpoint, saying it has spent considerable time in Columbus listening to the concerns of the local business community and local officials about the casino project.

The national casino operation wasted no time underscoring the job creation component of the project. PNG's prepared remarks noted it has "been meeting with our friends and supporters who are eager to get the thousands of new construction and permanent jobs" building the casino will create. Labor unions and the Fraternal Order of Police supported Issue 3, which promised to create 34,000 jobs.

Casino backers noted that Issue 3 contained site-specific criteria, and that any change in locations -- in Columbus or the other three Ohio cities who supported it -- would require a new statewide constitutional amendment.

PNG said that while it will "listen to our community, and will continue to do so in an open and inclusive manner," it will not do so "to the extent that those who were unsuccessfull on Nov. 3 seek to unreasonably delay or even try to kill our project and the thousands of new jobs and more than $64 million in new annual tax revenues it will generate for Columbus and Franklin County."

Local legislators assist Stand Up Columbus!

One local political leader, David Goodman, who joined Curtin by phone from Florida on WOSU's All Sides program today, readily acknowledged that the legislature didn't deal with the issue as it should have. Goodman has signed onto a constitutional amendment he says will preserve local control over casino developments.

“Cleveland, Toledo and Cincinnati voters should not be in a position to make development decisions for Columbus any more than Columbus residents should be weighing in on Cleveland projects,” Senator Goodman said in a statement. “This amendment gives local communities more control as Ohio takes its first steps into casino gaming.”

The effort, while it caters to the interests as expressed on SUC, can be seen by many as a Hail Mary pass of major proportions. If it vaults the high hurdles before it and becomes a statewide ballot issue, statewide voters, if convinced, will give voters in Franklin county another vote on whether they want a casino -- and the estimated $64 million in revenue sharing dollars that local governments and schools would benefit from -- in their county.

Locals want revenue sharing and new location

Communicating with this Examiner today, Goodman, a term-limited member of the Senate Republican caucus, said he is not inclined to trust Penn's estimates on revenue sharing, and that he "has never proposed any legislation that would take away a casino."

According to Goodman, his current proposal would "simply move the casino's location within the county" if a statewide vote allows local voters to decide whether they want their casino built where the constitutional amendment sites it.

The proposed Columbus casino is authorized to be built in Columbus' Arena District, an upscale retail and office area controlled by Nationwide Insurance that falls within the larger Downtown area. Bill Webster, Administrator for Downtown and Economic Development for the City of Columbus, said the Arena District is not specifically defined. Casino opponents say it should not be built where it's sited because the Arena District is a "family oriented" area and it would degrade the area while simultaneously devaluing the warren of residential properties located close by.

A larger issue is what recipients of revenue-sharing from the casino have to say if their share of gambling revenue doesn't flow to them if the casino is delayed or scrubbed.

$64 million in gambling revenue to flow to local schools, governments

Based on information on estimates of total casino revenue statewide provided by Tenenbaum, The Columbus Public Schools would receive an estimated $6.53 million per year in casino tax revenues. The total for all school districts in the county is $22.9 million.

Franklin County and City of Columbus would each receive an estimated $16.1 million a year. Columbus would also benefit from an additional amount as a casino host city – a proportional share of $13 million that will be divided among the four host cities based on the revenue of each casino.

CCS asked to weigh in on grassroots group, casino revenue sharing

A request to Kim Norris of the Columbus City Schools for a comment or statement on the launch of Stand Up Columbus! or on whether it thinks the $6.53 million it would gain every year would be endangered if local efforts to change the venue are successful were not received in time for this article.

Follow me on Twitter @ohionewsbureau. Read more stories on people, politics and government in Ohio here.

Coming bloodbath in Ohio to test Strickland, Kasich as each defend, attack size, scope of government

2009-12-28T13:21:00.000-05:00

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Whether the General Election next November launches a second term for Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland or signals a first term for Republican challenger John Kasich, Ohio's next executive leader will face the uncomfortable task of finding politically workable solutions to the blood bath made all too real by tumbling revenues, disappearing dollars from Washington and conflicting political ideologies that argue government is the answer to and the problem of a brighter future.

As 2009 ended with a battle of political wills between Strickland and Republican leaders in the Senate over how to fill an approximately $850 million hole in the state's two year budget, the accumulation of billions upon billions from a combination of revenue shortfalls to the state or disappearing stimulus dollars from Washington, that may vanish as spending hawks in Congress pull back on deficit spending to help prop up states hit hard by the Great Recession, will require Ohioans -- and the leaders they elect to represent them in Columbus -- to rethink whether government is a friend or foe to their future.

The gauntlet Strickland, Kasich must run

Estimates from published reports show the state's structural deficit for the 2012-13 budget range from $4 billion to $9 billion. Ohio's next fiscal year, which begins July 1, is balanced with about $3.5 billion in one-time state and federal funding that includes $426 million from the latest budget fix, which delayed a 4.2 percent income-tax cut until Jan. 1, 2011.

What will intensify the drama of where and how much to cut spending on government or whether raising taxes is unavoidable despite declarations by both candidates that that option is off the table, is the fact that the state's so-called rainy-day fund was sucked dry to fill a previous budget gap, leaving the Buckeye State with no emergency parachute to deploy when it is falling the fastest.

Ohio facing billions in revenue shortfalls, loan paybacks

Added to this bitter brew will be the need in 2012 to repay Washington nearly $1.7 billion in funds borrowed to continue paying jobless benefits to the steadily rising number of Ohioans who have lost their jobs in the throes of a Great Recession that some economists say may stay weak for at least another year.

Exacerbating the state's worsening fiscal picture -- GRF tax revenues declined two years in a row and expected to do so again next year -- will be the need to fund its social safety net -- already tattered from billions in budget cuts -- at levels to protect Medicaid eligibility and services, MR/DD services, early care and education programs and disability financial assistance.

Republicans have generally opposed spending from Washington, but reports of new analysis based on Census data showing that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) is keeping large numbers of Americans out of poverty in states across the country have both challenged their ideological bent and kept many Ohioans from falling further into untenable situations.

In addition to boosting economic activity and preserving or creating jobs, the report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows the recovery act is softening the recession’s impact on poverty by directly lifting family incomes.

Kasich income tax elimination plan could add $7 to government spending cuts

If Ohio's future doesn't look bleak enough, consider what it will be like should an energized Gov. Kasich, who one national polling firm says is ahead of Strickland now, is emboldened to follow through on his campaign promise to eliminate the state's income tax -- 7.73 billion or about 44 percent of total GRF tax receipts -- with the help of a House of Representatives again controlled by GOP loyalists.

That stunning possibility, which would demand the virtual dismemberment of government as we know it, will truly be an ill wind of monumental proportions that will blow no good to anyone, not even the businesses Kasich hopes will flock to the state as the gears of government are dismantled, prepping his "new day, new way" plan for improving the state's business climate.

Factor in the imploding budgets of Ohio's six major cities and the landscape for delivering services of all kinds at the state and local level becomes a bleak and burnt nightmare of historic proportions.

A seasoned Republican legislator, who served in the House and who's now a senator and cognizant of what lies ahead, even went so far as to take a swipe at a fellow GOPer whose grand plan is to consolidate government. Bill Seitz of Cincinnati told one reporter that his lawmaker colleagues just "can't come waltzing in the day before a budget is passed and say: 'I know, let's cut state government from 24 agencies to 10 tomorrow.'"

Another budget watcher said that while downsizing government may sound good, as Rep. John Adams wants to do, reality shows that 85 percent of state spending goes directly to local services and schools.

Strickland to Kasich, GOP: Show me your budget plan

Strickland told Ohioans he is proud of his education reforms and said he hopes things will get better. Fit and ready to run what will be a no-holds-barred campaign, the man from Duck Run said is ready to talk with Republicans about future budgets. But he offered them a challenge too: He wants anyone opposed to his remedies to declare "what functions (of government) will be eliminated and how they're going to continue to carry out the essential services that people expect from government."

Of course, what people expect from government and what they are willing to pay for is the key question. For those who see government as an obstacle to progress, employing people who do little but who benefit from great benefit packages, the answer is simple: shrink it. For those who see government as critical to protecting those least able to fend for themselves or that checks abuses spawned by a marketplace unchecked, the answer is simple: defend it.

Follow me on Twitter @ohionewsbureau. Read more stories on people, politics and government here.

Ohio AG Cordray joins other state AGs in asking Fed's Bernanke to ban mortgage incentives

2009-12-26T14:16:00.000-05:00

COLUMBUS, Ohio — On Christmas Eve, Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray announced that he joined 14 other state attorneys general in asking the Federal Reserve, and by extension its chairman Ben Bernanke, to support elimination of incentives paid to loan officers and mortgage brokers that result in borrowers being placed in loans that are riskier and more expensive than they need to be.

Cordray, who will run next year for a full four-year term as Ohio's top cop, said he strongly supports changing the law to end predatory practices like these that fueled the foreclosure crisis and the collapse of the mortgage market.

"Paying incentives to place customers in riskier loans is rewarding the behavior that is ruining so many communities," he said in prepared remarks, adding, "What's even more tragic is that without this type of steering, some consumers may have been able to get more affordable loans and avoid foreclosure entirely."

Information supplied by Cordray's communication staff said mortgage brokers and loan officers currently can receive additional compensation based on the type of loan they originate. Examples given included that of a broker who could receive extra compensation for originating an adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) instead of fixed-rate mortgage, or a broker who could receive an incentive called a yield spread premium, or YSP, for placing consumers into loans with higher rates than the consumer could otherwise have qualified for. Cordray said these types of compensation give brokers and loan officers financial incentives to originate loans that consumers cannot afford.

Cordray joined the attorneys general of Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont and West Virginia in commenting to the Federal Reserve about changes to the federal Truth in Lending Act (TILA)'s Regulation Z. The media announcement noted that the comment period closed today.

Cordray noted in his statement that while the proposed changes would eliminate certain types of compensation, brokers and loan officers could still receive compensation based on other factors, such as by a flat fee, by the volume of loans originated or by the time spent originating the loan. The state treasurer elected in 2006 who became attorney general this year recommended that the Federal Reserve encourage compensation based on long-term loan performance.

"Right now, brokers and lenders often stand to profit from originating high-cost loans that consumers can't actually afford," Cordray said. "Ultimately, we want to provide incentives for originating loans that perform well in the long run. These proposed changes are an important step toward that goal."

The Ohio AG's office said the Federal Reserve must now determine whether to move ahead with the changes. It offered this Web site for anyone who wanted to read the comments.

http://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/RegulationZCommentLetter

Follow me on Twitter @ohionewsbureau. Read more stories on people, politics and government in Ohio here.

Ohio Award of $1.8 Million for broadband mapping project will show, help close gaps in IT coverage

2009-12-23T14:33:00.001-05:00

December 23, 2:29 PMColumbus Government ExaminerJohn Michael Spinelli

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Gaps in access by citizens, business to IT must be closed for Ohio's dreams of future to come true.

(Photo/Connect Ohio)

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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The announcement of the award by Gov. Ted Strickland that Ohio will receive $1.8 million for a broadband mapping project is good news, because when the data is collected and the map is drawn, it will show just how far, when compared to other states or countries, Ohio is behind the curve of deploying broadband connectivity technology to its citizens and business community.

Strickland administration works to close IT gaps

Prepared remarks from Strickland's office said stimulus funding from the Recovery Act Washington passed earlier this year will again be the source of cash to finance this project. Development of important state infrastructure projects, like the expansion of information technology infrastructure sufficiently that all citizens and business have access to it, is a must if Ohio is to be ahead of and not behind the technology curve other states and even countries have vaulted with success, enabling them to be future competitive.

The award is to help implement the Strickland Administration’s plan to compile and map broadband availability in Ohio, including location, available speed and type of technology delivering the service, said a media release.

Strickland said Connect Ohio was created in 2008 to determine "where Ohio’s broadband infrastructure exists – and where it doesn’t exist – to better target the investments that will help us reach our goal of providing broadband access to all Ohioans.” He said the grant will accelerate efforts to expand economic and educational opportunities to more Ohioans.

The guts of the project will increase broadband access and adoption through better data collection and broadband planning. The data collected is to be displayed in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s national broadband map, a tool the announcement said will "inform policymakers' efforts and provide consumers with improved information on the broadband Internet services available to them."

Two years and one week ago, Strickland, who had just finishing his first year on the job, launched the public-private partnership known as Connect Ohio, whose mission was to expand broadband services across the state by working with local communities and providers to map gaps in access.

At the time, Strickland said this on the goal of Connect Ohio: "The digital divide in Ohio takes many forms – from lack of access to computers and broadband services to a lack of technological skills necessary for the jobs of the future,” Strickland said. “The goal of Connect Ohio is to create customized support for local communities to meet their individual technological needs while helping expand broadband service to all residents and businesses

Strickland said partnering with "cable and telecommunications industries and their workers to build demand for their services and deploy broadband to areas of the state that are currently underserved” was worth the $6.8, paid out over four years or two bienniums, needed to run Connect Ohio.

Program administration falls to the Ohio Department of Administrative Services, working in collaboration with Connect Ohio.

“We are pleased to be working with the Strickland Administration to help create and enhance a comprehensive broadband map in the state of Ohio, and we’re particularly pleased to provide continuing broadband planning efforts to local communities across the state,” said Tom Fritz, executive director of Connect Ohio. He applauded the National Telecommunications and Information Administration for "working diligently to create a national broadband map and are honored to continue the work in Ohio to provide tools that will enable economic, social, and educational benefits to residents and businesses across the state.”

Since 2008, Strickland's office noted that Connect Ohio has benchmarked Ohio’s broadband availability and usage through the use of surveys and data gathered through its relationships with broadband providers across the state. It's detailed information is available at a statewide and county level for businesses and residents regarding broadband availability, access, subscribership, barriers to adoption, computer ownership and average subscriber rates.

Follow me on Twitter @ohionewsbureau. Read more stories on people, politics and government in Ohio here.

CBS 60 Minute report on heartache in Wilmington, Ohio from DHL job losses recalls Gift of Magi story

2009-12-23T13:20:00.000-05:00

CBS 60 Minute report on heartache in Wilmington, Ohio from DHL job losses recalls Gift of Magi story

December 21, 12:53 AMColumbus Government ExaminerJohn Michael Spinelli

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November 2009 State Unemployment Rates (Photo/CalculatedRiskBlog)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The federal prisoner incarcerated in the 1890s at the Ohio penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio, who became known as the author O. Henry, wrote a now-famous story called Gift of the Magi, about a couple who loved each other but whose poverty forced them to give up something they cherished in order to afford the Christmas gift they knew they other wanted, that cannot help but be recalled by anyone who watched the 60 Minutes episode aired Sunday night about the heartache and despair that grips Wilmington, Ohio, a small community whose core was eviserated by the loss of 10,000 jobs but whose spirit awaits a chance, however slim, to rise from the beating it has and continues to take.

CBS 60 Minutes aires episode on Wilmington, Ohio

A transcript of Sunday's program, a follow up to the first one done on Wilmington in Green County, about 30 miles southeast of Dayton, about the desperation that befell the community when its major employer DHL Express closed its domestic delivery service, pictures the community as "exactly the kind of town that Washington hoped to rescue with stimulus spending, cash for clunkers and mortgage relief."

Pelley said "It's one of the unique things about the Great Recession - never before have so many people been out of work for the long term. At least, not since they've starting keeping records back in 1948. Today, 40 percent of all of those who've lost their jobs have been out of work for six months or more."

The 60 Minutes video, with its heartwrenching testimonials from residents of Wilmington who lost their job, their health insurance and in one case a loved one, and who will do anything to survive the economic vortex that will wash them down the drain if help of one kind or another doesn't arrive soon, will create a lump in your throat and tear in your eye.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Ohio and U.S. Employment Situation (Seasonally Adjusted)

Ohio's unemployment rate was 10.6 percent in November, relatively unchanged from 10.5 percent in October, according to data released this morning by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Ohio's nonfarm wage and salary employment increased 5,400 over the month, from 5,104,000 in October to 5,109,400 in November.

"The number of employed Ohioans rose slightly in November, but not enough to produce a significant change in the unemployment rate," ODJFS Director Douglas Lumpkin said. "An increase in service-providing employment was partially offset by a slight decrease in goods-producing jobs."

The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in November was 623,000, up from 618,000 in October. The number of unemployed has increased by 199,000 in the past 12 months from 424,000. The November unemployment rate for Ohio was up from 7.1 percent in November 2008.

The U.S. unemployment rate for November was 10.0 percent, down from 10.2 percent in October.

Will work for hope

With budget holes near term and in the distance forcing Gov. Ted Strickland to cut government workers or programs or both more than the billions he has already been forced to cut in the first three years of his four-year term, residents of Wilmington have good reason to believe that their is little hope they can believe in anymore.

Follow me on Twitter @ohionewsbureau. Read more stories on people, politics and government in Ohio here.

Ohio AG Cordray fishes for solution to curb Asian carp from entering Great Lakes

2009-12-23T13:19:00.000-05:00

December 21, 11:01 PMColumbus Government ExaminerJohn Michael Spinelli

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Ohio AG Richard Cordray joins fight to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes

(Photo/US Fish and Wildlife Service)

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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray announced Monday that the state of Ohio will file a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to stop the spread of Asian carp, a species of fish he and others consider a major threat to the Great Lakes fishing industry.

Asian carp have been found in the Illinois River, which connects the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which found that due to their large size and rapid rate of reproduction, these fish could pose a significant risk to the Great Lakes Ecosystem.

To prevent the carp from entering the Great Lakes, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. EPA, the State of Illinois, the International Joint Commission, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are working together to install and maintain a permanent electric barrier between the fish and Lake Michigan.

State AGs stop carping, start fishing for solutions

In an email sent to out late in the afternoon today, Cordray, a Democrat running next year for a full four-year term, said Ohio's brief will ask to reopen a prior original action in the U.S. Supreme Court against the state of Illinois, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.

Cordray's office said it has consulted with Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox -- who is initiating the joint effort by filing an initial petition in the same action today -- and other attorneys general from states adjacent to the Great Lakes.

The man elected in 2006 as Ohio Treasurer but who became Ohio AG after winning a special election last year noted that original actions in the U.S. Supreme Court are "expressly contemplated and authorized in Article III of the U.S. Constitution and have long been perceived as the proper means to peacefully resolve disputes that arise among the sovereign states as a substitute for the original avenues of diplomacy or war."

"We are comfortable putting this matter in the hands of the Supreme Court, which is a neutral arbiter that can hear and evaluate our concerns about protecting the precious natural resources of the Great Lakes against the new threat from this invasive species that has already spread into channels that are dangerously close to Lake Michigan," Cordray said in prepared remarks.

"The impact on the commercial fishing industry and sport fishing as well as the ability of Ohio citizens to enjoy one of the world's most treasured resources would be devastating," he said. By working together to protect the Great Lakes while balancing the important commercial shipping interests that depend upon the connection of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, Cordray said he "looks forward to working with Michigan and our other sister states to develop a comprehensive resolution to this difficult challenge as soon as possible."

How did Asian carp get so close to the Great Lakes?

Two species of Asian carp -- the bighead and silver -- were imported by catfish farmers in the 1970's to remove algae and suspended matter out of their ponds. During large floods in the early 1990s, many of the catfish farm ponds overflowed their banks, and the Asian carp were released into local waterways in the Mississippi River basin.

The carp have steadily made their way northward up the Mississippi, becoming the most abundant species in some areas of the River.

What effects might Asian carp have on the Great Lakes?

Asian Carp are a significant threat to the Great Lakes because they are large, extremely prolific, and consume vast amounts of food. They can weigh up to 100 pounds, and can grow to a length of more than four feet. They are well-suited to the climate of the Great Lakes region, which is similar to their native Asian habitats.

Researchers expect that Asian carp would disrupt the food chain that supports the native fish of the Great Lakes. Due to their large size, ravenous appetites, and rapid rate of reproduction, these fish could pose a significant risk to the Great Lakes Ecosystem.

Follow me on Twitter @ohionewsbureau. Read more stories on people, politics and government in Ohio here.

Husted campaign transparency bill elicits caution from Garrison, call to recall past by Hoke

2009-12-23T13:07:00.001-05:00

Recalling rise to Speaker, Garrison asks campaign transparency be extended to issue advocacy groups

(Photo/Ohio Senate)

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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- State Senator Jon Husted (R-Kettering), the Ohio GOP's endorsed candidate for Ohio Secretary of State, announced Tuesday that he intends to introduce a bill on campaign transparency that will ensure Ohioans are fully aware of how campaigns are spending money to influence their vote. Husted's bill, known as the Ohio Campaign Transparency Act, would accomplish this goal by requiring that expenditures made by so-called campaign sub-vendors, or third parties who act on behalf of a campaign, are disclosed to the public.

The presumptive Democratic nominee for Ohio Secretary of State next year, Rep. Jennifer Garrison, responded to an offer from this Examiner to comment on the contents of or the politics behind Husted's bill, which likely will sail through the Senate, controlled easily by his party, but encounter a bumpy road in the House, where Garrison's garrison calls the tune on legislative activity.

In separate news related to Ohio campaigns, elections and Sen. Husted, Candice Hoke, a law professor from Cleveland State University who isolated sources have said is evaluating whether the effort by some to draft her into the race for SOS next year is enough to warrant her entering the race, issued a statement today to this Examiner suggesting she can best help improve Ohio elections by not entering the race at this time.

Husted bill to open curtain on campaign sub-vendor information

Husted said through an emailed announcement that campaign committees can currently give money to a sub-vendor, such as a political consultant, to make expenditures on behalf of their campaign. While the campaign committee is required to disclose the amount they gave to the consultant, they are not required, under Ohio campaign finance law, to disclose how the consultant spent the money, according to Husted's prepared remarks.

“The current system allows campaign committees to conceal their expenditures and hide the facts about who is being paid to influence the outcome of elections,” Husted said.

Husted’s legislation requires a campaign committee to report sub-vendor expenditures, and under the bill, sub-vendors will be required to provide an itemized list of expenditures they make on behalf of the campaign. The bill as introduced will require the campaign committee to also include that itemized list on their expenditure report.

The first-term senator, who as recently as last year was the Speaker of the House, and who is the Ohio GOP's endorsed candidate to reclaim the important Office of Ohio Secretary of State in 2010, said his bill "would provide greater transparency in how money is being used in campaigns and help restore Ohioans’ confidence in the outcome of our elections."

Husted challenger Garrison calls for extension of transparency to issue advocacy groups

Garrison, responding from her home district after the Ohio General Assembly recessed after both chambers came to an agreement on how to fill a gaping hole in the state budget last week, said that while she supports legislation that provides more transparency in the campaign finance arena, she needs to review the specifics of the bill carefully before commenting on it in detail.

What Garrison told this Examiner she finds interesting about Husted's ostensible motivation for introducing the bill, was that it was her understanding, from records unearthed from newspapers on Husted's ascension to the job of Speaker of the House, that some of his election-year help came via what she labeled a "shady non-profit called Citizens for Conservative Values (CCV)," an organization she said "hid its donors" while claiming it was "created to promote public policy, not Husted for Speaker."

Garrison, who continues to add to her endorsements despite not being officially endorsed by the Ohio Democratic Party, said newspaper reports showed that "CCV’s consultants were political operatives tied to Husted who were in line for large bonuses if Husted was installed as Speaker." She said Husted "severed his ties to CCV only after newspapers began questioning him about the group and its tactics."

His new legislation, she said, "appears to have merit, but the enhanced disclosure requirements should extend to so-called issue advocacy groups like CCV.” The problem of sub-vendor transparency, she said, was brought to light during the recent campaign to amend Ohio’s Constitution to allow for casino-style gambling in the state. If Ohio were to pass Husted's bill or a version of it, Garrison pointed to a campaign disclosure law database managed by UCLA that shows there are currently 24 states whose disclosure laws require some form of sub-vendor disclosure.

Garrison hopes to replace current Ohio SOS Jennifer Brunner, who party officials and supporters thought would seek a second term next year but who has instead chosen to engage in an internecine party battle with Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher in next year's Democratic primary to determine which one can beat Rob Portman, the GOP's endorsed candidate to pick up where retiring two-term U.S. Senator George Voinovich left off.

But whether Garrison remains the front-runner for the job to be Ohio's chief elections official has yet to be seen, as rumors percolate that another viable Democratic alternative may yet appear, or that Brunner will decide, with considerable pressure from Gov. Ted Strickland, officials of the Ohio Democratic Party and political operatives from the White House who think she can do herself and Ohio Democrats a favor by rethinking her run for the Senate, to stand down against Fisher and run for a second term as SOS and a chance to reclaim control of the Ohio Apportionment Board and its powers to redrawing districts for the next decade.

Hoke on Ohio elections and Sen. Husted's run for SOS

In a statement emailed to this Examiner Tuesday, Hoke said, "All Ohioans should be legitimately concerned that the 2010 statewide ballot include qualified candidates who can and will represent Ohio citizens over partisan and special interests. I am deeply honored that proponents of fair and equitable elections have encouraged me to consider running for Secretary of State, but I believe that I can best serve my fellow citizens by continuing to work in other roles for fair, verifiably accurate, fiscally prudent, and proficiently conducted elections both here in Ohio and nationally."

Hoke, a national expert on elections and election security, said one of the "biggest threats to Ohio citizens’ interests comes from those who talk cynically and deceptively about achieving impartial and accountable elections and redistricting procedures" and proceeded to invoke the name of Republican nominee John Husted, who as Speaker of the Ohio House, she said "regularly tried to game Ohio’s elections systems for his party’s narrow political advantage."

"All Ohio voters — Democrats, Republicans, and independents — have a stake in honest elections and a redistricting process that is administered in a nonpartisan manner. Husted’s promises as a candidate for Secretary of State must be seen in the light of his past record. Voters and the media should look closely to determine whether the leopard’s new spots aren’t merely an election year paint job."

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Ohio financial report warns Gov. Strickland pace of recovery will be slow

2009-12-11T02:52:00.000-05:00

December 10, 11:42 PMColumbus Government ExaminerJohn Michael Spinelli

The median duration of unemployment increased to a new all time high of 20.1 weeks in October.

(Photo/John Michael Spinelli)

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View all »

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- What has become a sobering dose of sour financial news assembled by the director of budget and management and sent to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland each monthly, did not disappoint Thursday, as numbers contained in the report about declining jobs, the lengthening of time people are unemployed and shortfalls in various tax categories show the first-term governor that the pace of recovery will continue to be slow and underscore how bumpy his run for re-election next year will be.

Ohio, regional states out pace nation on job declines

J. Pari Sabety, Strickland's budget guru, issued a report showing Ohio's percent of job losses (-4.6%) outpaced that of the nation as a whole (-3.6%) but was reflective of job loss percentage for regional, neighboring states, like Michigan (6.4%), Indiana (5.2%), Kentucky (4.4%), Pennsylvania (-3.2%), West Virginia (2.9%). For all states outside the region, the decline was 3.9 percent.

National unemployment is now at 10 percent, but the loss of jobs at 11,000 is the best monthly showing since the economic downturn began in December of 2007.

Sabety's report said that "although we should be encouraged by recent signs and signals from leading indicators, the consensus among forecasters is that the pace of recovery will be slow."

In the broadest measure of unemployment, which includes marginally attached workers -- workers who are neither employed nor actively searching for a job but indicate that they would like to work -- and workers employed part-time because they cannot find a full time job, the report pegged this figure at 17.2 percent.

Further gloomy news on the jobs front said the median duration of unemployment increased to a new all time high of 20.1 week in October. From 1967-2007, that figure averaged just 7.1 weeks, and had never been higher than 12.3 weeks, recorded 1983. Moreover, the average duration of unemployment increased to a new all time high of 28.5 weeks.

Strickland stuck with defending big job loss numbers

The national loss of 41,000 manufacturing jobs lead other sector like trade, transportation and utilities and construction.

Ohio employment edged higher, the report said, with the addition of 1,499 jobs in October but still remains near it slow. For Strickland, a Democratic governor running for reelection next year against a Republican challenger who for the first time out polls him, the loss of of 243,200 jobs, or 4.6%, during the 12 months ending in October will be brought up time and time again as statistical proof Ohio can do better under a different leader.

Among the state's 11 metropolitan statistical areas year over year for October, only Sandusky added jobs (400). The losses for selected cities during the same timer period were Cleveland (-55,500), Cincinnati (-41,200), Columbus (-17,200), Toledo (-15,900), Dayton (-14,500), Akron (-14,300).

Don't count on consumer spending to rally recovery

At $25.1 million, or 2.2%, on the upside of estimates, last month's tax receipts were a plus but still close to expectations. Weakness in revenue from categories like the corporate franchise tax, non auto sales, public utility and kilowatt hour taxes were offset slightly by stronger than expected performance in the personal income and cigarette tax.

With the Christmas seasons bearing down on us, the label used in the report to describe expectations for shopping was "ominous," which supported the description of consumer attitudes as "mixed."

One way to look on the bright side of an otherwise gloomy report is to say that we're not flat on our backs anymore, but we have a long way to go before we can stand upright again.

One sign that consumers are mixed in their feelings is the realization that consumer installment credit outstanding decreased again in September and is down $125.7 billion, or 4.9 percent, from the July 2008 peak, a dive the report said is the largest decline since WWII in both dollar and percentage terms.

State to spend billions more from stimulus funds

As for receiving and spending stimulus dollars from Washington, of the $8.2 billion that Ohio is expected to receive during this three-year program, approximately $2.19 billion has been received, but only about a quarter, or $2.14 billion of it, has been expended.

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Toll of Polls on Obama, Strickland show national, Ohio rating slides

2009-12-09T15:19:00.000-05:00

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Candidate Barack Obama speaks to Ohio voters in Westervile
outside Columbus in 2008. (Photo/John Michael Spinelli

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Polls out Wednesday show President Barack Obama, who clinched his win of the White House last year when he carried Ohio, and Buckeye State Gov. Ted Strickland, who was elected to the top spot along with other Democrats who took back state offices in 2006, the popularity they once enjoyed has been short lived, as polling numbers released by both Quinnipiac University and Rasmussen Reports show.

Quinnipiac Poll shows cracks in Obama armor widening

The Quinnipiac Poll shows Obama has fallen in popularity with voters nationwide from a high of 59 percent in June to 46 percent today. The number of Americans who now disapproving of his job performance is 44 percent, two percent below those giving him a thumbs up, which it self is two percent below the 48 percent in November who were on his side.

Obama still has three more years to turn voters around enough to win a second term. The same is not true for Ohio Gov. Strickland, who is already gearing up for the bruising battle he'll have to wage with his endorsed GOP-rival, John Kasich.

Rasmussen report a cause for worry for Strickland

The numbers for that match-up contained in a poll released by Rasmussen Reports, show Strickland (pictured here at this year's Ohio State Fair), who won 61 percent of the vote in 2006 but who has struggled with a state on the rocks from a combination of revenue shortfalls, is now nine percent behind Kasich, whose campaign slogan is he is a "new way and a new day."

Leading up to their reporting, Rasmussen paints a partial picture of the state of the state in Ohio. Unemployment is at 10.5 percent, a budget hole of nearly $900 looms as Strickland and Senate Republicans Roman wrestle on how to close it and thousands of manufacturing and construction jobs continue to disappear each month.

With sentiment against deficit spending, and incumbents like Obama and Strickland who have few viable options to turn things around, as the former Congressman said he would do in 2006, and who say without government spending the abyss they say they see in the rear view mirrors would have swallowed them alive, the electoral climate for a candidate like Strickland could be very bad for his political health.

For Strickland, Rasmussen says he wins support from just 69 percent of the state’s Democratic voters and trails by 25 percentage points among voters not affiliated with either major party.

Adding to Strickland’s woes, they note, is a very public disagreement with the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus.

The Rasmussen Poll shows Strickland attracting only 71 percent (71%) of the black vote, and reports that only 13 percent (13%) of African-American voters say they will vote against the governor. Fifteen percent remain undecided in the poll. The polling group that poll watchers say leans more right than others, says it's likely that the Democratic candidate (Strickland) will "eventually win much better support from the black community statewide."

Forty-eight percent (48%) of all voters in the state still approve of the way Strickland is handling his job, while 50% disapprove. Those figures include 11% who Strongly Approve and 24% who Strongly Disapprove.

Obama's job approval rating continues to slide and it's evident the deterioration stems from voter unhappiness over domestic policy matters," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. He says that while the decline in Obama's overall approval in the last month has been small, with the exception of independent voters, who went from three points negative to 14 points. "If the trend continues, it won't be long before he (Obama) could be in the unenviable position of having more Americans disapprove than approve of his job performance."

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Ohio Gov. Strickland, rail bosses should read, heed Gravy Train report by public integrity group

2009-12-07T11:25:00.001-05:00

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- When President Barack Obama announced earlier this year that he thought America should be able to build high speed trains like other transportation savvy countries have done, the frenzy to grab some of the $8 billion in federal stimulus funding he offered has created its own job market, one full of hungry lobbyists, new lobbying groups, vested interest consultants and planners who don't want to miss this funding train, even if the slow train to the past they're backing doesn't actually leave a station for years or maybe even decades to come.

Asking the question that begs asking, Matthew Lewis, writing for The Center for Public Integrity (CPI), posits that Washington's newest gravy train has already created nearly 1,800 interest groups who "want something" from a new transportation bill whose price tag of $50 billion is so awesome that while it presents a feeding opportunity for backers of status quo transportation, it may turn out that the rising tide of anti-debt sentiment may wash it away until another day and price point can be reached.

Lewis and CPI found that more than 50 public and private groups explicitly lobbied on high-speed rail policy last quarter, a three-fold increase from a year ago. Even that number, he says, fails to capture dozens of other "actors likely lobbying on high-speed rail that keep their specific lobbying targets as vague as Washington does its spending plans."

Making his case for too many projects chasing to few funds, Lewis reminds his readers that at least 34 states including Ohio submitted proposals valued at $57 billion chasing an initial $8 billion allocation. First round funding announcements are expected this winter or no later than spring, according to a rail expert at Parsons Brinckerhoff Ohio hired to help with $564 million quick-start plan submitted to the FRA in early October.

The 3-C Corridor plan, so called because it links Ohio's three major cities -- Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland -- may get off to a slow start despite the hoopla rail chiefs and their boosters are drumming up because, as a peripheral line to the Midwestern Hub system, other projects in other states are more important, at least during the first round of HSR funding.

With California and Florida asking for more than half the $8 billion, Ohio will be lucky to receive the $564 million it asked for. And even if it does, the little matter of maybe another $200 million more for Positive Train Control technology has to be dealt with, because when sharing a freight rail track, accidents do happen, as the fatal crash in Los Angeles showed the world. And Mr. Pasterak, the consultant from PB hired by Ohio rail bosses, said PST and its costs were not a part of the state's quick start proposal.

Notwithstanding what can only be viewed as an intentional oversight -- freight companies, who are mandated by the FRA to must have PST installed by the end of 2015 are looking to passenger rail systems like the 3-C to pay for it -- deliver of train sets anytime soon -- as soon as Gov. Strickland told Bloomberg TV last week, which is by 2011 -- could also throw the project off track.

Ohio rail chiefs have bet the passenger train ranch on taking delivery of train sets from a failed Colorado railroad car company, whose buyers of distressed companies want to move to a suburb of Columbus if millions in state and federal funding arrive to build a new facility on brownfield land that doesn't have a rail spur running to it. Some watchers have questioned why state forces are lining up behind this land when other, better venues exist in other parts of the state.

Should the 3-C line lumber forward, its conventional train technology -- despite using a dual mode diesel engine -- will still produce a train whose average speed will be a turtle-paced 39 mph, a speed maybe not to different from the speed of the first train to run the 3-C route in 1852, two years after trains were introduced in the Buckeye State. The 3-C corridor, which hasn't seen a passenger train run it since 1972, is about 255 miles in length.

Buckeye rail bosses have beat the drum for this slow, expensive train, that even if its built, based on its projected schedule of runs, will strand riders starting in Cincinnati or Cleveland in another city, mostly likely Columbus, it's too slow to do a roundtrip in the same day. State rail bosses and their consultants admit that a full-route one-way journey will take about six and one-half hours.

Good trip to download War and Peace to your Kindle.

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Economic recovery in Ohio to take years, demand action by politicians, OSU report says

2009-12-04T13:49:00.001-05:00

Economic recovery in Ohio to take years, demand action by politicians, OSU report says

December 4, 12:32 PMColumbus Government ExaminerJohn Michael Spinelli

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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Recessions from a generation ago are very different from today's Great Recession, so say a trio of researchers from The Ohio State University, who opined in their report on growth and change in Ohio that inaction by state leaders like Gov. Ted Strickland and lawmakers will only prolong what they predict is already shaping up to be a long jobless recovery.

Ohio families and communities will be further strained as the state tries to recover some of its manufacturing might lost since the 1970s, which has resulted in whole industries either never returning to their original levels of employment activity or being permanently destroyed.

If the recent past is our guide, Mark Partridge, Swank Professor of Rural-Urban Policy in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, who led the study with his two other co-authors, Xuetao Huang and Tripti Uprety, said the future economic recovery will be quite feeble, with very slow job creation. Partridge and company concluded that "this drawn out 'jobless' recovery will strain Ohioans and the communities they live in."

Previous job losses could cushion more job losses

The trio said it took 46 months for the nation to recovery from the last recession in 2001 but said Ohio's total employment never did recover. They said the damage to Ohio's manufacturing sector and the families and communities that once relied so heavily on it will have less adverse impacts now because, since 1970, the sector has been in serious decline.

Ironically, they say Ohio is much better placed to prosper in the long-run if it is able to make fundamental changes to enhance its economic potential. They warn, however, that wholesale change will require that the state let go of its traditional litany of excuses for its relative poor economic performance. Contrary to some who argue that the decline of the Detroit Three auto producers has particularly hurt Ohio over the last 40 years, the researchers show that Ohio’s so-called exposure to the auto sector is "simply not large enough to explain its poor performance."

Their research showed that Ohio’s recovery pattern tends to be more severe in downturn, and job growth tends to lag the nation in recovery. They caution that while Ohio’s job declines are still less than that in 1981-82, the labor market may need longer than 1981-82 to recover. The implications for Ohio’s businesses and governments is that it "may take many years for tax revenue to recover and for businesses to regain a good footing. "Many families will face prolonged challenges, which will spread to our broader communities," they wrote, adding, "Clearly, in going forward, Ohioans should plan on continued belt tightening."

The good, bad and ugly of "creative destruction"

The good news about the bad news about the painful loss of manufacturing jobs is that it's almost over because Ohio has lost so many manufacturing jobs that there really are not that many more to lose. "Even if Ohio were to lose every remaining manufacturing job (which it will not), there will be fewer lost jobs in manufacturing than what has occurred since the early 1970s. The upside of losing so many jobs manufacturing jobs previously is that Ohio "will be less sensitive to economic downturns than in the past due to the cyclical nature of manufacturing."

They say “creative destruction,” where the loss of declining industries frees up resources (labor and capital alike) to be employed in expanding and emerging industries by shifting resources to producing products that have higher returns increases living standards, is alive and well in Ohio.

Based on their results showing many lost jobs in Ohio will not return, their painful but sobering conclusion is that it may take many years for the "economy to return to something resembling widespread prosperity." For Ohio this means families and communities will continue to face numerous challenges for many years into the future.

As for government, they predict all levels of Ohio government "will have difficult times in balancing their budget, with resulting implications for important social services, education, and infrastructure provision." Moreover, continued shortfalls in education and infrastructure provision could "further impair future economic growth."

With manufacturing being one-third of what it was in the early 1970s, the bitter good news for Ohio is that the state may be breaking out of a pattern where its downturns are more severe than the country as a whole and its recoveries are sluggish.

Two cups of hope

The authors offer up one more cup of hope and caution for residents and political leaders. They opine that Ohio employers likely overreacted during the peak of the crisis during the winter of 2009 by laying off too many workers. Due to this overreaction, they say employers may have to re-hire workers faster to meet growing demand. But if recent trends continue, they warn again, Ohio’s labor market will be very sluggish for many years in the future.

For political leaders, they say it would be "an even bigger shame if the economic downturn further distracts Ohio’s politicians and leaders from making favorable structural changes that could avert many of these problems in the future."

The cost of inaction is that this long painful process will be followed by more painful restructuring. Happy holidays!

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Ohio 6th among states in fallen soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan

2009-12-03T14:25:00.001-05:00

Ohio 6th among states in fallen soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan

December 2, 2:11 AMColumbus Government ExaminerJohn Michael Spinelli

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The gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery are
graced by U.S. flags each Memorial Day
(Photo/Wikipedia).

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- While West Point cadets listened with rapt attention Tuesday evening to President Barack Obama as he outlined his plan to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan as the key element in his way forward there and in Pakistan, let us not forget that 208 Ohioans have already died serving their country in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom and that that number may rise in the months and years to come.

Ohio 6th among states in faces of the fallen

Ohio, still the 7th largest state in the nation, ranks 6th among states in the number of its citizens who have given their life to serve their country in a time of war. Statistics compiled on the faces of the fallen by the Washington Post show California leading all states with 554 deaths, followed by Texas with 463, Florida with 242 and Pennsylvania and New York with 233.

"I do not make this decision lightly," President Obama said in a solemn but determined manner. He said he opposed the war in Iraq precisely because he believes the U.S. "must exercise restraint in the use of military force, and always consider the long-term consequences of our actions."

Among Ohio's many cities, the largest number (13) of the 208 fallen soldiers to date called Cincinnati and Columbus home, while nine hailed from Cleveland and five from Canton.

President Obama said he understands the toll the nation's two wars have taken on America's families. "As President, I have signed a letter of condolence to the family of each American who gives their life in these wars. I have read the letters from the parents and spouses of those who deployed. I visited our courageous wounded warriors at Walter Reed. I've traveled to Dover to meet the flag-draped caskets of 18 Americans returning home to their final resting place. I see firsthand the terrible wages of war. If I did not think that the security of the United States and the safety of the American people were at stake in Afghanistan, I would gladly order every single one of our troops home tomorrow."

No doubt many of the family and friends of Ohio's 208 fallen soldiers would rather have their loved ones back in their homes and hearts than have a letter of condolence from America's Commander in Chief extolling their dedication and courage.

Ohio senators Voinovich and Brown comment on Obama's plan

U.S. Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, said, “Our strategic plan must include all instruments of American power — humanitarian, diplomatic and military. Military force alone cannot do it all in Afghanistan, but we can help create a secure environment in which the Afghan people can work to achieve a stable government and viable economy.”

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said that while he was encouraged that the president laid out clear goals and a responsible timeline for completion, “I remain skeptical about a commitment of 30,000 of our service men and women. I do not want a long commitment of troops in the region and I am concerned with the dramatic costs to human life and to military families.”

Let us all hope and pray that the way forward is kinder to Ohio servicemen than the way to this day has been.

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Ohio's faces of the fallen

Obama remarks on way forward

GOP lawmakers give Gov. Strickland a choice: Cut a deal with us or cut education funding

2009-12-03T14:23:00.000-05:00

GOP lawmakers give Gov. Strickland a choice: Cut a deal with us or cut education funding

December 1, 4:02 PMColumbus Government ExaminerJohn Michael Spinelli

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William G. Batchelder, House
Minority Leader (Photo/Ohio House)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Republican president of the Ohio Senate, who said yesterday that he needs more convincing by Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and allied Democrats on details related to renewal of a popular technology fund before he can endorse it to voters, was joined Tuesday by House Republican Leader William Batchelder of Medina, who said he also needs more time to learn whether a plan being proposed by House Democrats to renew the Third Frontier diverges significantly from past practices in a way that could further hurt the state's debt position or its credit rating.

Batchelder, Harris, GOP allies try to corner Strickland on budet fix

“It has come to our attention that for more than half a year the House Democrats have been drafting, working and reworking with their possible contributors on an arbitrary rewrite of the Third Frontier program," Batchelder (R-69th) said in prepared remarks.

Batchelder, a long-time fiscal conservative who returned to the House in 2007 after previously logging 30 years there and who could easily culminate his political career by becoming the next House Speaker if Republicans take back next year the few seats they lost in 2008, complained of the sparse time he and his caucus were given to fathom the ramifications of the bill before it comes to a vote.

He said Republicans are "uncertain of the details within the Democrat proposal, since we have not received it" and commented that the skeleton outline minority party members received "differs significantly from the original Third Frontier proposal," a high-tech funding initiative created by former two-term Gov. Bob Taft.

Batchelder, whose conspicuous eyeglasses are as much a part of his distinctive style as rock 'n roll legend Buddy Holley's black rimmed glasses were to him, said the original proposal for the Third Frontier program was a $1.6 billion dollar investment over 10 years with an average of $160 million per year and several sources of funding including a $500 million bond issuance, tobacco settlement money, General Revenue Fund (GRF) and excess liquor profits.

He said the current proposal calls for twice the bonds in half the time. He noted that $1 billion over five years produces an average cost of $200 million per year. "This is a departure from the original balanced proposal that bears further scrutiny," Batchelder said.

Batchelder said that to fully expose all ramifications of this critical proposal as it stands today, he and his caucus need more time to study and consult with bond counsel. Echoing a talking point from comments Senate President Bill Harris made yesterday that included concern for Ohio's debt payment burden and appetite by voters to take on yet more debt, Batchelder said he is "committed to protecting Ohio’s bond rating" and expressed worry about Ohio's credit rating taking another hit due to an unbalanced budget he laid squarely at the feet of Strickland, and by extension, his Democratic allies in the legislature.

He said that as soon as "the majority party provides us with the details of their proposal," he and his GOP caucus will "work across party lines just as we did with the extension of COBRA benefits in the transportation budget earlier this General Assembly.”

As Batchelder joins Harris in a political pincer movement against Strickland and colleagues, it came as no surprise that two Republican State Senators, Tom Niehaus of New Richmond and Bill Seitz of Green Township, told the Cincinnati Enquirer in an editorial board meeting Monday that Gov. Strickland can "either cut a deal with Ohio Senate Republicans to fill an $851 million budget hole in December or risk having to slash public education funding in a year when he is running for re-election."

Seitz, Niehaus give Strickland a Hobson's Choice: Cut a deal with us or cut education funding

To fill this yawning budget hole, Strickland wants to suspend the final year of a five-year cut in personal income taxes, a choice supported by his Democratic allies in the legislature and by an odd-couple assortment of business groups who normally follow the lead of GOP-centric interests.

Seitz and Niehaus told Enquirer staff that they are willing to give Strickland two-thirds of the tax-cut freeze he and supports have chosen as the best of a bad set of choices to fix this budget hole.

"We offered this as an alternative, expecting a discussion and instead it produced a hissy fit on the part of the governor,'' said Seitz, who is known for his rapier wit and ability to translate a complex issue into layman's language. "The governor said it would be his plan or nothing."

But the big problem Seitz and Niehaus have is that their own plan lacks enough support from their own majority caucus (21-12) to pass. For it to pass, all 12 Democrats would have to vote for it and that is beyond even fantasy.

The standoff between Strickland and legislative Republicans cannot last forever, for various reasons. One of those reasons, as articulated by Seitz and Niehaus, is that after Dec. 31, Strickland's tax cut plan turns into a pumpkin again, as it will be impossible under state law for Strickland to delay the scheduled income tax break. Then, the two said, Strickland would likely have to cut state funding for public education by 10 to 15 percent.

"I think we will come to an agreement, because (Strickland) doesn't want to have to do a 10 percent cut to schools when he's trying to run for re-election as the 'education governor,''' Seitz told the Enquirer editorial board.

For his part, a spokeswoman for Strickland told Howard Wilkinson that "the governor's door is open to any reasonable and realistic proposal.'' But for what Seitz and Niehaus are proposing, the word from Strickland is that it "does not qualify" because it "spends money we do not have".

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Ohio ranks 7th in bankruptcy filings up 34 percent over last fiscal year, court records show

2009-11-25T21:13:00.002-05:00

November 25, 9:10 PMColumbus Government ExaminerJohn Michael Spinelli

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Bankruptcy Filings per 1,000 Population, State and Territories, Fiscal 2009
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Figures released Wednesday by the U.S. Courts on the number of bankruptcy filings over the last federal fiscal year show Ohio ranked 7th highest, a sign that more trouble and heartache are headed toward the Buckeye State, where unemployment has hit 10.5 percent, manufacturing jobs continue to go poof every month and where the social safety net once backstopped by steadfast state dollars is now frayed from declining state revenues.

Total bankruptcy cases filed in federal courts for fiscal year 2009 -- for October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009 -- totaled 1,402,816, up 34.5 percent over the 1,042,993 filings reported for the 12-month period ending September 30, 2008, according to statistics released today by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

In FY 2009, filings rose for all bankruptcy Chapters:

Chapter 7 filings in FY 2009 totaled 989,227, up 45 percent from the 679,982 Chapter 7 filings in FY 2008.
Chapter 11 filings rose 68 percent, increasing from 8,799 in FY 2008 to 14,745 in FY 2009.
Chapter 13 filings rose 13 percent, from 353,828 in FY 2008 to 398,210 in FY 2009.
Chapter 12 is designed to meet the needs of financially distressed family farmers.

In FY 2009, Chapter 12 filings totaled 487, up 47 percent from the 332 Chapter 12 filings in FY 2008.

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Ohio's growing homeless population could be state's 7th largest city

2009-11-25T20:14:00.000-05:00

November 25, 4:47 PMColumbus Government ExaminerJohn Michael Spinelli

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Thanksgiving family gathering (Photo/John Michael Spinelli)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- With Thanksgiving day upon us, a day that celebrates the bounty of the harvest and the community's collective gratitude for it, there is a growing number of Ohioans who will not enjoy the happiness of having family and friends gathered together under a cozy roof to enjoy it all.

Sadly, if the current number of homeless people in Ohio lived in one place, it would represent Ohio's 7th largest city, sandwiched in between Dayton and Parma. .

As economic conditions in Ohio continue to deteriorate, evidenced by an unemployment rate of 10.5 percent, continuing problems with home foreclosures as poverty rises, the population ages and more people going hungry, the grab by some state legislators of $30 million from the state's Housing Trust Fund to partially fill a nearly $900 million budget hole is way out of bounds, according to the leader-in-chief of Ohio's leading homeless and low-income housing advocacy group, the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO).

If you're homeless, you need all the help you can get, which is why Bill Faith, Executive Director of COHHIO, believes the no-bid contract of about $76,000 awarded to a Louisiana firm to keep track of them all is important, as it continues administration of a statewide Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) that will better direct help to these people.

Faith, in an email exchange with this Examiner, said the additional federal stimulus dollars flowing to Ohio for homelessness prevention warrants changes in the HMIS system to incorporate the organizations providing those services across the state into the existing system is a good thing. Bowman Systems, LLC, of Shreveport, Louisiana, designed the original system for the Ohio Department of Development (ODOD). The contract, already in progress, will be approved retroactively at the November 30th meeting of the Controlling Board.

COHHIO, which has provided a voice for the underrepresented for more than 30 years, has as its noble, humanitarian mission the ending homelessness and the promotion of affordable housing. While achieving its dual mission is still over the distant horizon, Faith said his group will continue to be involved in a range of housing assistance services in Ohio, including homeless prevention, emergency shelters, transitional housing and permanent affordable housing with linkages to supportive services. He said COHHIO assists hundreds of housing organizations and homeless service providers in Ohio through public policy advocacy, training and technical assistance, research and public education.

While state funds will flow to a non-Ohio company, Faith says local communities are required to have a Homeless MIS system in place in order to qualify for ongoing support for homelessness funding from HUD. ODOD administers the homeless and housing money for the state and it also applies for homeless funding from HUD for the smallest 80 counties in the state – therefore necessitating the need for an HMIS system for all of those counties. Last year HUD provided about $10 million for homeless programs in those 80 counties, Faith said, noting that Ohio's eight largest counties apply directly to HUD and must also comply with the HMIS requirement.

"We work closely on all of this stuff with ODOD and have done so for many years," said Faith, who clarified that even though Ohio has its own agency dedicated to jobs and family services, it has never administered any of funding for homeless or housing projects in the state. "I guess that is similar to the separation of responsibilities between HHS and HUD at the federal level," he surmised.

Faith estimated that "there is probably in the ballpark of 150,000 Ohioans who will be homeless at some point this year and no doubt the requests for services is growing in these tough times."

He said the stimulus money in the homeless arena is for homelessness prevention or emergency rent assistance to help people avoid eviction or to help housing costs in order to leave emergency shelters. Despite the passage of the stimulus package earlier in the year, Faith said the funding has just recently started to flow and is expected to last two to three years.

"I don’t know what happens if the funding stops flowing – I guess more people will be evicted and others will be stuck in shelters longer," he said of what happens when one-time funds for homelessness, like those for other uses, dries up.

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Ohio Senators Brown, Voinovich split votes on historic health care reform bill

2009-11-21T22:33:00.001-05:00

November 21, 10:30 PMColumbus Government ExaminerJohn Michael Spinelli

Ohio's Democratic Junior US Senator Sherrod Brown
(Photo/John Michael Spinelli)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Everyone agrees that history was made Saturday evening when the US Senate voted on the controversial health care reform bill, but for Ohio senators Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and George Voinovich, a Republican, their votes came down to doing what hasn't been done since the days of Harry Truman or to saving future generations for having done so.

Reports from the AP said the spectator galleries were full and that applause broke out briefly when the vote was announced. Keeping with the heated tone of the debate over the months, published reports noted that Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., accused Republicans of trying to stifle a historic debate the nation needed.

"Imagine if, instead of debating whether to abolish slavery, instead of debating whether giving women and minorities the right to vote, those who disagreed had muted discussion and killed any vote," Reid said, according to the AP.

Likewise, the AP said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Minority Leader, said the vote was anything but procedural, and casted it as a "referendum on the bill itself," which he said would "raise taxes, cut Medicare and create a 'massive and unsustainable debt.,'" themes that would be echoed by Sen. Voinovich.

In the 60-39 vote, Brown, the junior senator elected in 2006, said the vote to open debate on health reform brings the nation "one step closer to making insurance more affordable for millions of Americans."

For Voinovich, who did not vote, the proposed bill "cuts Medicare, raises taxes, increases premiums, hurts states and threatens the health choices that millions currently enjoy," according to a statement posted on his office Web site that added, "This is not reform, and it is not what the American people are asking for. That is why I cannot support Sen. Reid’s health care bill and will not support the vote on the motion to proceed to the bill."

Ohio's Republican Senior Sen.
George Voinovich (Photo/Voinovich
Senate Web site)

But for Brown, who has expressed confidence over the weeks that the bill would indeed include a public option for a government run health exchange that will provide competition to private health insurers, the bill was historic for many reasons. "Passing health insurance reform means that Americans won’t lose health coverage if they change or lose their jobs," he said in a statement on his office Web site. "It means an end to insurance industry practices that limit medical care or charge higher rates to women or individuals with pre-existing medical conditions. We’re one step closer to lowering costs for small businesses and middle class families,”

With the news this week that Ohio's unemployment rate rose to 10.5 percent, Voinovich, known as a deficit hawk but who voted for the tax cuts and war spending of the Bush Administration, said the new health care legislation should first do no harm to the economy. "Sen. Reid’s bill is full of budget gimmicks and will cost Americans $2.5 trillion over the next decade, ignoring the fact that we cannot even take care of our current obligations," he said. "The bill will also raise taxes on Americans by half a trillion dollars while cutting Medicare by nearly the same amount – hurting our nation’s seniors. And, CBO says this bill will increase federal health costs, not lower them like health care reform was supposed to achieve."

Brown sees matters differently. “When it comes to health care, the cost of inaction is too high. This bill will cut our nation’s deficit by $130 billion in the first ten years and will preserve Medicare. It will help keep the insurance industry honest and drive down premiums by injecting competition through a strong public option."

Brown hopes Republicans will choose to be part of the solution. "We have an opportunity to invest in the economic security of American households and the economic competitiveness of American businesses, all while lowering costs and reducing the deficit," Brown argues. "Americans deserve more affordable and dependable health insurance, and tonight’s vote permits us to move forward toward that goal.”

In addition to expressing concerns for the additional financial burdens he says the bill will bring to Americans, Voinovich noted another reason for opposing the bill. "Additionally, I cannot support Sen. Reid’s proposal because I believe any health reform bill must protect all human life from conception to natural death and am adamantly against allowing federal funding for abortions.”

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Senator Harris offers Ohio Gov. Strickland 28 ideas for short, long term budget fixes

2009-11-18T21:16:00.002-05:00

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- In a media release distributed shortly after 7 pm Wednesday, after another frustrating day of closed door meetings on how to fill an immediate hole in Ohio's budget while also devising long term solutions both parties can agree on, Senate President Bill Harris (R-Ashland) said he is willing to meet Gov. Ted Strickland "more than half way if he will pledge to put politics aside and work with us on the bigger budgetary problems that we all know are ahead of us."

But what's reasonable to Harris was characterized as not being responsible by a spokesman for Strickland, who told William Hershey of the Dayton Daily News that the package of GOP proposals "is not a responsible way to address the serious budget challenges facing the state and Ohio’s schools.” Amanda Wurst, Strickland’s spokeswoman said, "…the governor believes that the Senate has the responsibility to either put forward a realistic and responsible proposal or adopt the tax freeze, even if that means working through the weekend.”

At issue is how to fill a budget hole of more than $900 million over the remaining months of Ohio's two-year fisal year that ends June 31st. Dollar Information sent along with tonight's announcement pegs the shortfall at $911.5 million. To help plug that gap, Harris proposes to allow one-third of the scheduled income tax reduction, or $284 million, to go into effect rather than the full freeze. He also wants to use $200 million in casino licensing fees, made possible by Ohio voters approving the construction of four casinos, one each in Toledo, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus. Another $30 million would come from sentencing reform savings, while amounts of $10 and $15 million would come from other reforms.

The statement from Harris said Senate Republicans, who control the upper chamber 21-12 over Democrats, continued to work to address the shortfall of about $851 million in state education funding.

He said he and his Republican caucus offered the Governor and his fellow Democrats a "reasonable compromise that addresses the shortfall in state education funding, ensures Ohio taxpayers will see approximately $280 million of the tax reduction they were promised over tax years 2009 and 2010, and takes important steps toward long-term cost savings for the state that will help in balancing the next state budget when federal stimulus and other one-time funding will not be available."

During the budget debate this spring, Republicans warned Strickland not to rely on one-time federal stimulus funds to prop up the budget because it would only lead to even harsher cuts in the next two-year budget cycle when manna from Washington dries up, and lawmakers would be faced with either cutting government down further than Strickland has already done or increasing revenues, which, as Harris emphasized again, goes against the grain of their economic policies.

“It is no secret that Senate Republicans have serious concerns about going back on the income tax cuts Ohioans are already enjoying today," Harris said, adding that he and his political cohorts "believe that allowing Ohioans to keep more of their hard-earned money during a recession should continue to be a priority for leaders in state government."

To demonstrate the size of the olive branch they have offered Strickland, Harris reiterated that he has committed to "passing sentencing reform and construction reform," proposals he said Strickland has already endorsed.

Harris, underscoring the need to find common ground in order to "address today's shortfall, but in saving state and local governments hundreds of millions of dollars in the long run," said he has delivered on the challenge made by Strickland that if Republicans didn't like what he was offering, they should present their own plan.

“The Governor told us to present our ideas. We have done that," Harris said, referring to the 28 amendments he proposes to put forward, that may or may not gain any votes from Senate Democrats. The Minority Caucus said if Harris wanted to gain their 12 votes and provide five of his own to reach the magic number of 17 to approve legislation, he would have to reach out to them. Harris countered by saying that his caucus had a Plan B that does not need a single Democrat to vote for it to pass it.

Harris encouraged Strickland to "give serious consideration to what we have put forth and rather than dismissing it out of hand, offer his constructive ideas so we can reach a truly bipartisan agreement. We owe it to the people of Ohio to work together and resolve our differences in a fiscally responsible manner.”

A draft synopsis of proposed amendments to HB 318 – the bill the Ohio House passed to fix the budget hole -- follow:

Allow one-third of the scheduled income tax reduction to go into effect rather than freezing the full reduction
Create a trigger mechanism by which an increased portion of or the full scheduled income tax rate reduction would occur if the Governor moves forward on VLTs, or if excess casino revenues are generated within the biennium and could be used to offset GRF
Restores $25 million in FY 10 and $35 million in FY 11 for chartered, nonpublic schools which were disproportionately cut in the budget process
Transfer the casino licensure fees, approved by voters as ‘state issue 3,’ into the GRF to offset current regional job program expenditures
Grant waivers for school districts regarding unfunded mandates for all-day kindergarten and class size reductions
Allow school districts to privatize transportation services if they choose to do so
Provide flexibility in state report cards for school districts that failed to meet adequate yearly progress (AYP) in certain sub groups
Allow broader use of joint purchasing by education service centers and school purchasing consortia
Inclusion of the SB190 ROTC high school credit provisions
Inclusion of Ohio Construction Reform Panel recommendations as drafted by DAS (draft LSC 1411-3)
Requirement that DAS implement paperwork reduction/cost savings strategies
Inclusion of comprehensive sentencing reforms
Establishment of an oil & gas drilling pilot program on state-owned land at Salt Fork
Removal of pay cut language as it is now contained in SB20
Create of a privatization commission to study state functions that could be privatized
Specify that future collective bargaining contracts let by the state will coincide with the state’s biennial budget timeframe
Require that three state agencies (DNR, EDU, and ODOT) undergo performance audits
Study a state government restructuring plan similar to those proposed in SB52 and HB25
Study potential cost savings and economic benefits to Ohio employers and injured workers by allowing private insurance companies to compete with the BWC
Require the Auditor of State’s Office to determine if BWC has adequate reserves compared to industry standards and to recommend rebates if an over-reserve is determined to exist
Study cost savings which may be achieved if the state were to go to a four-day workweek
Transfers functions of the School Employee Health Care Board to DAS and deletes GRF appropriation in EDU
Transfer $15 million per FY from the liquor profits fund into the GRF
Transfer $15 million per FY from the Housing Trust Fund into the GRF
Transfer $1 million per fiscal year in total from three Public Safety education funds (83G0, 83N0, and 8440)
Specify that the insurance settlement funds for the Lake Hope State Park lodge be used for the purpose of fixing that site
Use half of the current scrap tire fee to provide funding to the state’s Soil & Water districts
Ensures correct appropriation authority for the Department of Mental Health’s 408 line item.here.

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As Ohioans get fatter, their wallets will get thinner, national health study says

2009-11-18T16:28:00.001-05:00

November 18, 1:43 PMColumbus Government ExaminerJohn Michael Spinelli

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Silhouettes and waist circumferences representing
normal, overweight, and obese (Photo/Wikipedia)

Related Information

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- If forecasts from a new national health study are correct, that more than 50 percent of adult Ohioans will be obese by 2018, it follows that all Buckeye wallets will become thinner as the costs for obesity-attributable health care services will be passed on in the form of higher insurance premiums.

A study commissioned by the United Health Foundation (UHF), Partnership for Prevention and American Public Health Association forecasts that the annual medical costs associated with obesity could rise by more than $1,800 per person within the next decade as Ohio's obesity rate tops 50 percent.

According to Kenneth Thorpe of Emory University, the rise of health insurance premiums could rise from $433 in 2008 to $1,877 a year in 2018, even for right-sized adults.

The ranking of states according to health profiles by UHF show Ohio moved from 34 last year to 33 this year. Vermont was first; Mississippi was last.

Among Ohio's list of strengths was a low rate of uninsured population at 11.6 percent, a high immunization coverage with 82.9 percent of children ages 19 to 35 months receiving complete immunizations and low geographic disparity within the state at 9.2 percent. Ohio ranks higher for health determinants than for health outcomes, study details noted, indicating that overall healthiness should improve over time.

What are Ohio's health challenges? Among them are a high prevalence of obesity at 29.2 percent of the population, high levels of air pollution at 13.4 micrograms of fine particulate per cubic meter, low public health funding at $39 per person, a high rate of preventable hospitalizations at 84.2 discharges per 1,000 Medicare enrollees, many poor mental health days per month at 3.9 days in the previous 30 days and a high rate of cancer deaths at 209.1 deaths per 100,000 population.

What's changed over time? Included are the prevalence of smoking decreased from 23.1 percent to 20.1 percent of the population. In the past five years, the percentage of children in poverty increased from 16.5 percent to 21.0 percent of persons under age 18. In the past ten years, immunization coverage increased from 47.7 percent to 82.9 percent of children ages 19 to 35 months receiving complete immunizations. Since 1990, the prevalence of obesity increased from 11.3 percent to 29.2 percent of the population.

Childhood obesity bill introduced by Ohio Senators Kearney, Coughlin

In separate but related news, two Ohio senators, Democrat Eric Kearny of Cincinnati and Republican Kevin Coughlin of Cuyahoga Falls, introduced a bill (SB210) that involves Ohio schools in tackling the epidemic of childhood obesity.

Kearney, testifying before the Senate Health and Human Services Committee Tuesday, said the "failure to address obesity at an early age will lead to lifelong health issues and will come at enormous expense.”

Backed by various health and business oriented groups, the bill contains provisions that build physical activity into the daily school routine and make it a key component of making children active again, requiring Body Mass Index measurements as students age and ensuring that children have access to nutritious foods in their school setting.

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Morgan's Raiders ride out 10 bills Ohio House Republicans challenged Democrats to discuss, act on

2009-11-17T21:47:00.000-05:00

November 17, 8:03 PMColumbus Government ExaminerJohn Michael Spinelli

Seth Morgan, an Ohio House Republican from Huber
Heights near Dayton, leads discussion today on GOP good
government bills. (Photo/Ohio House)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The quartet of mostly rookie Republican House members, led by Seth Morgan (R-Huber Heights), convened in a meeting room in the Ohio Statehouse the GOP has not seen the inside of for about 15 years because it controlled the House during themto trot out a stable of 10 good government bills they said deserve discussion and action now, but which they know will not be welcomed, let alone acted on by ruling Democrats.

The impact of the 10-bill package is to spur government, streamline efficiency, strengthen accountability and transparency in state government, while simultaneously working to reduce the economic turmoil suffered by Ohio families who have been hard hit by the national economic maelstrom.

Hard hit in both loss of jobs -- 641,800 according to information provided to reporters by House communication staff -- and an economy that can no longer produce the amount of revenue to sustain state government at its current, albeit reduced level of government. Ohio lawmakers need to fill a biennial budget hole of about $900 million.

But finding a consensus solution is still over the horizon. Republicans and Democrats, in the House and Senate, are staking their claim on how to build a vehicle that not only withstand the hit from filling the gapping budget pothole in front of it but will be engineered to withstand greater shocks from even larger, more distant potholes that await the state as soon as 2011, when the biennial budget train again chugs around the bend.

Leader of the pack

The leader of the GOP pack today was House Policy Committee Chairman Seth Morgan, the youngest person to be elected to Huber Heights City Council. The first-term member and MBA, told reporters that Ohio is facing real problems, and that The Future of Ohio - Government Reform package presented today represents a real solution to those problems. Morgan said the GOP package of bills represents "an effective, sustained effort to streamline government, reduce waste, and improve services for a brighter future for Ohio.”

Making up Morgan's Raiders were were Representatives from A to Z, literally. John Adams (R-Sidney), Ron Amstutz (R-Wooster), Peter Beck (R-Mason), Terry Blair (R-Washington Township) and Jim Zehringer (R- Fort Recovery), stood close by, no doubt as they did last evening when the group conducted a town hall forum in Blue Ash, a city north of Cincinnati, where the themes interwoven throughout the group's legislative strategy range from efficiency and accountability to state spending --

Rep. Beck, who represents the suburban community north of Blue Ash called Mason, is so new to the House that its Web site offers no picture or biography.

Morgan's Raiders said they will work to see that government is operating as transparently, effectively and economically as possible. All this good government will be propelled by the business management tactic of scrutinizing every tax dollar in order to reduce waste. But to fill Ohio’s nearly $900 million yawning budget deficit, the committee did not stray from their core message that long-term, sustainable solutions are needed now to address Ohio’s urgent economic needs.

“Tough fiscal times present opportunities,” said Amstutz, the only member of the group to serve in the Senate. “Our citizens are very supportive of making government more efficient as a cost savings tool."

Expressing their collective frustration with what they said has been "inaction and partisanship from House Democrats" over the last 11 months, the Republican Caucus established the Ohio House Policy Committee to explore sustainable solutions to the economic crisis. According to a media release, they believe that Ohio’s families, not political games, should be the focus of the Legislature. And to circumvent House partisanship, Morgan's raiders are taking their ideas from the floor of the House to the streets of their districts. They want feedback from the public to confirm their proposed agenda or to find other lasting improvements for Ohio’s families and small businesses.

John Adams of Sydney in west central Ohio, challenged the label affixed to them by House Democrats, that they are the "party of no." Adams, who finally had a sponsor hearing last week on his bill to radically consolidate state government, said Democrats are really talking about themselves. "They (Democrats) refuse to discuss the viable alternatives Republicans have offered and we are not content by returning to our resident taxpayers without ensuring state government is operating as efficiently as possible," the former Navy Seal said. "Instead of focusing on partisan games, it is time for the Ohio House to start a cooperative conversation that will get the economy moving again.”

House Republicans assembled the Policy Committee in light of the recent imbalance of education funding to have open discussions with the people of Ohio regarding the state’s future. Contained in the proposals discussed by the House Policy Committee are plans that would restructure state government by streamlining of the executive branch; examination of Medicaid fraud, waste and abuse; requiring conference committee reports to be publicly available for 48 hours prior to being considered by the House or Senate; reestablishing the Legislative Budget Office to provide nonpartisan financial oversight; and identifying other areas of wasteful, inefficient spending. The group echoed the theme that Republicans have offered these proposals as bills in the Ohio House as well as amendments to the budget, but that many ideas have been silenced or ignored by majority party Democrats.

Rookies to the rescue

Had the legislative rookies assembled today been members of the House when their party was the majority party, as recently as last year, they would have been on the receiving end of a fuselage of arrows of outrage of the same make they are now flying toward Democrats, who recaptured control of the House in last year's General Elections. These House Republicans, who are not speaking out of school but reflect the will of their caucus, said they hope that by discussing their long-term plans with the public, the Democrat controlled House will take heed of their legislative ideas, ones Morgan's Raiders said would help create jobs and grow Ohio’s economy.

“Our residents want less government and lower taxes,” Beck, a CPA and former councilman and mayor of Mason, said. “It is time for us to look at and act on ways to not only spend less taxpayer money, but make government more effective, efficient and leaner. We need to do more with less!"

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Ohio AG Cordray announces restitution by Vonage to Ohio customers in settlement

2009-11-16T16:41:00.001-05:00

Ohio AG Cordray announces restitution by Vonage to Ohio customers in settlement

November 16, 2:38 PMColumbus Government ExaminerJohn Michael Spinelli

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Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray (Photo/AP)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray announced that Ohioans will now be eligible to receive refunds from Vonage, one of the nation's largest providers of Internet-based phone service, for issues dating back five years, as part of a multistate settlement.

The settlement, signed by Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray and made public Monday, requires Vonage to give refunds to eligible consumers who have filed complaints dating back to January 2004 as well as those who will file complaints through March 16, 2010.

Cordray, a Democrat running for a full term next year against GOP endorsed Mike DeWine, said in prepared remarks that Vonage is being held accountable for customer service and advertising practices that led Ohioans to be confused and dissatisfied. "As a result, consumers who had an issue with the company as far back as 2004 still have the opportunity to get a refund by filing a complaint with my office within the next 120 days," Cordray said.

An agency spokesman said the agreement is in answer to hundreds of complaints from consumers throughout the nation who had difficulty canceling their Vonage service. Kim Kowalski said that prior to the settlement, it had been Vonage's policy to pay additional incentives to its customer service representatives for retaining customers who called to cancel, causing many consumers to find it nearly impossible to terminate service. The settlement puts strict limitations on this practice and requires recording and verification of these phone calls.

Kowalski said the settlement also addresses a number of other advertising practices that have led to consumer confusion about the cost of Vonage equipment and service. Specifically, Vonage will be revising its disclosures regarding offers of "free" services, money back guarantees and trial periods.

As a result of the settlement, Kowalski said that a broad restitution plan requires Vonage to make refunds to eligible consumers – both those who filed complaints dating back to January 2004 and those who will file complaints through March 16, 2010 (120 days from settlement date). Vonage will also pay $3 million in civil penalties to states participating in the settlement. Ohio will receive $45,000.

In order to receive refunds under this settlement, Cordray is asking Ohioans who feel that they have been charged by Vonage for unauthorized services or products, paid for Vonage services after cancellation or did not receive the benefit of any advertised money back guarantee, to file complaints with his office through www.SpeakOutOhio.gov or by calling (800) 282-0515.

To view the settlement documents visit www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov/VonageSettlement.

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Ohio people, politics and government

2009-10-22T02:15:00.003-04:00

To read and watch my stories about people, politics and government that may or may not be reported on by the mainstream media, print or electronic, visit me here:
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Many Not On-Board Slow 3C Train to the Past

2009-09-01T14:20:00.006-04:00

Many Not On-Board Slow 3C Train to the Past

Comments on Passenger Rail Ohio Rail Chiefs Would Rather You Not See

by John Michael Spinelli

September 1, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: With visions of high-speed sugar plum fairies dancing in their heads, fueled by the $8 billion in high-speed rail funds designed to launch America's version of bullet train systems that run in Europe and Asia, Ohio communities, large and small, are being asked to support the resurgence of passenger rail service while also being told their community will not be a stop on a train that will travel slow and take nearly seven hours to traverse the state diagonally from Cincinnati to Cleveland with stops in Dayton and Columbus in between.

Even though a small community like Galion is being asked to jump on board the slow train to the past even though it has been told it will not be a stop of the 3C corridor train, as the Ohio Department of (Existing) Transportation calls the 250-mile line it needs $400 million to launch in 2011 at the earliest, the comments left at the state's Web site for the 3C are far from positive, as who take the time to scroll through some of the unflattering comments included in this column.

Even thought Ohio's mainstream media has performed as an adjunct public relations department for ODOET because it refuses to ask even simple, challenging questions to state rail bosses, who seem single-minded on pursuing a plan that conservatively is pegged to cost $1.53 billion, and that's just for initial capital costs, which doesn't include an on-going public subsidy to cover operating, maintenance and borrowing costs. Spinelli on Assignment reviewed upwards of 2,000 comments to glean those comments ODOET will never show you, because they ask critical questions that state rail bosses cannot answer yet. And even if they could, those answers would poke huge holes in the assumptions and projections being cast far and wide to accent the positive and eliminate the negatives surround this rail project.

There were hundreds of comments on the 3C Web site that ranged from being curious to being adamantly against the idea. The following represent a small portion of this category of comments. By reading through them, though, Ohioans will better understand that they need to learn more than they are being told today about the cost of passenger rail and what the source of Ohio's huge share of these costs will come from.

So, without further delay, here's an SOA sampling of the "3C is not Me":

Ohio is one of the largest states in the country, with three major urban centers, over 20 of the world's largest companies, and proximity to Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington and so forth. Economic development and opportunity would be tremendously enhanced by high-speed rail, not low-speed rail. Ohio--and the rest of the country--must not plan for the short-term, but the long-term, and develop extremely high-speed rail that does more than transport people in Columbus to Cleveland at 79 mph. Look at the success that Japan, China and France have had in developing rail that is actually high-speed. Building slow rail will be inherently unpopular because of time. Time trumps all; the ability to do work on a train will be nice, to be sure. But people still want to get to destinations faster, for cheap, and with maximum convenience. If we're going to do this--and we must--let's do it right. Let's develop high-speed rail. Japan's got trains that go over 300 mph. And we're going to dabble in trains that go 79? Let's leap ahead, not crawl forward.

That ODOT should stick to highway maintenance in this time of economic hardships. This is hardly the time to be expanding a program which stage gas taxes cannot legally be spent on to support once implemented. Let this money go to programs already established.

This should not be a federal or state undertaking. If the market demanded it, we would already have it. Look at the ridership of COTA in Columbus! It is used heavily one time a year (Red White and Boom) and sporadically system-wide the rest of the year (OSU Football games organized by OSU) and few other events. I would be disappointed to see tax dollars go towards this plan.

This model will not work. During the quick start phase you will not see a bonanza of ridership because a MAJORITY of the state will elect to use the quicker, less expensive method - the automobile. Since you won't see this huge influx of riders that you are predicting, you won't be able to justify the demand for high speed as your plan is laid out. Let's see - Would I want to travel Columbus-Cleveland to watch the Indians with my family of 3? Yes. Would I want to sit on a train for 3.5 hrs instead of 2.5? Maybe once, and never again. Would I want to pay $60 train fare (pulling that number out of the sky, but I bet it's on the low end) vs. $35 to gas up my car? No.

That available times and stops do not take longer than what it would normally take to travel by car. The more stops the more likely the trip will take longer. Time and cost efficency will be key.

Waste of time and money. Rail service has never been the answer to efficient travel. It failed years ago. Why on earth would it be revived except to get federal stimulus money. No one even thought about this until monies became available and everyone wanted their "fair" share.

That 110 mph is embarrassing. We can afford a few less F22s and get at least 200mph trains

Stop wasting our money! Amtrack is not able to operate without tax payer dollars, and it seems like more every year. Why support a project that will not be self-sufficient and require more state dollars once the federal stimulus money runs out?

Please don't just fund a study, actually do something. Get us high speed rail service between Cleveland Columbus and Cinci. I studied in europe, and I saw what wonders a good train service does. If the idea is a piecemeal approach, it's doomed to failure. INVEST in high speed, people will take it, and make sure it is REASONABLY priced! If i can get from cleveland to columbus for 50 bucks, and faster than in a car, I AM SOLD! No one takes regular trains, and no one will. They are slow, uncomfortable, and associated with people with low socio ecobomic backrgonds. Normal middle class people don't like that. A high speed train would give everything we need!

I appreciate what you are trying to do but a state like Ohio that has excellent transportation systems already in place and relatively low traffic, DOES NOT NEED high speed trains. Lets use this money elsewhere.

It is mind boggling that, residing in the largest industrialized economy of the world, I am utterly unable to employ a mode of travel that is ubiquitous throughout all other nations.

It's a waste of tax dollars.

Seems to me that the federal government has only mucked up the rail systems it already funds and controls. I don't see a rail system in Ohio being any better - and with far less population desity to make it financially worthwhile.

I think if it were profitable, a business would have already created it.

Stop wasting taxpayer money. If this is a worthwhile service, allow private investors to get involved and run it profitably. Taxpayers are already subsidizing Amtrak, and should not be forced to subsidize Ohiotrak.

This a black hole for government waste!

I'm just not sure it's convenient enough to attract ridership

Please save your money. This is the 2000's not the 1800's. Americans do not want to take trains, aside from the occassional novelty, outside of the East Coast. This proposal will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions, and Ohio cannot afford to subsidize this program, it can barely pay its own bills. Please spend the money on the East Coast, where it may make sense.

The point I would like to get across is that funding must be generous so that the trains can begin operation quickly and at a high quality of service. Getting adequate funding will be crucial in making trains competitive with the personal automobile.

Each of the "benefits" applies to the sales pitch for intercity bus service and that has been a disaster in every Ohio city. The only way people use bus or the proposed train service would be if gas were incredibly expensive. That's why train service works in other countries(!) its NOT because of the supposed benefits. This is an unnecessary project with limited potential. A classic waste of money.

If it won't be self-supporting, it shouldn't be built.

Quite honestly, I find it very hard to believe that this is a feasible project. Don't we have more worthwhile projects on which to spend our money? It seems apparent that these trains will never run at capacity. Hopping in your car will be more convenient, faster and, above all, cheaper. The general public is opposed to this idea and the state should quit trying to shove it down our throats.

The proposed option is significantly slower than car travel, and each of the cities on the corridor has limited intra-city transportation options. The reason the NE Corridor is successful is that the major cities along the route (Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, DC) all have mass-transit available once you arrive at the destination. None of the 3C corridor cities have significant infrastructure in place, indicating that the venture would be unsuccessful.

Once the passengers get off the trains how are they then going to get to their final destination? Seems to me the local infrastructure needs to be in place first. Taking a cab is expensive and the COTA bus is not user friendly. I would rather see a subway system first. And many communities do not even hade sidewalks for people to walk from a station to their home.

As cincinnati is experiencing budget cuts in essential areas such as police and fire services, I would rather see funds used in support of keeping those jobs rather than used for light rail which would offer limited appeal/use. With police cuts, the crime and violence will increase and no one will be traveling to cincinnati anyhow.

We have crumbling cities, people hungry and on the streets and no jobs. If this is your president's idea of stimulus, then forget it. These jobs last only a short time till constuction and just a few people to maintain and operate. We do not need more criminals having an easy way into Columbus to attack our citizens, we have enough crime without importing it. Besides what would they come to Columbus for? To see the grassy park left where the only shopping at City Center used to be in downtown? Everything closes at 6pm, nothing worth seeing here. Could have used the old City Center instead of building a new building to house city offices on High St. What a waste of money then paying another half million to tearr down City Center when there are many other buildings you could use sitting empty down town in crime-ville. Use your heads not your political asparations and gains to lead. What a mistake. Like raising income tax 1/2 percent, you are driving people out of the area with this. How you going to collect taxes if people are leaving...rea with this. How you going to collect taxes if people are leaving...

It was stupid to take out rails to begin with we cannot afford this now how will it get paid for you politiciansn are so damn nuts

I am for this but am not sure why??? IT sounds good BUT can it be self-sustaining? I don't think so. It has to be fast, convenient, and clean--sorry--don't let this turn into a Greyhound bus program. Ohio needs jobs and this would help, but will people in rural communities drive an hour to get a train for a trip they could have driven in two hours (Hillsboro to Columbus via train with a Cincy connection). If this only caters to metro inhabitants it will not work. And great sections of the state are going to be truly left out. Like I say, I support it but am not sure why.

One word - Amtrak. It will be cost prohibitive to build and require subsidies forever because it will not generate enough ridership to support itself.

Toledo should be included.

You are 30 years behind

It has no probability of success

Either build a modern, efficient, and very fast train system or don't build it at all. If people are given an inexpensive and faster alternative to driving their car, you better believe they will take advantage of it.

I do not think adding to the federal deficit by soliciting stimulus funds should be the way to pay for the rail system. Although I think it is important I think that our infastructure that is already in place should be taken care of first. Right now we need to cut back in funding and I do not support stimulus money which in turn will add to the taxes that I am already paying!

It’s pointless if all this gets you is "getting to my destination as fast as I would in a car" as question 10h says. The only way this venture can be in any form viable is if it is much, much faster than driving. High speed rail or nothing. Does anyone actually commute all the way across Ohio on a daily basis? I doubt it. But if this allows someone to live in Cleveland and work in Columbus (without a very difficult commute) then this can be a great resource for the state. Please only consider putting stations in the downtowns of our great cities. Our urban downtowns have seen a huge amount of public and private investment for centuries and it is a crime when private and public interests alike turn their backs on them. They are great places; they are easy to get to; they are the core hubs of business in our state; and they are the geographical centers of our major metropolitan areas. Highly improved public transit between them would provide an immense benefit to their economies at a time when it is needed most. Finally, while the temporary construction jobs to build this massive infrastructure project are important, it is the long term economic growth, private development, private industry job creation and retention that are the key factors to this issue. If the Federal government is handing out free money to fund projects like this, than we should build it, but build it the right way. Build it in a way that shows Ohio is an intelligent and progressively growing state that knows how to efficiently spend government stimulus grants to maximize potential growth in our private sectors. Make Ohio a place that people want to invest in again.

Ohio has little viable rail service. We don't take Amtrack from Cincinnati to Chicago, because the rails are poor and the train is side lined whenever a non-passenger train needs to pass. This makes the trip incredibly long! Ohio needs ways to rely more on other forms of transportation besides the car.

It is a huge waste of MY tax money!!! Can't you guys come up with something a little better than this idea???????????????????????
It will not pay its' own way and will have to be subsidized by tax payers who wont use iit.

Quick start won't do much - it would be faster to go by car

I think it is a failure waiting to happen. Unless cities have clean, safe, efficient and easy to use local public transportation, connecting the Three-Cs won't make a difference. People will still chose to drive for about the same time, the same money, but with more flexibility when they arrive.

Rail service will divert state funds, which are shrinking, away from more important issues now for a long-shot route like the 3C that few will ride but all will be expected to pay for to build it and subsidize it over time. The same agencies and some of the same people who looked on as passenger rail service vanished are now asking the public to let them bring it back, when they have done nothing for decades but plan and study with nothing to show for it.

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. Spinelli on Assignment is syndicated by Newstex.com and is available for subscription (99 cents/month) to Kindle owners. His tweets on Twitter can be followed @OhioNewsBureau. To send a news tip or to make a comment, email him at: ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

Ohio Debt Rating Decline Linked to Stimulus Bucks, Loss of Manufacturing Jobs

2009-08-31T15:13:00.002-04:00

Ohio Debt Rating Decline Linked to Stimulus Bucks, Loss of Manufacturing Jobs

Buckeye State Leader in Loss of Manufacturing Jobs

Y-2-Y Revenues Off by 11%

by John Michael Spinelli

August 31, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: The same effect experienced by a borrower whose credit card score is negatively affected by undisciplined borrowing and the borrowers diminished ability to pay off their balance in full in a reasonable time is having a similar affect on on Ohio.

Noting decisions to delay $736 million in debt payments by relying on one-time federal economic stimulus funding and on estimated revenue from expanding gambling, a controversial initiative that could further be compromised if legal challenges filed against it gain traction, Moody's Investor Services said its decision last week to reduce its rating of Ohio borrowing from the second-highest to the third-highest was a reflection of its concern that Ohio's budget could experience even rougher seas in the future when federal funds evaporate and gamblers don't lose as much as projected.

While Moody's is concerned about the future, its rating decision also reflected its concern for the past, as reflected in the tremendous number of manufacturing jobs lost in Ohio over time and in just the last twelve months.

For that story, data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle show Ohio led all other states in the loss of manufacturing jobs over a period of one year. For Ohio, its loss of 127,000 manufacturing jobs topped all other states. Its closest rivals in loss were California (123,400) and Michigan (108,900).

Ohio clearly has fewer resources at its disposal to maintain superior borrowing rates. Once an industrial titan of the Midwest whose once well-developed industrial might was the envy of other states and nations, Ohio has lost many battles over the years as its manufacturing base continues to tumble in size from its salad days of being a leader in labor-intensive industries like steel, rubber and glass that among other important industries made Ohio a good place to raise a family and locate a business.

Ohio communities could once count on manufacturing jobs as the bread and butter of their livelihood. Ohio's state budget was similarly blessed by revenue from these and other industries and the workers who pushed them forward that could be transformed into good roads, strong bridges, institutions of education and infrastructure that attracted families and businesses alike.

But with the state budget under attack from cliff-diving revenues exacerbated by business leaving the state and workers looking elsewhere for greener pastures, Ohio seems hard pressed to turn the tide by reclaiming a future that reflects its prosperous past. Even though its two-year state budget of $50.5 billion is still considerable when compared to budgets from other states, the across-the-board pain it delivered to individuals and agencies was considerable.

If the prospect of 30-40,000 more Ohioans losing their jobs due to state budget cuts becomes reality, the added grief that will be visited on Ohio families will be like rubbing salt into an already open wound of a bleeding budget waiting for a transfusion that may not arrive for years.

Response to such news by the Governor's office say the state's rating "continues to be solid despite the national economic downturn" and note as proof of that that "the latest outlook change did not affect the cost of issuing coal-development bonds recently."

"The long-running structural changes affecting Ohio's economy indicate that the state may have difficulty recovering jobs in tandem with national trends as the recession ends," the report said, according to the AP article.

According to the August 11th Monthly Report on Ohio's Economy and State Finances, "Ohio’s economy has begun to see signals of the beginning of a weak recovery from the deepest downturn experienced in the past 50 years." The report stated that as the national recession eases a bit, a weaker than average recovery is expected to begin as early as the end of this summer. "The pace of economic recovery in Ohio will depend heavily on the fate of the motor vehicle industry," a reference to the fates of General Motors and Chrysler, two Detroit-based firms with large numbers of workers in Ohio, who went into and emerged from federal bankruptcy court.

The unemployment rate in June for Ohio was 11.1 percent, the report noted, a figure it said would continue to "show a downward trend throughout July." Consumer confidence also decreased somewhat in July, but the trend still appears to be improving relative to the extreme lows registered in February, it said. Also, for the first time in nine months, Ohio’s total tax receipts exceeded estimates. However, the real news is that "year-over-year performance is still 11 percent below the July 2008 levels."

Ohio Spending Panel OKs $200K More for Slow Train to the Past Project

2009-08-27T16:12:00.003-04:00

Ohio Spending Panel OKs $200K More for Slow Train to the Past Project

Outsourced California Rail Study Firm Outsources Work to $300/hour Consultant

State Spending Priorities Called into Question as Initial 3C Rail Study Reaches $650,000

by John Michael Spinelli

August 27, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: The split vote last Monday by a bi-partisan legislative spending panel, over whether Ohio rail chiefs should be given another $200,000 on top of the $450,000 they received in late March to fund a California firm's assessment of the capacity and capital costs associated with Gov. Ted Strickland's idea to start running passenger rail trains between Cincinnati and Cleveland, raises questions of whether this project has merit at a time when Ohio's budget is under terrible pressure and if the Controlling Board will become a back-door to increased agency funding reduced during the regular budget cycle?

The Controlling Board, housed in the Ohio Department of Budget and Management and controlled by the administration of Democratic Gov. Strickland, is an insider's agency that rarely gains coverage by the media other than when spending on hot topics like casino gambling, slot machines or special counsel for special projects comes before its bi-weekly schedule. Ohio news media did take note that state agencies whose funding was reduced in the recently completed budget cycle, that ended on July 17 when Strickland signed a budget some say will lead to thousands fewer state workers and job losses by agencies whose state funding was cut sharply, are using the sleepy spending panel as a back-door method to add to their budgets.

In the case of the request by the Ohio Department of Development (ODOT) and its captive rail agency, The Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC) that asked for and received another $200,000 for critical work its needs before it can apply for high-speed rail (HSR) funds from Washington on October 2, the Controlling Board may find itself in the news more often as it becomes a new battleground to tussle over projects that really do need more funding or whether projects like the 3C railroad project, that Republicans in general and Republicans on this panel in particular say is not only not in demand but will spend precious dollars that could be spent on more pressing priorities, like funding food banks, children's health programs, libraries, services for the elderly and the sick, should slow down and wait for better times or better train technology.

Public information submitted (#90) to the Controlling Board by ODOT/ORDC to add another $200,000 to the $450,000 the panel approved in late March, shows the small, four-person California firm, Woodside Consulting, that state officials said they had chosen to perform analysis of the "capacity and capital costs" associated with the re-establishment of passenger rail trains along a 250-mile route connecting Cincinnati with Cleveland with stops in Columbus and Dayton along the way because only they could do it, will now outsource the state's outsourced work to other consultants, one of whom will charge $300/hour, a rate that even high-priced lawyers doing special counsel work for the Ohio Attorney General would envy.

Calls for comments to the three Republicans who voted against the rail consulting funding request Monday, State Senators John Carey (17th Dist), Mark Wagoner (2nd District) and House Representative Jay Hottinger (71st District), were not returned to Spinelli on Assignment in time for this column. However, a staffer for Hottinger who said he was familiar with his boss's general thoughts on the issue of high speed rail, said his boss believes their is little real demand for this project and that a train system like the one that runs in the nation's capital would be better suited for Ohio, as it would help move people from suburbs to city centers, a decision that might actually lure some drivers to abandon their cars for a commuter train.

In ORDC's pre-application to the Federal Rail Administration (FRA) that asks for more than $5 billion of the $8 billion being offered nationally for such projects, Ohio said its 3C plan would conservatively cost $1.53 billion. This figure, some rail observes say, will rise much higher if and when real bids are ever received. Bids to build HSR in Florida -- recall that the International standard for HSR is 167-mph or more-- were nearly double what proponents said they would be when they convinced Floridians in 2000 to have the state make a commitment toward Euro-style trains. In 2004, when the jaw-dropping bids came in from foreign companies that control the fast train technology, Floridians reversed their commitment in another statewide vote. The lesson from Florida, and now from California, where a slim margin of voters last November authorized the sale of $10-billion in bonds to pay one-third the total cost of the state's $45 billion HSR package and where a lawsuit filed recently by opponents of one part of the plan to adjust the route has been upheld by a county judge, should not be lost on regular Ohioans or their leaders.

Amid the fanfare and fever surrounding the prospect of HSR coming to a state near you, a vision that has every township official thinking their location will be a HSR stop and the riches brought in from the talking point that economic development will occur from it, more and more national voices are making clear arguments that are popping the myth bubble expanding around HSR. It may rub some rail proponents the wrong way, but its a message more people need to hear before they are lead to far down the primrose path.

The lesson may play out in Cincinnati, one big C in the 3C rail route. Residents of the Queen City opposed to a trolley project, that has already escalated in estimated cost from $123 million to $185 million, are pushing a charter amendment that if passed this fall would prevent any rail projects going forward without a vote of the public. The hometown newspaper, Gannet's conservative Cincinnati Enquirer, wrote a no-holds editorial calling for a halt to the trolley project. Proponents of trolleys running in a mostly Downtown loop argue not doing it will show how opposed to progress Cincinnati will be. Advocates to stop the trolleys in their tracks say its another boondoggle waiting to happen. Their argument is mostly centered on the health of city finances. Until Cincinnati city finances are flush again, such that it doesn't have to lay off workers or reduce funding for important programs, only then should such a project be discussed.

The implication for ODOT/ORDC is that passage of the charter amendment will help derail their hell-bent push to start the 3C because voters will have to vote again to authorize the building or updating of rail lines into the city.

Critics of the 3C plan, which if it ever gets started -- rail officials say with great uncertainty that their "quick start" train may not run until the fall of 2010 or even 2011 and that the train won't be in full bloom until 2015 -- say the speed will be so slow -- averaging only 57-mph because this train, by necessity, will be forced to share freight rail tracks with freight rail trains. Ohio rail officials are caught on the horns of a dilemma -- they want to encourage support for the plan but at the same time they must tell some officials they won't be a stop on the route. By themselves, freight trains had over 100 accidents in one year in Ohio, according to the FRA. It follows that collisions between passengers and freight will happen.

One key question state rail chiefs or even lawmakers are not asking, is who will be liable for such crashes? Indemnification, the technical name for who pays for accidents when they happen, is an issue, that like the capacity and capital costs Woodside is to produce, state rail chiefs don't want to talk about. State supporters of the costly train to the past would rather oversell its benefits -- one favorite talking point is that rail nodes will foster economic development, but it's a talking point any mode of transportation can make, so its not unique to the 3C -- and undersell the cost to build it, the cost to operate it, the ridership numbers who will use it and how much Ohio will need to subsidize it because it won't be a money maker.

Another critical aspect of the 3C is who should really pay for it, as this article about the debate over the cost of transportation in Virginia demonstrates. Should everyone or just users be stuck with the bill? State rail proponents would like everyone to pay for it even though only a few will actually pay the ticket price to ride nearly seven hours from one corner of the state to another. They are having a hard time making their slow train appear competitive with traveling the same distance by car. Those in the know in Ohio know that even when a rider gets from point A to point B, the public transportation infrastructure that awaits them in any Ohio city has a lot to be desired. State lawmakers have reduced state funding for public transportation by more than 60 percent since 2000, so who's fooling who here?

One funding options state rail officials would rather not discuss is asking those cities who want to be a part of the route -- Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus and Cleveland -- and those riders who want to ride it to pay for it. Most of Ohio will not be close to it and few Ohioans will not ride it. So why should they pay for it? Tolls and user fees are popular forms of paying for infrastructure, as those of us who follow infrastructure bills in Congress know. James Oberstar (D-Minnesota), the reigning wonk on transportation infrastructure, knows everything about how transportation modes can operate seamlessly but he falls short on how to pay for it all. With the nation all lathered up over growing deficits made real by spending on tax cuts, war and now maybe health insurance reform, the appetite to have Washington dole out trillions more for roads, bridges, airports or trains and train stations is surely souring. States like Ohio will be left to their own devices and political wills to fund their own infrastructure.

As the races for various public offices in 2010 come closer, the wisdom or folly of pushing the 3C slow train to the past will gain more speed. Gov. Strickland will have to defend it while his opponent, possibly John Kasich , a former Ohio Congressman know for his attention to balanced budgets, low-taxes and deficit hawk sentinel, could use it to show what a waste of funds it will be and ask where, exactly, Strickland expects to come up with Ohio's share of hundreds of millions, maybe billions, for a project that would necessarily have to usurp money from more important state priorities.

But until the un-electeds like the leaders of ODOT and ORDC are reigned in by their boss, they will continue to make unsubstantiated arguments for their slow train to the past and spend money as if it was delivered in a box car from CSX, all because they have control over it. Voters will be left at the train station (most communities don't have and can't afford to build) as they watch slow trains that won't go any faster than Civil War era trains chug away from them on routes to yesteryear.

Amtrak Delays Rail Study Results Ohio Needs for Federal HSR Funding

2009-08-15T00:58:00.003-04:00

Amtrak Delays Rail Study Results Ohio Needs for Federal HSR Funding

Ohio's 3C Rail Route Missing on Midwest High Speed Rail Association Midwest Hub Map

by John Michael Spinelli

August 15, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: The highly awaited Amtrak study on ridership, revenue projections and station locations related to reestablishing passenger rail service between Cincinnati and Cleveland, Ohio that was supposed to be completed mid August has been delayed a month, according to a report by the Associated Press published Friday in Forbes.com. The delay will significantly compact the time Ohio officials backing this project on the eastern fringe of the Midwestern Rail Corridor have to apply for stimulus package funding for high speed rail from the Federal Railroad Administration under the administration of President Barack Obama.

The AP's Matt Leingang reported that Amtrak has put other studies of other rail lines in other states, for example the line between Billings and Missoula , Montana, ahead of the proposed $1.53 billion route Ohio transportation and rail backers say will reconnect after 42 years of no passenger train traffic Cincinnati and Cleveland via Dayton and Columbus. This approximately 250 mile route is known as the 3C passenger rail corridor. The long awaited study, as state rail officials know, is key to Ohio's application, due on October 2, for as much as $400 million in start-up funding to get passenger trains running diagonally across the state. The plan, justified with nothing but cost estimates so far, is merely a down payment on far more costly plan that has miles to travel and many obstacles to overcome before anyone can really take it seriously, despite claims of its many benefits.

Not surprisingly, state rail officials like Matt Dietrich, executive director of the Ohio Rail Development Commission, downplayed the reported delay. But when news like this is not good, downplaying it is the only option available to a state official who has been unable to say with confidence that the need for these passenger trains and therefore the ridership that will ride them is clear and obvious. "There's a lot to do and I'm very confident we're going to get it done," Dietrich told Leingang. The $400 million figure, now a $150 higher than the figure Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and Dietrich had been telling the press and state legislators over many months without any challenges, is supposed to go to buy rail cars, build stations and make necessary upgrades on existing freight tracks so that passenger trains traveling up to 79 mph can start running in 2011.

One common reason state officials are pushing for an idea that many Ohioans think is a giant boondoggle that will tax all Ohioans for the benefit of a few by building a train system that will be slow, costly, environmentally unfriendly and will do very little to reduce road congestion is that Ohio is home to one of the most densely populated corridors without rail service in the Midwest. But that's nothing new. So what's different today than decades ago is still unclear.

One of the many big problems with the passenger rail project being pushed by Gov. Strickland and Dietrich is that it is not high speed at all. The fact is that carbon-emitting diesel locomotives will only average 57-mph because by necessity it will have to share freight rail tracks owned by CSX and Norfolk Norther, who need more freight tracks to keep up with freight rail demands and sharing existing freight tracks with passenger trains will be problematic and lead to collisions between the different purposed trains. True high speed trains, like the ones Americans see running in Europe, Japan or China, have specially built and dedicated tracks. The faster a train goes, the straighter the route must be and the more it must be obstacle free, which means crossing traffic must either go over or below these purpose-driven tracks. All these special considerations add to the high cost of real high speed trains. Costs per mile often exceed $100 million per mile, not including on-going maintenance and operational costs.

Ohio rail rooters also say that passenger rail stations or stops will become nodes for economic development. That argument can be used with any transportation node. But if that is true, then why do they refuse to ask those businesses to be part of the funding solution?

As Ohio battles its budget shortfalls, which this cycle were $3.2 billion, and as revenue projects continue to fall short, as they came in recently with respect to gaming dollars from Keno, the funds for the state's share of the 3C just are there, no matter how many stones officials say they are looking under. State officials have been wrong on a number of revenue projections, so it's reasonable to think they could be "downplaying" the public subsidy their system would need on going, which today they say is a mere $10 million a year. And the source of those funds? Dietrich and others are looking to usurp fees that restaurants, hotels and gas stations pay to advertise on blue highway exit signs. Strickland did something similar when he tried to take hundreds of millions of tobacco settlement money earmarked for programs to stop children from smoking to help plug the hole in this year's budget.

As Leingang pointed out, Ohio has studied the idea of restoring passenger service over the past 30 years, a factor that should beg even one reporter to ask why so much time has passed and why so many funds have been spent with nothing to show for it all. The AP article quotes Ken Prendergast , executive director of All Aboard Ohio, a nonprofit group promoting passenger rail, saying that all this lost time and squandered money on studies that have produced nothing helps Ohio in its application. "We know a lot about this route already,"Prendergast said in the article, implying Ohio "is more than capable of pre-writing the application and filling in the blanks once they get new data."

But another article authored by Elana Schor of DC.Streetsblog.org about the Midwest High-Speed Rail Association's work pushing for a high-speed rail network that would use Chicago as a hub and ultimately extend through eight states, shows that the 3C route doesn't even show up on the MHSRA's rail map. One has to wonder why Ohio officials are so gungho when their prized route isn't even on the map.

But as other voices rise to raise questions rail boosters can't answer in detail or in general, about the exorbitant cost of true high speed rail, who's going to pay for it and where those funds will come from, its clear that taxpayers and others concerned about the environment, road congestion and carbon emissions are not ready to roll over for a pig in a poke.

Photo of Midwestern High Speed Rail Hub courtesy of TrainWeb.org

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. Spinelli on Assignment is syndicated by Newstex.com and is available for subscription (99 cents/month) to Kindle owners. His tweets on Twitter can be followed @OhioNewsBureau. To send a news tip or to make a comment, email him at: ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

Obama Rope-a-Dopes Republicans, Media on Health Care Reform Fight

2009-08-12T03:20:00.004-04:00

Obama Rope-a-Dopes Republicans, Media on Health Care Reform Fight

Opponents to Health Care Are Punching Themselves Out

by John Michael Spinelli

August 12, 2009

Op-Editude

COLUMBUS, OHIO: As I watched the episode yesterday evening about Muhammad Ali from VH1's Lords of the Revolution, a five-part series that chronicles cultural game-changers from the 60s and 70s, I was transported back to the night in 1964 when, as a 16-year old living in Columbus, Ohio, I listened alone to the radio broadcast of the great fight in Miami, where a 22-year old Cassius Clay surprised the world by busting up the then-heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston to win the the fight despite nearly every one's predictions that the "Louisville Lip" would lose.

TAKING PUNCHES TO WIN

Ali, who had secretly become a Muslim two years prior to the big fight with Liston on February 25th, went on to become the greatest boxing champion of all time, a feat that required him to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortunes as he fought his way to to the championship three times.

As a much older fighter fighting a much younger and much stronger George Foreman in Zaire in the fight nicknamed "The Rumble in the Jungle," Ali allowed Foreman to whale away at him, one round after another with little response. After eight rounds of delivering constant punches to Ali's body as he leaned against the ring ropes, Foreman, who said his goal on entering the ring against an opponent was to "kill him," had punched himself out. Although stronger at the start of the fight, the young foreman could no longer defend himself against a more experience boxer who recognized the fight was his to win.

Ali, using the energy he had husbanded while the younger and stronger Foreman expelled all his, came out of his guarded stance and delivered a series of punches that knocked Foreman to the canvass, where he lay exhausted, unable to get back up. Ali had once again proven wrong all the naysayers who predicted he would lose.

IS OBAMA ON THE ROPES BY CHANCE OR CHOICE?

The Rope-a-Dope, Ali's strategy of non-resistance that allowed his opponent to hit him without really hurting him, seems to be the national tactic President Barack Obama has adopted as so-called "Town Brawls" take place locally across the nation during August, a month when Congress returns home to hear from their constituents, many of whom have been pre-programmed by corporate organizers beholden to their funding masters who want the cash cow of American health care delivery to remain as it is to make fools of themselves as they flail away with round-house punches that don't connect.

The naysayers for Obama, of course, are the media and the Republicans. The media counted him out from the first day he announced his run for president in 2007. And they've been wrong about his ability to recover from body blows his opponents have delivered -- from Hillary Clinton and her campaign to the onslaught he took from John McCain, Sarah Palin and the right-wing Republican empire that threw every accusation at him they could last fall, only to realize that he became wiser and stronger the longer the contest went on.

I believe the same will happen with the debate on reforming health care. The media machine, from national outlets to local ones, have either pronounced Obama dead on arrival or unable to stay alive on a variety of issues, only to be proven wrong. While Obama learns and adapts, the media is stuck in its reflex to repeat the hollow, misleading and intentionally false talking points spewed out by Republicans, who each day are withering on their vines of sour grapes over losing the presidency. And as we all know by now, the GOP is slowly shrinking as witnessed by the loss of hundreds of state legislature seats over the past four years. Little more than a regional party, Republicans are now mostly older white guys, mostly from the south, who all want to date one female pitbull with lipstick from Alaska.

Obama, who was the President of the Harvard Law Review, a fact that has impressed me but seems to be of no value to any talking-head pundit who champions dunces with little experience over accomplished professionals who are agile and articulate, has taken one body blow after another over reforming health care insurance, an issue Republicans have done nothing over their decades in power to help with except to enable their big corporate donors to prey on and milk like cash cows everyone who can afford their ginned-up health care schemes.

Even New York Times columnists like Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd, normally dumped in the liberal category, have wondered allowed whether Obama is "punking" us (Rich) or whether it's too late for him to make a comeback (Dowd).

FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY, STING LIKE A BEE

In addition to his proven ability to evade capture by the media and right-wing Republicans on one issue after another, Obama has another strong reserve going for him that will win the day for him as he comes off the ropes and turns the tide in his favor. He's got the American health insurance industry and their greedy, uncaring, profit-only business model to whale on.

As the so-called "Birthers" and "Deathers" gnash their teeth and cry to "have my country back," showing just how stupid they are now because they never dared utter such inanities during the eight years President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney gave money to their rich friends through tax breaks, set the world on fire by starting two wars of convenience and pushing the nation to the brink of a second Great Depression, Obama has remained cool, calm and collected in the face of Americans who think being gouged to death by insurance companies and denied a competitive system that will reduce cost and lead to greater coverage is what Americans should opt for.

Republicans have made the media think that because their loudness, obnoxious disregard for the truth and blatant misinformation campaign is being reported on as if it had merit they are winning and Obama is loosing the war of words on this issue.

Obama will do in Washington what Ali did in Zaire, win the health care contest even though it looks grim for him in the early rounds of a fight that isn't over till it's over. And it will be over when Republicans, aided and abetted by their right-wing media henchmen and those who think the truth is equal distance from any point of view no matter how silly or obscene, punch themselves out. Obama won't stand over them like Ali did with Liston, but he will knock them to the canvass now and again in 2010, when their ranks will thin even more as voters realize they have no power and can no longer punch their way to victory over a smarter and more agile opponent who like Ali did before him show them he can "float like a butterfly and sting like a bee."

Photos courtesy of Google Images

Strickland's Folly

2009-08-05T16:24:00.003-04:00

Strickland's Folly

Ohio Budget Short on Dollars for Slow Train to the Past

It's a Question of Priorities

by John Michael Spinelli

August 5, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: Two weeks ago Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and his Director of Transportation (DOT) were among the gaggle of governors attending the high-speed rail summit in Chicago, where a pack was entered into by eight Midwest governors to form a united front for purposes of garnering as much of President Barack Obama's $8 billion in high speed rail funding as possible. With his DOT Director Jolene Molitoris in tow, Strickland became a signatory to a Midwest agreement to promote regional passenger rail and Ohio’s 3C Corridor, an approximately 270-mile trip plan to re-establish passenger trains connecting Cincinnati to Cleveland via Dayton and Columbus that's conservatively estimated to cost a cool $1.53 billion.

The purpose of the rail summit's memorandum of understanding is to coordinate regional efforts to secure federal funding for development of the Chicago Hub High-Speed Rail Corridor, which includes as a peripheral route the 3C Passenger Rail Plan Strickland and Molitoris have been promoting, despite hard evidence that ridership for it is even minimally plausible and that it will not further decimate a state budget that limped its way with one-time federal dollars and a variety of account gimmicks and fee increases to a state of balance.

In 2010, when the next exercise in balancing a state budget takes place, Obama dollars may not be available like they were for this budget and expected declines in tax revenue will further exacerbate a meltdown of state finances, making it hard to justify spending any on a rail plan that would make little sense even if times were good, which they are definitely not.

"Ohio’s central location makes our state the connection between the Chicago Hub to the west and the Northeast Corridor to the east,” Strickland said in a media release touting why he and Molitoris are behind the push to snag some of the $8 billion dedicated to fund high speed rail.

Ohio junior Senator Sherrod Brown also offered his support of the collaborative effort later in the day. "You can’t have a nationwide passenger rail system without Ohio,” he said, adding, "This agreement, coupled with new federal funds through the economic recovery package, will make the 3C corridor one step closer to becoming a reality. High-speed rail is critical to the long-term economic competitiveness of our region. By connecting Ohio’s largest cities with others cities in the Midwest, we can bring jobs and economic development to our state.”

Strickland and state transportation officials have said without being challenged that "restoring passenger rail service at conventional speed is Ohio’s first step toward implementing a high speed rail network connecting Ohio to the Midwest and the rest of the country." While it sounds good that existing freight tracks can be upgraded to accommodate fast trains, the reality is that that cannot happen. Real high speed trains need specially designed "purpose driven" tracks to handle the speeds trains in Europe handle every day. These kind of special tracks are especially expensive, but numbers for high speed rail are rarely mentioned because they present a story of cost that states like Ohio simple cannot handle, given the state of most state budgets. Ohio officials have said that their slow passenger train to the past will only average 57 mph and only reach a top speed of 90 or 100 mph after billions of dollars of freight-rail upgrades and years to do it.

As for the governors who did sign the memorandum of understanding -- Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, Iowa Governor Chet Culver, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley -- more voices are emerging that think they are the ones who will be taken for a ride.

Even though the media has performed as a dutiful lapdog for the hollow talking points of train advocates who overemphasize the benefits and downplay the costs to all taxpayers, some contrarian voices can be found that paint a far less rosy picture, one everyone should be aware of.

Steve Staneck, a research fellow at the Chicago Heartland Institute, recently wrote in the Alberta Lea Tribune that "If there truly were enough consumer support for high-speed rail, governments would not be involved. Private companies would provide the service and pocket the profits." Noting that the combined state deficits of the governors who signed the Midwest rail summit pack is over $28 million, Staneck chides the federal government for telling everyone not to worry about its $2 trillion budget deficit this year, and a national debt that has more than doubled to $11 trillion in the past eight years. "The government will print the money, or borrow it, or tax for it, future generations be damned," he shouts.

Another naysayer voice, that of Randal O'Toole from the CATO Institute, says of what happens when the dog catches the car: "Once we start building high-speed rail, you can expect local politicians to demand these gaps and others be filled at your expense. And don’t be surprised when the government asks you for another $1,000 or so in about 30 years to rebuild what will then be a worn-out system." O'Toole asks what all this money will produce. "Unless you live in California," he says, "don’t expect super-fast bullet trains. In Florida the FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) is considering trains with top speeds of 125 miles per hour. In most of the rest of the country, the FRA is merely proposing to boost top speeds of Amtrak trains from 79 to 110 m.p.h. A top speed of 125 m.p.h. means an average speed of only 75 to 85 m.p.h., which is hardly revolutionary. Many American railroads were running trains nearly that fast 70 years ago."

Even the Gray Lady is starting to discuss the realities of real high speed rail and what it means to all of us in a multi-part series that reveals the high cost of Euro-speed trains.

The ride Strickland and any other governor vying for a taste of federal high speed rail dollars cannot afford to take is the real cost of building Euro-style train systems. Ohio's rail plan says in clear language that it cannot happen if any contribution from the state would have a negative impact on the general fund budget of the state. In coming to terms with Republican leaders in the legislature, Strickland had to agree to a $3.2 billion budget patch that included $933 million in revenue from adding video slot machines to Ohio's seven racetracks that some critics say is an over estimate. Republican legislators criticized Strickland for using about $7 billion in one-time federal stimulus dollars, and said the next budget will be further out of whack and won't be able to rely on more federal funding.

With the specter of losing 30-40,000 more jobs, as agencies cut back staff because their state funding was cut back, the question of priorities needs to be raised. For every $1 Ohio would spend for its Harry Potter magic trick of a train system, its one less dollar that can be spent on social safety net services or any other service important to the state. Whether the 3C becomes a campaign issue in next year's race for governor is a matter of speculation. But the rising tide of dissatisfied voters who see high speed rail as a boondoggle that will only benefit consultant and lobbyists for status quo rail stems is a sign that the more voters learn about it the less they think it's a priority.

State transportation officials have already said the system will never break even and in fact will need a yearly public subsidy, an amount they say they are looking to find. Current sources for that subsidy, which is pegged on the low end at $10 million annually, may come from usurping revenue vendors pay ODOT to have their business name on highways signs and from charging exorbitant prices to riders for food and beverage sold on-board the train.

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. Spinelli on Assignment is syndicated by Newstex.com, can be followed on Twitter @OhioNewsBureau and available for subscription to Kindle owners. To send a news tip or make comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

The Heartache of it All

2009-07-15T02:31:00.003-04:00

The Heartache of it All

New Ohio Budget May Bring Faster Meltdown

by John Michael Spinelli

July 15, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: Down by nearly $20 million in uncollected state revenue after ten days of political fighting between Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and Senate Republicans, the new $50.5 billion two-year state budget seems likely to create an economic debris field in its wake if tens of thousands of jobs are cut and service reductions for those least able to fend for themselves become reality as some have said will happen. The state of the State of Ohio is a sad one indeed.

The state that once thought itself the "Heart of it All" seems better described as the "Heartache of it All," if revenues continue to decline and one-time dollars from Washington evaporate and projected revenues from slot machines don't materialize as advocates said they would. For those in the business of sewing together and supporting the social safety-net more people will need to weather the so-called Great Recession, the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the good news is that they will only have to cut off their hand in stead of their arm, as they figure out how to make due with less. Doing more with less was the management mantra of former Republican Governor George V. Voinovich, now Ohio's Sr. Senator. Sayings like this may sound good in MBA classes or business school, but actually doing more with less for those who actually need more is harder to do than say.

With the spiraling of Ohio's economy downward, a situation long in the making that has accelerated and exacerbated in direct response to the sour economy afflicting virtually every state, the projected loss of possibly another 3,000 state jobs and upwards of 40,000 non-government jobs due to serious reductions in state aid to areas like libraries, food banks, early childhood learning initiatives, elderly in-home assistance, mental health and drug and alcohol addiction services and libraries, is news only the most unsympathetic and selfish would see as the kind of tough-love medicine needed to make Lazarus rise from the dead, find a job and get back to work.

Strickland can boast that his public school funding reform plan remained in the budget, an effort that if continued by future legislatures for the next decade is supposed to make Ohio's school funding plan constitutional again.

The Methodist minister who was against the sinful revenue that can only begot by slot machines before he reluctantly endorsed them as a revenue escape hatch for an economy worsening by the day due to shortfalls in revenue, is now just another gambler, hoping it hit it big. But his wager, that winnings from loosing players, many of whom will be from Ohio, will come close to the projected $933 million slots, is expected, not guaranteed. Of course, before the first dollar is lost, critics of the slot machine gambit vow to file lawsuits claiming the Governor is acting in contravention to the state constitution.

But gambling advocates who have long waited for this day to come say the approximately 17,500 slots that will be distributed to Ohio's seven horse racing tracks will fill a partial revenue hole in the $3.2 budget shortfall Strickland and lawmakers had to work out this cycle.

Ohio's take from allowing these digital bandits to set up shop like never before, made possible by the deal worked out between Strickland and Harris to legally immunize them from lossing lawsuits opponents said they will file to challenge the their constitutionality, may also disappoint as did Keno revenues. This shortfall would force Strickland to add insult to injury by reducing government workers by thousands more.

Republicans are hoping Strickland will take political flack from voters who are less forgiving about how he has handled the already declining finances and economy of the state, and more willing to pin the tail of this Democratic donkey. To help this happen, the budget hammered out between the House and Senate and sent to Strickland was opposed by 59 or the 65 Republicans in the General Assembly.

It would be a dark game to play of how bad things could be if Strickland had taken the advice of Republicans, who said he was making things worse by accepting about $7 billion in non-repeating federal stimulus dollars Ohio took from President Barack Obama and a Congress now controlled by Democrats. Budget-hole hunters found funds elsewhere, too, like the state's rainy day fund, its tobacco settlement monies and by a loan from a state program that helps local school districts finance buildings. But Republicans, nationally and locally, have come to see spending as bad, when they didn't see it as bad when the purpose of the funding was for the War in Iraq or Afghanistan or for subsidizing already well endowed stakeholders in the American system of health care, among other party goals.

And while Ohio's budget is balanced on paper, loosing lawsuits and not bringing in as much money from various sources as had been projected, all eyes on gambling specifically, are situations Strickland and Harris should not bet against but be prepared to fix when they blow a gasket.

The heartache of it all is that Ohio is undergoing a giant meltdown with very little it can do to turn the tide anytime soon. The human toll this budget has wrought has yet to be tallied. But as yet more jobs are lost even though macro statistics may show things are getting better by being less worse, a brighter future for Ohio will only arrive when we start having a heart for all.

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. Spinelli on Assignment is syndicated by Newstex.com, can be followed on Twitter @OhioNewsBureau and available for subscription to Kindle owners. To send a news tip or make comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

Time Right to Make Ohio General Assembly Part-Timers

2009-07-07T12:44:00.003-04:00

Time Right to Make Ohio General Assembly Part-Timers

Elected Officials Should Help Bear Brunt of Balancing Budget

by John Michael Spinelli

July 7, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: While Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland arm-wrestles with Senate Republicans over what combination of hurtful spending cuts or wild-card revenue generators can deliver a two-year balanced budget, one big, blatant expenditure category that could produce real savings is the sacred cow of converting the Ohio General Assembly from one of the longest sessions in the nation to a part-time avocation that could net tens of millions in cost avoidance.

As each day goes by without an agreed-upon two-year budget after July 1, the start of the new fiscal year as required by the Ohio Constitution , the meltdown in cooperation between the executive and legislative branch over what cuts in spending or proposals for new revenue will win the day will only exacerbate the already fiery contest of political wills and agendas Democrats and Republicans are now engaged in.

Current solutions to patch the projected $3.2 billion budget hole include a combination of harmful measures that either weaken the social safety net millions of Ohioans who have lost jobs of late now depend on or undercut the state's investment in education or rely upon the wishful thinking wild-card that bringing new gambling devices and operations to a state that has said no to them four times previously will be a partial revenue White Knight.

Reflecting on the menu of statewide constitutional reform issues brought to a statewide vote in 2005 by progressive groups and labor unions who thought Ohioans would approve them in response to a string of government scandals tied to Republican officeholders and their loyalists, many of whom were judged guilty by a court of law of unethical or corrupt activities, one reform item that should have been included but wasn't should have been to limit the term of the Ohio General Assembly.

While the five reform amendments went down in flames, some by staggering proportions, giving Ohio voters a chance to change how long politicians stay in Columbus, site of the Statehouse, may have been the one that could have passed had it been included. Playing on the general right-of-center gut belief that the longer elected officials are allowed to be professional politicians, the more special interest lobbyists will be able to buy laws that favor their agendas even though the public at large may be the victim of that legislation, it seems the time is right to revisit the issue of converting the virtual year long session of the legislature into a shorter, defined term that will force elected officials to prioritize and address the key issues of the day. If other states can do it, so can Ohio.

But the will of the people must be brought to bear for this to happen. That will, it seems, is no where in site despite the constant carping, bickering about government and taxes and the general contempt Ohio voters have for public officials other than the ones they vote for.

Where are the TeaBaggers and the fiscal conservatives , who generally wave their American flags and spout platitudes about the benefits of small government but who have been asleep at the switch of limiting the time their legislators can boost their pay and pension contributions, the two reasons why professional politicians will fight to stay in office.

It should come as no surprise, therefore, that Ohio legislators who are term limited to eight years in one chamber or the other are always looking for a chance to extend their terms to maybe a dozen or even more years. Their argument has been that voters can term limit any candidate by unseating them in the voting booth and that so-called "institutional knowledge," the intangible wisdom that comes from being in office for decades as was the case before term limits were approved in the early 1990s, would deliver good government because the experience accumulated over time would accrue to a legislator's understanding of various issues, giving them the perspective and wisdom to make good decisions.

Of the nation's 50 states, Ohio has long ranked as one of the top states with full-time legislatures. The cost to Ohio taxpayers, vis a vis the General Revenue Fund, for running the General Assembly, both the Ohio House and Senate, is not insignificant.

According to most recent FY 2010-2011 Redbook analysis of the executive budget proposal for each agency prepared by the Legislative Service Commission, total funding for the Ohio House of Representatives, comprised of its 99 members, 165 full-time staff and 40 pages, is $20.6 million a year or $41.2 for the biennium.

For the Ohio Senate, with its 33 members, 125 full-time staff and 40 part-time pages, total funding amounts to $12.6 million or $25.2 for the biennium.

Therefore, the combined total of our full-time professional legislature for two years is $66.4 million.

For a state whose residents historically have decried government at all levels as being too big, too costly, too intrusive in personal affairs or an obstacle to business development, it is curiously ironic that those who complain the loudest are suddenly silent to clipping the wings of the very people they charge with either playing politics or for partisan advantage or working in opposition to the what's best for the public interest.

Amid the the flame throwing over whether taxes should be increased or more cuts to government should be made, one cut that could achieve the dual goals of reducing the cost of government and forcing lawmakers to address the key issues of the day would be to send elected officials to Columbus for a limited period, to do the public's business on the key issues of the day. Afterward, they can go back home, where they can work on family or personal business without tax payers footing the bill.

But such a sane, common sense proposition seems a bridge to far for Ohioans, who will suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous politicians acting outrageously at a time when outrageous behavior is not their calling.

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. Spinelli on Assignment is syndicated by Newstex.com, can be followed on Twitter @OhioNewsBureau and available for subscription to Kindle owners. To send a news tip or make comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

Ding Ding Ding Go the VLTs

2009-07-06T10:09:00.003-04:00

Ding Ding Ding Go the VLTs

Can Ohio Walk Away a Winner?

Casinos Betting Race Tracks Finish Last

by John Michael Spinelli

July 6, 2009

Charles Town, West Virginia: To get a glimpse of a possible future for Ohio should Gov. Ted Strickland, with or without the help of the Ohio General Assembly, authorize video slot terminal (VLT) machines at the Buckeye State's seven horse racing venues, one need only drive to Wild and Wonderful West Virginia, as my wife and I did over the July 4th Independence Day weekend, to see the combination of live thoroughbred horse racing and spinning wheels whose "ding, ding, ding" lures many a gambler hoping to win by not loosing.

Charles Town Races & Slots, owned by Penn National Gaming (PNG), which owns and operates casino gaming, horse racing and off-track wagering facilities in many states that generate more than $2 billion in revenues and who spent tens of millions last year to defeat a statewide ballot issue in Ohio to authorize a first of its kind casino-style operation in Ohio, offers visitors 5,000 cash-less VLTs to sit and stare at, hoping to hit it the jackpot even if it is only on a penny machine.

Even though $5-a-pull VLTs stand in silent readiness close by, sometimes it makes sense to play for cents depending on your budget and tolerance for pain.

The owner of Toledo's Raceway Park horse track, PNG, which has gaming venues in Indiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, is a major backer of the Ohio Jobs and Growth Plan, which if approved by Ohio voters in November, would authorize casinos in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo. According to a media release in March, Ohio would stand to benefit as the various venues are estimated to bring in $1 billion in new private investment and create 20,000 new jobs and $600 million in new annual tax revenue that would be distributed to Ohio's 88 counties and 614 school districts.

But as we know, Gov. Strickland and Senate Republicans are engaged in a contest of political wills over whether about 12,000 VLTs will be divided among Ohio's seven race tracks through either executive or legislative action. Republicans are daring Strickland to make the call himself through the Ohio Lottery Commission, while the chief executive say he needs them to approve it so as to guarantee the move water tight against expected legal challenges.

Part of the big gamble is whether the VLTs will bring to dried up state coffers the $933 million Strickland's advisers say is possible, or whether that amount will ultimately turn up far fewer dollars, as was the case with revenue generated from Keno, a game Strickland put in place in much the same way Senate Republicans say he should do with VLTs.

Walking through the maze of VLTs scattered through PNG's gaming operation in Charles Town, where players only need be 18 compared to 21 in Las Vegas, the flashing, garish neon lights that inundate the space as thoroughly as fog in San Francisco might likewise light up Ohio's future budget picture. But the odds of that happening seem unlikely in the tussle between a Governor who opposed them but who has now embraced them, and Republican legislators who want to see Strickland roll craps so they can get a leg up on him in 2010 when he runs for a second term.

Further complicating the future is whether Ohioans, who have turned gambling issues down four times in two decades, will show they have had a change of heart this year, when PNG's casino issue is placed before them.

If it wins, PNG and its partners win, turning race tracks, whose clientele is shrinking, into losers. Will Ohio, now surrounded by states with gambling, be able to catch up by keeping its gamblers in-state or will all this sound and fury over VLTs amount to nothing as the state's economic fortunes worsen and the white knight of gambling some say can save the day doesn't ride to the rescue?

Ask not for whom the VLT dings, it dings for thee.

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. Spinelli on Assignment is syndicated by Newstex.com, can be followed on Twitter @OhioNewsBureau and available for subscription to Kindle owners. To send a news tip or make comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

Status of Ohio Health Care Profiled in HHS Report

2009-06-27T13:45:00.003-04:00

Status of Ohio Health Care Profiled in HHS Report

Average Family Health Premiums up 92% Since 2000

Top 2 Private Insurers Corner 58% of Health Care Market

by John Michael Spinelli

June 26, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: In a report released Friday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources profiling the status of health care for each state, a laundry list of why Ohio needs reform from the status quo was presented as another front in the now explosive, partisan debate taking place in Washington about whether private insurance companies remain at the center of health care delivery or whether a so-called public option, where government is in charge and can use its size and clout to negotiate better deals for its members, is allowed to compete, giving Americans another choice as they decide what's best and most affordable for them.

The HHS report, released under the stewardship of its leader, Kathleen Sebelius, former Governor of Kansas and daughter of former Democratic Ohio Gov. John Gilligan, reflects the public policy stance of President Obama, who says he is committed to working with Congress to pass comprehensive health reform this year in order to control rising health care costs, guarantee choice of doctor, and assure high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

"We know that we need health reform to ensure Americans get the high-quality, affordable care they need and deserve. Under the status quo, too many Americans can’t get the affordable care they need when they fall ill. But health reform must make health care more than just sick care," Sebelius said on the Web site HealthReform.gov.

Sebelius, who was chosen to lead HHS after former Sen. Tom Daschle, Obama's first choice, withdrew his name from consideration, says President Obama wants to work with Congress to "enact health care reform legislation that protects what works about health care and fixes what is broken." Ohioans know that inaction is not an option, it said, noting that "sky-rocketing health care costs are hurting families, forcing businesses to cut or drop health benefits, and straining state budgets." It's stark case for change is based on its belief that "millions are paying more for less...and families and businesses in Ohio deserve better."

So what's the profile HHS laid out for Ohio? Here it is in detail:

OHIOANS CAN’T AFFORD THE STATUS QUO

Roughly 7.4 million people in Ohio get health insurance on the job, where family premiums average $12,689 about the annual earning of a full-time minimum wage job.
Since 2000 alone, average family premiums have increased by 92 percent in Ohio.
Household budgets are strained by high costs: 20 percent of middle-income Ohio families spend more than 10 percent of their income on health care.
High costs block access to care: 12 percent of people in Ohio report not visiting a doctor due to high costs.
Ohio businesses and families shoulder a hidden health tax of roughly $1,000 per year on premiums as a direct result of subsidizing the costs of the uninsured.6

AFFORDABLE HEALTH COVERAGE IS INCREASINGLY OUT OF REACH IN OHIO

11 percent of people in Ohio are uninsured, and 64 percent of them are in families with at least one full-time worker.
The percent of Ohioans with employer coverage is declining: from 71 to 65 percent between 2000 and 2007.
Much of the decline is among workers in small businesses. While small businesses make up 72 percent of Ohio businesses,9 only 47 percent of them offered health coverage benefits in 2006 -- down 5 percent since 2000.
Choice of health insurance is limited in Ohio. WellPoint Inc. (BCBS) alone constitutes 41 percent of the health insurance market share in Ohio, with the top two insurance providers accounting for 58 percent.
Choice is even more limited for people with pre-existing conditions. In Ohio, premiums can vary based on demographic factors and health status, and coverage can exclude pre-existing conditions or even be denied completely.

OHIOANS NEED HIGHER QUALITY, GREATER VALUE, AND MORE PREVENTATIVE CARE

The overall quality of care in Ohio is rated as “Average.”

Preventative measures that could keep Ohioans healthier and out of the hospital are deficient, leading to problems across the age spectrum:

19 percent of children in Ohio are obese.
21 percent of women over the age of 50 in Ohio have not received a mammogram in the past two years.
39 percent of men over the age of 50 in Ohio have never had a colorectal cancer screening.
72 percent of adults over the age of 65 in Ohio have received a flu vaccine in the past year.

For those of us over age 60, having access to affordable, quality health care is a top priority. With Ohio under the gun as Democrats and Republicans try to reach accommodation on a budget that is way out of balance, and that can only be brought back by either more harsh cuts, many of which will affect the poorest and least able to fend for themselves, or by raising taxes, a voodoo dance no elected political official wants to engage in. It's one thing to have a sick budget, it's another to have a sick population that seems boxed in by the rules of the road private insurance companies have put in place. Reform at the state and federal level is long overdue. But the final form of reform will be a prescription some will eagerly swallow while others will find unappetizing at best.

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. Spinelli on Assignment is syndicated by Newstex.com. SOA can be followed on Twitter @OhioNewsBureau and available for subscription to Kindle owners. To send a news tip or make comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

Brown's IMPACT Act Included in Climate Change Bill Passed by US House

2009-06-27T02:22:00.004-04:00

Brown's IMPACT Act Included in Climate Change Bill Passed by US House

Loan Fund for Transition to Clean Energy R&D

by John Michael Spinelli

June 26, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: Ohio's junior Sen. Sherrod Brown had something to crow about Friday, when the US House of Representatives included his bill to establish a $30 billion loan fund to help manufacturers transition to a clean energy economy in a climate change bill that squeaked to passage with only 7 votes.

Even though the battle to address issues related to global warming claimed 44 Democratic defectors, Brown rallied around the work of two Ohio congressmen, who he said fought to include his bill designed to help small and medium-sized manufacturers across the nation adapt to the clean energy economy by providing them with much-needed access to credit.

But another Ohio congressman, John Boehner, the Minority Leader, used his privilege as a party leader to stall the vote, according to one published report that said he consumed just over an hour by reading from a 300-page amendment added in the early hours of Friday.

Boehner and other Republicans have framed the bill as a "tax" that would lead to more job losses and to problems in the voting booth for those members who voted for it. Only eight Republicans crossed over to vote for it.

The goal of this bill is to reduce greenhouse gases in the United States to 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and 83 percent by midcentury.

All Ohio's Democratic Congressmen, with the exception of Dennis Kucinich of Cleveland and Charlie Wilson from the southeast, voted for it, while Ohio Republicans voted against it as a block. Ohio currently has 18 Congressional districts, although speculation has it that the next Census will reduce this number by 2 seats.

"Our nation's traditional manufacturing industry, which helped build our nation's middle class and is critical to national security, currently faces significant challenges," Brown said in a prepared statement.

Elected in 2006 when Democrats reclaimed many offices formerly long-held by Republicans, Brown, whose gravely voice and perennially musted-up hair contribute to his trademark style, applauded Ohio Congressmen John A. Boccieri (OH-16) and Zack Space (OH-18), both Democrats, for working to include his IMPACT Act [Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technology] in the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.

The bill, the heart of which is about a "cap-and-trade" system some say will lead to big changes, both positive and negative, in sectors like election power generation, agriculture, manufacturing and construction. legislation, offers opportunities to use energy better or retool for a new era of jobs realted to clean energy.

Motivated in great measure by the loss of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs in Ohio, where the demise of the US auto industry as tracked by Chrysler and General Motors going in and out of bankruptcy court where they will be reshaped and reformed, Brown hopes his loan fund will help domestic manufacturers recover from the 30 percent slide since 1987 their sector has had on the nation's gross domestic product or GDP.

The manufacturing sector, which according to Brown is responsible for America's great middle class and that accounts for 12 percent or $1.6 trillion of GDP and nearly three-fourths of the nation's research and development, needs access to credit so they can become a part of and not a victim to the rise of clean energy jobs. The National Association of Manufacturers opposed the bill.

He noted that passage of the climate change bill confirms that clean energy legislation is an opportunity for Ohio manufacturing. "By creating a funding source to help Ohio manufacturers retool, we can revive Ohio manufacturing through investments in clean energy," a move he said will "go a long way toward making Ohio the Silicon Valley of clean energy manufacturing.”

Boccieri, a veteran of the war in Iraq who was elected last year, said, “This legislation represents the next step toward freeing our nation from its dependence on foreign resources and it will help fuel our economic recovery.” He said the bill is about "creating jobs right here at home that cannot be outsourced, protecting our national security, and helping our manufacturers retool to thrive in a new green economy."

The impact of IMPACT is that it will allow small and medium-sized manufacturers to improve energy efficiency, retool for the clean energy industry, and expand the nation’s clean energy manufacturing operations.

In his release today, Brown said the current economic crisis has exacerbated existing problems within the U.S. manufacturing industry, and taht manufacturers continue to face a reduction in demand and a lack of capital.

He cited a survey done in May that found that more than 70 percent of manufacturers anticipate difficulties securing credit to purchase raw material and rehire workers as business conditions improve. For the past 16 consecutive months, U.S. manufacturing has contracted. Moreover, Brown noted, according to the Federal Reserve Board, manufacturing output fell 2.7 percent in January 2009 to a level 13.1 percent below that of only 12 months earlier. And just last month, nearly half of the nation’s job losses were tied to manufacturing.

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. Spinelli on Assignment is syndicated by Newstex.com, can be followed on Twitter @OhioNewsBureau and available for subscription to Kindle owners. To send a news tip or make comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

Strickland Admits High-Speed Rail Won't be High-Speed Anytime Soon

2009-06-25T12:29:00.004-04:00

Strickland Admits High-Speed Rail Won't be High-Speed Anytime Soon

GOA Says FRA High-Speed Rail Initiative a "Vision...not a strategic plan."

Chicago-St. Louis Rail Corridor Gains Speed as 1st Route for Midwest Corridor

An Opeditude by John Michael Spinelli

June 25, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: Calling into a rough and tumble, shock-jock radio show broadcasting from Cincinnati Wednesday, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland said Ohio needs to be included in the passenger rail system known as the Midwest Corridor, but admitted that Ohio's system would only run at slow, conventional speeds "in the near term" and that if ridership was poor, real "high-speed trains would not run in Ohio."

Strickland, a first-term Democratic Governor readying to mount a second-term campaign in 2010, spoke for a few minutes on the powerful station, answering a couple questions on his most recent proposal to plug a $3.2 billion hole in the next state budget, which by law is to start July 1. As Strickland and the Ohio House and Senate wrestle to find accommodation with each other on hundreds of differences between versions of the state budget each chamber passed in the preceding month, the political drama of who will win the day, and at what cost, is only starting to unfold. If this state budget were a weather event, high tides and fierce winds can be seen approaching on the horizon.

Eddie and Tracy, the hosts of the radio show heard on WLW700am, set the stage prior to Strickland calling in by stating their hostility for the Governor's passenger rail proposal. Jibberjabbering to kill time until they could throw questions at Strickland, the duo demonstrated their anti-rail plan bias, saying everyone they had talked to thought his idea to resuscitate long-dead passenger rail service between Cincinnati and Cleveland via Columbus or the 3-C Corridor was "a horrible idea." Others have said that if a billion dollars is going to be spent on it, it ought to at least be fast. But speed, the one essential ingredient that will attract riders, will be absent. Based on speed calculations from the Ohio Department of Transportation, the passenger train will only average 57-mph, a truly turtle pace.

Buoyant and optimistic despite the sour, declining economic health of the state and its next budget, Strickland again repeated his warning that if Ohio didn't take advantage of federal stimulus dollars being handed out by President Barack Obama's administration for the development of high-speed rail (HSR), Ohio will "be an island...because we won't be hooked into a system that involves entire Midwest."

Talking in general terms, Strickland said that if people had real choices of other modes of transportation, "they wouldn't need a car." But Ohio has cut its funding for mass transit by 60 percent over the last decade and intra-city/regional bus service is only poor at best, if it exists at all. Responding to the simple question of what's the economic upside to the state for a first-phase, conventional speed passenger train system that will cost a minimum of $1 billion to build, all the upbeat Governor could say is that all Ohio's "sports teams are urging him to proceed." One can only wonder how enthusiastic those sports team would be if they had to reach into their wallets to pay for it. Such user-fee revenues are fast becoming a tool of choice Washington is looking to more and more, as its spending comes into question by many who say huge deficits will break us all over time.

But even given what he called "modest" yearly public subsidies the system would need to cover its costs, Strickland said investing in passenger rail is less costly that investing in highways. But roads and bridges are what tie us together now, and as cars become more fuel efficient and cooler in terms of technology, drivers will opt for the privacy and convenience of their cars instead of trains that, after a six hour or more slow ride to the past, will dump them in urban cores where other transportation modes are slim to none, affectively marooning them at their destination.

"We won't establish high-speed rail in the near term," said Strickland, adding that spending upwards of $400 million was a "fairly modest first-step that would establish regular-speed [@ 79-mph] rail service." But putting the caboose before the engine, Strickland, whose job approval numbers have been ebbing as Ohio continues to lose hundreds of thousands of jobs on his watch, said, "if people didn't support it to justify further investment, then we wouldn't have to go to high speed." But for Strickland and his railroad advisers at ODOT, top high-speed means reaching 110-mph, a far cry in reality and cost from the HSR speeds Euro-style trains reach, which top out at 220-mph or more. But even with slick trains that fly along specially built, exorbitantly priced tracks that by design minimize cross traffic or signaling, even France's famous TGV trains have average speeds of 120-mph or less for their trips, according to reputable rail sources.

Strickland likely had not read through the seven-page testimony given Tuesday by Susan A. Fleming, Director of Physical Infrastructure Issues for the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) to the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safey, and Security, Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation of the US Senate.

If Strickland or his Director of Transportation have read it, then they know the GAO has concluded that, while the potential benefits of HSR projects are many, "these projects--both here and abroad-- are costly, take years to develop and build, and require substantial up-front public investment, as well as potentially long-term operating subsidies."

Furthermore, Fleming said President Obama's allocation of a paltry $8 billion for HSR is more a "vision...than a strageic plan," and that the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), the agency his Director of Transportation headed during the Clinton Administration, has "not established clear goals for the federal government in high-speed rail--other than establishing a 'longer term goal of developing a national high-speed intercity passenger rail network of corridors'--and does not define a clear federal role for involvement in high-speed rail projects other than providing Recovery Act funds."

Fleming said the $8 billion allocated to HSR development is "only a small fraction of the estimated costs for starting or enhancing service on the 11 federally authorized high-speed rail corridors." Sustained funding for HSR will come at the cost of taking federal funds away from other national priorities like health care, national defense, and support for ailing industries, which Ohio has a lot of these days, as Detroit's Big Three automakers try to reinvent themselves or face extinction in the marketplace.

Even though the 3-C Corridor is on the periphery of the federal Midwest corridor, the heart of this system is Chicago, which all train watchers expect to benefit from handsomely, given President Obama's long ties to Illinois and the Windy City, his home prior to the White House.

Making the point that Ohio, where passenger trains stopped running nearly 42 years ago and whose rail plans are so ill formed when compared to plans of states around it, likely won't fair well in snagging any meaningful Obama dollars, the governors of Illinois and Missouri, Quinn and Nixon respectively, have teamed up to lobby for an important share of Midwest Corridor funds to complete a high-speed train route connecting Chicago to St. Louis. For Michigan Governor Jennifer Grandholm, Chicago is at the other end of a HSR route from Detroit. And for Ohio, Toledo should be more energized to connect to this route, because it will be a long, long time [if ever] until it is connected to an intra-state line that would link it to Columbus, the middle C on the 3-C route.

The fanfare of returning passenger rail service to Ohio has caused state and local officials to day dream about their village or burg being a stop on the HSR network. With the absence of state dollars in the near- or long-term to properly fund the astronomical amount needed to build a system that will still need public subsidies for as far as the eye can see into the future and that will never have the ridership capacity to make it eve break even because it will be so slow and time consuming, Strickland and his Transportation Director will need more than pom-poms and smiles to convince hard working Ohioans [those who still have jobs] that they should build and subsidize a system that only a handful of riders will ride.

The Buckeye Institute, a fiscally conservative research outfit based in Columbus, entered the fray over HSR yesterday, when it said the vision of licky-split passenger trains is just too costly to all of us and that few people would ride even fewer miles each year. Much of what the BI said appears to be sourced to Randal O'Toole, of the Libertarian think tank The Cato Institute, who makes a strong case against HSR but fails to identify viable alternatives.

But if Ohio is so desperate for cash that it is ready to shutter many of its libraries, eliminate basic health care coverage to many of its poor including children by cutting Medicaid payments and taking away food from food banks, is it really a smart move to venture down a costly path to subsidize freight rail companies who own tracks passenger trains must run on when so many other human safety nets have such gaping holes in them?

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. Spinelli on Assignment is syndicated by Newstex.com, can be followed on Twitter @OhioNewsBureau and available for subscription to Kindle owners. To send a news tip or make comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

Ohio Home to 2 of Nation's 25 Worst Neighborhoods, Crime Study Shows

2009-06-23T09:19:00.002-04:00

Ohio Home to 2 of Nation's 25 Worst Neighborhoods, Crime Study Shows

by John Michael Spinelli

June 23, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: Both Buckeye cities have been perennial favorites to make the list of the nation's biggest poor cities, so it comes as no surprise that Cincinnati and Cleveland are listed on a crime survey as home to two of the nation's top 25 worst neighborhoods.

While the Cleveland neighborhood ranked 21st, a Cincinnati neighborhood took top honors, as measured by a study performed by Dr. Andrew Schiller at NeighborhoodScout.com, that relied on data from 17,000 local law enforcement agencies about eight crimes the FBI combines to produce its annual crime index.

For Cleveland, the chances of being a victim in the Cedar Ave./55th St. neighborhood are 1 in 9. The predicted annual violent crimes are 69, or a violent crime rate (per 1,000) of 113.67.

For Cincinnati, which lead other big cities like Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Kansas City or Baltimore, the Central Parkway/liberty street neighborhood has a predicted annual violent crimes of 457, or a violent crime rate (per 1,000) of 266.94. Chances of being a victim here are 1 in 4.

Of the top 25, Chicago was home to 4 neighborhoods, with cities like Baltimore, Kansas City, Memphis and Dallas each boasting of two worst neighborhoods each.

According to information on the Web about Dr. Schiller, he is the Founder, President and Chairman of Location, Inc. and is responsible for inventing the methods and technology that power NeighborhoodScout .com. Schiller has designed similar studies and reports for various media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Money Magazine, Parade Magazine, Smart Money, The New York Times, and others.

As for FBI's crime index, information describing it said it it "seeks to overcome differences in individual state statues - that would ignore how the individual is charged - and create a standardized definition of crime classification."

Defining serious and non-serious offenses falls into two categories. Part I crimes are comprised of serious felonies and Part II crimes are comprised of non-serious felonies and misdemeanors. Together, the study methodology says, these two types of classifications make up the crimes reported in the Uniform Crime Reports.

These offenses include willful homicide, forcible rape, robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, larceny over $50, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In order to compare statistical information on a national basis the FBI came up with this common definition for crime comparison.

25 Most Dangerous Neighborhoods

25) Chicago, Ill. (Winchester, Ave./60th St.)
24) Chicago, Ill. (Wallace St./58th St.)
23) Detroit, Mich. (Mount Elliott St./Palmer Ave.)
22) Orlando, Fla. (East-West Expy/Orange Blossom Trl.)
21) Cleveland, Ohio (Cedar Ave./55th St.)
20) Baltimore, Md. (Orleans St./Front St.)
19) Chicago, Ill. (66th St./Yale Ave.)
18) New York, N.Y. (St. Nicholas Ave./125th St.)
17) Tampa, Fla. (Amelia Ave./Tampa St.)
16) Philadelphia, Pa. (Broad St./Dauphin St.)
15) Little Rock, Ark. (Roosevelt Rd./Bond St.)
14) St. Louis, Mo. (14th St./Dr. Martin Luther King Dr.)
13) Springfield, Ill. (Cook St./11th St.)
12) Dallas, Texas (2nd Ave./Hatcher St.)
11) Memphis, Tenn. (Bellevue Blvd./Lamar Ave.)
10) Richmond, Va. (Church Hill)
9) Dallas, Texas (Route 352/Scyene Rd.)
8) Kansas City, Mo. (Forest Ave./41st St.)
7) Memphis, Tenn. (Warford St./Mount Olive Rd.)
6) Kansas City, Mo. (Bales Ave./30th St.)
5) Baltimore, Md.(North Ave./Belair Rd.)
4) Jacksonville, Fla. (Beaver St./Broad St.)
3) Miami, Fla. (7th Ave./North River Dr.)
2) Chicago, Ill. (State St./Garfield Blvd.)
1) Cincinnati, Ohio (Central Pky./Liberty St.)

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. Spinelli on Assignment is syndicated by Newstex.com, can be followed on Twitter @OhioNewsBureau and available for subscription to Kindle owners. To send a news tip or make comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

Why Not Fund Ohio's 3-C Turtle Train with Video Slots?

2009-06-21T18:51:00.003-04:00

Why Not Fund Ohio's 3-C Turtle Train with Video Slots?

Strickland's Policy Switch on Slots Would Let Rail Passengers Spin Their Wheels Too

by John Michael Spinelli

June 21, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: The Great State of Ohio has failed four times over nearly two decades to convince its voters to allow casino gaming interests to set up shop inside its borders. From former Republican Gov. George Voinovich to today's Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, the mantra of one chief executive after another has been that gambling is a bad idea that would make the poor poorer, unlock the door to criminals and crime and enrich gaming interests at the expense of state coffers, which would be hard pressed to fund services to combat the social ills opponents of gambling say would be unleashed if the Satan of sin is allowed to run wild here.

Yet despite the moral hazards opponents of gambling predict would happen if slot machines or casino-style gambling were to come to a state already surrounded by states that allow them, the announcement last week by Strickland's budget mavens that Ohio's next budget, which by law starts July 1, has a $3.2 billion hole in it, has caused the good Governor, who has long opposed gaming and gambling, to turn the other cheek by signaling he is ready to permit the state's seven horse racing tracks to add video slot machines to their operations. Unable to resist the lure of maybe as much as $765 million coming to the aid of future budgets, by holding his nose on the ascent of maybe 14,000 one-armed bandits into Ohio's frantic search for public revenues, Strickland can no longer backtrack now that the slot machine proposal is out of the barn.

While the topic of video slot machines has percolated throughout Buckeyeville for a while, the question that sounds like a joke but which might be one practical way to fund Strickland's proposal to spend millions the state doesn't have on a slow train to the past that would chug diagonally from Cincinnati to Cleveland over more than six hours is to replace passenger seats with video slot machines. Doing so would be a perfect passenger-rail user fee, one that would allow those riding the rails to spin their wheels and have their losses fund the slow train to the past, whose need and ridership are simple but important questions state transportation leaders cannot answer with certainly but only with estimates that will only lead to real jaw-dropping if and when any real bids are let and returned.

This kind of user fee, which Washington is smiling on more and more as once dependable road and bridge funding sources like the Highway Trust Fund go broke as driver's drive less and fewer gas taxes are collected, would also liberate the rest of Ohio's taxpayers, who don't live along the corridor and who won't be using the train for various reasons, from funding the $1 billion-plus plan for a train that will only average 57-mph and will take until 2025 to be fully realized as out-dated plans project.

While it sounds like a joke to spend so much one-time federal stimulus money on a train loaded with slots, the idea was raised in all seriousness by one railroad historical society that said Strickland should do just that. One person who attended the meeting and contacted SOA, said the Ohio-only train could have the on-board slots so that the revenues would stay in the state. How would an intercity or interstate train handle slot business when traveling through states that don't permit gambling? Simple, just turn off the power to them while the train is in that state.

For such a sky-high price tag, Ohio's train to the past would be slow. Over the projected six hours or more it would take paying passengers to traverse the approximately 250 miles between Cincinnati and Cleveland, they could spin their wheels while the train spun it's steel wheels. If Lady Luck wasn't riding with them, so much the better for Ohio coffers.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and desperate times have come to Ohio. If a Methodist minister like Strickland who has long viewed gambling as a secular revenue trap and a Biblical moral hazard can reverse course on it, maybe it's not such a far-fetched joke to think that locomotives running on steel wheels can also have scores of other kinds of spinning wheels on it, too.

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. Spinelli on Assignment is syndicated by Newstex.com, can be followed on Twitter @OhioNewsBureau and available for subscription to Kindle owners. To send a news tip or make comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

J'aime l'Energie Nucléaire

2009-06-18T21:20:00.003-04:00

J'aime l'Energie Nucléaire

Or Why Buckeyes Should Stop Hating the French and Start Learning to Love Nuclear Power

by John Michael Spinelli

June 17, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: The French have a word for it: l'énergie nucléaire, or nuclear power. While the French are usually derided by red-blooded Americans as too sissified and certainly not able to defend themselves, they have mastered many crafts, from making chocolate and cheese to little cars and great fashion. Another important but cruder craft they have mastered, one America has not seen since the late 1970s and one Russia is still haunted by, is making safe, reliable and affordable nuclear power.

So When Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland announced Wednesday that a new nuclear power plant was the project Duke Energy and other partners including French nuclear powerhouse Areva were involved with, I didn't exactly breath a sigh of relief, but I was able to exhale knowing the Frenchies would bring their brand of producing and distributing nuclear power to the southern Ohio hills of Piketon, which has its battle scars and war stories to tell of its decades long involvement with the production of nuclear fuel.

Unlike America, where movies have been made of nuclear accidents and where nuclear accidents have in fact occurred, the French now accept nuclear power without question. Their familiarization with and support of nuclear power dates from the events in the Middle East in 1973 that PBS Frontline producer Jon Palfremanthey said was their response to the "oil shock"

His program, Why the French Like Nuclear Power, show how cozy and unfearful of the China Syndrome the baguette-eating crowd has come with nuclear power.

Ohio's history with nuclear power is not without blemishes, a contrast to the track record of our democracy-loving, cafe-sitting friends abroad.

In the heady days of Arab oil embargoes that took car-centric America by surprise, Palfremanthey said the quadrupling of the price of oil by OPEC nations was indeed a shock for France because at that time most of its electricity came from oil burning plants. France had and still has very few natural energy resources, he notes, summing up France's stock of natural reserves of oil and coal as very poor.

Nuclear energy was one avenue French policy makers took to make themselves energy independent. Ready to unleash and control the mighty power only nuclear power can produce, the French proceeded to introduce the most comprehensive national nuclear energy program in history. A statistic that Americans can only marvel at, is that 56 nuclear reactors were turned on over a period of 15 years. Such a wide spread program in a country the size of Texas was able to quench its domestic thirst and have enough left over to export to other European countries. More curious is that the technology the French used wasn't their own creation, but borrowed from the U.S. and replicated at each plan, making them less expensive to build that the hodgepodge of designs we have here.up

Where France has no coal, Ohio has huge reserves of the black rock. But burning Ohio coal creates toxic emissions that affect others as it drifts eastward to New England. So while burning Ohio coal keeps some miners employed, it creates substantial health problems down wind.

In addition to what Palfremanthey pegs as the pride of independence that everyone Frenchman is born with, is their central management of big technology projects. For the average Ohioan, talk of government being competent to undertake big projects smacks of socialism. But for the French, big national projects like supersonic jets and high-speed rail, done and managed well, are par for the course.

Another big difference is the mindset Americans and French have toward scientists, engineers and lawyers. In America, lawyers rule. In France, scientists and engineers are generally looked upon highly as are educators. The average Frenchman respects and trusts technocrats, whereas the average American probably wants them fired because they represent the kind of big government some have been taught to despise.

Ohioans can also take a lesson from how the French dealt with their fear of nuclear waste and what to do with it. In addition to reusing nuclear waste in ways that delayed eventually having to deposit it safely somewhere, the French became less skittish about it when they learned that instead of burying it somewhere forever, it could be accessed in the future when future advances could better deal with it.

The alliance of companies working to build the Southern Ohio Clean Energy Park says the 700 jobs needed to operate the facility may not materialize for another ten years or more. So while the announcement is good news, it will do little now to help Ohioans who have lost their jobs as Ohio's economy twists in the wind from faltering auto sales and a national recession that is slowing but still dangerous.

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. Spinelli on Assignment is syndicated by Newstex.com, can be followed on Twitter at OhioNewsBureau and available for subscription to Kindle owners. To send a news tip or make comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

Ohio's Slow Train Plan Likely Not Fast Enough to Snag Much HSR Funding

2009-06-18T04:43:00.004-04:00

Ohio's Slow Train Plan Likely Not Fast Enough to Snag Much HSR Funding

US DOT Unveils Grant Criteria for High-Speed Rail Corridors

With States Paying Operating Costs, Can Ohio Handle it?

by John Michael Spinelli

June 17, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: President Obama, Vice President Biden and Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced in April their new vision for developing high-speed rail in America. The troika of leaders outlined a collaborative effort among the Federal Government, States, railroads, and other key stakeholders to help transform America’s transportation system through a national network of high-speed rail corridors.

The US Department of Transportation announced Wednesday the application requirements, procedures and evaluation criteria that would identify which of four funding tracks rail projects from states would qualify for.

While the Midwest Corridor is among the ten high-speed rail corridors the Obama administration and the Federal Railroad Administration have identified, Ohio may be riding in the caboose based on its failure after nearly 42 years of little or no passenger rail service and on the ability of its imploding budget to handle the costs of operation, which DOT said falls squarely on state shoulders.

With about $3.2 billion dollars in budget adjustments starring down Gov. Ted Strickland and Columbus lawmakers, the news of how grim state services could get real fast would argue that Ohio needs to think twice or more about spending unknown millions on a yearly public subsidy for a slow train to the past, that seems to fall short of many DOT funding criteria when those funds could go instead to shore up government services or to pay for basic social services for needy Ohioans hit hard during this Great Recession.

Ohio is like every other state who since the announcement by Obama that $8 billion in stimulus money would be offered as a down-payment on his vision that America can have Euro-style trains flashing across the nation has cultivated its own dream of re-establishing passenger rail service, more than four decades after the last train running from Cincinnati in the southwest to Cleveland in the northeast stopped service.

Strickland and his transportation director, Jolene Molitoris, have been boldly promoting a revival of passenger rail service that would top out at 79-mph but only average 57-mph and take over six hours to make a one-way trip along the so-called 3-C Corridor. The duo had repeatedly said start up costs would be about $250 million until last week, when Strickland upped that figure to $400 million. For rail watchers, the increase of $150 million with nothing to point to was a red flag signaling that the numbers for the plan, until they are backed by real bids, will be as slippery to grasp as holding mercury in your hand. But those figures will likely not be known for years to come, based on the state master rail plan date of 2025, when we'll know whether all the time and investment put into it has been worth it.

But a preliminary review of DOT's evaluation criteria show Ohio may not be as thrilled with what it gets after states like California, Illinois, Texas or Florida take the lion's share of federal funds that will be handed out by DOT in round one this September.

A harbinger of things to come arrived in the form of an AP article that reported that the Obama administration informed Ms. Molitoris, the first woman to head Ohio's $7 billion Transportation Department (ODOT), that she should not spend $57 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) dollars on more studies, including about $7 million for the HUB or high-speed rail plan. Federal officials said she should spend it instead on actual ready-to-go infrastructure projects.

Other troubling hurdles ODOT will have to overcome include describing the public return on investment, including factors such as what the transportation benefits will be, the purpose and need of the 3-C Corridor, whether a Service Development Plan is in place and, most importantly, identifying the source of operating costs for the system, which cannot come from ARRA funds but fall to states to provide.

So while nearly all Ohio cities will not become stops on the ODOT's slow train to the past, many small town mayors still harbor dreams that their community will not only be a stop but that the train will bring jobs and prosperity along with riders to their towns.

The irony of this fallacy is that high-speed trains can not travel at high-speeds if they make too many stops along the way. This point was confirmed recently when a spokesman for the Ohio Rail Development Commission issued a reminder that the more small towns that think they should be on the train route, the slower the train will be. Some small-town mayors want a train to pull into either an old, nonfunctional station or one they don't have the money to build.

But DOT makes it clear that trains that cannot hit 110-mph will take a backseat to those that can, such as the California high-speed rail project which wants to connect Los Angeles with San Francisco with trains that run above 200-mph.

Other criteria Ohio and other states will have to meet relate to economic development or jobs created especially in economically-distressed areas, energy efficiency and how it will make communities more livable.

Moreover, additional success factors such as Ohio's track record of comparable projects or reasonableness of schedule and availability of operating financial support could side-trackODOT, which is still waiting for results contained in a special study on ridership due this summer.

Molitoris, the first woman to head the FRA back in the early 1990s, has often said the 3-C is a great business opportunity even though she has had little in the way of firm or fast figures to back up her upbeat assessment of a passenger rail ride that must share existing freight tracks and will go slower than a car would and take 30 percent more time to do it in.

A possible speedbump for ODOT's slow train to the past is the mandate included in the HSR guidelines that require it to produce a National Environmental Policy Act report, that shows it has considered "reasonable alternatives," which it said is "typically conducted during the environmental review process."

The 3-C Corridor won't quality for Track 1 funding because it's not ready to go, or shovel-ready in Washington parlance, it cannot produce the kind of leverage with non-federal investments. projects this category smiles on and because it can't be completed within two years of the award.

For Track 2 projects, which focuses on collective efforts and requires a Service Development Plan be in place, including a business and investment justification with sufficient project cost and benefit estimates -- such as purpose and need, service and operations plan, and prioritized capital investment plan for infrastructure, fleet and stations/facilities, project management, stakeholder agreements and a financial plan for funding both capital and operations.

Buckeye leaders may fall into Track 3 funding, designed to build a pipeline of future high-speed inter-city rail projects by funding planning activities for applicants at an early stage of development. Fifty percent non-federal funding is required, and participation in this category is a prerequisite for participation later in Track 1 and 2 funding. Track 4, the final category, time-lines for project completion are set at 5 years.

In the end, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a Republican and former congressman from Illinois, will have final say. The FRA said it may at its discretion not ward all $8 billion, so funds for potential future rounds of solicitations and awards that which occur after 2009 will be available.

DOT's guidelines say there is no predetermined allocation between Tracks 1 and 2 or between this and any future solicitations, and that all such distributions will cumulatively reflect the nature and timing of the selected applications.

Excluded from funding is commuter rail passenger transportation, which DOT defines as “shorthaul rail passenger transportation in metropolitan and suburban areas usually having reduced fare, multiple ride, and commuter tickets and morning and evening peak period operations.” It said Federal funding for commuter rail projects is available from Federal Transit Administration programs.

DOT noted that Amtrak may enter into a cooperative agreement with one or more States to carry out an eligible project.

As for innovation, the 3-C Corridor plan hardly seems able to make an water-tight case that it is pursuing new technology and innovation where the public return on investment is favorable, while ensuring delivery of near-term transportation, public and recovery benefits.

In answering the question about whether such a plan would promote domestic manufacturing, supply and industrial development, including U.S.-based equipment manufacturing and supply industries, much of the rail equipment used on the 3-C Corridor will come from overseas. Unlike this scenario, an innovative, advanced-train technology as has been patented by Tubular Rail of Texas, could be manufactured nearly entirely within Ohio's borders.

While Ohio mainstream media sources faithfully print the talking points of state transportation officials without questioning them on their sources or statements, which performs a disservice to the readers who need to know real facts and not fantasy, this correspondent knows that Ohio's slow train to the past, while romantic to some, is a bad idea at a bad time.

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. Spinelli on Assignment is syndicated by Newstex.com, can be followed on Twitter at OhioNewsBureau and available for subscription to Kindle owners. To send a news tip or make comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com
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Ding Ding Ding Go the VLTs

Status of Ohio Health Care Profiled in HHS Report

Brown's IMPACT Act Included in Climate Change Bill Passed by US House

Strickland Admits High-Speed Rail Won't be High-Speed Anytime Soon

Ohio Home to 2 of Nation's 25 Worst Neighborhoods, Crime Study Shows

Why Not Fund Ohio's 3-C Turtle Train with Video Slots?

J'aime l'Energie Nucléaire

Ohio's Slow Train Plan Likely Not Fast Enough to Snag Much HSR Funding