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

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

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

Strickland's Folly

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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