From the monthly archives: January 2011
We spend a fair amount of time here at Plunderbund critizing the press and that criticism usually falls on the editorial boards and opinion writers of the Cleveland, Cincy and Columbus papers.
So when I read two really good opinion pieces in today’s Plain Dealer it made me completely forget about all of the trash I read in the Dispatch and I thought maybe I’d take a minute to say something positive for a change.
The first piece was by Connie Schultz and it deals with a topic we’ve spent the past two weeks exhaustively covering: the [...]
Full Story... →Rob Nichols is John Kasich’s Press Secretary.
Prior to working for Kasich, Nichols spent years and years and years working for Representative Deb Pryce. 18 years to be exact. Nearly two decades as a government employee. 100% paid by the taxpayers.
You may also remember Rob from a post we did last week about his salary (compared to Governor Strickland’s press Secretary) going up $20k.
I searched through the Plunderbund archives but was unable to come up with a stock photo of Mr. Nichols. I’ll keep looking, but until I find one I’m going to use this one*. [...]
Full Story... →Yesterday’s Gongwer report had an interesting article about a possible proposal to privatize the State’s liquor monopoly. The proposal was referenced by John Kasich as a news conference last week. According to Kasich this could raise $1-1.5 billion in one time money for this budget.
Reporters at the news service were smart enough to request a copy of the proposal the Governor referenced and it turns out it came from a boutique investment banking shop in Northeast Ohio called Western Reserve Partners, LLC.
An investment bank with interest in privatization? That’s got to be completely altruistic, right?
Um, [...]
Full Story... →It’s absolutely not fair to compare the speaking skills of John Kasich to President Obama.
But I’m going to do it anyway…
The President gave one of his best speeches in months.
Kasich rambled on (ht Marc Kovac) about budgets and transformation and transportation and concrete and “that kid” and “that lady” and breaths of air left in the mine.
There’s a reason people hire speech writers, Mr. Kasich.
Visit msnbc.com for Full Story... →
The nice folks at Americans United for Change take our Kasich staff salary numbers (and some Kovac videos) and run with them…
Full Story... →Modern wrote a great piece last week countering John Kasich’s claim that he needs to pay higher salaries to his staff because they all have oportunites to make more money in the private sector…
the people Kasich is paying these ridiculous salaries aren’t coming from the private sector. They’re people who were already part of Team Kasich and have a history of public service that suggest they have little interest in serving in the private sector.
With a more recent version of his payroll being released yesterday we thought we’d review the extensive private sector experience Kasich has [...]
Full Story... →“It’s overwhelmingly clear that the balance of power between Ohio’s taxpayers and the people who are their employees needs to be rebalanced to give taxpayers some relief.”—Gov. Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols
[Source: Today’s Dayton Daily News]
This coming from a guy who is getting paid substantially more than his predecessor did. More than what he was paid for during the campaign, and more money he made doing the same job for Congresswoman Deborah Pryce just a few years ago.
Seriously, Nichols, take a pay cut. Then let’s talk.
As one commenter noted, Kasich’s claims about his [...]
Full Story... →Joe Hallett, Senior Editor at the Columbus Dispatch and the individual in charge of their political reporting, can be an opinionated man. He has expressed a wide range of opinions, for example, regarding our new governor. Back in November, you might remember, there was Triumphant:
Kasich has the guts to do what he believes must be done. It is well past time that a governor take on Ohio’s bloated education bureaucracy and its reform-stifling teachers unions. Kasich will do so.
It is well past time that a governor demand that local governments, including school districts, start consolidating and sharing [...]
Full Story... →Governor Kasich has made it perfectly clear that he will not raise taxes to deal with the State’s projected budget deficit created now that there is no more stimulus money to aid the States during the recession.
But yesterday in the Dispatch, Gov. Kasich made another claim:
But Kasich has said that shouldn’t mean simply slashing spending, especially for services for the state’s neediest residents. Passing a budget will entail restructuring and telling special-interest groups "no," Kasich told legislators.
Guys, there’s only one way to balance a budget with a projected $8 billion deficit without raising taxes and [...]
Full Story... →John Kasich released a new version of his staff budget tonight and when I say “new version” I mean “new” compared to the old version that Plunderbund posted last week. The Kasich team would like you to believe this is the first version of the budget and that they released it because they are greatly concerned about openness and transparency.
The fact is: they were forced to release this document in response to our post last week.
The big story of today is not that Kasich is keeping his staff salary and the staff count under that of Strickland’s. [...]
Full Story... →Budget Watch
