From the monthly archives: May 2011
Mandel vs. Coughlin vs. Blackwell.
This is already shaping up to be more brutal than the Brunner vs. Fisher primary ever really got.
“Kevin Coughlin, Josh Mandel, and Ken Blackwell are finding it’s much easier to take shots at each other than to explain their positions on dangerous schemes that undermine middle class Ohioans and dismantle Medicare,” said Ohio Democratic Party press secretary Justin Barasky. “Now D.C. Republicans are forced to look at Ohio and shake their heads as they find themselves with a slate of candidates engaging in an uncomfortable primary fight that they were hoping to avoid.”
[...]
Full Story... →Yesterday was a train wreck. Speaker Batchelder held a press gaggle in which he declared, definitively, that the CAT tax on gross receipts amendment that the House Finance Committee added on Thursday would be struck today:
Reporter: What about the CAT tax? There seems to be concerns on both sides.
It will be part of the changes, it’s out of the bill. We have a memo from LSC that language we put in is in the law. There have been meetings between the Governor and the industry. We are seeing a lot more action now. The budget will not say [...]
Full Story... →In early April John Kasich sent his budget and staffing numbers to the Ohio House of Representatives. According to the document prepared by Kasich’s team, the Governor’s office currently has 67 people on staff, 37 being paid by the Governor’s office budget and 30 paid by agencies. And they plan to hire a maximum of 75 people and spend a total of $4,838,121 per year on staff salaries.
The document also compares Kasich’s staff count and salaries to the previous Governor. Kasich’s team claims their staff numbers and staff salary totals are lower than Strickland’s, who had 79 employees [...]
Full Story... →(HT: Dave Harding @ ProgressOhio)
According to the Daily Caller, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) is contemplating running for re-election to Congress, but this time from the State of Washington.
Kucinich is believed to be one of the Ohio Democratic Members of Congress that Republicans who control redistricting will target for elimination as they redraw Ohio’s congressional map with two fewer districts. Kucinich was being forced into either a primary challenge against Congresswoman Marsha Fudge or Congresswoman Betty Sutton. However, the State of Washington is gaining a congressional seat, and Kucinich, apparently, is seriously contemplating moving there and running for [...]
Full Story... →Gov. John Kasich claimed “state employees are actually going to get a pay raise”. Politifact calls this statement False:
Despite Nichols explanations, there is no pay raise. State workers will be getting more money in their paychecks, as Nichols noted. But that’s not because they’ll be getting paid more for their time.
Those increases are a result of them working more days at the same rate of pay. When the furloughs end, state workers will no longer be forced to take unpaid days off from work.
Obviously this won’t surprise Plunderbund readers. We’ve documented dozens of Kasich’s lies [...]
Full Story... →Yesterday, the Columbus Dispatch reported that the House Republicans were set to consider some 200 amendments submitted in response to the Substitute House Bill they introduced for the State’s budget Thursday afternoon. Now the fate of these amendments are far from certain, but among the things the House GOP is being urged to change are:
Their new provision that would give county commissioners authority to privatize county jails. It’s getting to the point where Ohio’s criminals may never actually be punished by the State, but out-of-state corporations hired to mete out punishment for profits. Some Cincinnati-area lawmakers want to [...]
Full Story... →Proclaiming as Ohio’s Governor that teachers come from “a grand and powerful profession, worthy to be honored and respected” and “in order for our society to accomplish great things, it must heed the importance of the work of public servants,” Governor Kasich today issued two proclamations declaring this week both Teacher Appreciation Week and Public Service Appreciation Week.
I can’t wait for the SB 5 repeal ads that could be made from this. That’s the only thought that kept me from punching a hole in my wall when I read these resolutions.
From the Governor’s Press Release:
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Full Story... →White Hat Management owner David Brennan identifies himself as a lot of things on state campaign finance reports : President, CEO, Chairman – even investor and industrialist. But never once does he claim to be an educator. And for good reason. To Brennan and other for-profit charter operators, schools are for making money, not for educating students. And his schools’ test scores and graduation rates more than prove this point.
By every standard measure of success White Hat’s charter schools in Ohio – to put it bluntly – suck.
Based on data from the Ohio Department of Education, Three White [...]
Full Story... →When we interviewed IAFF President Harold Schaitberger in early March he was fired up and promised to help fight for the rights of his union members in Ohio against union busting Senate Bill 5.
Last week he announced he’d be putting his money where his mouth is.
According to Schaitberger “the International Association of Fire Fighters is freezing its federal political spending and shifting all resources toward its beleaguered state and local colleagues.”
According to Schaitberger, the money that would have been donated to federal candidates will now be used to underwrite the recall and referendum efforts and [...]
Full Story... →Budget Watch
