Posts by: Jason
In today’s Dispatch, under the intentionally inflammatory headline “Unions Get Revenge…” we get a hint of next year’s anti-union rhetoric:
“But amidst all of the concessions and hat-in-hand rhetoric, there was a hint of defiance. Kasich, who opened by congratulating the labor coalition, said local governments should not expect a state bailout to manage their costs.
‘There is no bailout because frankly, there’s no money,’ Kasich said.”
Kasich’s year-long attack against public employees was two-pronged: Make them vulnerable, and strip away their defenses. Last night, not only did [...]
Full Story... →With reports coming out that the House version of SB 5 does nothing to fix the parts of the bill that opponents dislike, and in fact adds some clearly political restrictions on how unions can collect money that could potentially make it even less popular among Senate members, one might wonder what they’re thinking. Modern, in his piece linked to above, offers the opinion that eliminating voluntary payroll deductions for union PACs is a “nuclear” issue, and that the referendum vote will be easier for SB 5 opponents with this version than with the last version.
I disagree.
Full Story... →This week, Sen. Tim Grendell (R-Tea Party), finally got one of his pet grandstanding ideas passed: banning the use of stimulus dollars to pay for signs identifying the use of stimulus dollars. Does it matter that the signs have already been made? No. Does it matter that GOP critics have often complained about a lack of transparency in ARRA spending? No. Does it matter that Kasich was inaugurated on a Monday and state workers had put his name on the freeway welcome signs by Friday? Does it matter that this has nothing to do with creating jobs [...]
Full Story... →We’ve been focused on events in Columbus lately, because honestly, that’s where the news has been. That doesn’t mean the Ohio delegation in Washington should think we’ve lost interest. You might ask, well, what have they been up to? Did a Republican really call Tea Party Conservatives “knuckle draggers?” Did somebody really push for expanding nuclear power on the very day the earthquake struck Japan? Did Jean Schmidt show the briefest flash of sanity? Can you really find one main point and two supporting links for each and every one of them? Well…
Full Story... →As the House takes up a version of SB 5, it might be worthwhile to think about the number of “conversion stories” we’re hearing from union members, and to give those stories some context.
According to 2010 exit polls, 26% of the votes cast in Ohio were by voters in union households. Many have assumed labor to be overwhelmingly in support of Democrats, but at the level of individual voters, that’s not really been the case. Among union household voters, at least 45% voted for Rob Portman, and at least 31% voted for Kasich. So let’s do a [...]
Full Story... →Kevin Bacon is a freshman Senator from a district of moderate ticket-splitters. Senate District 3 voted for Obama in 2008 and Strickland in 2010, even as they replaced a term-limited Republican (David Goodman) with Bacon to represent them in the Ohio Senate. It’s a swing district, and Bacon won it in part by beating out his opponent for some key endorsements from labor. In fact, of the 19 endorsements listed on his campaign page, four are from union-affiliated groups.
I was curious, so I emailed the unions that endorsed candidate Bacon, and asked them: if they knew then what [...]
Full Story... →As we’ve been reporting recently, Ohio posted an impressive streak of reduced unemployment month-after-month over the last year of Strickland’s tenure. It’s important to show that Ohio’s recovery began before Kasich had any influence over the state’s economy – primarily because the myth of poor performance is being used to justify a radical anti-public agenda, but also because it is an utter certainty that he will try to take credit for any subsequent good news (see permit approvals, comic book heroes, etc.).
But some out there will reasonably complain that the recession and recovery have been global [...]
Full Story... →The Chronicle of Higher Education is reporting SB 5 to be possibly the most anti-faculty labor law… ever.
Inserted into the last minute Omnibus Amendment was language specifically dealing with higher education that, like much of the last-minute page dump, was unexpected and only fully processed after passage. Full time faculty have had their current duties redefined as managerial, and are therefore ineligible for any collective bargaining unless they give up what are typically seen as basic faculty rights. Part time faculty and graduate student employees would now recognized as potential bargaining units (something they’ve been fighting for), [...]
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... →Budget Watch
