Casinos - The fine print

If you want to know what Ohioans really approved when they voted 11/09 to allow big gamblers to move into our state, read the analysis of Thomas Suddes in a Columbus Dispatch column at this link.

School Board candidacy explained

I recently wrote an essay about Tim Carr as a candidate for the Newark City Schools board of education. Folks who commented about it raised the question about why Molly Ingold chose to run for Tim’s seat, rather than for one of the vacant seats.

I asked the two candidates that question. Here’s what Molly told me:

“Bruce: I would be glad to address your question.

“Coming into 2009 I had planned on completing my term this December. At that time I believed the current superintendent was planning on retiring in 2010. We (at least I) received a surprise when Mr. Richards decided to retire in 2009. I began to think about the transition from one superintendent to the next and realized it was important to have some consistency and experience on the Board. I decided it was important for me to continue, but wanted to do so for a shorter period of time than 4 more years. Having already served 6 years, 2 more years would complete 8 years - 2 terms, so to speak.

“The night I took out my petitions, I called Tim to personally notify him of my decision so he would hear it from me and not anyone else. At that point he did not have any petition signatures and I thought he might choose to look at a 4 year term having only 9 months under his belt. He obviously decided to stick with the 2 year term as well.

“So I don't look at it as either Molly choosing to run against Tim or Tim choosing to run against Molly, but rather two individuals who made what they thought was the right decision. (Having talked with Tim about this, I know that both of us prayed about the decision before taking action.)

“Thanks for asking. I hope this helps answer your question. Feel free to share this with the other folks you spoke about..........Molly”

And here’s what Tim said:

“Molly told me she only wanted to serve two more years. All of our conversations previously were that she didn't want to run again. She did know my intentions to run for the two year term and to her credit, she called me several weeks later to say she was running against me. I am not aware of any other reasons.

“Sincerely, Tim Carr”

NCS levy signals call to arms

Anyone who considers the passage of the $5.9-million-per-year levy a sign that the community is poised to kiss and make up with the Newark City Schools should go read the outpouring of rage in comments to the Advocate on-line news report.

The NCS tax take has grown by $230 a year per $100,000 value. That’s added to the $892 per year already in place, plus a 1 percent income tax, plus state and federal taxes giving Keith & Company a total of $12,693 per student, per year, plus an estimated 9.3% increase in state and federal aid over the next two years. 

Still NCS will not have enough, they say, to fully bus students, or fully fund the extras for students, but they do anticipate having enough for staff raises which are needed because the NCS classroom teachers’ average salary is only $55,331 for nine months’ work before benefits - and NCS has only one employee for every 4.9 students, and the superintendent makes more than the governor of Alaska.

That Keith & Company strategized a winning shell game on property owners comes as a call to arms. Sitting in front of a computer screen screaming insults back and forth may be therapeutic, but it’s a lousy solution. 

What has to happen next is state intervention into the rape of property owners. It has to happen before Keith & Company come back to rape again, and they will because it’s never enough no matter how much it is.

There are three people who are responsible for doing this, but who won’t do anything meaningful for property owners unless they are made to do it. One is State Representative Jay Hottinger, another is State Senator Tim Schaffer and the third is Governor Ted Strickland.

Jay Hottinger has practically grown to adulthood as our link to state government. Because of that, I think he is as responsible as any member of government for schools’ rape and re-raping of property owners in Newark, Licking County, and Ohio.

So here’s a suggestion for you guys sitting there moaning about having to pay yet another $5.9 million each year on top of an already-excessive tax bill:

Call Jay Hottinger’s office - 614/466-1482 - and ask him precisely what he’s going to do to solve the problem. If you don’t understand his answer, ask again. 

Then call Senator Schaffer at 614/466-5838 and ask him the same thing. Ask the same question as many times as it takes until you understand it.

Then call Governor Strickland at the constituent helpline 614/644-4357 and ask him what he’s going to do to solve the problem. Make sure you understand exactly what he intends to do before you hang up.

When you have done so, please leave a comment here about your experience. The number and kind of comments received will indicate how serious you are about dealing with the problem, rather than whining about it.

Election Night snuggery

If you're like me, you're sitting here on election night in front of your computer wishing it could cough up something meaningful and timely.

The best I've found is the front page of washingtonpost.com at this link.

Switch back and forth between that and the Washington Post's "The Trail" and you're onto something entertaining, if not informative.

If you want to read knee-jerk comments by local knee-jerkers, follow along with the reader comments at at this link which may be displaced by the time this gets published. Still, Advocate website info is the only game in town.

Winners, I hope, in 2008 ...

(Pdf version at at this link.)
President - Obama
Ohio Attorney General - Cordray
Ohio Supreme Court - O'Connor
Ohio Supreme Court - Stratton
5th District - Sefcovic
Ohio Board of Education, 9th District - Moore
Ohio House of Representatives - Hill
US House 18th district - Space
County Clerk of Court - Walters
County Commissioners - Moreland and Van Buren
Domestic Relations Judge - Wright
Juvenile-Probabte Judge - Judge
County Recorder - Long
Issue I - EARLIER BALLOT FILING DEADLINES - No
Issue 2 - BONDS FOR 'CLEAN OHIO' - No
Issue 3 - GROUNDWATER RIGHTS - No
Issue 5 - CHANGE 'PAYDAY LENDING' PRACTICES - Yes
Issue 6 - ALLOW CASINO IN OHIO - No
Issue 42 MORE TAXES FOR C-TECH - No
Issue 11 SUNDAY SALES FOR ROOSTERS - Yes
Issue 46 MORE TAXES FOR NEWARK SCHOOLS - No

Yeah, but I'm still with Howard

Yesterday I wrote here about campaign funding for state representative candidates Hottinger and Hill. The information came from the Advocate web site and turned out to be incomplete.

Keith W. Hare of Granville caught the errors and made corrections in the comments section, so if you're interested in the details, please go read what he said at this link.

Michael Shearer, Advocate editor, also commented to the effect that the newspaper's database had been brought up to date as of yesterday, but it still doesn't jibe with figures provided by Mr. Hare who got his from the Ohio Secretary of State.

Mr. Hare reports campaign expenditures of $13,059 for Hill; $169,410 for Hottinger. So the presumption I used - that nobody owns Howard Hill and many have purchased Jay Hottinger - has been shot down.

Even so, the point by Mr. Hare - that the top seven of Hottinger's donors kicked in $72,680 and that they are all from out of state - says something about whether Jay has been - and will if elected - exclusively represent the interests of folks in Licking County as should be the case.

I still think Howard will do a better job for the Licking County commoner if he is elected.

I'm with Howard Hill and here's why

This may be the toughest race Jay Hottinger, Licking County's state representative has ever run, even if it weren't for the stench hanging on Republicans because of President Bush. It will be tough because for the first time in my memory Jay will be running against a school teacher with a working man's perspective - and common men and women will indeed get out to vote this year. Jay's opponent is the son of political servant of great stature - Don Hill, whose many years of service to local citizens earned him wide respect and his name on the county government building. Don served with ability and honesty and likely his son would serve us equally well.

This contest pits Howard Hill, the commoner, against Jay Hottinger, the business establishmentarian. Nobody owns Howard, many have purchased Jay. Their contributors are listed at the Advocate's data base:

Howard Hill: Balance on hand: $150;
Donations By Contributor: No records found.

Jay Hottinger: Balance on hand 10/23/08: $103,900;
Donations by Contributor: Charles Dolan, Eva Dolan, Helen Dolan, Larence Dolan - each donated $10,670 (Charles Dolan is described by The Museum of Broadcast Communications as "one of the least known but most powerful moguls in the modern cable television industry in the United States.")

Then there is David Brennan of Akron who gave $10,000 and who runs Ohio's largest charter school company, according to The Ohio Federation of Teachers, and Ann A. Brennan, also of Akron, who donated $5,000.

An Ohio Federation of Teachers report prepared in cooperation with the AFL-CIO union, “... shows clearly that David Brennan has been allowed to circumvent numerous state laws, and that profit, not helping children learn, is the primary motive,” said OFT President Tom Mooney."

The report states that David Brennan built his education empire on public dollars enabled by favorable legislation adopted after enormous campaign contributions to legislators. In one two-month period alone, November and December 2001, while the House was deliberating HB 364 (which significantly relaxed regulations on charter schools), the Brennan family contributed $162,500 to GOP members of the House, all in $2,500 checks (the maximum per cycle at that time) ... Brennan’s charter school operations have faced little scrutiny from regulators, including state auditors, who were also the recipients of his political contributions.

Also contributing to Jay's campaign funds:
Ohio Academy of Nursing Homes - $10,000

William L Lager - owner of "A complete learning management system providing educational services; namely, classroom instruction, primarily on-line, for grades K through 12"

Oil and Gas Association - $5,000

Then there's First Energy, plus First Energy PAC, plus Gary Leidich, president of First Energy, each donating $5,000 to Jay's campaign, plus Gib Reese, Jerry McClain, Les Wexner, Dan Delawder, Marathon Oil, Meijer PAC, - and the list just goes on and on for ten web pages of special-interest donors who have staked a claim for favorable votes by Jay Hottinger.

Owing a piece of any legislator is exactly and precisely what's wrong with government. Jay is worth less as a representative of the common working stiff by $103,900; Howard has maintained his full value. I'm with Howard.

Obama victory is now certain

On December 14, 2007 I announced that Obama would win (You read it here first: Obama will win).

I based that prediction on the fact that Oprah had anointed him with her endorsement.

Today I can confirm that I was right because today I am joined by the kids who vote in the Weekly Reader poll.

They gave Obama 54.7 percent of the vote, McCain 42.9 percent and others 2.5 percent. Obama won 420 electoral college votes from 33 states, including Ohio and McCain's home state of Arizona, and McCain got 118 electoral votes from 17 states.

Weekly Reader kids have accurately predicted winners in 12 of the past 13 presidential elections.

Will Tim Bubb survive in the Political Game of Chicken?

Lest voters failed to pick up on it in yesterday's print edition of the Advocate, two candidates for county commissioner said they would work to remove the 1/2% sales tax imposed without voter approval by Commissioners Bubb and Smith.

Bubb and Smith were playing Political Game of Chicken, in which elected officials bet their careers that voters won't remember instances of insolence. I think they will remember, but we'll see.

Mark Van Buren, running against Brad Feightner, and Doug Moreland, running against Tim Bubb, have pledged to roll back that tax. You can go to the Advocate's on-line voter guide and compare candidates' positions on this tax thanks to the editors, whose first question to all commissioner candidates was: "Do you agree with the decision to increase the sales tax two years ago without voter input? Would you consider eliminating it?."

If voters are smart enough to replace Bubb with Moreland, that will leave only Doug Smith as the commissioner who voted to stuff citizens by giving them an end-run on taxes. (Last commissioner election, Smith did win the Game when voters re-elected him.) And Mark Van Buren over Feightner is a good bet, even if it weren't for the tax issue.

My previous rants on abuse of power by Bubb and Smith are linked here.

Howard Hill is a serious contender

With the pot boiling over the sucker punch delivered to voters by Newark School District in the recent election, this is a good time to reflect on the candidacy for the Ohio legislature by Howard Hill.

He promises to make educational funding a priority, if elected, and work toward relief from "constant taxation and request of levies from the schools," while recognizing the state's unfunded mandates to schools are part of the problem, as I reported 2/8/08.

In a recent news release, Howard has pledged that he would use all "campaign donations for purely campaign-related expenses." This is his response to "recently publicized use of campaign dollars to purchase OSU football tickets, meals, gas, automobiles, tickets to cultural events, and even a tuxedo!”

He said "although these people’s actions were legal, I do not believe that they were an ethical use of campaign funds ..."

I really like his campaign motto: "common people putting forth uncommon effort in order to do public good." There never was a time when that's needed more than it is today.

A major implication of higher property tax

Voters who rent their homes or apartments will be affected by the outcome of the August 5th school levy request.

If the taxes are raised by 9.5 mills, as will be proposed at the polls, renters almost surely will feel the squeeze as a way of relief to the landlords. That's a point easily missed by renters who don't get the connection between the cost of owning and the cost of renting.

Because the vote is scheduled August 5th instead of regular election day, it will cost Newark School District about $40,000. And why would the schools, who say they can't afford to properly bus students to school and back spend $40,000 on a special election? Why that would be because it is a direct and shameless attempt to squeeze out a full vote and limit it to the beneficiaries: teachers, employees, administrators, and parents.

Folks who can't attend the August 5th election can vote by absentee ballot. I've explained how to do that and offered links to previous essays on this deceptive move by Newark Schools at this link.

School tax request: You can begin voting now

August 5th is the date for the vote on Newark City School District request for an additional 9.5 mills to be tacked onto real estate taxes. To be sure you don't miss it, you can vote now.

Absentee ballots are available at the Board of Elections (BOE) office in the County Administration Building, 20 S Second St. The phone number is 670-5080.

I have written twice about this special election which is going to cost Newark Schools $40,000 in its attempt to end-run voters by an August vote. Read them here and here.

The absentee voter registration process is explained on the BOE pages of the Licking County web site, or this link will take you directly to the absentee-ballot page, where you can download an absentee application form.

Polling locations are listed on the BOE pages, but no ward map (that I can find) is presented. So if you don't know your ward, call the BOE and they'll tell you.

We're screwed. Again.

Guess who's not running for vice president today?

No matter how hard we coax him, Governor Strickland is not going to run for vice president.

He denied in a September USA Today story that he would run for vice president; in May, the Columbus Dispatch "reported" (how about parroted?) that he would reject any request by Clinton to be her running mate; and guess what happened yesterday? Strickland "unequivocally ruled out being Barack Obama's running mate," said the Washington Post.

I think it's time for somebody to tell Governor Stickland that nobody is asking him to run for vice president. Nobody.

NO. BODY.

If "reporters" are making a list of who's not going to run for vice president, they can add my name. Quit pestering me. No.

If I have to read one more time that Governor Stickland says he will not run for vice president, even if someone should be stupid enough to ask him to run for vice president, I am going to puke.

Frank Stare case: An opportunity in vain?

Yesterday I wrote "all's well that ends well," in a tongue-in-cheek essay about the incredible folly surrounding the Frank Stare Hugging Case.

I don't think it ended very well, so it would be a shame had that been the last public comment. It is a serious matter and the least that should come of it is for citizens of Newark to try to learn from it and ask whether our local justice system needs to be improved.

All this not for revenge, not for injustice to Frank Stare, but for our own welfare, since any citizen who lives in Newark could be next.

There probably have been thousands of cases drug through the Newark legal system in which "justice" lost sight of logic and fairness, but not many with this much public attention. I had hoped the case would end with a clearing of the air during which each participant in the decisions leading up to the charges brought against Frank would be fully aired on witness stand under oath.

As I understood the news reports, that was about to happen next and would have if there had not been a plea deal arranged in which Frank had the chance to duck out for the price of $50 with a plea of guilty to a charge of "annoying" someone, which is on about the same level as running a red light.

I have mixed feelings about his decision to do that. I don't know everything that had to be considered, and I don't blame him for wanting to get all this behind him, but by stopping before the finale there seems to have been a missed opportunity to improve our local system of justice, our community, and our own individual freedoms and security.

As it stands there has not been a determination of what, if anything, party politics had to do with this. The perception is, though, had it not been for political influence, the complaint against Frank would have been treated like any other complaint of this ilk, meaning, I guess, that it would have died an early and quiet death among lots of other dying minor complaints.

Someone who knows local politics asked (off the record) "why were the charges brought six days prior to the election?" "how many similar cases have been ignored?" "how many third-degree misdemeanor cases have had three detectives assigned to them in the last year?" "why was no special prosecutor appointed (to avoid the political aspects)?"

Well, consider this: If Frank Stare, a Democrat who was running for city council, had won a seat it would have brought the balance of political power to five Republicans and five Democrats. Thus would Council president, a Democrat, become the tie-breaking voter. As it turned out, Frank didn't even come close to winning.

Maybe all this is mere coincidence. Maybe not, and if not it is an opportunity for improvement of our system that appears, at this point, to have been in vain.

Second only to McCain's threat as a Presidential candidate to give us a third Bush term, this photo is the most frightening political promise imaginable.

(Created by JannaR for Freaking News http://www.freakingnews.com/)

Obama, God and guns

Obama did a real knee-cap on himself with his rural-folks-cling-to-guns-and-religion speech. So bad was it that the term "Crackerquiddick" has arisen in media vernacular, likely to act for a long time as the Senator's personal cross.

At first, I gave Mr. Obama the benefit of the doubt. But as the thing reverberates and draws fire, I think it may be among the first indicators of what this country is in for, once he is elected to the Presidency (and in my mind that's a given).

I think it gave us all a peek at the man's brand of Chicago Liberalism and the probability that he is a danger to liberty. Check what the NRA says about it.

There's a piece in National Review Online by Mark Steyn entitled "God and Guns." It's over-written, but worth your time if you care about freedom and what's happening to it in Europe and America.

It says, in part: "Senator Obama’s remarks about poor dumb bitter rural losers 'clinging to' guns and God certainly testify to the instinctive snobbery of a big segment of the political class. ... What Michelle Malkin calls Crackerquiddick ... is not just snobbish nor even merely wrongheaded. It’s an attack on two of the critical advantages the U.S. holds over most of the rest of the western world. In the other G7 developed nations, nobody clings to God’n’guns. The guns got taken away, and the Europeans gave up on churchgoing once they embraced Big Government as the new religion."
...
"Maybe one day a viable society will find a magic cure-all that can do without both, but Big Government isn’t it."

Analysis of Clinton's victory

Clinton won and the circus will continue. She lives to annoy me further.

I predicted the memory of Obama's Ophra card would play better with Democrats. He clearly needs to get Ophra on the trail and keep her there. Also, he must learn to promise more "free" government-paid stuff to more people.

Advocate voter's guide is a winner

The Advocate did a masterful job with its voter guide.

A few technical glitches notwithstanding, this is the most useful tool for local voter education ever published locally that I know of. Their folks did an excellent job in the conception and design of these web pages, and then invested lots of hours in the in-put of information. Also very well-done was the Obama interview.

Nice work.

Will the tax man survive?

Tim Bubb was one of two county commissioners who voted to increase the sales tax without voter approval. When he and Commissioner Doug Smith agreed to make an end-run on constituents they were playing the game of political chicken. That game bets the politician's career that voters' memories are so short that they won't remember next election day that they've been stiffed.

Doug Smith won the first round of political chicken when he got re-elected. Likely Tim will win his too. Nevertheless ...

Til the end of time, I will see it as my civic duty to remind voters when Tim or Doug run for commissioner of the way in which the two of them increased taxes without voter approval. It is still offensive to me that they did this, and I remember it every time I think of local sales taxes and particularly when I pay for big-ticket items.

On Tuesday, when voters select their party's candidates, they would do well to review what each of them has to say about this matter. The Voter's Guide available on the Advocate web site reports how each of them answer the question: "Do you agree with the decision to increase the sales tax two years ago without voter input? Would you consider eliminating it?"

What candidates say predicts with great accuracy how they feel about the management of public money. When they answer the question directly and to your liking, then place your bet. If they talk around the issue, or don't answer it, or blow off more political hyperbole then you deserve what you get if you vote for them.