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.

Hottinger writes about school funding

State Representative Jay Hottinger recently e-mailed a position paper on school funding that has considerable merit but got little if any ink. It tells how Governor Strickland is using one-time federal funding dollars that will not be available in two years. That means, Jay says, “when our next budget is due ... it will have to be either cut from our schools or raised through additional taxes or cuts elsewhere in our budget that has a total deficit of $7.3 million.”

You can read Jay’s paper at this Newark Tea Party link.

In related news, there was an AP report about Governor Stickland’s finagling of federal funds for schools. Seems he stowed $922 million of that money in Ohio’s general revenue fund.

The crux of the article, headlined “Stimulus funds for Ohio schools need new treatment,” was that Strickland heeded Washington’s warning that “a second round of education funding could be jeopardized if (states) don’t spend the first round as Congress and the president intended,” and he moved the money to a special revenue category.

NCS superintendent makes almost as much as the governor

That Newark City Schools graduation rate is the third worst in the state was reported by the Advocate 3/12/09. Two days later, NCS Superintendent Richards, in another Advocate article, blamed the community for this; a day later, so did the Advocate.

Naming citizen-taxpayer-parents as villains in the abysmal performance of NCS is about a cheap a shot as might be made. Such an excuse from Richards is to be expected. But woe to whatever shred of credibility Advocate editorials ever mustered. Prostituting the institutional opinion page to Richards and his PR lady is a foolish mistake that’s easily recognized - and long-remembered - for the deception it is.

The many failures of King Richards are common knowledge and there are too many of them to list here. (Go to the box above and search “Keith Richards.”) In general, he has failed to manage taxpayers’ money wisely, he is deaf to constituents and oblivious to their needs. He is the third worst in the state at enabling students to graduate and he blames us for it.

For this prodigious performance, King Richards is paid about $2,000 less per year than the Governor of Ohio. The governor's annual salary, according to the Dispatch, is $133,292; Newark's superintendent makes, according to an Advocate report 10/5/08, $131,382 before benefits, a difference of $1,910.

Meanwhile, School Board Bobble Heads, who should have dethroned Richards eons ago, sit there and provide the man with the lifestyle of a pharaoh and their rubber stamps as a reward for having the third worst graduation rate in the state.

School Board Bobble Heads will, if they act as expected, also blame parents and taxpayers and bloggers because they are, you see, followers and not the leaders they were believed to be when elected. If they fail to acknowledge the cause of citizen discontent with NCS, as expected, they will only prolong the war between the community and the pharaoh, but likely they will not be back after the next school board election.

NCS, hire someone who will spend wisely

Just when I get the notion that the Advocate is half-way concerned about the condition of taxpayers, along it comes with another editorial right out of the local chamber of commerce play book (Support Newark levy now and in May).

Property owners were counseled to spend 7.5 additional mills because this would somehow "restore our pride in Newark."

The Advocate's bongo player forgot to mention that Governor Stickland's plan for Ohio schools would send a few more million tax dollars to NCS and federal stimulus money, some of which is for schools, is in the pipeline.

The Advocate failed to justify the fact that NCS is sucking from our property taxes 69%. This compares to Newark city government, 9%; Licking County government, 7%; JVS, 6%; and 9% total for Senior Citizens, Children Services, Mental Retardation, and Mental Health levies.

The Advocate editorialist failed to ask what has gone wrong in this community that schools should operate on such a disproportionate budget. Never mind how important are our kids. Just what ask what is causing this.

Well, for one thing the superintendent is making more than twice as much as the city mayor, figuring benefits. That, obvious to everyone except school administrators, is a travesty in use of public money.

As I pointed out 11/12/08, "The Newark median earnings for men is $32,542/yr and for women $24,868. Median-wise they have a $566/mo mortgage payment, plus taxes and insurance. The average property tax in Newark is, according to Rates.Banks.com, already $1,321.539/yr, and Keith Richards - making $201,433 a year with 30 days vacation - is asking Average Joe go out to dinner one time fewer each month so he can pay more in property taxes "for the sake of the kids."

Not only did the Advocate fail to get into that, but it also failed to mention that NCS administrators added 83 employees to the teaching staff between 2006 and 2007, resulting in a pupil teacher ratio of 12.79. Am I the only one in town who thinks this might be excessive? Or is this perhaps one factor in the chain of levy failures?

Forgotten too was the fact that Newark City Schools will pay $4.37 million dollars this year in interest on debts totaling $109,750,905 because voters were boondoggled with a lot of construction and renovations that might better have been spread out in a long-term plan. Taxpayers are staring down the barrel of $109.7 million debt to pay for Richards' Folly over the next 25 years, even if during that time they never spend another nickel on construction or renovation.

These are the kinds of decisions that have been made by Superintendent Richards, and taxpayers are being asked to bail him out with 7.5 mills added to the 69% of our property tax bills. And don't forget the wage earners and pensioners who are donating part of their income to keep NCS afloat.

Advocate, don't come at taxpayers like we're a bunch of child abusers and ne'er-do-wells because we have said enough is enough; we're spending all we're going to spend on the lavish lifestyle of NCS. The programs that are being cut and should be cut are programs that never should have been started in the first place.

It's past time for the Advocate and all the other accusers to admit that what NCS needs, instead of more money, is someone at the top who can be trusted to spend it wisely. We need a superintendent less versed on bullying and boondoggling. We need a superintendent who can take the money we're sending to NCS and use it to get the job done.

Now we see the real "fix" to school funding

The bad news about Strickland's school tax plan is that it offers absolutely no relief for property owners, as I reported a few days ago.

The other bad news as reported by the Columbus Dispatch this morning is that it lowers taxes on businesses and industry by 3.1% for many years.

Meaning home owners will have to pay even more to make up the difference.

And, of course, proposing a business tax reduction pits the little homeowner against the high rollers who own our state legislators.

Now it becomes evident to the little guy what Governor Stickland meant when he said he would "fix" school funding.

Let's help Strickland during next election

Ohio governor Strickland's budget does not raise taxes but.. my God, check this out:

Ohioans will pay more to farm, drive, enjoy the outdoors, keep the environment clean and do business under Gov. Ted Strickland's proposed budget released Monday.

Strickland plans to balance his two-year $55 billion spending plan with help from increases in 120 state fees.

This guy needs help. Let's all give it to him next election.

Strickland's school funding idea stinks

So much for the great school-funding fix, promised years ago by Gov. Strickland. Once all the BS is filtered out you can determine whether over-burdened property owners are going to get a break. And the answers are:

Will it end levy requests? No.

Will it offer more money to Ohio schools? Mostly the wealthiest.

Will it mean lower property taxes? No.

All this according to today's Columbus Dispatch.

As for the rest of his proposal about changing Ohio schools, some ideas seem good, some very good, but nothing about it relieves property owners from providing ever-greater wealth to schools.

Silly me. I hoped he would live up to his campaign promise to fix school funding.

Replace Keith and stop bullying us

That Newark voters have said "no" again to their city schools is no surprise to anyone except those who masterminded an August vote at a cost of $40,000. What part of "no" didn't they understand last time? And how many more "no's" is it going to take before we see changes in ...

1 - Newark City Schools administrators and administrative techniques?

2 - City schools' bullying attitude toward the people it presumes to serve?

3 - A commitment by schools to serve its customers to the best of its ability, rather than to apply what one commenter in the Advocate called "use of threats and selective parental pain-points?"

4 - A commitment to help bring financial relief to pensioners by reducing, not increasing, property taxes?

5 - A strong and committed leadership by this community for state funding reform?

1 - There is much in the recent history of NCS about which Keith Richards is to be praised, but to little people like me he symbolizes the stuff about NCS that turns me off, and that grows progressively worse the longer he stays. This most recent fiasco - the $40,000 August tax vote - has capped it. Against this backdrop his other mistakes in community/taxpayer/parental relations add up to a conglomeration of errors he will not outlive. Cut the cord now.

A demonstration of good intentions by school board would be replace Mr. Richards with an interim person who is 1) much lower on the pay scale, 2) exceedingly charismatic, 3) in sync with the mentality of parents and taxpayers, and 4) determined to make the least painful budget adjustments, especially for the short-term.

2 - An about-face by NCS on who is supposed to be serving whom. Schools - Newark and elsewhere - have morphed into these quasi-governmental big boys for whom customer service is last on their list. Read it over and over in the Advocate comments sections; read it in Newark Tea Party Observations.

3 - Taking away bussing and hitting at school sports were, in my opinion, the most ham-handed of NCS mistakes - parental and student pain-points at their rawest, an obvious attempt to browbeat the customers into a voting frenzy. How can these customers be proud of the city schools?

4 - The property tax burden has long been excessive. It reached the breaking point when the last gold mine was extracted by taxing homeowners. What should have happened is taxation upon sales, corporate profits, and/or EARNED income. Taxes on earned income, like Newark City Income Tax (and unlike the present school tax on income) does not tax pensions. Taxation by these methods is more equitable and more likely to win voter approval, particularly from the older folks.

5 - It's time to stop whining about "state funding for education" and start demanding it. We have Jay Hottinger as a resident of Newark, one of the most influential state legislators we could hope for, particularly in the way tax money is being spent. It's time for him to be more than the poster boy for the Chamber of Commerce and start getting the school funding mess straightened out. He should also be leaning on Governor Strickland, who was elected in part on the promise to fix school funding, but has not and apparently does not intend to. Jay Hottinger needs to hear it loud and clear from Newark residents. Newark - a city buffeted by school and government ineptitude - needs to lead the way.

Lets build a nuclear plant in Granville

Thanks to Gov. Strickland and state legislators, Ohio is facing the threat of more nuclear reactors.

Associated Press wrote a good summary of this situation. I didn't see it in print anywhere but located it instead via Google. Here's the link.

Congratulations to Ohio government for this decision, and to the media for alerting us after the fact. Well, no, media haven't really done that yet.

Property owners will have no voice in where these things go. Could be Granville, for all we know. And how about stockpiling the nuclear waste out on West Main Street?

Whether it works out that way or not, you can bet the bureaucrats and energy companies are going to destroy the safety, security and property values of some nice neighborhoods.

They will, that is, unless Ohio citizens intervene.

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.

Textbook boondoggle in Columbus should be a warning for Newark

A bill introduced to Ohio legislature by Newark's own Jay Hottinger would wipe Ohio's anti-tobacco foundation off the map and liquidate its $270-million endowment from lawsuits against tobacco companies.

Thus would that money be available to Hottinger, Strickland and the rest of them to give away to businesses in what is being billed as a sure way to get "new jobs" for Ohio.

Here's how this move was described in part by "gentlben" in one of the reader comment sections: Ohio "joined a class action suit against the tobacco companies with other states because of the expense sick smokers were causing the state treasury. Part of the argument, which earned them all a nice annual cash settlement, was that if they win the suit, they would spend the cash award to reduce the impact of smoking in Ohio, thus reducing the amount of debt the state incurs becasue of it. So they win their suit, and millions of dollars yearly and what do they do with it? Throw it in the general fund, and now they will abolish the agency responsible for spending it as it was intended to be spent. Hm! Sounds like the same scam they pulled on us when they said lottery money would go to education."

If Ohio's governor and legislators are ballsie enough to pull this switcheroo on citizens they serve, what might one suppose Newark is going to do with the auto tag tax money being pushed by Mayor Diebold, Council Member Irene Kennedy, and some others to benefit street repairs?

Same boondoggle will be involved here, except the tag tax profits will not be nearly as easily traced as the state tobacco fund. The city purse on auto tags will eventually be folded over into the treasure chest that provides for more and bigger government. Diebold and Kennedy will fade away, but the tag tax will be ours to keep forever.

Stealing for the sake of bigger government

State-level Republicans and governor and Dispatch are trying to abscond with $230 million in stop-smoking funds.

Protagonists in this latest scam claim they'll "create jobs" (hooray for more jobs, as usual!) if they can only get their paws on the pot full of money paid by the tobacco industry as punishment for - what? - selling tobacco products? (As for "more jobs" please read Magic Nanny Strickland should cut government slop, not sell bonds.)

The money was ear-marked for the people trying to influence other people to quit smoking. Like they've been doing any good anyway. What do these people do with all that money?

Still, the purpose of the financial punishment of tobacco companies was to do battle with smokers.

But big state government can't stand to see any stash of change not being spent on the creation of bigger government, which is exactly their plan - a plan sketched in today's Dispatch editorial entitled "The greatest good."

And, by the way, this plan for "stimulating the economy" entails not just scarfing money that doesn't belong to "stimulating the economy," but also a vast new debt of $970 million in bonds which every Ohio taxpayer will also provide to this "stimulation."

True to form in this matter, the state legislators, governor and Dispatch never saw a government spending plan they didn't like.

Ohio's governor conspires to keep you ignorant

Guess who doesn't want you to know you're using their product? That would be Monsanto, manufacturer of the artificial growth hormone farmers are putting in your milk.

Now guess who is helping them hide that fact? That would be your very own Governor Stickland, who recently issued an emergency rule to shore up Monsanto's secrecy campaign.

Here's the word on that slight-of-hand from Consumers Union:

"Some dairy farmers use an artificial growth hormone, produced and sold by Monsanto, to make cows produce more milk. But many retailers, as well as all organic dairies, sell dairy products from cows that are not injected with synthetic growth hormones, and you can choose "rbGH-free" milk easily from the label.

"If Monsanto has its way, your dairy labels will suddenly get very complicated, or they may no longer help you distinguish these products at all.

"Ohio Executive Order 2008—03S creates bureaucratic barriers to simple labeling. Many retailers may just stop distinguishing "rbGH-free" products altogether. If they keep a label, they will have to use misleading disclaimers and meet detailed requirements for exactly how the label looks that are unique to Ohio. Most retailers sell the same product in several states.

...

"The federal government has already said that existing labels on milk are not misleading. There is no reason for Ohio to issue any more regulations on this subject."

If you want to tell Ohio's governor how you feel about this, CU has provided a web page to get you started. Here's the link.

Ohio government workers will begin showing accountability

Ohio Governor Strickland is telling state employees to show up at 8 a.m. and work until 5, thus changing the policy of letting them work "nontraditional" schedules (like not even working on Fridays) and/or telecommuting (meaning not showing up for work at all).

Employees are whining that the new work schedule is not "family friendly." Oh dear.

The governor has decided it's time to ensure "the best possible public service and taxpayer accountability," according to a Dispatch news report today.

Hooray for the governor. By returning state workers to their offices, maybe they'll get the idea that they work for us, not the other way around.

Hottinger: Take money from taxpayers, give it to businesses

State Representative Jay Hottinger has countered Governor Stickland's call to sell bonds "for new jobs" by urging, instead, more tax credits for business. His plan for sticking taxpayers again is written with a straight face in a column on the WCLT web site.

(I wrote about Strickland's plan 2/7/08 "Magic Nanny Strickland should cut government slop, not sell bonds")

Increasing tax credits for business is the same as raising taxes on citizens because state income is going to come from someone. Strickland's plan would borrow money today and let our grandchildren worry about how to pay it back.

Hottinger has problems with that because, well, it would take too long to get voter approval, get the bonds sold, get the spending party started. His plan would get the hogs to the trough quickly and wouldn't require that pesky voter approval.

Also - get this - Hottinger warns that "Given the cyclical nature of the economy, our state could have exited any recession we might find ourselves in by the time this (Strickland's) stimulus package goes into action."

In other words, if we don't stick taxpayers for more money quickly, we may not need it.

Our state representative would serve voters better by coming up with a plan to save money, not just another slight-of-hand to encourage political donations.

Magic Nanny Strickland should cut government slop, not sell bonds

The Magic Nanny is alive and well in Columbus Ohio. She is going to create 80,000 new jobs for us. She is going to do this by selling $1.7 billion in bonds.

Magic Nanny Ted Strickland is pretending to "give" us something for nothing. He's counting on the likelihood that folks don't understand that "selling bonds" is borrowing money that must be paid back.

And he's going to "give" us more jobs? That may have a feel-good ring to it, but the fact is that taxpayers don't need more jobs. Only government needs more jobs so it can feed on itself, grow bigger, fatter, and more important.

Through some really weird quirk, government has convinced most folks that "more jobs" is a good thing. This, though generally people who want to work and who are qualified to work are already working. How many more jobs do we need?

To create 80,000 more jobs would be to encourage 80,000 more families to move to Ohio, many of them likely illegal immigrants. For that, we profit by the receipt of thousands more cars on the highways that can scarcely accommodate what is already here, and thousands and thousands of additional students in a school system scarcely able to stay afloat. We get a multitude of new problems and expenses and aggravations brought on by the congestion that has already resulted from the "new-jobs" bureaucracy of years past.

We don't need this, Magic Nanny. It's just another government slight-of-hand. We've seen it before, we didn't like it then, we are suffering for it now, and we can't afford any more of it in the future.

Instead, start thinking like the voters who put you in office: Figure a way to scale back, as we must do in hard times. Eliminate government give-aways and cut the public payroll for bureaucrats and their employees. Cut the slop from state government, scale it back, serve your constituency responsibly and you won't need the Magic Nanny charade.

Ohio's governor did the responsible thing

Congratulations to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland for cutting state spending to accommodate reduced income, and congratulations to the Cleveland Plain Dealer for its concise explanation of the forces at work.

The governor's reaction to lowered income should be instructive to politicians in Licking County and elsewhere: When you don't have the money to spend, you cut services and government employees. You do not further burden the already-over-burdened taxpayer by raising taxes. And you don't whine about it and send up balloons; you just do it because that's the responsible thing to do.

New lobby law, Hillary lies, more government intrusion, how did our mystery senator vote on screwing consumers?

New lobby law
Here's the link to a web site on which you will find a copy of the "Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007" and also wealth of information that relates to this subject.

Hillary can't quit lying because her last name is Clinton
No matter what kind of weaseling Hill attempts, she just can't hide the fact that she's a Clintonian liar. In the Des Moines forum where a question for her was planted she denied knowledge of it.

Sure.

Next spectacular lie is the waitress tip bugger-up. Someone forgot to tip a waitress during a "Middle-Class Express" pit stop in Iowa. Think about it. That's no big deal. It surely was a mistake and all they had to do was admit it. Not the Clinton way. Next day's report by AP declared that Hill's people did leave a tip with the manager who took the fall for the Senator, saying it was his fault the waitress didn't get the tip. The controversy and the weaseling continued in an NPR report, the most significant statement of which came from the waitress who said, "Why would I lie about not getting a tip?" And why would Hillary lie? Because that's the Clinton way to do things.

So, when Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland endorsed her and put out a feeler for becoming her VP, he didn't exactly collect voters' points. But the veracity of the both of them came through quite well in this USA Today report:

Asked if she would consider Strickland as a running mate, Clinton said such talk was "premature." For his part, Strickland made a strong and Sherman-esque statement – he is not interested in being the running mate to Clinton or anyone else.

Pffft

Vaccination or jail

Go read this report if you want to get pissed off about government intrusion into lives of citizens. Bureaucrats in Prince George's County VA, (bordering Washington DC) are threatening to jail parents of school children who have not gotten vaccinations as required by the state.

Electric customers shafted by Ohio Senate

An AP report in the Advocate a few days ago begins:

"COLUMBUS (AP) — Subtle changes buried in an energy bill plotting the future of Ohioans’ electricity rates guarantee that today’s prices will never fall and make it nearly impossible for producers of green power to gain a foothold in the state, [the Plain Dealer] reported Monday.

"The amendments were added by the Ohio Senate to Gov. Ted Strickland’s proposed energy bill, which the Ohio House has scheduled to debate at the leisurely pace of one hearing per week into the new year."

The bill also continued deep discounts for big industrial users, weakened the muscle originally given to PUCO, and other stuff.

I attempted to learn on-line if our state senator (can you name him?) (whose name is Tim Schaffer and who lives in Lancaster and who replaced Jay Hottinger last election and whose e-mail address is SD31@mailr.sen.state.oh.us) had voted for this senate Bill.

Getting this info on-line seems impossible. I can't find the source if there is one. Of course neither the Dispatch nor the Advocate think it important enough to report. Which is exactly why Tim and Jay do whatever they damned well want. Nobody knows.

So I wrote an e-mail to Tim three days ago and I politely asked if he voted for this bill and he didn't answer. Which means, I'm pretty sure, that he's not proud of his vote.

We really should know more about this man. In fact, it would be nice to know anything at all about our mystery senator of whom we've heard nothing since his election.

Strickland's school-funding box

Among the things that appealed to voters about Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland were his promises to fix school funding. But, as the Columbus Dispatch made clear in a page-one article Sunday, he has not done squat, nor does he intend to.

"I'm not going to sit down and write out a plan," he said. "This is something that has to be developed, and it has to evolve and it has to be a result of consensus and building support for it."

The article makes mention of a "box" in which the Governor finds himself, but strangely never mentions what box or what the hang-up is.

Let me guess. The box is the certain knowledge that Ohioans are not going to approve yet another tax for government to spend on schools. This means that if there's a fix for school funding the state is going to have to make cuts in its bureaucracy and other non-essentials. That's the box, and so distasteful is it that Strickland can't even approach it.

But that's exactly what plagues school funding. It just isn't important enough, when measured beside the needs of bureaucracy.