Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Bits & Pieces - What they're saying...


What they’re saying…
Bits ‘n Pieces
By Bob Robinson

In case you haven’t noticed, the November elections are only three and a half months away. We’ve seen a few 30-second commercials from our two main gubernatorial candidates, but the real onslaught has yet to begin. That’s okay. You won’t learn anything anyway…

A new poll highlights why candidates for governor and the state legislature aren't keen on detailing how they would solve the state budget crisis.
We can't handle the truth.
Though there has been general talk of the need for painful decisions, smaller government or federal aid, no one, including Gov. Ted Strickland and his challenger, John Kasich, is offering specific ideas for solving a structural shortfall of up to $8 billion in the new two-year budget beginning July 1, 2011.
Fixing the state's budget problem essentially boils down to three choices: spend less, raise more money or get more federal help. However, the poll found that people are apparently looking for a mythical fourth option that is less painful.
"Voters want there to be a Santa Claus," said Mark Weaver, a Republican consultant. "They want more services and lower taxes."
The Ohio Society of CPAs will not support any candidate who does not offer specifics in dealing with the state’s looming shortfall. This includes “sacred cows.”
The “changes are good, except for this area that affects my pet project or my pet program" mentality won’t work.
The Budget Planning and Management Commission got a budget primer last week. Among the interesting statistics presented by the Legislative Service Commission:
• General revenue-fund tax collections have dropped four straight years, after falling just once from 1976 to 2006. Income-tax cuts passed in 2005 contributed to the drop, but even without a cut this year, income-tax revenue was down 6 percent through May.
• Spending on prisons, grades K-12 education (including property-tax relief), higher education and human services makes up 93 percent of the general revenue fund.
• Nearly 85 percent of state spending is passed down to local government entities, including county Job and Family Services boards, schools, libraries and universities.
• Nearly 26 percent of Ohio's 59,000 state workers are employed by departments that house adult and juvenile prisoners.
• Ohio gets a 60 percent to 70 percent federal match for every state dollar spent on Medicaid, the largest item in the budget. So to save $1 in state tax money, Medicaid must be cut by about $3.
from Jim Siegel, Columbus Dispatch

So who are the real culprits here? Could they be you and me? Read on, and then tell me why we keep asking government to do more for us when they can’t do what they are already obligated to do…

Things have changed since last year, when the Ohio Elections Commission had a $31.7 million backlog of unpaid fines and The Dispatch urged the commission to work with the state attorney general's office to get serious about the issue. Now, the backlog has grown to more than $33.2 million.
Attorney General Richard Cordray says the Elections Commission moves too slowly in assessing fines and referring them to his office when they aren’t paid.
“Long-ago, one-time candidates for minor offices aren’t likely to come up with hundreds of thousands of dollars they technically owe for failing to turn in their campaign-finance reports on time.”
Citations for violating the law and then failing to follow through leaves little reason for candidates to respect election laws. Ohio needs reasonable penalties for violating the laws, and it needs officials who can enforce them.
Editorial, from the Columbus Dispatch

Good point. We have tons of laws that don’t get enforced. And we have tons of people who think they are above the law. Then we have just plain stupidity…

Gov. Ted Strickland thinks his passenger rail plan for Ohio is chugging along quite nicely. Of course, optimism is an election year requirement, especially when the outcome of that election is very much in doubt.
An abundance of anecdotal evidence (says) a sizable majority of voters who know of the governor's rail plan think it's a lousy idea. We know it's an expensive one: a $400 million federal handout, a $17 million annual subsidy from the state budget and likely cost overruns that eventually will total hundreds of millions.
All for a train network that will average 39 mph on the 250-mile trip from Cleveland through Columbus to Cincinnati.
Contrary to repeated claims from ODOT officials that existing tracks can be eventually upgraded to accommodate speeds of up to 110 mph, evidence mounts that medium-speed rail will require spending billions on entirely new tracks.
If and when Ohio's passenger rail service begins, a trip from Cleveland to Cincinnati will take nearly seven hours.
A 1935 schedule of passenger service on the New York Central shows a daily train departing Cincinnati at 12:25 p.m. and arriving in downtown Cleveland at 5:45 p.m.
Do the math. Then explain how this is progress.
from Brent Larkin, Cleveland Plain-Dealer

Source: ORP News Clips

Have a great day and feel safe and secure. Big Brother watches over us.

Watch for more Bits ‘n Pieces as they occur. Good stuff? Bad stuff? You decide.

Bob Robinson is the retired editor of The Daily Advocate, Greenville, Ohio. If you wish to receive notification of his comments, opinions and reports when they are posted, send your email address to: opinionsbybob@gmail.com. Feel free to express your views.

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