Sunday, November 7, 2010 02:56 AM
By Joe Halett, Senior Editor
The Columbus Dispatch
Fasten your seat belt. John Kasich is about to take you on a wild ride.
No more Mr. Nice Guy - he's leaving office in January. How long will it take you to miss Ted Strickland?
If you heard Kasich's address to lobbyists Thursday, you may miss Strickland already. Kasich invited the lobbyists' input and guidance but minced no words in warning them to get on board with his agenda.
"Please leave the cynicism and the political maneuvering at the door," Kasich said. "Because we need you on the bus, and if you're not on the bus, we will run over you with the bus. And I'm not kidding."
Two days after winning 49 percent of the vote, Kasich was talking like a victor with a sweeping mandate. Usually, after a rancorous election the victor extends an olive branch to his opponents. Not Kasich.
"If you think you're going to stop us, you're crazy," he warned those who worked to defeat him. "You will not stop us. We will beat you. And that's not arrogance."
It's surely a close second. But Kasich sees no loss in angering lobbyists now because he's going to make them mad eventually. He was forthright about that in his campaign, saying there will be no favors, even for those who supported him.
It was a bold and proper declaration, because what Kasich will have to do as Ohio's 69th governor won't be pleasant for anybody.
For that reason, Kasich might be the right governor at the right time for Ohio. His admonition to the lobbyists was grounded in necessity, albeit tinged with hyperbole.
"Changes are coming," he said. "Some of them will be uncomfortable for people. But this is our chance to save this state. I don't think there's much time left."
Kasich is determined to right-size state government, to privatize parts of it and to bring programs and services in line with the revenue that taxpayers can - and are willing to - afford. Ohio's industrial base has been devastated, and the state is unable to sustain current spending levels.
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 the costs of services. Kasich will do so.
It is well past time that a governor dial back corporate welfare by stopping tax breaks to any company that even hints at creating a job. Kasich tried to do so in Congress and should do so as governor.
And even though Strickland made progress, it is well past time that a governor say no to nursing homes, which gobble up nearly half of Ohio's long-term-care budget. Kasich will do so.
There simply is no extra money to pass around, particularly with a projected $8 billion deficit in the next two-year budget. Kasich will fill it by shrinking government and cutting its services.
He will not raise taxes, a prudent course in the midst of a recession. But his pledge to cut taxes will only inflict more pain on Ohioans who will recoil and, perhaps, rebel once they behold the magnitude of $8billion in cuts on things they want from government.
Ohio voters gave Kasich an all-Republican legislature. He has promised to fix Ohio's economy and create jobs, and if he fails, there will be no Democrats to blame. Ohio voters took them out on Tuesday.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown is the only one left standing. He had the good fortune not to be on the ballot. Conjecture is that Kasich's lieutenant governor, Mary Taylor, and/or U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan of Urbana will challenge Brown two years hence.
How vulnerable the hard-working Brown will be depends in part on the popularity of President Barack Obama and Gov. John Kasich. After Tuesday's election, Obama has nowhere to go but up.
Given what he must do, Kasich could be very unpopular in two years. But Ohioans admire politicians with guts, and if what Kasich does brings fiscal sanity to government and restores economic growth, voters will reward him with another term in four years.
Hang on for the ride.
Hallett can be reached at: jhallett@dispatch.com
No comments:
Post a Comment