[Promoted from the diaries (and titled edited) by DavidNYC. The malfeasance of the Ohio GOP has cost its workers' comp fund hundreds of millions of dollars. Now that these losses have piled up, a real-world victim sadly comes to light. Once again, kudos to the Toledo Blade for continuing its lonely crusade against official corruption.]
From, who else, the the Toledo Blade, we find out:
[I]njured workers covered by the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation fund received a benefits letter recently that announced changes to the prescription drug program.
The bureau - wracked with about $300 million in investment losses and at the center of a widening political scandal - has decided to cut drug benefits to save an estimated $4 million or more a year.
. . .
Some workers are galled, believing the bureau is just trying to save money after losing hundreds of millions in disastrous investments, including an ill-fated $50 million investment in rare coins and a $215 million hedge-fund loss.
The Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation, run by the Ohio GOP, has come under fire for huge losses. First, the Toledo Blade unraveled about $12 million lost and unaccounted for when the BWC invested money in rare coins managed by GOP political operative, Tom Noe. Then the Blade uncovered a loss of $215 million by the BWC in an "unregulated offshore hedge-fund run by MDL Capital Management." The loss was reported to Gov. Taft's executive assistant for business and industry about a week before the 2004 election, but Taft claims not to have known about it until May or June of this year.
A revelation I hadn't seen before indicates the discovery of another $71 million loss blamed on "management decisions" by politically well connected Allegiant Asset Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of National City Bank.
National City's employees and its political-action committee have contributed more than $1 million to Ohio politicians and state and county political parties since 1990, with most of the money directed toward Republicans. Mr. Noe also was a key Republican campaign contributor and fund-raiser, and MDL executives gave money to candidates from both parties.
"These were extraordinarily well-connected campaign contributors at National City Bank," Mr. Dann said. "For years, [the bureau] just allowed the losses to mount without taking any action against their political benefactors."
The Ohio GOP -- and its House and Senate committees -- has received $269,300 from the bank's PAC and employees. The Democratic Party has received $51,251 since 1990.
Individually, National City contributed $61,975 to Gov. Taft's campaigns; $50,737 to Sen. George Voinovich during his gubernatorial campaigns; $50,250 to former state Treasurer Jim Deters, and $37,152 to Jim Petro, now Ohio attorney general.
So, to recap, the Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation has lost $300 million due to Republican money scandals ranging from the merely incompetent to the blatantly corrupt. And now, they intend to make the workers of Ohio, injured on the job, pay for the incompetence and corruption of the Ohio GOP. Unreal.