Among the many news stories making headlines in the Buckeye State this 26th week of the year, these stories stood out, even though several didn’t make the cut with Ohio’s main-stream media.
HERE COMES THE BUDGET
Not nearly as bad as in previous years when the budget gap starring lawmakers in the face was multiples of what it was this time, a bi-camera l legislative conference committee patched and filled sufficiently to not only make up for a $230 million shortfall, but by employing some late-inning cash management maneuvers, Ohio will now spend more than originally thought.
With the budget bill receiving all votes but one, Governor Ted Strickland, a Democrat, held congratulatory signing ceremonies Thursday surrounded by hail and hearty fellow and lady lawmakers. Strickland indicated he may use his line-item veto to nix a special education voucher pilot program forced through by Republicans. The state’s fiscal year starts Sunday.
Under the previous Republican-controlled legislature, GOP members controlled enough votes in both legislative chambers to override a veto along party lines. That is no longer the case. While the Senate is still controlled by Republicans, they fall seven votes short in the house of the 60 votes needed to override a veto.
The Akron Beacon Journal gives a nice play-by-play of how it all worked out. The Columbus Dispatch offers a handy scorecard on how the budget was won.
VOINOVICH JOINS LUGAR IN CALL TO WITHDRAW AMERICAN TROOPS FROM IRAQ
Like nearly all other lock-and-load, follow-the-leader Republicans who have blindly gone along with President George W. Bush’s unjustified campaign to start a war of choice based on partisan political calculations, Ohio’s second-term senator, George V. Voinovich of Cleveland, finally emerged from his five-year stupor of unquestioning support of the Bush war to join insurgent senator Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, in calling for troop withdraws from Iraq to start.
The story about Voinovich and Lugar Voinovich and Lugar, both moderate Republicans, is further evidence that the great dam built by Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney to harness the power to go to war and force Congress to fund it, is starting to crack. Needless to say, Republican blogs are furious with curious George on both his anti-war declaration and non-support of the now-failed immigration bill.
MORE STATE DATA STOLEN
Just as the turbulent waves of misfortune resulting from the recent, massive loss of sensitive state data seemed to be leveling out for new Democratic Governor Ted Strickland, he found himself climbing to higher ground this week as news broke Monday that even more state data has been stolen.
The news of the loss of personal information of 439 injured Ohioans came this time from the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, the state’s injured worker’s fund that became the vortex of Republican political scandal starting in 2005, that ended with jail time for Tom Noe, a top Republican fundraiser and campaign contributor to former Governor Bob Taft and President George W. Bush, who was given $50 million in BWC funds to invest in rare coins and other collectibles.
After years of Republican corruption in Ohio, this Toledo Blade reporter isn't shy about the consequences that could devolve from lost data on Strickland's watch.
ROBERT COURT RULING SURE TO SPICE UP 08 CAMPAIGNS
The first ruling from the U.S. Supreme court on Monday will reopen the political system to a new flood of special-interest money, according to reports like this one in the New York Times. Editorializing against the resurgence of soft money in political campaigns, the Gray Lady wrote that the "bogus issue ads were the functional equivalent of campaign ads" and that the Court's ruling will open a "big new loophole (in campaign finance law) in time to do mischief in the 2008 elections."
Not breaking any new ground on insights about the ruling and what its purported affect on Ohio politics will be, The Columbus Dispatch nonetheless spoke with locals who speculated it will trigger a new round of lawsuits aimed at determining the extent to which such moneys will be allowed to reek havoc in political contests.
The second court ruling, associated in category but separate in reality, came from the Columbus-based U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. It’s ruling, issued Monday as well, upheld a Roman Catholic teacher’s right to refuse to pay dues to the National Education Association because she said the group’s views on abortion conflicted with her own.
STUDY SHOWS GROWTH, GREED OF OHIO’S PAYDAY-LENDING INDUSTRY BAD FOR BORROWERS
The number of payday lending stores licensed in Ohio catapulted from 107 locations in 1996 to 1,562 locations in 2006, a more than fourteen-fold increase in a decade, according to a new report from the Housing Research & Advocacy Center and Policy Matters Ohio. The report finds that payday lending shops are now more common than McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy’s restaurants combined in Ohio.
PMO’S report shows that the number of payday lending locations in Ohio and nationwide – which offer short-term, high-interest loans against a future paycheck – has exploded in the past decade. Fees in Ohio are usually $15 for every $100 borrowed for a two-week period, which amounts to an annual percentage rate of 391 percent, according to PMO’s news release. Read the executive summary here.
The parameters of the problem resulting from pay-day lenders in Ohio is articulated here as well.
As the Ohio Department of Commerce gears up to take on predatory lenders, look for a campaign to cut the wings of payday vultures to launch soon as well.
DELPHI REDUCING JOBS IN COLUMBUS
After years of reducing their labor force through negotiations and job shutdowns to survive as a company, Delphi, General Motor’s largest parts manufacture, has signaled it will close down its Columbus door-latch plant by the end of the year, eliminating over 400 jobs in the process.
Although not a formal statement by the company, the rumor was substantiated by union officials in this story.