Vote for Issue 1 (Ohio)

[Kolesar]

Issue 1 is a coupling of the transportation bond proposal and the Third Frontier proposal. The Third Frontier bond would fund companies that should create high-value-added new jobs in various technology fields.

I lament that I voted against Third Frontier when it was up for a vote in 2003 (because it had Taft's name on it). When I read up on the subject, I became aware that it was well founded. The issue got votes in the urban areas last time, but was killed in agricultural Ohio, where voters felt it had no relevance. This time I hope it passes.

If you want a better endorsement than some joker on DU, consider this endorsement: State Senator Eric Fingerhut is backing Issue 1 (I just called his office to ask). You can find such ideas presented in Eric Fingerhut's book "Making Ohio Great Again". You can download & read the book at Eric's website.

http://www.senatorfingerhut.com/site/pp.asp?c=bgKILTOzEoH&b=327285

[liberalnurse]

1. I will comply......

Have you heard Chris Redfern's take on this?

[Kolesar]

2. Sunday's Cincinnati Enquirer

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051023/NEWS01/510230480

Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a Republican from Cincinnati, is the only statewide elected official speaking out against Issue 1.
...
Democratic legislators, meanwhile, are concerned that Third Frontier projects will be doled out on what they call a "pay-to-play" basis. House Democratic Leader Chris Redfern, among others, fear the most generous corporate campaign contributors to the Republican Party and Taft will get Third Frontier grants first.

[liberalnurse]

3. In other words, Chirs is saying that

the republicans will exploit and control the funds and gobble them up. Republicans sure know how to screw their public. They can't let a good thing go untouched.

[Kolesar]

4. Yeah, that kind of stinks, but we don't know that that will happen

Besides, we take over in 2007 :)

[liberalnurse]

5. I have been waiting for Chrs to be Majority Leader!

I'll touch base with his office to get his long version view of this.

[Kolesar]

6. That's a great idea!

Let me know what you find out. I am off to a meeting now, ta ta

[OhioBlue]

8. I understand Chris Redfern's concerns

about the Third Frontier money being doled out on a pay to play basis. I share that fear. However, I will support Issue 1 because they unfortunately coupled the Third Frontier initiative with the initiative to improve infrastructure. The infrastructure is like 1.5 billion as opposed to something like $5 million for Third Frontier. The infrastructure grants are awarded to local governments for improvements. I know that our City, County and townships have found great need in these monies especially in light of declining revenues.

[BillORightsMan]

11. Rethink Issue 1

Just think about who those contractors are that will be getting the infrastructure bids. Gov. Taft could not get Third Frontier to stand up by itself, so they coupled it with the (agreed) much-needed capital infrastructure improvements.

From the Toledo Blade Ohio Bush donors richly rewarded - 'Pioneers and Rangers' handed access to contracts, policymakers
By JAMES DREW
and STEVE EDER
BLADE STAFF WRITERS Oct. 30 2005

COLUMBUS - The Ohio business leaders and lobbyists who steered at least $4.1 million to President Bush's re-election campaign last year collected more than $1.2 billion in taxpayer dollars for their companies and clients, a Blade investigation shows.

~snip~

• The state of Ohio paid about $800 million to the companies and lobbying clients of Ohio's 30 Pioneers and Rangers during the last six years, an analysis of a state expenditure database shows. The money flowed from the state to the fund-raisers for a number of purposes, including charter school payments, development grants, and tax refunds.
  
  
• Records showed that the federal government paid more than $447 million to the firms of the President's Ohio fund-raisers and their lobbying clients since Mr. Bush took office in 2001.
  
  
• The revenues of some of the firms headed by Ohio Bush Pioneers and Rangers are determined partly by the amount of subsidies they get from Columbus and Washington and by the regulatory decisions made by government officials.
  

Other bullet points in the article include Health Care Interests, Timkin's tie-ins, Schools and Fund-raising, Voting Company's Stake, Rare-Coin Scandal. Couple this with Tom Noe's money-laundering charge, and you have a pay-to-play system throughout Ohio's GOP-led government, with ties going all the way up to and including the White House. I don't think Issue One will change any of this "culture of corruption" at the statehouse. Do you really think the OH GOP would craft an issue any other way, but to benefit their cronies?

:dilemma:

I'm gonna hedge my bet that the Statehouse will turn Blue in 2006, vote NO on Issue 1, and a new stand-alone infrastructure item is crafted.

:patriot:

[OhioBlue]

12. As far as the infrastructure portion of the initiative

I certainly cannot account for all of the Issue 2 money from the last ballot initiative that provided the money to local governments, but i can tell you how the millions that were awarded as grant money in my county were handled. The State granted the $ to the local govt based on the project. The local government then advertised and accepted bids for the project and awarded the project based on the best proposal as required by Ohio Revised Code. There were no provisions that the local govt favor one contractor over another.

[Kukesa]

7. Fingerhut is endorsing Issue 1, so I guess

that's good enough for me. He often traveled with K-E during last year's campaign in Ohio and he never failed to impress me.

Oh, and Avenger, I don't consider you a "joker."

[Schmajo]

9. If these guys are against it, it may be good

Stem-cell ban shelved
Senate leader also slows action on strip-club limits; Issue 1 foe crying foul
Thursday, October 27, 2005

Catherine Candisky and Alan Johnson
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The prospect of restrictions on strip clubs and embryonic stem-cell research was not enough to get conservatives to drop their opposition to a $2 billion bond package on the Nov. 8 ballot.
Senate President Bill M. Harris abruptly took both bills off the fast track yesterday after conservatives refused to change their stance on the state Issue 1 bond package.
The move came just days after the Ashland Republican had pledged to get major restrictions on public funding of stem-cell research passed before the election. A House-passed bill also backed by conservatives that would clamp down on strip clubs also had been expected to pass the Senate by then.
Harris strongly denied yesterday that he has stalled the bills in retaliation for conservative groups’ opposition to Issue 1.
Conservatives are against Issue 1 because they think it would allow and pay for stem-cell research. One of the bills that has been slowed would have addressed those concerns.
Phil Burress, president of Citizens for Community Values in Cincinnati, expressed outrage that GOP leaders had tried to make a deal, saying they were laying principles "on the altar of political correctness."
"The Republican Party is playing with fire," he said. "They already have enough problems without alienating us."
Burress, who helped engineer passage of the gay-marriage ban approved by Ohio voters last year, said he met Monday with Harris and was assured that any problems with the strip-club bill would be resolved.
Apparently in return, Harris asked Burress whether his group would remain neutral on, if not supportive of, Issue 1.
"I said, ‘I don’t see how that’s possible,’ " Burress recalled. "We’re two weeks away from the election and we’re supposed to reverse ourselves?"
Harris acknowledged yesterday that he met with Burress and asked him to stop opposing Issue 1. But he insisted that action on the two bills was delayed by time constraints. He said he expects both to pass before the end of the year.
Issue 1 would affect communities throughout Ohio. It includes $500 million for Gov. Bob Taft’s Third Frontier program to create hightech jobs through university and business partnerships, $1.35 billion for local road and water projects and $150 million for businesssite development. The measure has drawn bipartisan support and the editorial endorsement of several Ohio newspapers.
Conservative groups want legislation to bar state spending — including Third Frontier grants and loans — on embryonic stem-cell research and human cloning.
Harris said he’s frustrated by Issue 1 opponents’ assertions that state money could be used for stem-cell research. An executive order signed by Taft prohibits such research except on existing stem-cell lines, but that order will expire when the governor leaves office in January 2007.
Could conservatives’ opposition sink Issue 1? Taft doesn’t think so.
He said Monday that a bill to put stem-cell restrictions into law "may provide additional assurance to some people who may have concerns or anxieties" but is not needed to pass Issue 1.
Taft stressed that Ohio is not funding embryonic stem-cell research and has no plans to do so.
"All this maneuvering at the Statehouse" is encouraging, said Mark Harrington, executive director of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform Midwest, because it shows "The Third Frontier aspect of Issue 1 is hurting its chances of passage."
He added, "We aren’t moving. We’ve been consistent all along." His group opposes stem-cell research.
Harris, initially cool to the legislative stem-cell ban, said last Thursday that he wanted to push it through in a week. Now he has returned it to a back burner.
He said Senate Bill 210 was delayed in response to requests for more testimony about banning human cloning — which is not currently in the bill.
House Speaker Jon A. Husted has followed almost the opposite tack: Several House members were strongly pushing for a ban, then last week the Kettering Republican brought a halt to deliberations because he said the measure lacked enough votes for passage. Now, he has restarted it through the committee process.
Husted said he does not expect a vote on the House’s stem-cell ban, House Bill 355, before next month’s election.
Harris said the strip-club bill was held up because lawmakers want to close a loophole in House Bill 23 that would allow strip clubs with liquor licenses to remain open past 11 p.m., the closing time set by the legislation.
Despite the long association of social conservatives with the GOP, Burress said the recent machinations will force his group to "take a hard look at those who hold office and (are) running for office" next year, Republicans as well as Democrats.
"We’re certainly miles apart" from GOP leaders, he said. "They certainly don’t understand who we are. . . . We can count on some Democrats more than we can count on people who call themselves Republicans."

[WCGreen]

10. They will dole out the money that way...

But let me please remind you all...

When the democrats were headed by Vern Riffe back in the late 70's thru the early 90's, the dems got more than their fair share of the pie...

[OzarkDem]

13. I think I'll pass this time

There's no point in using my tax dollars to fund the Republican money laundering machine.

I'll be more than happy to back it when we have a Dem governor.

[Selteri]

14. Sorry, I already voted against it, I didn't like the wording and felt

that it seemed a little shifty after my research even though the heart of it was decent.