Tom Cooper reports on Strickland Roundtable in Akron 1/18/07

Tom Cooper to Molly Janczyk, January 19, 2007
Subject: Strickland/Roundtable

On Thursday I opted to attend the Akron Roundtable Luncheon featuring newly elected Governor Ted Strickland. Gov. Strickland was scheduled to speak at 12:30. There was a press conference at 11:30 I was hoping to get the opportunity to ask some specific questions concerning Health Care. I did get into the press conference, and did get a seat near the front, but it was held on a flat floor with everyone on the same level, and that, coupled with the TV camera lights in his face, and some people standing in aisles, made it difficult for him to see hands beyond the first couple of rows. Some of the questions I wanted to ask were addressed, at least in general, in the press conference, and again at the luncheon speech:

He made it clear his focus is going to be on three "kitchen table" issues of jobs and the economy, education, and affordable health care.

Most notable, in the jobs front, he is negotiating with Rolls Royce to locate a plant in Ohio. It was interesting that he specifically stated that recruiting ANY major industry to locate in a new state, one of the top questions corporate people have is about the quality of education in the state, which gives further emphasis to the concept that education and economy go hand in hand.

In terms of specifics related to education, he spoke about the need to restructure school financing, and recognized that there must be "tradeoff's" and budgetary restrictions to a basis of quality. He says the Taft projection of 3 % revenue growth in 2007 is not an accurate estimate, and projections show a probable loss of $1-1/2 BILLION in 2007. The state lost a "tangible property" tax and CAF tax income.

He has approached the Gates Foundation in order to seek support for quality education programs

He is having the education dept look at how other states have streamlined the costs of education process with out reducing quality. He said he does not want to re-invent the wheel, but wants a cost effective system, which will provide more money for actual education of students.
(For example a statewide system of bulk purchases like office and building supplies, etc)

He made it very clear that he is pretty much appalled at the state of charter schools and intends to pressure that situation to become more accountable, both in terms of finances, and quality of education, or face losing their charter.

In terms of HC, he is going to petition the Fed to give Ohio some relief in terms of Medicare costs. He was not specific. He has set a goal of all state agencies and offices to cut energy costs by 5%. In terms of HC tat was pretty much all he addressed. However, and I did not know this, he authored a Children's health Insurance program as a Representative, and has also been involved in improving Veterans Health care programs, so it is not like HC is a program that doesn't have his attention.

He has set a gift limit for ALL state employees of $20. he stated that when the Akron Roundtable presented him with a gift of a pewter plate designed by Don Drumm of Akron

[It should be clear to all of us, (and I am speaking as one who is politically and fiscally conservative), that the Taft years have pretty much devastated Ohio's economic situation].

Strickland is obviously not going to just sit back and see if the state will pass more taxes to rectify some of the critical economic problems. He is going to pursue every avenue before proposing tax increases.

That's pretty much it from my notes, but if anyone has questions, I may have some recollection of anything said on a particular subject.

TC