Saturday, May 14, 2011

Thank you, Bill Winegarner, you explained "being unfunded" quite well!


From John Curry, May 14, 2011

The current historic declines in the stock markets and increases in health-care costs have caused the current funding shortfalls, not the structure of how pensions are funded in Ohio. For those not up on their pension jargon, being unfunded, or not meeting one’s funding requirements, simply means not having enough cash in the bank today to cover all of your outstanding future obligations. To explain it on a personal basis, if you buy a home for $100,000, payable over 30 years, your future debt will be approximately $300,000. If you don’t have $300,000 in the bank today, you are considered unfunded.

Ohio pension systems are not broke. They are not in economic crisis. They are attempting to get legislators to make some specific and measured pension-plan adjustments to ensure that they adjust to current actuarial trends. Throughout the article, Mayer alluded to taxpayer bailout. Once taxpayers pay their employees, they have absolutely no further obligation to bail out anyone.

Defined-benefit pensions are better on cost, return
A Mayer’s Sunday Forum column “Public pensions must move to 401(k) plans” was loaded with commission and omission misinformation, inflammatory words and carefully worded caveats. Contributions count for roughly 21 percent of the estimated payouts, not the 8 percent he stated.

What he omitted is the fact that investment returns on those contributions count for the other 79 percent — not one dime of which comes from taxpayer money. What information in his paragraph on this topic could logically lead one to his conclusion: “As a result, three pension systems don’t meet their funding requirements”?

The current historic declines in the stock markets and increases in health-care costs have caused the current funding shortfalls, not the structure of how pensions are funded in Ohio. For those not up on their pension jargon, being unfunded, or not meeting one’s funding requirements, simply means not having enough cash in the bank today to cover all of your outstanding future obligations. To explain it on a personal basis, if you buy a home for $100,000, payable over 30 years, your future debt will be approximately $300,000. If you don’t have $300,000 in the bank today, you are considered unfunded.

Ohio pension systems are not broke. They are not in economic crisis. They are attempting to get legislators to make some specific and measured pension-plan adjustments to ensure that they adjust to current actuarial trends. Throughout the article, Mayer alluded to taxpayer bailout. Once taxpayers pay their employees, they have absolutely no further obligation to bail out anyone.

Ohio’s pension plans are private enterprises under the oversight of the legislature. The money in the pension systems belongs to the contributors, not the taxpayers; therefore, taxpayers already have all the security they need.

It is almost laughable to extol the advantages of defined-contribution plans over defined-benefit plans. As to economy of cost and return on investment, there is a truckload of third-party data illustrating the advantages and cost savings of defined-benefit plans, compared with a teaspoon of speculative data on the 401(k) plans.

So where is the Ponzi scheme? It is in Mayer’s inflammatory words and qualifiers.

What we do know is that for the past 75 years, Ohio’s defined-benefit pension plans have provided Ohio’s retired public employees with a good pension and benefits at no cost to the taxpayers beyond the employer’s initial contribution.

Mayer’s column falls in line with the nationwide effort to eliminate all defined-benefit pension systems. This process was first acknowledged in the May 14, 2001, issue of The Nation newsletter, in which contributing editor Robert Dreyfuss wrote the following after listening to a speech by Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform: “There’s the matter of all those state and local pension plans. State by state, he’s planning to launch a campaign to dismantle and privatize state pension plans and their trillions of dollars of public funds held as investments for retirees.

“Just 115 people control $1 trillion in these funds,” he says. “We want to take that power and destroy it.”

There are two primary business sectors that profit from the elimination of defined-benefit pension plans: corporations that need the capital investment but don’t want investors who effectively have the ability to vote their shares; and stock brokerages, which will reap billions of dollars in fees managing hundreds of thousands of individual portfolios.

There are also two sectors that would suffer from the elimination of defined-benefit pension plans: Taxpayers would have to increase their cost to fund and manage the retirement programs, and they would have to establish and manage a separate fund to care for those on disability.

State employees would suffer because their ability to retire would be solely dependent on the economy and their financial adviser’s skills, and they would lose their health-care support, which, by the way, is made available by returns on investments, and costs the taxpayers nothing.

So there is the choice our legislators have: to continue with a program that has proved itself over the past 75 years, or to get suckered into big businesses’ investment scam.

BILL WINEGARNER
Administrator
Public Employee Retirees Inc. Westerville

Jim Reed on OEA's $54 assessment and on a poignant sign on a one-room school

Jim N. Reed to Kathie Bracy, May 12, 2011
My nerve endings are quite raw these days. I can not imagine what our law-makers are thinking from sacking and or privatizing Medicare and Social Security, to allowing guns in saloons (maybe Wyatt, Billy, and Jesse will make a comeback!), to upping public funds to charter schools while lowering accountability, to sending millions of soon-to-be recipients of healthcare back to the emergency rooms, to stripping totally dependent pre-schoolers and seniors of their rights to a poverty-preventing education and to some hard-earned, dignified golden years!
I'm sure my take on the $54.00 assessment to OEA actives is dissimilar to many. Look inward, OEA. How many of your knowledgeable actives are going to dissent at the one-time dues to support opposition to SB5 based on the obscene salaries paid to OEA Staff? Realizing this is not a good time to de-bark the voices of our very powerful union (as we in CORE have often been targeting) and its lobbyists, wouldn't it be wonderful to learn that many of the $100,000 plus execs have kicked in a few extra thousands to the effort to raise $5 million.
I know if I were still active someone at OEA would have to explain the $54.00 real hard to me.
Someone (not me, I promise) has planted a hand-made pro public education sign on one of my area's dilapidated one-room schools. I'll take a photo and send it to you.
Jim N. Reed
Click images (twice) to enlarge.....and draw your own conclusions!



...........................................................................

An early history of ECOT and the man behind it, William Lager...the "other" White Hat guy

From John Curry, May 14, 2011
Within months of ECOT's opening, Petro, at the time the state auditor, launched a special audit that concluded that ECOT couldn't verify the existence of all its students.

The school later repaid $1.6 million in tax dollars.
After a six-year hiatus, and shortly after ECOT began receiving state funding in July 2000, Lager started contributing money -- almost exclusively to Republican candidates.

In the past five years
[since February of 2006], Lager has given $153,150 to state and federal candidates.

Another $134,750 can be credited to four Altair employees or consultants and their spouses: right-hand man James ``Skip'' Thomas and his wife; Treasurer Michael Bradley and his wife; Lager's executive assistant, Kathleen Martensen, and her husband; and Altair lawyer John Demer and his wife.

Lager's daughter Jessica, a college student identified in campaign reports as a homemaker and self-employed lobbyist, has given $2,950 since 2000.

Campaign gifts by those tied to online charger jump
Follow the money. There's lots of it.
February 12, 2006
By Dennis J. Willard and Doug Oplinger
COLUMBUS - Many of the people who run the state's largest charter school, Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, weren't big donors to state and federal political campaigns before the school was created in 2000 -- if they donated at all.

But from the time the controversial online school received its first monthly payment from the Ohio Department of Education -- $736,198 in taxpayer dollars in August 2000 -- that has changed.

Individuals and their spouses associated with the school and its management company, Altair Learning Management, have given more than $330,000 since then -- half of that delivered last year -- according to a Beacon Journal analysis of state and federal data.

Most has gone to Ohio House Republicans, Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Petro and U.S. Rep. Patrick Tiberi, a Columbus Republican who sits on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and has been a longtime advocate of school choice.

From the day it was proposed, ECOT has stirred controversy.

The school had to find another agency to be its sponsor after the Ohio Department of Education refused to grant a charter, saying there was no way to adequately track participation of students who study on a computer at home.

Within months of ECOT's opening, Petro, at the time the state auditor, launched a special audit that concluded that ECOT couldn't verify the existence of all its students.

The school later repaid $1.6 million in tax dollars.

In ECOT's three annual state audits, it was cited for various problems, from the disappearance of computers bought with state money to questionable use of federal grants.

Every year, the auditor questioned ECOT's payments to Altair for management services, saying Altair should provide detailed billing for services rather than receive a flat 10 percent of revenue.

Nonetheless, the school has grown into the nation's largest statewide online charter school, according to its founder.

This year, ECOT enrolls about 6,460 students and will receive about $39 million in state aid, transferred from more than 500 of Ohio's 612 school districts as children opt to study at home.

No other Ohio charter school comes close in size or state aid.

Founder's contributions

ECOT and Altair were both founded by William Lager, a former office-supply company executive and business consultant who defines himself as a longtime political activist.

``I believe everyone in this country or culture we live in has a right to access government and has a right to influence government if they choose, to write letters, to work on campaigns and also to contribute funds,'' Lager said last week. ``I've encouraged people all my life to participate, and I don't believe that enough people do participate.''

Originally, he worked for Democrats. After graduation from a Columbus parochial school, he said, he worked on the successful 1970 campaign of Attorney General William J. Brown and has remained close to politics since then.

According to state records, he contributed about $1,700 to Democratic statewide candidates from 1990 to 1994.

After a six-year hiatus, and shortly after ECOT began receiving state funding in July 2000, Lager started contributing money -- almost exclusively to Republican candidates.

In the past five years, Lager has given $153,150 to state and federal candidates.

Another $134,750 can be credited to four Altair employees or consultants and their spouses: right-hand man James ``Skip'' Thomas and his wife; Treasurer Michael Bradley and his wife; Lager's executive assistant, Kathleen Martensen, and her husband; and Altair lawyer John Demer and his wife.

Lager's daughter Jessica, a college student identified in campaign reports as a homemaker and self-employed lobbyist, has given $2,950 since 2000.

2005 state budget

Last year's contributions occurred mostly in four batches.

In the month after the two-year state budget was completed, Lager and four others associated with Altair gave $10,000 each to the Ohio House Republican Campaign Committee run by House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, a proponent of charter schools.

Last year had been shaping up to be the roughest for charter schools since they were created in 1997. State legislators, facing weak tax revenue and rapidly growing expenditures on Medicaid and charter schools, sought spending cuts.

Husted and House members proposed a small funding cut to online charter schools. The Senate was much more aggressive, proposing a long list of new and costly requirements, and a 20 percent funding cut.

In the end, the House mainly prevailed, and online schools lost two forms of aid that reduced income about 1 percent, or about $5 million statewide.

Legislators also barred new entrants into the business, effectively guaranteeing that existing online schools would have no new competitors.

Husted's spokeswoman, Karen Tabor, confirmed that he met with Lager in March and August.

``In an effort to be fair and balanced, the speaker also meets with Tom Mooney (president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers union) and Gary Allen (president of the Ohio Education Association union) on a number of issues,'' Tabor said.

Lager and the Altair associates also showed their support for Petro, who had begun a heated race with Auditor Betty Montgomery and Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell for this year's GOP gubernatorial nomination.

Lager contributed $10,000 in a four-day period in July in which four married couples -- the Thomases, Martensens, Demers, and Bradleys -- gave $10,000 each, or $5,000 per person.

Batchelder, Tiberi

In December, Lager andAltair-related contributors turned their attention to newly announced legislative candidate William Batchelder of Medina.

Of the $45,154.87 raised by Batchelder in 2005, donations from five Altair-related contributors accounted for $12,500.

Batchelder, who is attempting to return to the state House after an eight-year absence, was an early and leading advocate of school choice.

U.S. Rep. Tiberi also has benefited from Lager's political interests. Tiberi, like Batchelder, was an advocate of school choice while a state legislator.

He and Lager said they have known each other for many years. Lager said he met Tiberi when Tiberi was working in the office of then-U.S. Rep. John Kasich, R-Westerville, and Tiberi recalled Lager's interest in school choice while the issue was discussed in the legislature.

On March 7 last year, Lager hosted a Tiberi fundraiser in his Waterford Tower condo several blocks from the state Capitol in which the congressman received 14 contributions totaling $17,000 from Altair-related individuals.

Tiberi also received $1,950 from Jessica Lager in August 2004.

William Lager said that his daughter, an Altair consultant while at college, is a Tiberi fan. ``She has given to Pat Tiberi for a simple reason: She has met him. He treats her like she's the greatest thing in the world,'' Lager said. ``She said, `Dad, I'm going to give some money,' and I said, `That's your decision.' ''

Lager also helped Republicans fend off four proposed amendments to the Ohio Constitution last year.

Democrats and labor unions were trying to bypass the GOP-dominated legislature by asking voters to make absentee voting easier, remove politics from drawing legislative boundaries, reduce the maximum allowable campaign contribution, and overhaul election oversight.

Republicans responded by forming the Ohio First Voter Education Fund, a political action committee that raised money to attack the reforms. Altair kicked in $25,000.

2005 is year of giving

Lager said no one is reimbursed for giving to political campaigns, and ``it's made clear that all giving is voluntary.''

The Beacon Journal attempted to contact the largest contributors from Altair to discuss their giving. Only Lager returned phone calls.

The databases of contributions to state and federal candidates show that until last year, most never gave money in the decade the databases existed.

Kathy Martensen, an Altair employee, and her husband, Bradley, now an Altair consultant, own the Village Coney, a restaurant in German Village on Columbus' south side. They don't show up in the state and federal databases until 2005, when, combined, they gave $24,500.

Myra Bradley, Michael Bradley's wife, also is not in the state and federal databases before 2005. She contributed $5,000 to Petro in July.

``It is not Democrat or Republican,'' Lager said of who receives donations. What is important is to give to those who support school choice, he said.

Lager said he believes that since 1997, when charter schools were created as an experiment exempt from many regulations, the legislature has lost sight of that goal. ``I believe there are now more regulations on online schools than traditional public schools,'' he said.

Those who hear the stories of children not served by traditional schools become believers in ECOT, he said.

``If they come to work with Bill Lager, if they don't become `evangelical,' they don't get it. The ones who stay are willing to support.''


Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com. Doug Oplinger can be reached at 330-996-3750, or doplinger@thebeaconjournal.com.

— Dennis J. Willard & Doug Oplinger
Akron Beacon Journal
2006-02-12

Note from John...I took the time to go to the Ohio Dept. of Education to check on their latest posted graduation rate...you will be sickened....here it is...35%!

Just think...all of this for your tax dollars! What an education....just give a kid a computer and collect the state moneys...what a deal! No busses to buy, classrooms to maintain, heat and light bills...no muss, no fuss.

P.S. Did you notice how the names Tiberi and Batchelder seemed to be popping up in the 2006 article above? Gee....what a coincidence, huh?

District
School Year
2008-2009 School Year
Metrics
Graduation Rate
Honors Graduation Pct
133413 Electronic Classroom Of Tomorrow 35.0% .0%

Friday, May 13, 2011

Pension Legislation Update

From STRS, May 13, 2011
ORSC ANNOUNCES PLANS TO HIRE ACTUARY AND POLICY ADVISOR TO REVIEW PENSION LEGISLATION
During the May 12, 2011, meeting of the Ohio Retirement Study Council (ORSC), Sen. Keith Faber, who chairs the committee, announced that he is creating a subcommittee to develop a request for proposal for an independent actuary and policy advisor in regard to pension reform issues. This consulting expert will be asked to help the ORSC members analyze the plans the five public pension systems have developed to strengthen the solvency of their pension funds and other potential retirement-related changes. Faber noted he wants someone who can advise on reform trends in other states and the private sector.
Through media reports, Faber indicated the Senate is not likely to proceed with any pension legislation until this review is completed. It is expected that this process will take pension reform discussions into the fall. The members of the ORSC subcommittee, which will be chaired by Rep Kirk Schuring, are Sen. Scott Oelslager, Rep. Dan Ramos and Lora Miller, who was recently appointed by the governor to the ORSC.
As a result of this latest development, it is likely that committee hearings on House Bill 69 and Senate Bill 3, which were introduced to carry pension legislation, will not be resumed until after the ORSC study is done. However, STRS Ohio members are encouraged to keep sharing their opinions with their legislators — particularly on the topic of preserving defined benefit pensions for future retirees versus moving public educators into defined contribution plans. As recently as May 8, the Columbus Dispatch ran a guest column supporting the movement of public pensions to 401(k) plans. (The response sent by STRS Ohio Executive Director Michael Nehf can be found on the STRS Ohio Web site at: https://www.strsoh.org/default.htm#Response.)
As STRS Ohio has noted in many of its communications to members, the pensions Ohio’s public educators earn:
- Provide retired teachers a reasonable and reliable pension they won’t outlive.
- Save taxpayers billions of additional dollars in potential public assistance expenditures now spent to help individuals whose savings accounts, such as
401(k) plans, do not provide enough to keep them out of poverty in retirement.
-Provide a stable source of revenue, including tax revenue, for Ohio’s local economies.
- Are both efficient and economical, as a defined benefit pension can deliver the same retirement income at almost half the cost of a defined contribution savings accounts due to pooling of investment risk, continual diversification of assets and professional investment management.
- Help Ohio’s schools, colleges and universities recruit and retain quality educators.
With legislators spending more time in their home districts during the summer, STRS Ohio members have an opportunity to talk face-to-face with their representatives and senators about the importance of preserving pensions. Phone calls, letters and e-mails are also effective. Although there is a lag in the pension discussion at the Statehouse, it is still important to stress the importance of changes being approved in a timely manner that preserve pensions for all STRS Ohio members.
ADDITIONAL ITEM OF NOTE
When Gov. John Kasich presented his proposed state budget in March, it included a shift in employer/employee contributions for the five statewide pension systems. Employers would pay 2% less based on payroll and employees would pay 2% more. Requiring employers to pay less was being recommended as a way to help offset the proposed cutbacks in state funding to state and local governments.
For STRS Ohio, this could mean an increase in member contributions to 12% from the current 10%, and a decrease in employer contributions to 12% from 14%. However, STRS Ohio is already proposing a 3% increase in member contributions and no change in the 14% employer contribution in its January 2011 plan as a way to help the pension fund meet the 30-year funding requirement.
A 12%-12% contribution arrangement, without additional contributions, puts the pension fund at a 45.6-year funding period, assuming the other changes the board has proposed are made. Implementing the board’s plan without any changes in contributions puts the fund at a similar funding period. To achieve a 30-year funding period, the board’s plan needs 3% additional member contributions plus the 14% from employers. The 12%-12% proposal plus an additional 3% from members — a 50% increase — results in a funding period of 30.5 years. In short, a reduction in employer contributions means employees would pay even more or benefit cuts would have to be more significant to achieve a 30-year funding period.
STRS Ohio Executive Director Michael Nehf and other system associates, as well as many STRS Ohio members, voiced their concerns with legislators about this budget bill language. In subsequent action, the contribution change was removed from Substitute House Bill 153 before it was sent to the Senate Finance Committee for hearings in that chamber.
However, Sen. Keith Faber, who is a member of the Finance Committee, has been quoted by the media as saying the Senate will be giving strong consideration to restoring the contribution shift in the budget bill. Executive Director Michael Nehf reiterated STRS Ohio’s position during the May 12 committee meeting, advocating that any discussion of contributions should be held within the context of the pension reform package proposed by the five Ohio statewide public pension systems. This would help allow any proposed changes to STRS Ohio’s plan to be discussed and their actuarial impact analyzed in conjunction with the other plan components. STRS Ohio members who have an opinion on this topic should contact the members of the Senate Finance Committee. Contact information can be found on the STRS Ohio Web site at: https://www.strsoh.org/legislation/Finance_contacts.html.

Graduation - Kasich Style


From John Curry..................................

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Want to see where your Ohio schools tax moneys are going for....and more?

From John Curry, May 12, 2011

And you thought the Cleveland School system was bad!

Building Name; Final graduation percentage rate 2008-09

Treca Digital Academy 24.1

Virtual Community School Of Ohio 34.0

Electronic Classroom Of Tomorrow 35.0

Alternative Education Academy 35.9

Ohio Virtual Academy 54.1

Cleveland Municipal City 54.3

Youngstown City 58.0

Buckeye On-Line School for Success 60.2

Ohio Connections Academy, Inc 89.3

Ohio School District Median 95.5

Table 1: Graduation Rates of Statewide E-schools and Traditional Schoolsvii

vii Graduation Rates found at Ohio Department of Education’s Report Card Ratings

Here's the "REST OF THE STORY!" All 19 sickening pages of it. Click on the link below:

John

http://innovationohio.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/IO.051211.eschools.pdf

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

STRS Board to meet May 18-19, 2011

From STRS, May 11, 2011
PUBLIC MEETING NOTICE
The State Teachers Retirement Board and Committee meetings currently scheduled at the STRS Ohio offices, 275 East Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, are as follows:
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
11 a.m. Disability Review Panel and Final Average Salary Committee (Executive Session)
Thursday, May 19, 2011
9 a.m. Investment Committee Meeting, followed by Retirement Board Meeting

Monday, May 09, 2011

STRS board election results

From STRS, May 9, 2011
On Saturday, May 7, 2011, the results of the State Teachers Retirement Board election were certified by tellers designated by each candidate and a representative of the Secretary of State. The result of the election for the contributing member seat on the Retirement Board is as follows:

- Taiyia (Tai) L. Hayden, 15,215 votes
- Martin A. Miller, 11,766 votes
- Write-Ins, 133 votes

This term of office for Taiyia (Tai) L. Hayden begins on Sept. 1, 2011, and ends on Aug. 31, 2015.

Sunday, May 08, 2011

Hearings at the State House this week

From John Curry, May 8, 2011
Senate Hearings: The Week Ahead
Posted by Budget Watcher on 5/08/11 • Categorized as Committee Hearings,Upcoming Events

This week, we settle into a more leisurely pace of budget activities, relative to last week’s craziness. There are hearings in the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

  • Tuesday: Health & Human Services agencies at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. and a Medicaid panel at 9:45.
  • Wednesday: K12 education agency testimony at 9 a.m. and interested party testimony(*) at 1 p.m. and again at 7:30 p.m.
  • Thursday: Higher Education agency testimony at 9 a.m. and interested party testimony(*) at 1 p.m.

* – to testify in Senate Finance Committee, you must contact the Chairman’s office no later than 5:00pm on Monday, May 10, 2011 and provide an electronic copy and 20 hard copies of their testimony to the Chairman’s office no later than 24 hours in advance of your scheduled time to appear before the committee. Electronic submissions can be directed to Daniel Hurley at daniel.hurley@senate.state.oh.us. Testimony will be available to interested parties and the general public on the Senate Finance Committee

CORE's Nancy Hamant says it so well!

From Nancy Hamant, May 8, 2011
Subject: Comments on The Governor's budget.. the losers and the winners?
So who are the big losers in Ohio--the middle class, the schools, law enforcement and prisons! Who are the winners in Ohio--the deep pocket privateers, the Charter Schools and those who want the privatize all of Ohio! And the reasons for all of this, "it's happening everywhere".
Kasich is beside himself with his henchmen, passing his budget in the House--so he passed out buttons with $8 billion crossed out and Danny Bubp sarcastically made "fun" of the Democrats speeches! Oh, this is a Klown Krewe alright, bent on destroying the poor and the middle class and then lining the pockets of the biggest scoundrels who contribute the most to their campaigns! Maybe David Brennan will give the Kasich Klowns more money if Kasich and his Krewe turn all of education over to Brennan. What fun--what a joy--wonder how many millionaires Kasich made today?
With over three and a half years to go with these Klowns wonder what more they can wreck in Ohio?
Nancy Hamant

The Governor's budget...who are the losers and who are the winners?

From John Curry, May 8, 2011
Budget alters Ohio's priorities
Republicans have it their way with big cuts and rising revenues
By Howard Wilkinson, May 8, 2011
hwilkinson@enquirer.com
Have your say

• Contact your House member at www.house.state.oh.us

• Contact your Senate member at www.ohiosenate.gov/

Ohio's Republican-controlled government isn't just writing a budget, it's creating a document that represents the biggest shift in priorities in state spending in many decades.

On Thursday the House passed a $55.6 billion general fund budget, largely keeping new Gov. John Kasich's proposed budget intact. After a blizzard of amendments, speeches and committee meetings, the state's new direction is becoming clear.

Among the losers:

• Local governments, who will see a cut of about $640 million in direct funding from the state and have to find some way to plug the hole or raise their own local taxes.

• Public schools, which took an $800 million hit.

• Higher education, which loses about $260 million.

• And nursing home operators, who will lose about $470 million in Medicaid spending.

Among the winners:

• The owners and operators of charter schools, who will find it easier to start new schools and attract students with an increased voucher program.

• And those in the private sector who might be interested in coming into Ohio and running the six prisons Ohio will sell and, possibly, buy or lease other state assets, such as the Ohio Turnpike.

The $55.6 billion two-year general fund budget passed by the Ohio House late Thursday night is about $5 billion bigger than the one passed two years ago when there was a Democrat, Ted Strickland, in the governor's office and Democrats held control of the House.

The budget bill now goes to the GOP-controlled Senate, and the senators could have more money to work with - nearly $1 billion more, because of rosier-than-expected state revenue receipts so far this year. That could mean some cuts in the House budget could end up being restored.

Kasich and the Republicans in the legislature were in a good mood Thursday night after passing the budget on a party-line vote. Many wore buttons provided by the governor trumpeting the fact that they had balanced the budget without raising taxes - buttons that had the number $8 billion with a line drawn through it.

"This is reality-based budgeting," said state Rep. Ron Amstutz, R-Wooster, chairman of the House Finance Committee.

Others were not so pleased.

For hard-core fiscal conservatives, it is a budget of same-old, same-old - the government finding a way to spend every dime it takes in, instead of giving some of it back to the weary taxpayer.

"When do Ohioans get to see a noticeable reduction in the spending curve?" asked Matt Mayer, director of the Buckeye Institute, a conservative think tank which has advocated deep cuts in state spending. "It looks like a budget based on revenue, not true government need."

To Democrats and their allies, it is a budget that, as the House Democratic Caucus' talking point puts it, "balances the budget on the backs of the middle class."

"This budget goes straight after the weakest people in our state, the people who can't fight back," said Ohio Democratic Party chairman Chris Redfern, a former state legislator. "Cuts to nursing home care, cuts to children's hospitals, cuts in funding for local government services people depend on, cuts to schools."

Kasich and the GOP legislature, Redfern said, "are robbing Peter to pay Paul, and putting off the difficult decisions that need to be made. It's unconscionable."

'It's happening everywhere'

Whether unconscionable or inadequate, the Ohio budget racing its way through the legislature is typical of what is happening in state legislatures all over the country. Many states went into 2011 facing large deficits; and many states, Ohio included, are required by state constitutions to find a way to balance their budgets.

"It makes for some tough choices," said Donald E. Boyd, senior fellow at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, N.Y., and an expert on state and local government revenues. "With states facing the kind of deficits they are - and there are those where the situation is worse than in Ohio - you can't avoid cutting services."

And, in many cases, Boyd said, the cutting includes not only cuts in state services, but substantial cuts in state aid to local governments. The one thing that is making the job of balancing state budgets easier, Boyd said, is that most states are seeing their revenues grow

That is certainly true in Ohio.

Personal income tax collections were up 11.9 percent in April over budget projections and sales tax collections were up 6.7 percent. Overall, this year's total revenues are 1.9 percent ahead of projections.

Compared to a year ago, the state is $841 million ahead of its tax revenue - an increase of 6.1 percent, according to state budget figures.

On to the Senate

Kasich is also proud of the fact that he and the GOP-controlled legislature have fulfilled a campaign promise - that the budget would be balanced without raising taxes.

It was done, in part, because the state's revenue picture is brighter now than it was a year ago.

"We're doing what folks didn't think anyone could do - fill a massive $8 billion budget gap without raising taxes and while preserving the $800 million income tax cut," Kasich said Thursday night.

Critics of the budget say the governor's claim of not raising taxes is disingenuous. So do the people who are in the process of trying to build casinos in four Ohio cities - including Cincinnati - through a constitutional amendment approved by Ohio voters in November 2009.

The House left in a provision that would require the casinos to pay the commercial activity tax on all gambling receipts, without a deduction for winning payouts.

"That amounts to about $1 billion those casinos would have to pay the state," Redfern said. "Someone explain to me how that it not a tax increase."

But it was the cuts in school funding, Medicaid for nursing care and local governments that really stuck in the craw of minority Democrats in the legislature.

"This budget is an abomination," said state Rep. Connie Pillich, D-Montgomery. "The budget busts public schools, local governments, and care for the elderly and infirm."

Republicans in the House dismissed the Democratic complaints - something they could easily do, given the fact they have a 59-40 advantage in the House and a 23-10 lead in the Senate, the budget's next stop on its to the governor's desk.

State Rep. Danny Bubp, R-West Union, made fun of the floor speeches he heard from Democrats in Thursday's debate.

"People are going to die; the state is going to end tomorrow," Bubp paraphrased sarcastically.

"This budget is difficult," Bubp said. "I don't ever recall the rhetoric we heard today."

Redfern, though, said he is certain the GOP legislature will suffer for what it has done in the next election.

"They can do what they want; they've got the numbers," Redfern said. "For now."

Staff writer Jon Craig contributed.

Larry KehresMount Union Collge
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