That’s the amount Ohio has received from AIG since the federal government put the world’s largest insurer on life support last fall. Sunday evening AIG released information regarding how it spent over $70 billion of the $180 billion it has received from U.S. taxpayers through the U.S. Treasury Dept. and the Federal Reserve.  Ohio and several other states were on the list of businesses or government entities for which AIG used federal funds to settle debts.

From AIG’s press release on Sunday:

Municipalities in the states listed on Attachment C received a total of $12.1 billion from AIGFP between September 16, 2008 and December 31, 2008 in satisfaction of Guaranteed Investment Agreement (GIA) obligations. GIAs are structured investments with a guaranteed rate of return. Municipalities typically use GIAs to invest the proceeds from bond issuances until the funds are needed.

Screen Grabs from Attachment C:

The basis for her stretcher (that’s what we used to call lies in Southern Ohio) was the fact that an important end of fiscal year report was past due.  As the Auditor of State, her office has been kept abreast of the issues the state has had in transitioning to its new accounting system known as OAKS.  As the Auditor, she’s been treated professionally and her staff always have had a seat at the table.  In fact, the state auditor’s office was probably better prepared for the OAKS transition than some state agencies.

That’s why she should have known better than to nitpick an administrative hassle and turn it into a potentially financially harmful circumstance for her state. The state of Ohio is not unauditable.

What’s at the root of the current economic crisis?  The financial markets – they’re not working properly.  Every aspect of the financial markets are gummed up and there is a dearth of something even more important than money in these markets: trust.  Mary Taylor’s outrageous pronouncement that the state is “unauditable” was an overreach and could have harmed Ohio’s credit rating.

As a politician, Mary Taylor is living up to that which so many of us have grown sick and tired – grandstanding for purely political gain.  Today, the Ohio Democratic Party brought my attention to something I missed over the weekend.  Mary Taylor’s own end of year reporting was late as well.  I don’t remember her chastising herself on this point last week.

From the ODP:

COLUMBUS – Just days after State Auditor Mary Taylor stood before the entire Statehouse press corps to accuse Governor Strickland of delaying the state audit, it was revealed that the audit of Taylor’s own office was months late, raising questions about the sincerity of her accusations.

As reported by the Columbus Dispatch (“Audit of Taylor’s office also late,” 3/7/09), under Ohio law, the audit of Taylor’s office had to be completed by October 15.  It was not finished until December 8, nearly two months late.

While the Strickland administration acknowledged the delay in both cases is due to the complicated transition to the Taft-initiated Ohio Administrative Knowledge System, Taylor continues to use exaggerated partisan rhetoric even as she begins to backtrack.  Now Taylor admits she “knew there would be delays” months before last week’s press conference.

Let me just back one thing up contained in the paragraphs above from ODP.  In May of 2008, Taylor was informed that the end of year report she was expecting would be late, perhaps not ready until the Fall of 2009.  This was before the fiscal year was even up.  Again in August, Taylor was updated some weeks after the end of the fiscal year.  This time the news was better.  The report would be late, but she could expect it as early as March or by perhaps late Spring.

These are just two instances I have read about or heard about regarding communication between the Auditor’s office and the Strickland Administration.  I know there were more, a source tells me that the Auditor’s office is “copied on everything.”

Mary Taylor is getting ready to run for something.  This context for her reckless behavior as a public servant is not lost on anyone who follows events on Capitol Square.  Let’s hope that the public servants in the Capitol and the state office towers in Columbus can make up for her shameless act.

Facts may be analyzed in different ways leading to reasonable people disagreeing on public policy, political motivations, etc.  But when an opinion is based on a careless understanding of the facts – or worse – a purposeful twisting – it’s merely stupidity.  When a newspaper does this, it’s recklessness on a much larger scale.

Point one this week is an editorial in Friday’s Cleveland Plain Dealer, headlined, Ohio’s budget is a power trip for Gov. Strickland.  Here are the offending passages:

… The AP reported that Strickland’s budget “is peppered with instances where a new [administrative] role is added” for Strickland, for Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut or for other executive-branch officials who, in fact or practice, answer to Strickland. One instance cited by the AP: “A host of state boards and commissions [would be] consolidated under the Department of Administrative Services.” Administrative Services is Ohio’s housekeeping agency, led by a Strickland appointee. …

… In yet another budget twist, an official of Ohio’s biggest public employee union told the AP the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association is “shocked and disappointed” at a budget provision giving Strickland “more leeway to impose mandatory furloughs [and] suspend holiday pay [on state workers] … in a fiscal emergency.”

First, let’s take the headline.  Power trip?  O.K., let’s look at the examples.  Chancellor Eric Fingerhut is mentioned, but Lord knows why because the editorial writer didn’t say.  Then the “instance” of “a host” of state boards and commissions being consolidated under the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) “led by a Strickland appointee.”

Sounds like a political powerplay – I mean gosh, aren’t these boards and commissions independent for a reason?  What the editorial writer doesn’t say is that the consolidation under DAS is administrative.  You know, the word that comes between “Department of” and “Services.”  A careful reading of the budget would show that the Governor is not making a power grab, he’s telling certain boards and commissions that there is inefficient waste in all of these litte business units maintaining separate financial and human resources operations.  The budget calls for several to participate in a shared services unit within DAS that already takes of these tasks for 32 other boards and commissions.  It protects the boards and commissions executive directors, appointed members and policy briefs as provided for in the Ohio Revised Code.

Then comes the “leeway to impose mandatory furloughs” etc.  Most Ohioans are surprised to learn that the chief executive of the state does not currently have the flexibility to effectively manage the state’s human resources during a budget emergency – to wit, the Governor cannot tell everyone to take a furlough day without hoop jumping with the unions.  You call this a “power trip?”  It sounds like letting managers manage.

Today’s Columbus Dispatch played a little fast loose with an editorial, headlined, Assault on Education. The problem is simply the headline.

Gov. Strickland just announced the most sweeping reform of Ohio’s public education system, perhaps ever.  Most people focus on the problem with school funding.  Although the jury is still out on the funding portion of the plan, Strickland has made a proposal that is viable.  More importantly, Strickland went the public one better than just going after the funding issue and has made proposals including more accountability for teachers, all day kindergarten, curriculum and achievement standards which are evidence-based and making it easier for people to come from other professions to the field of teaching.  These proposals will be debated and either through the Ohio General Assembly or a ballot measure, Ohioans will get their vote on them.  You can hardly call Strickland’s proposals – and the nearly twenty public meetings that he’s appeared at to take suggestions – an Assault on Education.

A better title for the Dispatch editorial would have been Assault on Charter Schools.  As a taxpayer, the product of a public education and one who believes that strong public education is the great leveler, the great “leg-up” opportunity for all in society,  I view the public debate on education a discussion that should only entail public schools.  Charter schools are private schools getting a public subsidy which does nothing but weaken public schools further.  There are good ones and bad ones but too many of them approach education from a politcal perspective first – look at the conservative and liberal groups behind them – rather than providing a broad, 21st Century education.

There’s no doubt that Strickland’s plans don’t place charter schools on the same footing as public education, and thank goodness for that.  There can be a reasonable argument about charter schools v. public education, but please, Dispatch, don’t tell me Ted Strickland is assaulting education.

Progress Ohio, a public interest group based in Columbus, filed the original complaint in Montgomery County against Husted.  By Ohio law, state representatives and state senators must live in their districts.  Husted claims to be “R-Kettering,” but is actually “R-Upper Arlington.”  He was elected to be “R-Kettering,” but since he has been “R-Upper Arlington” for so long he is illegitimate.  Some have even speculated that he is “A-Upper Arlington.” (“A” is for asshole, party of one – him.)

In a bit of drama tonight, Progress Ohio beseeched Brunner to live up to her Profile in Courage Award by officially declaring Slick Jonny irrelevant.  At any rate, it’s the stated editorial opinion of this blog that Jon Husted should be banned in 38 states and all the provinces of Canada.

What follows is real, from the Dayton Daily News:

Husted testified at his hearing that he is at his Kettering home weekly, but declined to say how often he or his family sleep there. He and his family are rarely seen in Kettering, according to neighbors and Dayton Daily News spot checks. A review of water records show very low water usage at the house, with bills for three quarters in 2007 and 2008 showing less than 750 gallons used.

Twenty-two spots checks of his home since Jan. 5 showed no sign of Husted or a vehicle at various times through the day and night. Newspapers stayed on the driveway for days and sometimes there were no tire tracks in snow on his driveway or indication that it had been shoveled. At night there is usually the same light and television on in the house.

On Jan. 17 at 6 p.m. there was no sign of lights or TV but a package blocked the front door. Two hours later, the same package blocked the door, but the television could be seen flickering through the blinds. The next morning at 10 a.m., the same package was still blocking the door.

Husted denies using a timer to control the television and he refused to say where he parks when he is home. He declined to answer further questions.

Project Name: Broader Bands

Project Description: The Columbus Dispatch Co. should begin to use broader rubber bands to secure the newspapers which are delivered to homes across Franklin and the surrounding counties – the skinny ones break.  The larger rubber bands will require an additional person to help stretch the bands so that they fit over the rolled-up newspaper.

Project cost and stimulus created is listed as $300.

Click Graphic to See Housing Starts Data Since 1959

Housing Starts After the Bubble

“The effects of this recession reach deep into the lives and pocketbooks of everyday Ohioans. The federal stimulus is the right investment at exactly the right time to jumpstart the stalled economy,” said Strickland.

“These resources will save or create more than 130,000 jobs for Ohioans and provide tax cuts to working families, while also helping to protect essential state services that Ohioans rely upon every day,” Strickland said. “The stimulus resources will enable Ohio to make targeted investments in the critical sectors of our economy that will create and grow jobs – laying the foundation for future economic growth and shared prosperity.”

Strickland’s office summed up Ohio’s stimulus investment:

• Direct Relief through State Fiscal Stabilization Funds and Enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP): $4.8 billion
• Infrastructure: $1.5 billion
• Education: $981 million
• Health and Human Services: $597 billion
• Energy: $399 million
• Criminal Justice: $75 million
  

• Economists: This recession deeper than ’83 – Dayton Daily News
• Op-Ed, Thomas Suddes: Ohio Legislature = Boys Town - The Plain Dealer
• GM, Chrysler labor talks slow – The Plain Dealer
• Steamed about heating bills – Toledo Blade
• Surprise: Pryce becoming a lobbyist – Columbus Dispatch
• Ohio Turnpike toll plan takes from other states – Toledo Blade
• Food inspection complex, has holes – Columbus Dispatch
• Payday lenders use loophole to continue high interest rates – The Plain Dealer
• Health agencies brace for cuts – Columbus Dispatch
• Editorial: Improve Democracy – Columbus Dispatch
• Op-Ed, Roger Geiger: Secret ballots must remain in union elections – Toledo Blade
• Op-Ed, Joe Hallett: High School buddies solve economic mess – Columbus Dispatch