Strickland looks for compromise on paid sick days

Neither Side of Debate Wants Compromise – Ohio Loses

Dale Butland, spokesman for the coalition backing the Healthy Families Act — aka a state mandate that businesses with 25 or more employees would provide employees with 7 days of paid sick leave per year — continues to dismiss attempts to compromise with his group by saying the business community opposes paid sick leave period.

Groups like the Ohio Roundtable, a conservative Republican business group seem to be saying, ballot initiative, “Bring it on.”

Both sides of this debate seem to be suffering from a poor sense of timing.

First, to my friends in labor.  Are you kidding me?  In the midst of this economy, as jobs fly out of the state, as we try to overcome the stigma of being a difficult place to do business, you want to make this an issue — now?  In case you haven’t noticed, in order for your members to be employed there has to be some semblance of solid economic activity in the state.  What are these paid sick days going to do for the unemployed? 

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Friday a.m. – Strickland: I Alone Can’t Deliver Ohio, AEP, Dann, DHL

Ohio News

• Dann spent over $100k trying to save job – Columbus Dispatch
• AEP wants to raise rates – Columbus Dispatch
• Strickland: I can’t deliver Ohio alone – PolitickerOH
• State officials’ campaign finance reports – Dayton Daily News
• Casino backers want perfect storm – The Other Paper
• DHL deal with UPS turns political – BusinessWeek
• Court backs Brunner – Columbus Dispatch

Schwarzenegger Pisses Off 200,000 California State Employees

Could this happen in Ohio?

As posted here last week, the Governator is not jacking around with a recalcitrant California State Legislature as they dither over submitting a balanced budget. They’re a month late and the bills aren’t getting paid in California. So Conan has signed an executive order to reduce state employees’ pay to minimum wage. Public safety and some health employees are exempt. No word on Schwarzenegger’s own salary.

The minimum wage is $6.55 per hour. Here in Ohio, state interns make $11 per hour.

That’s how bad it is in California tonight.  What’s on the Ohio budget horizon?

Many if not most state governments, including Ohio, have adopted balanced budget language into state law. That’s why our Governor Ted Strickland had to make some tough choices earlier this year. Revenues are not meeting expectations and Ohio was forced to trim over $700 million from its budget. This cutting is not easy – would you like to make the choice between this mental health facility or that veteran’s home? Would you like to have to decide which correctional facility can handle a reduction in staff – when none of them would be considered by any definition as overstaffed? These are the sorts of decisions Governors have to make.

Now, I can’t imagine that when the Governor and the next legislature get down to business on the next biennial budget in 2009 that things are going to be much better revenue-wise than they do now.  Since Strickland is governor and not king, we unfortunately have to rely on lawmakers as much as Strickland.

If you look back at the last dozen or so years of Republican-led legislatures, what have they done?  Until Ted Strickland showed up, nothing.  They saw the writing on the wall with the 2006 election for statewide offices and started soiling themselves.  They’ve worked with Strickland, but they certainly haven’t made it easy. 

This November’s election is important.  We need to wrest control from the do-nothing Republicans and give Strickland a Democratic legislature to work with.

Sunday Morning Papers – Marc Dann et. al. called ‘pond scum,’ by hometown paper; Strickland, Education tour, DHL, Housing, Noe, Ohio EPA

Ohio News

• City wild about Obama, Strickland – Lancaster Eagle Gazette

The above link is the headline taken from the Gazette. It cracked me up because Lancaster is one of those areas that reflexively votes Republican. It’s Central Ohio’s little slice of Orange County. Getting 100 Dems out down there is a good thing. Not sure if that city is ‘wild’ about Obama, but if the donkeys keep working hard and staying on message we may win some extra hearts and minds this year.

• Op-Ed, Dennis Willard: Governor’s 12-city tour seems sincere – Akron Beacon Journal

Seems?! Apparently the ABJ didn’t read my post on these education forums. You can here. Governor Strickland is doing something we’re apparently not used to as Americans in the Bush/Cheney era, he’s reaching out to his constituents.

• Op-Ed, Bertram DeSouza: Slow down rush to settle AG harassment cases – Youngstown Vindicator

Holy Crikey. DeSouza unloads on the Troubled Trio (Dann, Jennings, Gutierrez) by calling them “pond scum” and “pus-filled boils on this regions backside.” He basically brands Jenn Urban a gold digger. The essential point is that the next attorney general should determine how many of our tax dollars go down the drain in settlements to the alleged victims of sexual harassment under the Dann regime. He may have something there.

• Op-Ed, Thomas Suddes: Ohio’s term limits lead to unlimited trickery – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Ohio allowed more flexibility under ‘No Child Left Behind’ – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• State crisis team reacts to possible DHL layoffs – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Op-Ed, Mark Moran: 400,000 reasons to care about health care reform in Cuyahoga County –Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Editorial: Media needs to get balanced for election – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Editorial: PUCO needs to hold hearings publicly where people have access – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Pinching pennies at the Ohio State Fair – Columbus Dispatch
• Housing Rescue: Too Little, Too Late? – Columbus Dispatch (Washington Post)
• State works on Medicaid claims delays – Columbus Dispatch
• Plan to lessen smog hits brakes – Columbus Dispatch
• State to require extra ID for registering vehicles – Columbus Dispatch
• Editorial: Americans awash in debt – Columbus Dispatch
• Editorial: Recouping money in coin scandal doesn’t minimize Noe’s crime – Columbus Dispatch
• Op-Ed, Joe Hallett: Strickland Ed Forum Taught Me a Lesson: He’s Right On – Columbus Dispatch
• Op-Ed, Bill Hershey: Strickland ‘conversation’ set for Dayton – Dayton Daily News
• Ohio EPA concerned about smog rules – Associated Press (Dayton Daily News)

Saturday Morning – Sick days, Education, Strickland, Foreclosures, Ohio AG Race, Bears, Boehner

Ohio News

• Strickland seeks business-labor compromise on sick days – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Three Cleveland charter schools join forces – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Op-Ed, Aaron Marshall – Raussen, Spada jobs come with perk – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Bleak stats for black youth – Columbus Dispatch
• Bexley considers limiting protesters – Columbus Dispatch
• Foreclosure frenzy may ease in Ohio – Columbus Dispatch

• Editorial: Keep Ohio AG race on high road – Columbus Dispatch
• Ohio man charged in bear shooting – Dayton Daily News
• Union leaders fear Packard plant closing – Youngstown Vindicator
• Akron area foreclosures up 59% – Akron Beacon Journal
• Editorial: Talking with Ted – Akron Beacon Journal
• Editorial: No Marc Dann – Akron Beacon Journal
• Boehner pushing for Alaska drilling – Cincinnati Enquirer

Friday Clips – Gov. Ted Strickland, Keno, Education, Marc Dann

Strickland education forums coverage

• Editorial: Setting tone for reform – Wheeling Intelligencer
• Editorial: Answers to school funding needed soon – Newark Advocate
• Governor quizzes Akron – Akron Beacon Journal
• Local residents to attend education forum with Strickland – Urbana Daily Herald

KENO!

• Mansfield pastors voice opposition – Mansfield News Journal
• Op-Ed, Ben Mutti – Ohio citizens bound to lose if state bets on Keno – Mansfield News Journal
• Op-Ed, Joe Blundo – O’ how low can we go to raise more dough? – Columbus Dispatch

Other Ohio News

• Op-Ed, David W. Jones – O’Neill, LaTourette: Follow the $$$ – News Herald
• Op-Ed, Bertram de Souza, – Marc Dann’s selective cronyism – Youngstown Vindicator

More later …

Thursday a.m. – Obama tour, Crites, charter school failures, Raussen pick

Obama World Tour Rocks Jerusalem

Next gig Berlin

• Surprise visit to Western Wall – The Guardian
• Obama lavished with coverage – and criticism - LA Times
• Anticipation, griping ahead of Obama Berlin visit – Deutsche Welle

I don’t recall ever seeing campaign paraphernalia being displayed overseas in the manner it’s been used during the Obama trip. There is even a picture of an Obama sign in Hebrew in one of the pictures of him at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. A bit over the top, Barack. The electioneering is for the home shores …

Ohio News

• Ex prosecutor vies for AG spot – Toledo Blade
• Crites says he’s no ’sacrificial lamb’ – Dayton Daily News
• Crites run official – Columbus Dispatch
• Strickland declares emergency for Perry County – Columbus Dispatch
• Human services officials cry out for poor counties – Columbus Dispatch
• Defunct charter schools still owe millions – Columbus Dispatch
• Health coverage study goes to Governor, Legislature – Columbus Dispatch
• Editorial: Ohio has work to do on its unemployment fund – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• GOP names AG pick – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Third Frontier lifts OSU research funding – Dayton Daily News
• Howard Wilkinson: GOP decries Raussen pick – Cincinnati Enquirer

Wednesday Clips – Strickland on Education, Ohio AG Race: Crites, Foreclosures

Ohio News

• Strickland getting high marks on school reform proposals – Columbus Dispatch
• Governor holding reform event in Akron today – Akron Beacon Journal
• Education Ideas Anyone? – Canton Repository
• First conversation on reform – Toledo Blade
• Strickland to hire GOP incumbents – Columbus Dispatch
• Move affects battle for House – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Crites Republican pick for AG race – Columbus Dispatch
• GOP blasts Brunner – Columbus Dispatch
• HUD turns to fire sale on foreclosed homes – Columbus Dispatch
• Crites gets Republican nod – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Rivers, lake to form new water trail – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Crites to be nominee – Dayton Daily News
• Hearing to be held on DHL, UPS proposal for Wilmington – Dayton Daily News

Ohio GOP: Worst Day May Have Been Today

If the terminal patient - Ohio’s Republican Party - could take a turn for the worse it happened today.

First, amidst very little fanfare, Gongwer Ohio and the Columbus Dispatch reported around lunchtime that the elephants finally got themselves a candidate for Ohio Attorney General, D. Michael Crites. Crites, a former U.S. Attorney for Presidents Reagan and Bush 41 has not been heard from since about the early 1990s. His claim to fame is taking down Charlie Hustle on tax evasion charges.

That was his claim to fame until Plunderbund unearthed Crites’ own cronyism tinged with adultery scandal earlier this evening. You can read all about it here.

State Republican leaders would not confirm Crites’ appointment nor did he return calls from the Associated Press today. I’m wondering if this doesn’t go swirling down the drain with every other potential GOP candidacy. Tonight, given the revelations unearthed by Plunderbund, the GOP may be wishing they would’ve vetted this guy.

Crites wasn’t the only bad news for the GOP today. Governor Ted Strickland single-handedly won two Ohio House races today. If this wasn’t enough to fire up the Democratic faithful, then I don’t know what else Uncle Ted can do. He certainly proved that there is still some adult supervision of our beloved party. The last thing we heard from Boy Wonder was that we had a House Speaker before we had the House. I don’t believe Vernal G. Riffe (may peace be upon him) ever pulled one of those.

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Lunchtime Tuesday – Strickland and education, Key Bank, Ken Blackwell, Dolly

A little Ohio News …

• Strickland’s first education reform forum today – Columbus Dispatch
• Governor must move faster on plan – News-Herald
• Key Bank Huge Losses – Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Irrelevant Ken Blackwell in anti-Obama ad – Associated Press

Get ready for reporters standing in the rain -

• Hurricane warnings issued on Texas, Mexico coasts – Houston Chronicle

Ted Strickland’s Rallying of the State at City Club of Cleveland

In his best major speech since his first state of the state address in 2007, Governor Ted Strickland set some folks straight Friday at the City Club of Cleveland.  I could gush, but I’m too tired to write and not in the mood to gush.  I will tell you this should be read aloud in every city council meeting, civic club, union hall, board room, and civics class in the state.

Righting the economic framework in our state’s and nation’s economies begins with leadership.  Strickland, the pastor and psychologist got it right when he said today:

“The power of perception is at work here. If self pity did any good, I would be all for it.  But a negative self image undercuts a community’s morale, and it undercuts a community’s prospects.  It’s a self fulfilling prophesy – why should investors go where people have given up on themselves?”

Strickland also contexted the actions he’s taken as governor with the state of Ohio’s economy in relation to Ohio’s economy and it’s future. 

Today in Cleveland, Strickland delivered many reasons for hope and rallied the state.

For the full text of the speech: Read more

Strickland orders Ohio state colleges and universities to offer in-state tuition to all GI Bill participants

You can read more here.

Monday A.M. – Ohio Economy, Gov. Strickland, Obama, Krugman,

• Michael Douglas: The Year for Budgeting Responsibly – Akron Beacon Journal
• Drug Plan May Cost Rather Than Save – Columbus Dispatch
• Obama’s Organizing Years – New York Times
• Economy Trouble for Both Candidates – New York Time

This economy and its problems are much more of a problem for McCain and the status quo.

• Paul Krugman: Behind the Bush Bust – New York Times
• California’s Fiscal Woes Largely of Its Own Making – Los Angeles Times
• Fuel Prices Drive Tough Adjustments – Chicago Tribune
• Rising mafia emerges from Italy’s shadows – Chicago Tribune

WSJ Doesn’t Paint Entire Picture

Wow.

Older, poorer, and dumber and Ohio isn’t making any of the right moves to get its economy back on track. That’s what Chester E. Finn, Jr. wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on June 28. Finn laments rising unemployment, high state and local taxes, broken school funding, and general degradation of everything from his home state’s downtowns to corporate earnings.

You can read Finn’s piece here.

Much of what Finn has to say is true. It’s what is not said that is the problem. The contention that Ohio is “making all the wrong moves to reverse the situation” is not true. Finn mentions Gov. Ted Strickland almost with wonder that he could be enjoying approval ratings around 55%. If he would have done a little digging into Strickland’s record regarding bolstering Ohio’s economy, the tone of his article may have been different.

In just the past five months, Strickland has signed two executive orders aimed directly at a better business climate for Ohio. The first, signed in February, is Implementing Common Sense Business Regulation. According to the governor’s office, the executive order requires:

• agencies to review existing rules and processes;
  
• to treat those affected by their rules and regulatory processes as customers and treat them consistently across regions, offices, and departments;
  
• and to consolidate regulatory rules and processes
  
• directs certain cabinet agencies to designate an existing staff member as an agency regulatory ombudsman
  
• regulatory reviews to determine if existing rules are needed to implement the underlying statute and ensure consistency with federal rules and the Common Sense Business Regulation process;
  
• After a review, state agencies must amend or rescind rules that are unnecessary, that unnecessarily impede economic growth, or that have had unintended negative consequences.
  

Supporters of this order include the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Ohio Manufacturer’s Association, and the Ohio arm of the National Federation of Independent Business.

Just last week, Strickland signed an executive order to promote sweeping change in the state’s $3.5 billion per year spend on supplies and services. You can find it here. This order was preceded by one day by his signing of the Capital/Corrections Bill, which contained other procurement reform measures. There is a lot of detail in the procurement measures, but it essentially gets down to Ohio government operating more as an enterprise and not two dozen or so banana republics. Using a center-led purchasing philosophy which demands state agencies to collaborate — and by ridding agencies like the Bureau of Worker’s Compensation of their exemptions from central purchasing authority — the state conservatively expects to save $35 to $70 million.

In addition to the savings gleaned from Strickland’s moves toward more efficient and accountable government, there’s something in procurement reform for business. Set aside programs that have essentially been ignored by many agencies during Republican administrations are getting executive attention. Minority-owned, economically or socially disadvantaged, and Ohio owned set asides or preferences under Ohio law will now be tracked and reported agency by agency

Strickland signed legislation in May which reforms the state’s energy industry. Strickland demanded – and got – from the Ohio legislature a bill which ensures the affordability and predictability of utility costs for consumers and businesses alike. The bill also featured a renewable energy component which mandates that at least 25% of energy sold in the state by 2025 must be generated from renewable sources.

After calling for an economic stimulus package in January, Strickland signed a $1.57 billion stimulus bill in early June. The bill invests in job-creating industries, communities, infrastructure, and workforce development to stimulate job creation and lay the foundation for long-term economic growth.

While Finn’s and others’ concerns are real regarding Ohio’s demographic and economic situation, Strickland sees the big picture. He’s taking on the big issues and treating government more like a business and approaching the private sector as his most important customer. You can’t turn around 16 years of bad state policy in 16 months, but Strickland is making all the right moves so far.

Sunday – Some of What I’m Reading

• The Self-Inflicted Economic Death of Ohio - WSJ Op-Ed
• Ohio Has Issues – Columbus Dispatch
• Plenty of loose ends remain as the new fiscal year is dawning - Suddes
• Ohio Republicans Need to Get Over Being Flustered – Plain Dealer editorial