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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2009 > March > 11
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
John Boehner has some stuff he wants to talk to you about
House Minority Leader John Boehner has been a multimedia machine lately. He was one of the first members whose staff got him on “Twitter,” the one-line blogging platform. Lately, he’s been releasing videos.
Here’s one where he’s asking for constituent input:
And here’s Boehner weighing in on the “Employee Free Choice Act,” introduced in the House this week:
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Dayton leaders want to add police, improve airport with stimulus funds
By Joanne Huist Smith
Staff Writer
DAYTON — The promise of millions of dollars in federal stimulus funds has Dayton city officials looking dreamy eyed and smiling.
Projects long in planning like building a new fire station, hiring additional police officers, and resurfacing all downtown streets could take years for the financially strapped city to fund on its own. Many of those initiatives could come together quickly if Dayton’s wish list is funded.
“We don’t know what we’re actually going to get,” City Manager Rashad Young said. I’m hopeful. This has been a huge work effort by the staff.” Young, on Wednesday, March 11, gave the Dayton City Commission an overview of projects he believes fit the criteria for stimulus funding.
He said projects like putting infrastructure on vacant property at Dayton International Airport would open up that land for development and, bring jobs to the city. “This is a tremendous opportunity for us,” Young said. A $3.5 to $5.3 million COPS grant could put 24 police officers on the streets of Dayton, in advance of significant, anticipated retirements in 2011, Young said. Other initiatives, like converting the city’s fleet to alternative fuels, may not sound glamorous, but it would save the city money in the long run and be better for the environment.
On April 10, the city plans to host a Stimulus Summit for key community partners such as CityWide Development Corp., the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority, Montgomery County, Dayton Metropolitan Housing Authority and Dayton Power and Light, to look at projects being proposed for the region.
“We want to look at what our partners are doing and what we can do to compliment them.”
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Brunner gets Husted question
The Montgomery County Board of Elections just forwarded to Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner position papers on the question of whether State Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, is a legal resident of Kettering for voting purposes, according to Betty Smith, deputy director of the board.
The board of elections matter goes to Brunner to break a tie vote. In February the board’s two Democrats said Husted did not prove residence and the two Republicans said he did.
Brunner’s legal counsel will review the documents, said Jeff Ortega, spokesman. There is no deadline for Brunner to rule, but she is aware that the matter needs resolved in a timely manner, Ortega said.
The local board began investigating in the wake of two complaints filed last year claiming Husted lives in Upper Arlington with his wife and kids, not in Kettering, where he is registered to vote.
Husted says he lives in Kettering, spends time at his wife’s house in Upper Arlington and, to the extent he does not stay in Kettering, it is a temporary absence allowed by law because he is a member of the Ohio General Assembly.
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Plans unveiled for vote on four Ohio casinos
Backers of a plan to put casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo on Wednesday, March 11, started the process of getting the proposal on the Nov. 3 ballot.
Principal backers are Penn National Gaming Inc. and Dan Gilbert, majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA team.
A press release said that if approved by voters the proposal would result in $1 billion in “required new private investment, $200 million in licensing fees, $600 million annually in tax revenue - most of it for counties, cities and school districts - as well as create an estimated 20,000 new jobs for the state,” a press release said.
More information is available at www.ohiojobsandgrowth.org.
Voters four times since 1990 have rejected casino proposals but backers were optimistic.
“We are confident that Ohio voters will recognize that this is far and away the best and fairest proposal for casino gaming they have been asked to approve,” former Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken said in a press release. Luken is chairman of the Ohio Jobs and Growth Committee, formed to back the issue.
The committee submitted the proposal to Attorney General Richard Cordray to get the petition language approved. Once they get approval, backers will start gathering the more than 400,000 signatures from registered voters to get the plan on the ballot, the press release said. Deadline for submitting the signatures is July 1.
Here’s your chance to get in the casino debate.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]Here’s where the casinos would be located, according to Bob Tenenbaum, spokesman for the committee:
*Cincinnati - On 20.4 acres in the Broadway Commons area in the eastern part of downtown.
*Toledo - On 44.2 acres along the Maumee River opposite the main part of downtown.
*Columbus - On 18.3 acres west of the Arena District which is at the northern end of downtown.
*Cleveland - On 87.5 acres, downtown adjacent to Quicken Loans Arena and along the Cuyahoga River.
Penn National Gaming was spent heavily last year to help defeat a proposed casino for Wilmington but wasn’t opposed to expanded gambling in Ohio, said Tenenbaum. The new proposal is “superior” to the Wilmington plan, he said.
David Zanotti, president of the Ohio Roundtable, a suburban Cleveland conservative research group that opposes gambling, predicted the new proposal would fail, as the previous four casino plans did. Zanotti predicted other gambling interests, including those based in Las Vegas, would oppose it.
