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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2009 > October > 29
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Former AG Montgomery blasts casino plan
Former Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery on Thursday, Oct. 29, blasted the plan to put casinos in four Ohio cities as loophole-riddled.
“If this amendment passes, Ohio will have the weakest oversight of casino gambling in all of American and that is deliberate,” Montgomery said at a press conference with House Minority Leader William Batchelder, R-Medina, and the Rev. John Edgar, a leader of the United Methodist Church’s anti-gambling efforts in Ohio.
Montgomery said that the amendment would limit the Ohio Casino Control Commission to investigating and having oversight over only those “directly” involved in operating casinos, leaving the door open for even criminal elements to have indirect involvement in the casinos.
Even Bernie Madoff, the imprisoned Ponzi scheme operator, could be involved in Ohio casinos, Montgomery said.
Bob Tenenbaum, spokesman for the pro-casino Ohio Jobs and Growth Committee, disputed Montgomery.
“I think it is unfortunate that the former attorney general has apparently bought into the desperation tactics of the opponents on this issue,” said Tenenbaum.
He said the amendment was written to give the legislature and Casino Control Commission “broad authority” over who could be licensed to operate casinos. Casino backers think the regulations “ought to be very tight” to insure the integrity of gambling in Ohio, Tenenbaum said.
The proposed constitutional amendment to permit casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo is Issue 3 on the Nov. 3 ballot.
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State government sheds 1,336 jobs since July
Amid the Ohio budget crunch, state government has eliminated 1,336 jobs, or 2.2 percent of the workforce.
Ohio now has 58,650 workers compared with 59,986 in July, 60,054 in August and 58,889 in September, according to state figures. While there has been a downward trend overall, there are 593 more state workers represented by unions now compared with July.
State budget director Pari Sabety told lawmakers this week that there are 4,909 fewer state workers today than at the beginning of Gov. Ted Strickland’s term, which began in Jan. 2007.
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Domestic violence victims may get public records shield
Victims of domestic violence who fear for their safety would be allowed to have their addresses shielded from disclosure on public records in a program that would be run by the Ohio Secretary of State’s office, if a soon-to-be introduced bill becomes law.
State Rep. Kathleen Chandler, D-Kent, is working with Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner on the privacy program.
Under Chandler’s bill, counselors at domestic violence shelters or elsewhere would help the participants file sworn statements, copies of protective orders and other material that proves that they have been victims of violent crimes. Mail for these individuals would be sent to the Secretary of State’s office and forwarded to the program participant’s true address, under the proposed legislation.
Participants would be required to vote by absentee ballot. Currently, 37 states administer address confidentiality programs, including 19 run by secretaries of state, 11 by attorneys general and seven by non-profits, according to Brunner’s office. “Ohio has been hard hit on many fronts, and a program such as this offers affected women and their children, as well as affected men, the opportunity to live peacefully at a location of their choosing with the privacy of their whereabouts kept safe from their stalkers or abusers,” Brunner said.
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Civil rights offices merge
The Ohio Civil Rights Commission is merging its Dayton and Cincinnati offices into one located at 40 W. 4th Street in downtown Dayton.
The commission named Norman Gibson, of Cincinnati, as the new regional director after the retirements of Dayton office director Marguerite Walker and Cincinnati office director H. Jean McEntire. Gibson has been a civil rights investigator and supervisor for the commission for a decade.
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Columbus Mayor Coleman votes against casino plan
Breaking with mayors of the other proposed casino cities, Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman has voted absentee against Issue 3, the proposed constitutional amendment to allow casinos in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo.
“The mayor is not uniformly opposed to gambling,” Dan Williamson, Coleman’s spokesman, said on Thursday, Oct. 29. “He believes, in fact, that at some point Ohio will have casino gambling. If so, it needs to be done in the right way.”
Coleman, a University of Dayton Law School graduate, believes a casino plan should be highly taxed, competitively bid and set up by the state legislature rather than by private interests, said Williamson. Issue 3 doesn’t meet those criteria, Williamson added.
Mayor Frank Jackson of Cleveland, Mark Mallory of Cincinnati and Carty Finkbeiner of Toledo all back Issue 3.
Bob Tenenbaum, spokesman for the pro-casino Ohio Jobs and Growth Committee, had this e-mail reaction to Coleman’s decision:
“We’re disappointed that Mayor Coleman didn’t see the benefit of a $250 million private investment and 6,000 new jobs for his city, but we respect his right to express his personal opinion by voting, just as millions of Ohioans will do next Tuesday.”
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Swine flu worries most Ohioans
Most Ohioans — 54 percent — are worried that they or someone in their household will get H1N1 flu, also known as swine flu, and 34 percent plan to get vaccinated, according to a new poll released Thursday, Oct. 29.
In households with children, 53 percent of Ohioans said they plan to have their kids vaccinated, the poll found.
If one-third of Ohioans got vaccinated, the state would need to distribute roughly 3.5 million doses. So far, Ohio has received about 600,000 doses, according to the state Department of Health.
The Ohio Poll, conducted by the University of Cincinnati, also shows that women are more worried than men and whites are more likely to be concerned than African Americans about the virus.
The telephone survey, conducted Oct. 14-20, asked 808 adults in Ohio about their views on swine flu. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percent.
