Political musings on Groundhog Day

By Rory Ryan
The Highland County Press

Groundhog Day, Feb. 2, as we all know, is the day when a politician comes out of his hole; and if he sees his shadow, we’ll have at least six weeks more of political shenanigans. Sadly, even if he doesn’t see his shadow, we can always count on at least six more weeks of dubious politics.

After all, we get the politicians we deserve.

Happy Groundhog Day!

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What’s in a name

• Many of those in the Ohio media have noticed a name change since Clinton County Republican Cliff Rosenberger has become the speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives.

For many years, his news releases to statewide media identified the young lawmaker as “Cliff Rosenberger.” Since becoming speaker, his public relations minions are dispatching press items identifying him as “Clifford A. Rosenberger.” Thus far, most Ohio newspapers are sticking with “Cliff.”

Of course, his partner in politics, Gov. Kasich, also identified him as “Cliff Rosenberg” in a press release last year.

Frankly, I like the change to “Clifford A.”

In the summer of 2013, during a Highland County Board of Commissioners’ meeting, I asked commissioners Shane Wilkin, Tom Horst and Jeremy Shaffer if they had met recently with Highland County’s state rep in the 91st House District. Each said he had not. That prompted a friendly and humorous discussion of “Where’s Clifford?”

Apparently, Clifford or Cliff was working his way up the Ohio political ladder. Good for him. He has a knack for politics.

Meanwhile, Highland County’s per-capita income and real employment numbers remain virtually unchanged since the supposed end of the Great Recession and his “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” campaign pledge. Perhaps his new role as speaker will provide some newfound clout for this part of his district.

Hannah Halbert, workforce researcher with Policy Matters Ohio, which studies the state's labor market, said a recent increase of 1,000 jobs was "a meager gain in a state with 5.3 million jobs." She said Ohio still needs to recover about 111,000 jobs lost since the recession began in 2007. Of concern to her aren't monthly fluctuations in employment, but the long-term picture.

"The monthly jobs data continue to send mixed messages, but the overall trend is clear," Halbert said. "Ohio is not keeping pace with the nation, and we are nowhere near robust job growth."

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Kasich earns a B- in first term

• As Ohio Watchdog points out this week, Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich is a fan of Obamacare.

I don’t recall Kasich being a fan of anything related to Barack Hussein Obama during his campaign against former Gov. Ted Strickland in 2010. But that was then.

Today, Kasich is in favor of a bigger (and better?) federal government much as Republicans labeled Strickland throughout his political career. What gives?

According to The Columbus Dispatch’s Feb. 1 story (see http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/02/01/tax-cut-depends-on-raising-others.html), “Kasich wants to hike the 5.75 percent state sales tax, expand the sales tax to cover various services that currently aren’t taxed, elevate the cigarette tax by as much as $1 a pack and up the commercial-activities tax on larger businesses.”

And the Republicans had the gall to call Ted Strickland “Taxin’ Ted?”

Moreover, Kasich’s tax hikes appear to be in direct contrast to those he purports to help with increased spending for Medicaid under Obamacare. Sales tax increases certainly have a more adverse impact on working class Ohioans than the bluebloods.

On more conservative ground, Kasich said, according to the Dispatch, “He wants to virtually eliminate state income taxes on Ohio’s 971,000 owners of small businesses (those with gross annual receipts less than $2 million) retroactive to the beginning of 2015, which would save those filing as “pass-through entities” an estimated $696 million over two years. He advocates raising the personal exemption on state income taxes for the more than 3 million Ohioans making $80,000 a year or less, which would result in an estimated savings of $372 million over two years.”

Good thoughts, both. That tax cut should offset the other tax increase, so let’s call it a wash.

In spite of his cuts to Local Government Funding – quietly criticized by many in his own party – Kasich has earned a B- grade for his first term as Ohio governor.

But if he decides to lean (even more) left this year and next in hopes of “getting in the conversation” for the 2016 presidential race, it may become an issue for the many working Ohioans who have yet to realize any alleged economic recovery in the past four years.

Oh, and one more thing, for their own good, Ohio Republicans ought do something about the charter school abuses and the charter school cash flow in Ohio politics. The General Assembly needs to make this a priority – and stop taking campaign cash from these folks. It’s unbecoming to say the least.

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The sun’ll come out tomorrow

• And then there was this in yesterday’s email from the Kasich/Taylor campaign.

“Rory (the governor always calls me Rory), in a few weeks, I'll travel to Wilmington with state legislators to deliver my annual State of the State address. In many ways, Wilmington's story is similar to Ohio's story and it'll be a memorable opportunity to talk about how far we've come together.

“Just four years ago, Wilmington's unemployment rate was at 14.4% but the people of Clinton County came together, they faced the challenges and today, the job creation they fought for brought the unemployment rate down to 5.8%. There's more to do, but Wilmington's story is one that deserves recognition. We'll also be honored to visit the home county of Ohio's new speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, Rep. Cliff Rosenberger.

“P.S. You may remember that we visited Wilmington in 2010 during my campaign for governor and we promised Ohioans that the sun would come up again.”

Given that today is Groundhog Day, please feel free to keep the sun shining all month long if you do, in fact, have that power.

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Turn the page

• In much the same fashion as the Deflate Gate surrounding the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots will be blamed on a low-level team employee, the Forgery Gate in Ohio politics has been blamed on a “young legislative page.”

(See: http://www.highlandcountypress.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=24428&SectionID=2&SubSectionID=20&S=1)

The Columbus Dispatch reported: “Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien said that the young man passed a polygraph test regarding his role in the incident, in which he forged a letter under the name of Rep. Jim Butler, R-Oakwood, last February to the GOP primary opponent of now-Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville.”

The Dispatch, to its credit since no charges were filed, did not say for which Ohio politician the young page worked, only that it was a “Republican lawmaker.”

Chances are, everyone involved with this “investigation,” will simply turn the page.

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It should work both ways

• House Resolution 41, introduced by Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz (see sidebar story), declares Congress’s opposition to federal bailouts of state and local government employee pension plans.

In 2012, state and local government employee pension funds reported unfunded liabilities that equal more than $4 trillion. Identical legislation (H.Res. 23 and H.Res 117) was introduced during the 112th Congress and 113th Congresses.

“Unfortunately, too many state and local government pension plans have understated liabilities and overstated asset growth rates,” said Chaffetz. “They have employed methodologies that federal law prohibits private sector plans from using. This is a problem states will have to face.”

While I admire Chaffetz’s chutzpah, and I do, I’d like to counter that such a bill ought to be reciprocal in nature.

In other words, if the Feds won’t help with unfunded liabilities in state and local government employee pension funds, then the states should not help with the federal deficit.

Clean your own House, Congressman.

Rory Ryan is publisher and owner of The Highland County Press.