Political News - Ohio - onPolitix

Auditor: Add surplus to rainy day fund

2012-05-11T11:00:48Z

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio's auditor is urging lawmakers to put any surplus tax money into the state's rainy day fund this year instead of spending it.

A boost from tax collections has put revenue about $350 million above estimates. Some forecasters believe that could grow by hundreds of millions of dollars before the fiscal year ends June 30.

But Republican Gov. John Kasich's administration has downplayed that possibility.

A provision added to a legislative proposal by House Republicans would keep surplus revenue from automatically transferring into the rainy day fund.

The Columbus Dispatch reports Auditor Dave Yost sent a letter to state Senate leaders encouraging them to remove the provision. He says extra revenue should be saved because the $247 million in the rainy day fund is below the recommended level.

Elections chief denies GOP ballot claim

2012-05-11T10:53:36Z

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio's elections chief is defending his decision to require county election boards to follow a federal court decree instead of state law when it comes to counting provisional ballots.

At issue are requirements for providing identification when a voter has to cast a provisional ballot, typically a ballot cast in the wrong precinct.

Ohio House and Senate Republicans have sued Secretary of State Jon Husted in the Ohio Supreme Court, saying his action is unconstitutional because the elections board requirement violates the separation of powers doctrine.

Husted, a Republican, argues he is required to follow the federal court's order and says the Supreme Court doesn't have proper jurisdiction.

In general, state law is more restrictive than the federal decree when it comes to prohibiting provisional ballots.

Wagner announces Dayton mayoral run

2012-05-08T15:22:18Z

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — The contest to determine who will be Dayton's next mayor picked up its first participant Tuesday morning.

A.J. Wagner announced his intention to run in the 2013 election.

Wagner pointed to his experience as one of the reasons he'd make a good mayor.

He says he's worked for the city in the past. He's also been Montgomery County Auditor and was a Common Pleas Court judge before retiring a little more than a year ago.

"This resume gives me a view of the inner workings of this community like no other," Wagner says.

Wagner told 2 NEWS he always envisioned adding to that resume after retirement by working for a non-profit.

In running to be mayor of Dayton, he's tackling a non-profit unlike any other.

"I can help the most people in the most positive ways," Wagner says. "It's the largest non-profit in the county."

2 NEWS asked Wagner about his plans for Dayton if he's elected. He says one of the biggest things he would change is making the city more business friendly.

"Some of the city workers aren't welcoming to businesses who want to come in to get permits to repair things and build things," Wagner says.

Wagner's strongest stance may have come on the issue of the city's red light and speed cameras and the towing enforcement strategy to go after violators who don't pay.

"I believe they're unconstitutional," Wagner says of the cameras. "I believe you cannot define speeding as a crime and then treat everything as a civil penalty."

Wagner says he's excited about the campaign and expects he'll have others join him soon in the race.

2 NEWS asked current Mayor Gary Leitzell's office about Wagner running.

They tell us the Mayor wishes him good luck and will decide later this summer if he's going to seek re-election.

Santorum endorses one-time rival Romney

2012-05-08T03:29:43Z

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former presidential hopeful Rick Santorum urged his supporters to back fellow Republican Mitt Romney's campaign Monday in a late-night email that ignored that Santorum once calling Romney the "worst Republican in the country" during their bitter contest.

Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania and a newly minted celebrity among conservatives, said that the one-time rivals would unite to deny President Barack Obama's re-election. But in a nod that the wounds had not yet healed, he reminded his supporters of the deep differences between the two and that misgivings had not yet abated.

"The primary campaign certainly made it clear that Gov. Romney and I have some differences. But there are many significant areas in which we agree," Santorum wrote, citing common ground in economic, social and foreign policy.

He added: "Above all else, we both agree that President Obama must be defeated. The task will not be easy. It will require all hands on deck if our nominee is to be victorious. Gov. Romney will be that nominee and he has my endorsement and support to win this the most critical election of our lifetime."

It was a sharp turnabout from what he had to say about Romney in Wisconsin: "Pick any other Republican in the country. He is the worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama."

Romney visited Santorum for more than an hour on Friday at the Pittsburgh office of Santorum's longtime strategist. The session covered many of Santorum's concerns about Romney's campaign, especially the sincerity of his vow to repeal Democrats' national health care law that was modeled on one Romney signed into law as Massachusetts governor. Those worries, it seems, were assuaged during their private session that ended without Santorum's public backing.

"And while I had concerns about Gov. Romney making a case as a candidate about fighting against Obamacare, I have no doubt if elected he will work with a Republican Congress to repeal it and replace it with a bottom up, patient, not government, driven system," Santorum said in an email that allowed him to bypass a public event with the two standing arm in arm.

Santorum also urged Romney's campaign to incorporate some of Santorum's former aides and advisers to ensure conservatives are represented. That too seems to have begun. Santorum's former campaign manager has signed on with Romney to help his outreach to conservatives, a voting bloc that was skeptical of Romney's changed positions on bedrock issues such as abortion rights.

"You can be sure that I will work with the governor to help him in this task to ensure he has a strong team that will support him in his conservative policy initiatives," Santorum said.

Obama stresses foreign policy in Kabul

2012-05-02T01:05:10Z

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama answered political taunts with presidential muscle Tuesday, addressing the nation from Kabul as Republicans said he's overdoing the celebration of Osama bin Laden's death one year ago.

The president's secret flight to Afghanistan -- where he signed off on details for withdrawing U.S. troops from the decade-long war there -- was the type of campaign counterpunch that may play out many times in his re-election battle against Republican Mitt Romney.

Obama began his visit at the same air base where Navy SEALs launched their daring raid on bin Laden's house in Pakistan.

Timing his pre-dawn speech in Kabul for evening viewing back home, Obama brought attention to his three chief foreign policy achievements: ending the Iraq war roughly as he promised in 2008; killing bin Laden, whose terrorist organization killed nearly 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, 2001; and setting a timetable for ending the increasingly unpopular Afghanistan war.

Both political parties agree the Nov. 6 election will hinge mainly on the U.S. economy. Before the campaign gets fully engaged, however, Obama is using his presidential prerogatives -- and risking new complaints of political exploitation -- to make his strongest possible case on military and diplomatic fronts.

"One year ago, from a base here in Afghanistan, our troops launched the operation that killed Osama bin Laden," Obama said in his 10-minute speech in front of empty armored personnel carriers. "The goal that I set - to defeat al Qaeda, and deny it a chance to rebuild - is within reach."

Republicans, and even some liberal allies, said Obama's team went too far last week in releasing a campaign video suggesting Romney would not have ordered the risky nighttime raid on bin Laden's suspected compound. But some Democratic strategists defended the strategy.

Obama "is in an unusually strong position, thanks to keeping his promises on Afghanistan and Iraq, overseeing the killing of Osama bin Laden and otherwise keeping America strong and secure," said Doug Hattaway, who worked for Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign against Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary. "The economy will remain top of the list for most people," Hattaway said, "but it definitely helps to highlight his successes in this area."

Vice President Joe Biden launched the political argument last week.

"Thanks to President Obama, bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive," Biden said in a campaign speech. "You have to ask yourself, if Gov. Romney had been president, could he have used the same slogan -- in reverse?"

The double-barreled taunt hit Romney's criticism of the administration's auto industry bailout and the mixed signals Romney gave in 2007 about the lengthy hunt for bin Laden.

Romney first told The Associated Press that it was not worth "moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person." He later said of bin Laden, "We'll move everything to get him," but it's not "all about one person."

Romney said this week "of course" he would have approved the raid on bin Laden's compound. "Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order," he said.

Democrats said the mention of Carter underscored precisely the political risk Obama was willing to take. A 1980 Carter-approved attempt to rescue U.S. hostages in Tehran ended in disaster in an Iranian desert, with helicopters destroyed, eight servicemen dead and the United States deeply embarrassed.

"It's very important for people to understand that this was a gutsy political call," said former Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., who now heads the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Facing conflicting predictions about the bin Laden raid's chances for success, Obama showed "a combination of deliberation and decisiveness" that Americans like, Perriello said.

Some Republicans, however, have sharply criticized the president's references to bin Laden's death.

"Barack Obama is not only trying to score political points by invoking Osama bin Laden, he is doing a shameless end-zone dance to help himself get re-elected," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who lost to Obama in 2008.

Writer Arianna Huffington, usually an Obama ally, joined in. She told "CBS This Morning": "Using the Osama bin Laden assassination, killing, the great news that we had a year ago, in order to say basically that Obama did it and Romney might not have done it ... to turn it into a campaign ad is one of the most despicable things you can do."

Like most former governors who run for president, Romney has scant foreign policy experience. He has said Obama is too faint-hearted in defending Israel and in warning Iran and North Korea about the potential consequences of their nuclear ambitions.

Democratic strategists say relatively few voters will base their November ballots on such claims.

While Obama was flying to Kabul Tuesday, Romney visited the lower Manhattan site where hijacked planes brought down the World Trade Center's towers in the 2001 terror attacks.

"It's totally appropriate for the president to express to the American people the view that he has that he had an important role in taking out Osama bin Laden," Romney said. "I think politicizing it and trying to draw a distinction between himself and myself was an inappropriate use of the very important event that brought America together."

Ohio offers tax amnesty through June 15

2012-05-01T09:52:40Z

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohioans who are behind on their state taxes could clear their obligations without having to pay penalties under a tax amnesty program that starts Tuesday.

The program is the first for individuals in six years and just the third general amnesty program for Ohio, although the state continues an amnesty program for businesses that began in October.

The Department of Taxation says the state collected more than $60 million in past-due taxes during the last general tax amnesty in 2006.

Those who qualify will be able to pay back taxes without penalties and only half the interest owed under the 2012 amnesty program , which runs until June 15.

GOP follows Romney's lead

2012-04-28T21:09:57Z

WASHINGTON (AP) — Now that Mitt Romney has emerged as the likely GOP presidential nominee, congressional Republicans increasingly are taking their cues from him even if it causes heartburn and grumbling among conservatives unhappy about having to beat a tactical retreat.

That dynamic was on full display last week as House Speaker John Boehner coped with the dust-up generated by President Barack Obama over student loans and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell sidestepped Democratic attempts to brand Republicans as soft on the issue of violence against women.

It's a defensive game for Republicans, determined to avoid their stumbles last year when they lost the political battle over renewing Obama's payroll tax cut.

"Some folks in an election year would say you need to take tough issues off the table," said Rep. Rob Woodall, R-Ga. "Other folks in an election year say you need to bring your best solutions to the toughest issues, and I'm in that latter camp."

The matter of student loan interest rates was on the back burner until barely a week ago when the White House elevated it to the top of its agenda. Obama pounded away during visits to university campuses in North Carolina, Iowa and Colorado, pivotal states in the November election.

Interest rates are scheduled to double, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, on July 1 due to a quirk in a law Democrats muscled through Congress five years ago.

Romney on Monday endorsed the $6 billion move to forestall the interest rate increase, even before Obama had arrived at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Boehner quickly set a vote, using unspent money from Obama's unpopular health care law to pay for the plan. By Friday, the issue was mostly deflated.

The vote, however, put Republicans at odds with the Club For Growth, which urged lawmakers to oppose the legislation. The group sometimes uses its fundraising power to back primary challengers to GOP incumbents.

Boehner, R-Ohio, accused Obama of manufacturing the issue.

"The president keeps attempting to invent these fake fights because he doesn't have a record of success or a positive agenda for our country," the speaker said. "It is as simple as this: The emperor has no clothes."

In fact, Republicans had invited a fight by failing to address the issue before Obama raised it. Their budget blueprint last month assumed the interest rate subsidy would expire. While the GOP chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee worked on a longer-term plan, Boehner stepped in to take the issue off the campaign table.

"I think they're doing a good job of seeing when pitches are coming at their head," said GOP strategist John Feehery of Quinn Gillespie & Associates.

But, Feehery added, "You can't just be on defense all the time. You've got to be on offense, too. The Republicans are better off when they're trying to pin Obama down on things as opposed to when they're trying to avoid haymakers from Obama."

Opportunities to go on offense are limited because Republicans control only the House.

Holding both the White House and a Senate majority, Democrats have more opportunity to set the political agenda. That was the case with the Violence Against Women Act, the government's main domestic violence program.

It had been renewed twice without opposition in the Senate, but Democrats this year opted to make it a broader battle for women's votes.

With a handful of GOP co-sponsors, they added new language making gays and battered illegal immigrants eligible for a variety of assistance, and that led to opposition from many conservatives.

"They specifically put things in there in an attempt to get us to vote 'no,'" said McConnell spokesman Don Stewart.

Democrats threatened to force an up-or-down vote on their preferred version, and that could have put numerous Republicans on the wrong side of the issue. McConnell, R-Ky., promised a speedy debate and won a demand to have votes on two GOP alternatives. That defused the battle, for now.

So what's next?

Obama and Democrats such as Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York have more up their sleeve, including a pay equity bill opposed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other Republican allies.

Later, there could be potential Senate votes on extending expiring middle-class tax cuts. If the Supreme Court strikes down Obama's health care law, Democrats would be poised to force votes on popular elements of the measure, including allowing children up to 26 years old to remain on their parents' health insurance.

Talk continues on election law repeal

2012-04-27T11:50:26Z

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio lawmakers and opponents of a new election law are still trying to reach an agreement over restoring early voting opportunities in the presidential battleground.

House leaders have delayed a vote on a bill to repeal the law in an attempt to try to find middle ground.

Republican Gov. John Kasich on Thursday said he's encouraged legislators to go back to the table.

The GOP-backed election law trims early voting days, among other changes, but has been on hold since September, when opponents gathered enough signatures to put a referendum on fall ballots.

The repeal bill's sponsor says he can't change his measure to include in-person voting during the three days before Election Day. But state Sen. Bill Coley says he's open to adding the idea in another bill.

Ohio House strips out Kasich tax plan

2012-04-25T15:14:17Z

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — By JULIE CARR SMYTH, Associated Press

The Ohio House moved closer to a vote Wednesday on a sweeping package of spending and policy initiatives spearheaded by Gov. John Kasich, after stripping out his signature tax provision on oil and gas.

Kasich's fellow Republicans in the House opted to pull the proposal for more study. It calls for increasing Ohio's severance tax on oil and gas production by 4 percent and spending the revenue on income-tax relief. The governor continued to fight for its inclusion, however.

A House vote was scheduled Wednesday afternoon on the midterm budget bill after dozens of committee changes were made Tuesday. The changes included pulling from the bill a provision that sent Planned Parenthood to the back of the line for federal funding, but keeping a provision that establishes state trooper authority in privately owned correctional facilities.

Kasich's administration took the unusual step of crafting the bill outside the normal two-year budget cycle, as a way to move forward with policy initiatives the governor launched last year after taking office.

The measure headed to the House floor over the objections of local government and school groups that wanted to see the spending plan send more state revenue to police, fire and school district coffers hit by an earlier round of budget cuts. To that end, Democrats sought to create a revolving Kids and Communities First Fund, but were unsuccessful.

Under the Democrats' proposal, Kids and Communities First would initially be funded by projected surplus tax revenue and dollars from the state's rainy-day fund then, as an ongoing money source, be funded from Kasich's proposed tax hike on oil and gas extraction.

Kasich wants to hike oil and gas extraction taxes to 4 percent in two or three years. Energy companies swarming the state in search of new natural gas and oil resources in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays would have the option to waive the tax to offset startup costs. Income tax reductions would begin in 2015, and deepen as proceeds rose.

The oil and gas industry opposes the tax increase as a deterrent to industry growth that Kasich is counting on to improve the state's economy. But the governor has dismissed their concerns, saying they can't get to the oil and gas unless they come to Ohio.

GOP House leaders spun dozens of additional Kasich proposals into separate bills that are pending in committees.

Online: Mid-Biennial Review

Election law repeal heads to Ohio House

2012-04-24T19:17:44Z

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — By ANN SANNER, Associated Press

A contentious measure that repeals a new Ohio election law in the presidential battleground state is headed to the full House for an expected vote Wednesday.

The bill cleared a Republican-dominated House panel Tuesday, despite objections from Democrats.

The legislation would get rid of an election law overhaul passed last summer that reduces early voting opportunities in the state. That law has been on hold since opponents gathered enough signatures to ask voters this November whether it should be tossed.

Voter advocates have urged state lawmakers not to make any changes to Ohio's election law before November, including repealing the new law.

Legislative leaders say repealing the overhaul now will save money and avoid an election fight that could confuse voters this fall about which rules are in place.