Visitors to the Ohio treasurer's new search engine for public worker salaries have complained the site is riddled with errors and omissions, leading the office to repair existing data and change the way it presents wage information.
Some constituents accuse Republican Treasurer and U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel, in records obtained by The Associated Press, of using the search tool to fuel antipathy toward government workers ahead of a Nov. 8 vote on Ohio's divisive new collective bargaining law.....
.....Records reflect anger over privacy, politics, and a host of individual inaccuracies — a retiree listed as a current worker, a misstated job title, and inflated salary figures by including overtime, summer pay for teachers or sick time payouts. One complainant said the site listed his daughter's stipend for graduate school as if it were state worker pay....
Even I noticed that some people who were fired, were not listed properly. As we've seen demonstrated in the last election, Josh Mandel appears to like to smear people.
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...Given his Senate candidacy and the consistent accusations he is an absent officeholder, PolitiFact Ohio decided to check Mandel’s claim about his performance as treasurer....
.....Although Mandel has simply maintained the high rating, a public finance expert said the treasurer deserves some credit. The highest praise, however, should be reserved for the fund managers who maintained the rating during the financial crisis in 2008, said Kevin O’Brien, executive director at the Center for Public Management in the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University....
Mandel couldn't say that he just maintained what those before him had done. He had to take credit for himself, even though we all know he is out running for office again.
* People are talking about the latest political ad that says that Ohio's public employees
earn 43% more than workers in the private sector. What a bunch of b******t.
Hunter over at DailyKos shows how the right wing "think tanks" came up with these bizarre, inaccurate figures. Here is a peek from DailyKos:
This month, a group called the Ohio Business Roundtable released another in a long line of conservative-promoted "reports" purporting to show that public workers are dramatically overpaid compared to their private sector equivalents. This one was authored by a fellow from the American Enterprise Institute and another fellow from the Heritage foundation, and through various machinations they put the supposed overpayment at "43 percent" [PDF], which is a shocking and outrageous number. It also, lo and behold, turns out to be false. And the methodology of the conservative authors turns out to be quite instructive...
....So basically what we have here is the AEI and Heritage version of "research." If the plain numbers show one thing, but you're funded to prove another, then just start changing numbers around until you get the conclusion you want.....
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*** It is the last day of October. On September 20, 2011, an article at the website Cleveland had this about Josh Mandel's missing personal financial disclosure that was due on May 15, 2011:
"Our staff is working with the Senate compliance staff to determine which of those spousal assets must be filed and in what format," Aquilino said. "As soon as the Senate compliance staff has answered all of these questions and the information is compiled, we will file a full and accurate report."
The Senate Ethics Committee, which addresses all questions on what must be included in a filing, will not discuss specific cases such as Mandel's. Until Mandel files his form, which is expected to be next month, the questions of critics may go unanswered.....
Vote NO on Issue 2.
Vote NO on Issues 1, 2, 3.
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* Don't you think it amazing that Gov. Kasich has managed to rally some supporters, but only those he invited to support his anti-SB5 legislation? Yes, folks, it is a rally by invitation only.
....Building a Better Ohio sent email invitations to the event Saturday. Doors open at 4 p.m. for the event. The Spread Eagle Tavern is located at 10150 Plymouth St.; it is owned by the family of Summitville Tile's CEO, David Johnson, the chairman of the Columbiana County Republican Party......
Instead of having an open to the general public rally, Kasich and company decide that it is better to keep their "rally" closed. By allowing only those the Republicans know, trust, and can depend on, Kasich and the GOP can -
(a) get their sheeple to not record any additional lies, outlandish claims, or fake statistics,
(b) eliminate having to deal with people opposed to their anti-middle class agenda,
(c) make it easier for Kasich, so that he only has to deal with people that admire (?) him,
(d) keep other prying eyes out (TV, radio, newspapers, bloggers).
Once again our beliefs about the Republican Party are confirmed--- They are all about exclusion.
Vote No on Issue 2.