Why is everything in Ohio taking so long to fix? When he was elected by the slimmest of margins, John Kasich said he would bring jobs to Ohio. We are still waiting. Ohioans have learned that despite all of Kasich's braggadocious plans, nothing is really getting accomplished.
Here are a list of projects that Kasich has yet to accomplish or has "fixed" to such an extent that the roll out has been delayed.
* SCHOOL FUNDING---
RecordHerald:
A key state legislative leader predicted Tuesday that a new approach to paying for Ohio's public schools will not be complete until sometime in 2013, leaving school districts across the state to grapple with their budgets in the absence of a predictable school funding formula.
Lawmakers scrapped the existing "evidence-based model" of school funding advanced by former Gov. Ted Strickland in the two-year state operating budget passed in June. The formula was sweeping but lacked the funding to be carried out....
Lawmakers scrapped the existing "evidence-based model" of school funding advanced by former Gov. Ted Strickland in the two-year state operating budget passed in June. The formula was sweeping but lacked the funding to be carried out....
....Russ Harris, a long-time school funding consultant to the Ohio Education Association, the state's largest teacher union, said the last budget eliminated Strickland's funding concept - developed over two years - without replacing it with anything. That has meant uncertainty for school districts, he said....
School districts will have a difficult time planning because the Kasich administration can't get the job done on school funding. Now Robert Sommers, of Ohio's Department of Education, is leaving, according to Stephen Dyer at 10th Period.
10thPeriod:
Less than a year into his job as Education Czar for Gov. John Kasich, Robert Sommers has decided to leave the administration. Under his leadership, the state ditched a national award-winning school funding formula and reforms, replacing them with no funding formula and ridiculed reforms. And he also infamously suggested that student-teacher ratios of 50:1 could work.....
.......It wasn't that long ago that candidate Kasich boldly declared that he would ditch Ted Strickland's Evidence Based Model because it didn't put money in the classroom, whatever that means. What Gov. Kasich is realizing is that it's a lot tougher to do something than it is to criticize someone else for trying.
Once again, another Kasich plan bites the dust.
* CASINOS---
PlainDealer:
The opening of casinos in Cleveland and Toledo will be delayed for several weeks, and likely much longer, because the required background checks on the gaming operators and vendors are well behind schedule.
The Ohio Casino Control Commission received the sobering news during its meeting on Wednesday from its consultant, Spectrum Gaming Group, as representatives of the casino operators, Rock Ohio Caesars and Penn National Gaming Inc., looked on.
Neither operator commented publicly at the meeting but were clearly disappointed. Each day the gambling spots are not open could cost the operators a combined $1.4 million, according to a Plain Dealer analysis of revenue projections from state and company officials.....
Aren't there people assigned to make sure things are getting done on time?
* ROAD CONSTRUCTION---
Cincinnati.com:
A new plan by the state’s Department of Transportation delays the completion of six Southwest Ohio highway projects, two of which will add 14 years to the time before motorists see orange barrels disappear.
The same plan grants $44.8 million of new money for right-of-way purchases for rebuilding the Brent Spence Bridge.
Jerry Wray, director of the transportation department, said Tuesday after a meeting of the Transportation Review and Advisory Council (TRAC) that highway plans by previous administrations were far too big for the department’s budget and the new plan will bring projects in line with what the state can afford. He said the state has to look for new methods of controlling costs or adding revenue, including possibly making Brent Spence a toll bridge....
From the PlainDealer's perspective on the road delays----
The flow of commerce and traffic through downtown Cleveland will suffer with ODOT's plan to delay funding a second Inner Belt Bridge until 2023, officials say.
Local leaders are demanding answers and insisting ODOT stick to its timeline of demolishing the existing Interstate 90 bridge in 2014 and building a new one by 2016, to pair with the new span going up now in the Cuyahoga River valley.
ODOT shocked community leaders here and across the state Tuesday with a draft list showing that major, new projects will be postponed for years at a time.....
The Kasich administration is blaming previous administrations. Really? Can't the Kasich administration take responsibility for their own inept "planning" and budget failures.
This means more road construction jobs will not be created. If federal money is tied to these road jobs, there are certain time frames that must be adhered to for the money to be used.
The Kasich administration says they have no money for roads. What happened to all that money that went to corporations to increase jobs? Where are the jobs? Was that money just wasted?
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Senator Sherrod Brown is known as a champion of the middle class. Republican Josh Mandel? Not so much. Sherrod Brown cares about people, Mandel is more concerned about corporations, CEO's, and special interests (polluters).
....Brown has established himself as a populist in the mold of Howard Metzenbaum, the former Ohio senator who championed liberal causes, said Dale Butland, a Columbus Democratic strategist.
Mandel is “not ready for prime time,” Butland said in a telephone interview. He is running after taking office last year as treasurer and serving in the Ohio House of Representatives since 2006.
“People can look at Josh Mandel and look at the way he has jumped from office to office in a very short period of time and think to themselves, ‘My God, this guy was born with a filing fee in his hand,’” Butland said.....
I just hope that Mandel spent more time on his current elected office as State Treasurer. I have a fear that some items are being overlooked or pushed aside because Mandel is more interested in his next campaign.