Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Losing Local Control

*  It appears that the Kasich administration is taking some power away from local governments.  This power grab might not sit well with community leaders across the state.  The most worrisome part of this is the chance that information will not be revealed to citizens.

Here is an open letter written by Kevin Lowry of the Wayne County Young Democrats and published in the DailyRecord:

...The Kasich administration proposes to strip the power of zoning these wells from local municipalities. The power of zoning, allows a municipality, like Wooster or Orrville, to regulate if and where wells would be allowed within the borders of the city, village or township. Zoning is a police power unique to municipalities and creates defined areas to encourage growth, development and property values within their borders. If the state strips the zoning powers from a municipality an oil or gas company could feasibly come into Wooster and drill a hydraulic fracturing well within a residential district without oversight of local government or community input, essentially tying the hands of the local government. With large plots of vacant land in Wooster and Orrville this could be detrimental to the economic stability and safety of city residents...


The power of self-governance is being taken away from Ohio citizens. With this move by Kasich and company, communities will not have a voice in what happens to the city/village they call home.  In years to come, when our grandchildren ask why our hometowns have large amounts of dirty air, polluted water, and higher numbers of cancer cases, you'll be able to blame a former governor, John Kasich.

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>>> Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, a candidate for another office, is unable (or unwilling) to debate other candidates for the Senate (see Cleveland.com).  Mandel probably has another fundraising event that is more important than answering questions from reporters and the public.  If you visit Josh Mandel's website, you'll notice the absence of any issues. With Republicans going after Social Security, Medicare, women's health, education funding, rebuilding the infrastructure, increasing taxes on millionaires, etc., Josh Mandel's lack of a firm stance on these and other issues is very troubling.