Dayton Daily News
Kasich, Foley find common ground on shared services
By William Hershey, Staff Writer
Saturday, August 6, 2011 

COLUMBUS — John Kasich, meet Dan Foley. 

You may have more in common than you think. 

Kasich, of course, is Ohio’s Republican governor. Foley, a Democrat, is a Montgomery County commissioner. 

Any common ground seemed to sink recently when Kasich, without naming Foley specifically, tore into local government officials in general. 

“I think local government has to get into the 21st century,” Kasich said during a recent visit to the Ohio State Fair. 

“In too many cases, they don’t want to make choices. They want to continue to walk through the county administration building and have people slap ’em on the back.” 

Kasich’s outburst was prompted by a question about projections on money for counties from the four casinos being developed in the state. 

The governor didn’t specifically answer the question, but said local officials need to get serious about changing how they do business. 

“You can’t do business the way you’ve been doing it,” said Kasich, a former chairman of the U.S. House Budget Committee. “Ohio’s been dying.... I’ll tell you something. Let me control their budgets. We got a budget balanced in Washington when I was there. We got a budget balanced in Ohio and we’re being rewarded for it.” 

Whew! Take that, local officials. 

But the governor was closing in on the common ground. 

“You know, change is coming,” said the governor. “Think creatively. Share services. Support reform.” 

The governor sounded like he wasn’t sure they could do it. 

“People don’t want to give up turf. They don’t want to give up power,” said Kasich. 

Foley, meanwhile, climbed up on the common ground after disputing a few of Kasich’s charges. He said local officials already are making major changes, at least in Montgomery County and the Dayton area. 

“We’re not winning any popularity contests,” said Foley, referring to budget cuts, layoffs and other changes. 

Local leaders also are thinking about change in a big way, just like Kasich said they should be, Foley said. 

“I agree with the governor on that,” Foley said. 

They’re talking about going way beyond shared services. They’re talking about asking voters, at some point, to approve a regional government, such as the consolidation of Louisville, Ky. and Jefferson County, Ky. governments. 

“We spend a lot of time fighting each other between jurisdictions,” said Foley. Instead, they should be united in promoting the region. 

“I personally believe that we need kind of a metropolitan form of government that allows us to have a single economic development effort county wide, lower costs when possible,” said Foley. “If we could kind of merge services.” 

None of this will be easy, as Kasich acknowledged. 

“This is not painting everybody with a brush,” Kasich allowed. “It’s different. It’s hard. I know it’s hard.” 

Read it at the Dayton Daily News