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Reaction: Cincinnati Enquirer...
Kasich’s speech
offers energy, few details
8:00 PM, Mar. 8, 2011
Photo: Cleveland Plain Dealer
COLUMBUS — In an enthusiastic, often impromptu State of the State
speech Tuesday, Gov. John Kasich called for a broad transformation of
Ohio’s government and economy – but offered few details on how he plans
to fix Ohio’s problems.
“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” he said.
Veering from anecdotes about celebrities to shout-outs to General
Assembly members watching his speech, Kasich asked pro-union supporters
for respect, joked about former President Bill Clinton, and threatened
to drag Democratic legislators across the aisle to turn Ohio’s economy
around.
But on the biggest challenge facing his administration, the new
Republican governor gave few specifics on how he will balance the state
budget, which is facing an $8 billion hole.
When he proposes his first two-year budget next Tuesday, Kasich said
his plans for controlling Medicaid – which gobbles up nearly one-fourth
of all tax dollars – will be “far reaching and forward looking.”
Kasich said the state spending plan will not raise taxes but will
overhaul the education system and change criminal sentencing laws to
ease prison crowding. Kasich relied on his energetic, off-the-cuff
speaking style honed as an outspoken U.S. congressman and former Fox
News TV commentator.
Kasich said he needs help from Democratic legislators as well as
Republicans to halt the state’s economic downturn.
“We are going to stop this trend, if I have to drag Democrats across
the aisle,” Kasich said in one of several passionate remarks that
sounded unscripted. He spoke without a teleprompter.
The speech came as Kasich has angered many Democrats and members of
public unions with his push to cut back the collective bargaining
rights of 360,000 state workers, including university employees, local
government workers and school teachers.
Pro-union crowds outside booed and chanted “Recall,” “Shame on you” and
“Kill the bill,” a reference to Senate Bill 5, which rewrites the
27-year-old collective bargaining law.
In the Ohio House chamber where Kasich spoke, several public employees
in the gallery shouted out, interrupting Kasich a couple times. When
the governor said he respects differences, one yelled: “But you don’t
respect us.”
Kasich said the protesters should respect those with different views as
well.
“I respect them, but they need to respect those that don’t always agree
with them,” Kasich said of the protesters, prompting another standing
ovation by Republican lawmakers.
Such protests are unprecedented in recent memory at a State of the
State speech, where most alternate views are historically limited to
post-speech news conferences.
A mostly pro-union crowd estimated at 3,200 picketed outside the
Statehouse and in the Rotunda during Kasich’s speech.
Kasich believes Senate Bill 5 will save taxpayers money. Union leaders
argue it will reduce safety and weaken public services.
“If you’ve seen a lot of changes in these first seven weeks, you ain’t
seen nothing yet,”’ Kasich said, prompting a standing ovation from the
82 Republicans who control the Ohio House and Senate.
Democrats hold 50 seats and only stood to clap a couple times. That
prompted Kasich, who looked a little taken aback, to joke, “I think I
stood a few times for Bill Clinton,” when Kasich was a congressman.
Kasich didn’t say how he would close a projected $8 billion budget gap,
besides using broad terms like restructuring and transforming
government programs. He already signed a legislation to privatize
job-creation programs previously handled by the Department of
Development.
Ohio is under siege from other states stealing companies and jobs,
including Kentucky and Indiana, he said: “The enemy right now is
joblessness. The enemy right now is poverty.”
“We cannot tax our way to prosperity,” Kasich said, repeating his
pledge not to raise taxes to balance the next budget. “Oh, there will
be cuts.”
One proposal that drew a standing ovation from Democrats as well as
Republicans – and praise from the medical community – was Kasich’s
commitment to reducing Ohio’s infant mortality rate by improving
prenatal care.
Dr. Steve Allen, chairman of the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association
Board of Directors, and head of Nationwide Children’s Hospital, called
them “forward-looking reforms that will include a focus on high-cost
conditions such as low birth weight babies.”
About 1,500 of Tuesday’s protesters were firefighters. Cincinnati Fire
Lt. Mark Sanders, who is president of the Ohio Association of
Professional Firefighters, said he heard little in the speech “that
addressed the fears of tens of thousands of Ohio public safety workers
who face the elimination of essential workplace protections.”
Sanders said legislators have been informed of nearly 30 problems with
Senate Bill 5, which had its first hearing before the House Commerce
and Labor Committee on Tuesday.
“We urge them to take the time to properly consider the bill,” Sanders
said. “For firefighters and police, it’s about wages, benefits and much
more; it’s about fundamental safety equipment and training for our
members so that we can adequately protect Ohio’s citizens.”
Kasich could learn something from the pro-union protesters, according
to state Rep. Denise Driehaus, a Democrat from Price Hill: “Ohio’s
leadership needs to focus its agenda toward working for Ohio’s families
instead of against them.”
Read it at the Cincinnati Enquirer
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