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Reaction: Columbus Dispatch...
Forget the status
quo, governor tells legislators
Kasich promises big changes in prenatal and late-in-life care,
sentencing, education
By Joe Vardon
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Photo: Cleveland Plain Dealer
Gov. John Kasich used his first State of the State address yesterday to
issue a final warning that widespread changes to Ohio’s governing and
spending practices are coming soon.
It was a point already heard loud and clear by the estimated 3,200
protesters who had gathered outside the Statehouse, the hundreds who
had filed into the rotunda, and the few who had made their way into the
House chamber for the governor’s speech. Speaking before a joint
session of the General Assembly for more than an hour, the Republican
governor set the stage for his much-anticipated two-year budget due
Tuesday by challenging lawmakers to “not let fear clog your mind.”
Kasich promised changes to late-in-life care, prison sentencing, care
of low-birth-weight babies and their mothers, and education to help
tackle an $8 billion shortfall in Ohio’s budget.
Never far from the surface was a change Kasich and Republican lawmakers
already have begun to push through - gutting collective bargaining for
public employees under Senate Bill 5 - that fed the noisy protests
inside and outside the Statehouse and sparked a mid-speech exchange
between Kasich and a few people in attendance.
“If you’ve seen a lot of change in these first seven weeks, you ain’t
seen nothin’ yet,” Kasich said, drawing a standing ovation from
Republican lawmakers and a few catcalls from the House chamber’s
corners.
“We’re going to reform government,” Kasich continued. “It’s going to
happen. I am asking all of you to keep an open mind about the
possibilities of reform because we can’t keep doing the same thing in
this state and avoiding the decisions that need to be made.”
Protests began yesterday morning, when about 1,500 firefighters and
police officers marched up Broad Street to the Statehouse. A tea party
group of about 40 people also held a morning rally in favor of Senate
Bill 5.
While periodic chants from the rotunda protesters permeated the House
chamber’s walls, Kasich was confronted directly by a few audience
members who disagreed with him when he first mentioned
collective-bargaining changes during his speech.
At least two unidentified women standing at the back on the House floor
booed when he broached the subject, prompting Kasich to respond,
“People who feel strongly, I respect them.”
One of the unidentified women replied “But you don’t respect us,” and
Kasich said that his opponents need to “respect others who don’t always
agree” - a line that drew Republican-led applause.
Tim McCarthy, sergeant-at-arms for the House, said he escorted one of
the protesting women from the chamber but did not ask for her name.
With a speech barely scripted and unrehearsed, Kasich told lawmakers
that the state of the state and its future is “in our hands.”
State Rep. Jay Hottinger, R-Newark, said he had sat through 17 State of
the State speeches, and “this by far was the best because it was
genuine John.”
“The Democrats started out sitting on their hands, and by the time he
was done, you saw some smiles,” Hottinger said. “Today, I think you saw
the 10,000-foot-up view. He didn’t get into a lot of specifics; I think
that’s coming next week. This was the precursor for what’s coming. It
was an emotional pep talk from the coach.”
Not all Democrats were wearing grins by speech’s end. State Rep. Teresa
Fedor, D-Toledo, walked out of the chamber during the speech and joined
protesters in the rotunda.
Armond Budish, the House minority leader from Beachwood, said, “He’s
going to balance the budget on the backs of working people and the
middle class, and that’s wrong.”
Presaging some of the changes he will unveil to reduce costs in his
budget proposal next week, Kasich said he wants home care available to
more seniors to reduce the use of more-expensive nursing homes.
The governor said he wants to change the state’s sentencing practices
to avoid placing in maximum-security prisons felons who will spend less
than one year behind bars.
Saying that low-birth-weight babies incur “six times the costs” for
care as do healthy babies, Kasich pledged to help mothers gain access
to improved prenatal care.
He promised a “significant reform agenda” for education, including the
introduction in Ohio of the national Teach for America program and the
expansion of school-choice vouchers - both points of contention with
teachers unions.
“It’s not all easy, though,” Kasich said. “Reform and restructuring
cannot take us all the way to a balanced budget.”
Hinting at possibly large cuts in funding to local governments and
schools, Kasich encouraged local officials to share government services.
Senate Minority Leader Capri S. Cafaro of Hubbard, whom Kasich praised
during his speech for pushing her fellow Democratic senators to pass
JobsOhio and privatize economic development, said afterward that
Democrats can join with the governor to a degree.
“There are some things like home- and community-based services and
sentencing reform that I think we can work together on, but by and
large, I did not see and I did not hear anything in this speech that
said that Gov. John Kasich is fighting for you, Ohio,” she said.
Read it at the Columbus Dispatch
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