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Akron
Beacon Journal...
Kasich
touts accomplishments during
Akron visit
By Rick Armon
October 7, 2011
Gov.
John Kasich rolled into Akron on
Tuesday touting his accomplishments during his short time in office: $8
billion
budget gap plugged. Criminal sentencing reformed. Medicaid reformed.
JobsOhio
created.
“At
the end of the day, it’s nine
months,” he chuckled at the end of a speech for the Akron Roundtable at
Quaker
Station downtown. “It seems like nine years, doesn’t it, to most of
you?”
In
the wide-ranging talk before about
500 political, community and business leaders, the Republican governor
used his
hour-long speech and question-and-answer session to highlight his
administration.
The
goal is to reduce the cost of
doing business in Ohio in order to keep and lure jobs to the state, he
said. He
cited efforts to keep ATM-maker Diebold Inc. and American Greetings in
Ohio,
and to lure the corporate offices of Wendy’s and Omnicare Inc. offices
back
from out of state.
“Isn’t
it time that we have companies
coming into Ohio instead of people taking our companies out of this
state?”
Kasich said. “We’re having results. We’re having victories.”
One
issue still up in the air involves
Senate Bill 5, a controversial effort that would make significant
changes to
Ohio law governing public workers. Opponents were successful in getting
the
issue on the November ballot and voters will decide whether to endorse
or
reject it, now known as Issue 2.
Kasich
called it a matter of “taxpayer
fairness” and said that public employees need to pay their fair share
toward
their health care and guaranteed pensions. He urged voters to read the
bill and
not be misled into thinking that the issue is an attack on blue-collar
workers.
Private
sector workers would love to
pay a nominal amount or nothing toward their health care and receive a
guaranteed pension, he said.
“Everyone
should join in and
sacrifice,” the governor said. “That’s how you build a happier family.
And a
more solid community. And a more solid state.”
He
also touched on political
partisanship.
Kasich
cited his decision to appoint
former Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to the Ohio
Cultural
Facilities Commission.
He
admitted during his speech that the
decision likely didn’t go over well with Summit County Republican Party
Chairman Alex Arshinkoff, who was booted off the county Board of
Elections by
Brunner in 2008.
“We
need to work together to fix the
problems in this state,” Kasich said. “No more politics. I don’t care
if you’re
Republican or Democrat. If you worked for Taft or Voinovich or whoever.
I don’t
care because Ohio is dying and we need to get it healed.”
During
the question-and-answer session
— when questions were written down from the audience and read to the
governor —
Kasich declined to say whom he would support for the Republican
nomination for
president.
When
the question was read, Kasich
responded: “Find another one,” drawing laughter from the audience.
State
Rep. Lynn Slaby, R-Akron, called
the governor’s speech inspirational.
“Whenever
I hear him speak, I get
pumped up even more,” he said.
Read
it at the Akron Beacon Journal
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