Senate Bill 5 again?
By Bob Rhoades 
August 20, 2011 

Earlier this year, I wrote a lot about Senate Bill 5.  I said that it was unfair and a witch-hunt by Gov. Kasich to bust public employee representation all across the state.  I also said that it looked to me like a lot of good, well-meaning Republican members of the House and Senate should think for themselves and not follow the Governor down his yellow brick road because it didn’t look like there was a rainbow or pot of gold at the end of it. Hmmmmm! 

Let’s see now, it’s been 6 months give or take a couple of days and what is happening now.  The Columbus Dispatch reported today that the Governor, backed by the Speaker of the House and the President of the senate are “reaching out” to union leaders so that the referendum to recall SB 5 doesn’t happen.  They want to negotiate!  I think one other thing I said was I didn’t think that Kasich actually knew what the word negotiate meant or how the process actually worked.  So after the good Governor shoved SB 5 down all of our throats, and had his lackeys shove it through the house and senate, and after signing SB 5 into law and declaring it a great victory, John Kasich got those same people together and said, ”hey go see if they want to negotiate about this now. ‘We’ may have acted a little hastily.”  Indeed, Governor, indeed?  The governor fancies himself as a great communicator, but I’ve always been told that the greatest part of speaking is listening. 

It makes very little difference to me if they were Republican or Democrat.  Every single person who followed Kasich on this ill-fated journey should be ashamed of themselves.  Had they been sheep, the wolves would still be licking their chops.  If there was ever a show of strength, it wasn’t Kasich’s crowd of last termers who showed it.  It was the good people of the state of Ohio who stood up, filed the proper petitions, got them signed and walked them to Columbus and laid them on the Statehouse steps.  I don’t believe that they were all union members either.  Most people, excluding politicians, can smell a bad deal when it’s shoved at them. 

Negotiate?  Oh sure, we’ll be right over, will there be refreshments.  By the way, have a lot of ChapStick available, there are some things that need to be kissed before we get started.  But that won’t be the case.  Public employees in general do hold themselves to a little higher standard.  The Union Bosses in Columbus, AFL-CIO, Ohio Education Association and the rest, backed by the group We Are Ohio have basically said “in your dreams baby”.  The supporters of the repeal of SB 5 have less than 10 days to get it off the ballot or it gets voted on.  Even if all the union bosses do decide to sit down with the Governor and his sheep, we already know that these folks don’t know the first thing about negotiations. So it’s a pretty sure bet that you are going to get to vote on it and the signs say the governor is going to lose.  Read my lips Governor, it works like this, you negotiate first then come up with a plan, then you act.  It’s really not too hard of a concept to embrace.  Because of who they are, they probably will go if for no other reason to give a good demonstration of what negotiating actually is. 

At noon today on 700 WLW at Butler County Sheriff Dick Jones, a Republican, commenting on the situation said that people need to understand that public employees are people just like everyone else and that anyone in the same situation would have reacted the same way.  He isn’t the only person in government management that doesn’t like the situation.  Many have been vocal about it and many were Republican.  When the economy moves bread from 25 cents a loaf to $1.25 a loaf, you either get paid a higher wage like your neighbors or you don’t eat bread. 

What this says is that if things are this bad in Columbus that our elected representatives who have served us tirelessly for years have to tow the partisan line this hard, so hard that they don’t even know their own convictions, and won’t listen to their constituents’ voice without the cost of a referendum, maybe, just maybe it’s time to invite someone else to be our representatives.  I feel bad about this, but after a while you can’t ignore the obvious.  The Republican Party will be taking a major hit at the hands of the one person who should be its leader.  The blood bath that will occur at the polls in upcoming elections will be like none other either party has ever seen.  D’s you better find some good people.  R’s you better screen your candidates real good and you should probably get started on finding someone to run against Kasich as soon as possible.  The person you find should understand that he or she will win the primary hands down, the general election, well that might be a little tougher, but at least that person will have put Kasich back in the closet where he belongs.  If the governor wants to “win” in these negotiations, he should gather up all of the good that SB 5 has already done and show how it’s saved the several political subdivisions in the State of Ohio, the tons of money it was supposed to save.  Anybody got anything on that?  Anybody, Anybody? 

It’s amazing how the cities, villages, townships and school boards in Ohio have had to tighten their belts but the state of Ohio doesn’t seem to grasp that concept either.  So here’s the deal Governor Kasich, we will give you a well-deserved Sliver Buckeye award on this whole mess.  You and your followers have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to every high school student in a government class in this state and the rest of us, that the people do have power and that the system does work.  You’ve proven that when people go to the polls and vote for a person whom they think will do a good job, all is not lost if that person comes up a bit short of their expectations.  You’ve also proven once again that this government actually IS OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE PEOPLE.  God Bless America and the Great State of Ohio.  Go Bucks!