Ohio Watchdog round-up: sales tax, hypocrisy, several tax

A round-up of article from Ohio Watchdog:

Sales tax, property tax and - oh yeah - children: Discussions about how to fund education in the state include raising the sales tax to replace the property taxes being charged locally. How much, who gets it and who decides is always the discussion - but where do the children fit into the equation?

Dear Mr. President - your campaign is out of control: The same day Ohio was celebrating being recognized as an All-Star state for our efforts to protect the military vote, the Obama For America campaign, the Democratic National Committee and the Ohio Democratic Party sued the state to overturn the very law that help us win the recognition.

Oh - and overlooked by everyone is the sheer hypocrisy of the ODP, along with chairman Chris Redfern, of suing to overturn a bill that every Democrat - including Redfern - voted for.

Yes, you read that correctly. The ODP is suing to overturn a bill that received unanimous support when it was passed.

Kasich renews calls for high oil, gas severance tax: I written in opposition to the severance tax, and several groups (here and here) have announced their opposition as well. This article describes the proposal and what proponents and opponents have to say. Tom Blumer also lists Another reason to oppose gas hikes on Ohio's oil, gas industry.

Lastly, Ohio Watchdog has done a series of articles exposing the bias and 'untruthfulness' of PolitiFact's truth or lie conclusions. The latest article looks at how PolitiFact slams a GOP spokeswoman's 'literally true' statement as somehow untrue. Unbelievable! But read all the posts in the series and you'll see how PolitiFact is just a tool to support liberals while criticizing conservatives. That's my opinion, but you'll see how valid it is after reading the series and you can judge for yourself.

Cash for votes in Athens County

Jesse Hathaway who blogs at Athens Runaway has good coverage of the goings on, so I hope you'll read his blog for all the details of the cash for votes in Athens County.

It starts with an email from the Ohio University College Democrats offering $5 for bringing in people from the 4th Ward of the city - which was the only contested race. According to some reports at the time, the source of funding was the Athens County Democratic Party.

It continues with confirmation that the funds did come from the local Democratic Party - but the money was for canvassing, not actual votes - and that it was part of the Get Out The Vote (GOTV) effort of the local party. It includes Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern's disavowal of the "stupid idea" from the local Democratic Party Chairwoman Susas Gwinn and a call for an investigation.

This particular post also includes questions about whether or not the College Democrats were involved in a similar effort in 2008.

But in a strange twist on the matter, the party treasurer, Lenny Eliason, said he had no knowledge of any such GOTV effort and that no money had been allocated for it.

Lenny is a sitting county commissioner and I worked with him on the board of the County Commissioners Association of Ohio (CCAO). He was recently elected 2nd Vice President of the National Association of Counties (NaCO) which puts him in line for the presidency of the national organization. He is well-respected by commissioners across the state and has a reputation for following the rules, so when he says this 'doesn't pass the smell test,' you can see that Democrats have not begun to circle the wagons on this one. Instead, as the post details, some are calling for Gwinn's resignation.

Then there is this post covering the assignment of the investigation to Delaware County Prosecutor David Yost, who was already investigating prior questionable financial actions of Gwinn.

Gwinn, reacting to Redfern's demand that she resign as party chair, said Refern should resign instead. After all, as Councilwoman Nancy Bain, D-3rd Ward, says, if the Athens Dems wanted his opinion, they'd ask him - and they did win the 4th Ward election.

Be sure to check Athens Runaway for more updates.

You're too mean to give to charity so government has to tax you to do it instead

I just listened to an interview on NewsTalk 1370 WSPD with Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern.

When morning show host Fred Lefebvre used his board operator, Don Zellars, as an example of someone who wants to know why he has to pay for other people's homes and food while struggling to pay for his own, Redfern's comment was that Don must feel really good inside knowing he's helping so many people.

Redfern explained that America needs to tax people to provide charitable services through the government because, without forcing people through taxation, most Americans wouldn't help take care of the 'least among us.' When Fred pointed out that Don would be happy to help 'the least among us' if government weren't taking so much of his money first, Redfern said:

"I suspect Don would, but unfortunately, most Americans would not - and if we remove that kind of support, strategem, then you remove the entire reason for having any kind of projects, programs, initiatives..."

UNBELIEVABLE!

Here is the chairman of a state political party who thinks government needs to take money by force from you and give it to others because you can't be trusted to do what he thinks is the 'right' thing with your funds. And if they didn't take your money and, instead, relied upon you for charitable actions taking care of your fellow man, there'd be no reason for the government program to exist. Duh! Isn't that the point?

America is the most charitable nation on the earth. We are the ones who give millions of dollars to charities - voluntarily - and who speed to provide material and funds whenever a tragedy hits here or in another country. Interestingly, conservatives are more likely to give money, time, etc... than liberals. Perhaps that's why Redfern thinks it needs to be forced - because he knows his fellow liberals, not Americans in general, won't donate?

Of course, Redfern tries to justify the concept by equating taxation for spending on charitable functions with taxation for national defense and police/fire protection locally. Not surprisingly, he fails to grasp the concept of statutory authority and limited government. That national defense is a Constitutional authority but paying for another's housing or food is not is conveniently ignored. Instead, Redfern advocates the concept that government - specifically a Barack Omaba government - better knows how to spend your money than you do.

In February 1887, President Grover Cleveland, upon vetoing a bill appropriating money to aid drought-stricken farmers in Texas, said:

"I find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and the duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit.
...
The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood."

In 1854, after vetoing a popular appropriation to assist the mentally ill, President Franklin Pierce said:

"I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity."
...
(to approve such spending) "would be contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded."

James Madison, the father of our constitution, irate over a $15,000 congressional appropriation to assist some French refugees, said:

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."

(source for quotes)

And there is the "Not Yours To Give" story of Colonel David Crockett, who reminded Congress:

"I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money."

Our founding fathers would be appalled - and we should be, too!

The 'rest of the story'...

Today's Blade has the 'behind the scenes' story of the change in council president and, as I said yesterday, it's all about politics - and not the city of Toledo.

According to the reporting today, Democrat Party State Chairman Chris Redfern did, indeed, meet with the Dems on council prior to their vote and

"emphasized that he and the governor wanted a strong Lucas County Democratic Party in place for the 2008 presidential election."

Strong - as in, in control in both numbers and appearance. So certainly, they can't have a Republican president of council when they hold a majority in that body - how could they explain that awkward situation to presidential campaigns?!?

And the paper also verifies that this is all about the appearance of unity.

“By having a working majority and opening up the lines of communication, we’ll decrease the amount of public disagreements that we have,” Mr. Ashford said.

There's that term, again...'working majority'...because now, since we're trying to give the appearance of unity, we're not going to disagree in public anymore...after all - there's too much at stake in 2008 for us to have public disagreements.

All sarcasm aside, what they're really saying is that they're still going to disagree, but because word has come down from 'on high' (or rather from south of here) we're going to look like we're all working together because our party's interests far outweigh the public's interests in this regard.

Personally, I like the public discourse. I've truly appreciated Frank Szollosi's (and his colleague's) position on the garbage tax that Carty and the Republicans supported. With this new "unity" I can't help but wonder if such policy disagreements will now be hidden behind closed doors until some deal is worked out and presented to the public. That would be very bad for Toledo, Toledoans and taxpayers - but it sure will be better for the Democrat Party, locally and statewide.

It's sad that the priorities of the political party have taken precedence, but living in Toledo, that's what we've come to expect. And the result of such misplaced priorities are all around us - declining population, loss of businesses, budget deficits - all because it's more important to do what the party wants than what the people want.