Mandel Promises To Leverage Internet

Someone please tell Josh Mandel that StarOhio is not a constellation that hangs over the Buckeye state. The fresh faced Lyndhurst Republican state rep. announced his candidacy for State Treasurer last week. He throws his hat into the ring with stellar ideas and "utilize technology" to maximize State resources and communicate with constituents.

That's a peachy idea Josh. In case you've been out of the loop, technology is already very pervasive in the financial milieu. Yes the banking sector actually uses computers and web-based appplications to transact business. The State Treasurer's Office has been using a web based portal to provide content, accept tax returns and coordinate the CPIM program for years.

I can't wait to see his full platform on running for Office. If you've been able to catch any of Jill Miller Zimon's posts on the up and coming GOP candidate you'll notice there's not much in there about overseeing the State's financial resources. Of course that doesn't say much about his chances. According to media reports young Mandel has a sizable war chest of over half a million dollars. His Democratic opponent, Kevin Boyce is also not well known and who really wants the State Treasurer to communicate to them anyway?

His one well noted foray into financial policy was a bill that would require Ohio's pension funds to divest from companies connected with the regimes in Sudan and Iran. Good for political points on the right bad for portfolio diversification. I won't knock the guy any further though. I'll give some credit for at least crossing party lines to vote for the House foreclosure bill.

Scenes From Mall B

Mall B in downtown Cleveland is slated to be torn up and replaced with a raised (not razed) mall space once the Medical Mart project gets underway . This ideally situated strip of green space is part thorougfare and part urban park that is a haven for lunchtime solace. It will be missed for many reasons including the assortment of people and activity that create a much needed break from the dreary confines of downtown cube farms,

Gone will be the walkers, landscapers and the lunchtime gatherings. No more bike messengers meeting for a quick smoke break.

I sometimes talk with a guy who combs the lunch time crowd one person at time asking for spare change. He usually gets cross looks or terse denials. I often engage him, I'll call him Joe, in brief conversations:

Me: This is my favorite time of year. The weather is enjoyable and not too hot.

Joe: I don't have problems with the weather, just individuals. Like myself.

My phone rings and Joe walks away.

The mall will be cease to serve its current role as a collection point for office workers and Joes for awhile. The hole (literally) left in its place will change the dynamic of downtown.

Roldo has a gloomier take on downtown in his most recent post.

Akron Recall: A Mayor Knows

Why did fifteen local mayors from both parties draft a letter condemning Akron's recall process? Mayors are by necessity pragmatic people.  They know that managing a city or village requires a balance of long term vision and "up in your grill" micromanagement.  At times the latter can win out to the detriment of the vision thing.

Good mayors get things done. There was a campaign a few years ago that touted this axiom.  The bus tour in support of Ohio's big cities enlisted mayors from large cities including Don Plusquellic.  

Getting things done does not being sheepish or hanging out in the back of the room at conferences. At times brash behavior and bold statements are required to back up brash and bold new ideas.  A mayor on occasion may need to put decorum and congeniality aside to defend their city.  That's what Plusquellic has been doing for the better part of two decades in making the City of Akron the driving force of his career.  Has he offended people with harsh words and braggadocio?  He sure has.

Back to the letter from the gang of fifteen mayors.  The abuse of the recall process a la Warner Mendenhall is a threat to the continuity of leadership that good mayors provide.  What is disappointing is that Don Robart who is Plusquellic's Republican analog in Cuyahoga Falls refused to sign the letter.  The refusal to me is short sighted and was done with calculated partisan intent.  

Robart is in a similar position as Plusquellic.  He's been in office for two decades, has worked tirelessly for his city and has built a healthy list of detractors it the process.  So, why aren't there calls to remove the Mayor of CF from office?  Probably because the city has a sensible recall provision the city charter and nobody wants to waste time on recall effort unlike Akron.  You think the guy would be more empathetic to the other Don's plight.

Speaking of the charter in Akron.  The letter from the mayors recommends the action of an emergency charter review as a way of blocking the recall election.  This is not a goos idea.  AS much as I loathe the recall process the current charter is the legal guideline and has to be accepted as such for now.  Let's ride out this storm for now.  Once the dust settles the recall threshold can be changed to a more sane level. 

Convention Busting Bumpers

I've had a chance to catch some of the media coverage of Obama's commencement speech at Notre Dame. The piece in the NYT was decent. It did seem to reference the common use of graphic imagery on the part of the anti-abortion protesters. The rampant hyperbole used to describe the president's supposed hatred for the unborn was a close second.

Opposition to abortion on religious grounds is not hard to understand. What I have always been troubled with is the primacy placed on this one issue above all other moral questions. Wars built on lies and unbridled greed don't rile the lifers as much these days.

Making the daily drive up to Cleveland today I noticed a car with two bumper stickers. The sticker on the left side read, "Former Fetus Opposed to Abortion". Prominently displayed on the upper right bumper was an Obama 08 sticker.

There it was, a glaring contradiction to the conventional wisdom purveyed by the insurrectionists at Notre Dame. Pro-life is more than a stance on abortion. Supporting a Democrat for president and opposing abortion do not have to be mutually exclusive beliefs. Obama didn't manage to win an election and not grab a portion of the devout Christian vote.

Now, I don't wear my bumper stickers on my sleeve but that driver was a voter I can respect.

Furloughs For Everyone

As the State is grappling with balancing the FY 2010 budget  local governments are also trying to find ways to shore up their fiscal houses.  City and county governments have already had to contend with their 2009 budget cycles and continue to bleed red ink as the recession strains revenue collections.

Staffing costs are the largest component of local government budgets.  A county such as Cuyahoga for example spends as much as sixty percent of its operating dollars to pay employees and provide them with fringe benefits.  Thus any meaningful action that can be undertaken to plug a budget deficit has to involve reducing those people related costs.

The method of last resort is laying off of employees.  Hamilton County , deep in financial distress has already laid off hundreds of people and plans canning more staff this year.  Other counties such as Summit and Cuyahoga  have implemented early retirement programs, the good natured cousin of the lay off.

The relative newcomer to the staffing cut arsenal is the furlough or unpaid leave. Previously, furloughs were a creature of the manufacturing sector.  A plant shuts down for a few weeks and the workers get a paid or unpaid vacation.  The furlough concept is gaining ground as a budget reduction mechanism in the white collar world.  A recent WSJ article highlighted the benefits of using furloughs to cut costs:

Amid the steep job losses, some managers and advisers are touting alternatives to layoffs, including furloughs, pay cuts and reduced workweeks. Some economists say these alternatives slow the recession's downward spiral by preserving jobs, albeit at lower wages.

Some counties in Ohio  are moving to employ furlough programs to check budget deficits that continue to grow unabated.  The only catch has been that O.R.C. does not permit County employees not covered by a bargaining agreement to be furloughed.  Yet another example of the outdated and inflexible means in which county government is organized in the Buckeye State.

In response to the need of counties to have the option of unpaid leave a provision is being tailored for insertion into the Senate version of the budget bill.  The County Commissioner Association of Ohio  has been working on the furlough amendment and plans to have something ready for the Senate bill this month.  Inclusion of the amendment would permit county governments to furlough employees as a cost cutting measure. Of course the deeper the fiscal mess faced by any individual county the more likely lay offs will be necessary. 

Uh, Yeah ...you're going to have to come in on Saturday to make up that furlough time.

Akron Recall Afterthoughts

City Council has certified the recall petitions collected by the Mendehall Whiners Brigade as meeting the signature threshold.  Who even cares at this point how many signatures were collected?  At this point it's all academic.   There will be a recall election on Mayor Plusquellic.

Eric Mansfield raises some intriguing questions in his post from yesterday. There is a whole slew of complicated minutiae that will need to ironed out before an actual election can be held.  I''m sure it will all be worth it in the end. 

Anyway, looking past the election mess and the potential for a new mayoral contest reveals more future relevant questions that should be addressed. 

Has council or someone else started drafting a revision the section of the city charter that deals with the recall process/  Now would be an ideal time to make some basic changes to the amount of signatures required to trigger an election.  I think the current situation speaks to why this jhs to be changed. 

I don't know how often the charter review commission can consider new language but revising the recall language should be given priority.  You see where I'm going with this?  Why not stick a revamped recall version to the charter on the same ballot as the mayoral recall?  Time permitting of course.

Finally, would it be too much to look into the possibility of getting our rabble-rousing barrister dis-barred?  What are the requirements for starting that process?   Where's the Akron Bar Association on this matter?   It seems to me that Mendenhall's flagrant abuse of the civic legal system to pursue personal vendettas rises to the standard of malfeasance. 

State Budget: Missing The Moving Target

The latest update on State tax revenue projections is grim.  Each time Pari Sabety's crew gets another round of revenue data their estimates bottom out even further.   The latest income tax numbers really stink.

Total tax receipts through March were about $200 million below revised estimates, and total income-tax collections for April alone were $322 million, or 22 percent, lower than the already-pessimistic projections...

Due to the cliff diving tax receipts a third round of budget cuts was announced in Tuesday by the administration.  With tax revenue in a tailspin Governor Strickland had no choice but to make deeper cuts to the current year budget, or what remains of it.  The latest reductions could total $900 million and will no doubt harm be felt by the already reeling local governments.   The fiscal year ends on June 30th at which time another beleaguered budget starts anew.

The question arose in my office today.  How can they continue to be off the mark by such a wide margin?  Could it be that no one in Columbus is willing to accept how detrimental an ailing economy couped with short sighted tax cuts can be to the State's revenue sources.  This episode reminds me of Nassim Taleb's book Fooled By Randomness .  The over reliance on historical data to predict where the bottom will be has not worked out to well.  This latest recessionary cycle has broken the mold.

No matter, the new budget will be anything but fresh.  In order to staunch the deficit flow Ohio will have to tap the budget reserve fund (rainy day fund) before the end of the fiscal year.  That means there will be less of those much touted one-time revenue available for the FY 2010 budget.  The Senate Republicans are already complaining.  They will have to find the billion or so dollars needed to restore equilibrium to the next budget

There is now an inescapable fact staring the General Assembly in the collective face. You hear that State senators?    Some form of tax increase coupled with additional cuts to programs will have to be factored into the latest budget bill.  I can't think of another way out of the mess. 

State Budget: Desperately Seeking Sources

Here's where we are with the revenue shell game being played within the State budget process.  The House version of the budget bill was passed last week and the Senate will take the next two months to craft a moderated and tax hike free version of the FY2010 state budget.

The issue of revenue was mitigated somewhat by replacing the administrations projections for tax revenue with the much friendlier estimates derived from the Legislative Service Commission.  Nothing has changed at the core of the budget outlook.  Ohio needs more revenue, preferably from increasing taxes.

Using some one time revenue sources and a newer parlor trick with State sponsored non-profits  being employed to dig up extra money for State agencies in the House Plan.  Willard covers the non profit plan here.  In the end tweaks and nuance can plug the budget hole for the temporarily but they will not erase a structural budget deficit.  

Sunday's Beacon editorial page joins my call to increase taxes, er, set them back to a responsible level:

The absence of stimulus cash. A structural deficit. A commitment to improving public education. Ohio needs a tax increase, one that can be crafted to enhance the state's prospects in the long run, one that reflects responsible stewardship of the state.

The latest battle cry from the reality challenged tax haters in the Ohio GOP is that the one-time revenue in the next biennial budget will lead to a tax hike.  Truth be told, it's the short sighted politically opportunistic tax reforms of 2005 that have gotten us to this low point in the revenue curve.  Think about that for a moment.

The Ohio Senate should meet us half way and address the structural deficit prevalent in the budget.  Find some more budget cuts that can reduce the level spending over the 2010-2011 budget period.  That's the easy part.  

The next step will require some of the more adult members (in both parties) of the Senate to step up and reset income tax rates to a realistic and sustainable level.  Let's face it, 2005 was a different time.  The days of ideological opposition to responsible tax rates is passing.  Let the tea baggers and Jon Kasich wage the losing battle against the income tax. 

The sooner we take these steps the sooner Ohioans can begin working on achieving the school funding reforms that are long overdue.