Findlay, Ohio Mayor Lydia Mihalik spoke to the Findlay Rotary Club this week. It was basically a state-of-the-city speech telling the business community how well we are doing economically. What caught my attention came at the end of the speech concerning a secret business tax deferment scheme causing some drama at city hall. The Mayor basically said there was nothing to see here and to move along. Why should we take her word for it?
To understand how this is worrisome, you need a short review on the secret scheme. Here is a news article from May:
Findlay City Council Takes Its Money And Goes Home
I got a huge chuckle out of the recent arguments on Findlay City Council over Bed Tax give aways to a certain non-profit group and not to others who asked. It gives an air of impropriety to the actions of an elected body especially when the people argue for an action that will benefit their friends.
A Bed Tax is collected from users of hotels and motels and is shared by the city of Findlay and Hancock county. Last year it amounted to about $510,000.
Privatizing Public Schools Isn’t How To Solve Education Problem
Here in Columbus, there is a major push to pass a new school levy. That isn’t unusual especially in Ohio where the Republicans have taken million of dollars away from education, over the past few years, in order to give tax breaks to their rich friends. What is different this time is the effort is really to privatize the Columbus School District so the corporate interests can get millions of dollars the schools still get. Privatizing public schools doesn’t make it better. Instead we give up control and our tax dollars for the equivalent of a WalMart for education.
There is a TV ad running with Columbus Mayor Coleman touting the levy. Here are the bullet points given in the ad:
As Usual, Governor Kasich’s Magic Math Hurts The Poor
Normally if someone insisted on doing something even after it was proven they were wrong, that person would have their mental state questioned. Think of a child who keeps touching a hot cooking pot even after getting burned the first time. Ohio Governor John Kasich, with he latest budget proposal, is touching the hot pot again trying to use magic math to give the 1 percenters a huge tax break while hurting the poor.
Is Your Boss Firing People Because Of Obamacare? Blame The Republicans
There have been several stories, since President Obama was re-elected, of poor loser CEO’s either firing or reducing hours of employees because of the upcoming tax changes brought on by “Obamacare” (aka the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act). The problem with their view is the changes coming due to “Obamacare” didn’t have to happen. There was a call for single payer and even a public option which would have eliminated or reduced the impact on employers but the Republicans refused to allow it. The blame for any “Obamacare layoffs” is really the fault of the Republicans not President Obama.
I wrote about this issue previously when the founder and CEO of Papa John’s Pizza, John Schnatter complained about “Obamacare” in August: