The Mahoning County Democrat - October 2009

Issues, man do I have issues...

As anyone who knows me will attest, I have lots of issues. I’m driven. I can’t stand losing. I’m a workaholic. I can be a little compulsive. I can be arrogant. I’m—wait, wait, hold on a second. I just remembered, this column isn’t supposed to be about my personal issues. Truth is, we don’t have enough space to list them all anyway.

The issues I’m supposed to write about are those that will appear on the November 3 General Election ballot in Mahoning County. As many of you know, I do have real issues with one of them: State Issue 3. I’ll lay out why I think this gambling scheme is a real loser for our area and our state a little later.

But first, I’d like to discuss State Issues 1 and 2 and countywide Issues 4, 5, and 6, each of which is critical to the future of our community and deserving of our support.

State Issue 1 would authorize the state to issue bonds that would fund the payment of bonuses to both veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the family members of those who were killed in action. The state has paid similar bonuses to service men and women who served in World Wars I and II, Korea, and Viet Nam. Clearly those who have sacrificed so much to defend our freedom deserve and have earned the small payments Issue 1 will provide. Voting “YES” is one way we can thank them for all they done for us.

State Issue 2 deserves our support because it will protect our food supply and help bolster one of our state’s most important industries: agriculture. Issue 2 calls for the establishment and operation of the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board that will prescribe standards for animal care and well-being, promote food safety, encourage the sale and consumption of locally grown and raised food, and protect Ohio farms and families. In short, it will help ensure that we know what we eat is safe and wholesome because it will be grown by our neighbors using the highest possible standards. Sounds delicious to me. I’m voting YES.

Mahoning County Issue 6 will provide the funds needed to “Keep the lights on” at our public libraries. Earlier this year, state funding for our library system was slashed dramatically as leaders in Columbus struggled to balance Ohio’s budget in the midst of the Bush recession. As a result, the system will lose $2.5 million in state aid each year. In order to cope with these cuts the system has been forced to reduce services, lay off staff, and curtail hours of operation at many branches; all at a time when people need libraries more than ever.

Issue 6 is not a tax increase. It is a renewal of a small tax passed in 2005. Without the funds it generates the library will have to make deeper cuts that will hurt us all. I urge each of you to vote for Issue 6 and to do what you can to help by visiting http://www.keepthelighton.org/.

Children are among the most vulnerable members of our society, and abused and neglected children are especially at risk. That is why the work done by the dedicated professionals at Mahoning County Children Services is so vital to the well-being of our community. Last year, this award-winning agency received 1,311 referrals involving thousands of children.

In order to continue to protect kids and preserve families, Children Services must have the funds generated by Issue 5, a renewal of the agency’s five mill levy. Issue 5 is not a tax increase, but it is a small investment that pays huge dividends for our families. I urge you to vote for our kids by voting for Issue 5. To learn more about Mahoning County Children Services visit their website at: http://www.mahoningkids.com/.

Issue 4 is a small levy that is essential to our community’s future growth and prosperity. When passed, Issue 4 will enable Mahoning County to collect its existing five-year, one-half percent sales tax on a continuing basis. That will bring stability to the county’s budgeting process and generate the funds we need to keep our neighborhoods safe, maintain important services, retain existing jobs, and compete for new ones. In addition, because Issue 4 is a sales tax, people from outside the county help strengthen our community every time they shop in Mahoning County. That makes Issue 4 a winner for all of us.

Which bring me to Issue 3—the casino scheme that is a dead loser for all of us. Earlier this year the Executive Committee of the MCDP unanimously passed a resolution opposing Issue 3 because it will not create one job in our Valley, it gives us pennies while the four casino cities get hundreds of millions, it won’t recapture Ohio dollars now being wagered in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and it creates a casino monopoly for out-of-state interests that permanently deals Mahoning County out of the casino industry. Under Issue 3 a casino can never be built in Youngstown or Mahoning County.

In addition to being a terrible deal, I’m opposed to Issue 3 because it represents one more reprehensible episode of our community being taken for granted by powerful interests who could care less about what happens here. The backers of Issue 3 were dumb enough to believe that we’d vote for their scheme even though they purposely dealt us out of jobs and a fair share of the revenue generated by gaming.

Fact is, we’re being cheated—again—and the time has come for us to stand up and say enough is enough.

Some—ok, one Bertram D’Souza-has consistently mischaracterized my position on Issue 3. I’m not against gambling, I’m against a gambling scheme that will create thousands of jobs in an area like Columbus that don’t need them while creating none here—the area that needs them most.

And while we are working with the company that owns Mountaineer Resort in West Virginia to defeat Issue 3, I want to make this clear: if that company seeks to place a casino issue on the ballot that ignores us, I’ll fight just as hard to beat it if and when the time comes.

Because, at its heart, this isn’t about gambling. It’s about doing the right thing for the people of the Mahoning Valley. Issue 3 needs to be defeated so we—and all Ohioans—have an opportunity to work with the legislature to craft a casino issue that will benefit the state rather than the gambling interests. That issue would call for a free and fair auction of casino licenses, a tax rate of 50% or higher on gambling proceeds, and it would mandate that a casino be built in the area of the state with the highest historical unemployment rate: the Mahoning Valley.

Until then, we need to stand together and let the billion dollar casino interests we can’t be bought or bamboozled. We won’t be cheated. We won’t vote for Issue 3.