Chief Justice Moyer, allies promise campaign to change selection of Supreme Court justices

By William Hershey | Friday, November 20, 2009, 04:24 PM

Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer, the Ohio State Bar Association and the Ohio League of Women Voters want to change the way state Supreme Court justices are selected.

On Friday, Nov. 20, they announced that they will work to build a coalition to support a constitutional amendment to replace statewide elections of the justices with a new system where justices are appointed and state for a retention election.

“Early next year we will propose a specific plan that we will take back to the partner organizations for formal consideration,” Moyer said in a press release.

The announcement came at the end of a two-day conference in Columbus, “A Forum on Judicial Selection: A Time for Action.”

“What we have learned these two days is that we can do better in Ohio,” Moyer said.

Moyer has said the current system needs to be replaced to remove the perception that campaign contributions influence judicial decisions.

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Ohio AFL-CIO president blasts Senate GOP budget plan; threatens legal action

By William Hershey | Friday, November 20, 2009, 03:10 PM

Ohio AFL-CIO President Joe Rugola said on Friday, Nov. 20, that the labor federation will take legal action if Senate Republicans succeed in substituting $200 million in casino licensing fees for money the state already is spending on regional economic development and job creation plans.

“We simply will not tolerate the Ohio Senate or anyone else diverting money from job creation at a time when working families so clearly need all the help they can get,” Rugola said in a press release.

“We are prepared to litigate this issue on behalf of our 700,000 members and workers in our state.”

Tim Burga, Ohio AFl-CIO chief of staff, said the $200 million in the ballot issue approved by voters on Nov. 3 is supposed to be used for new regional job creation efforts, not to replace money for jobs programs already underway.

The ballot issue calls for casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo.

Rugola said that the Ohio AFL-CIO supports the plan passed by the Democratic-controlled House to fill an $851 million budget hole by delaying for two years a 4.2 percent state income tax cut.

Using the $200 million to help fill the hole is part of a Senate GOP plan unveiled this week.

Senate Finance Chairman John Carey, R-Wellston, said that the AFL-CIO has the right to litigate anything it wants to, but added:

“We don’t legislate by threat of lawsuit.”

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Ohio pensions sue ratings agencies

By Laura Bischoff | Friday, November 20, 2009, 09:50 AM

Ohio’s public pension systems are suing Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch - companies that provide credit ratings for investments.

The lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Richard Cordray in U.S. District Court, alleges that the three credit rating agencies wreak havoc on U.S. financial markets by providing unjustified and inflated ratings for mortgage-backed securities in exchange for lucrative fees.

“The rating agencies were central players in causing the worst economic crisis in Ohio since the Great Depression. The rating agencies assured our employee pension funds that many of these mortgage-backed securities had the highest credit ratings and the lowest risk,” Cordray said in a written statement. “But they sold their professional objectivity and integrity to the highest bidder. The rating agencies’ total disregard for the life’s work of ordinary Ohioans caused the collapse of our housing and credit markets and is at the heart of what’s wrong with Wall Street today.”

The agencies gave triple A ratings and assured the pension funds and others that the investments were extremely safe, the lawsuit alleges. But the misleading ratings cost Ohio’s pension funds more than $457 million, the suit said.

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., which owns Standard & Poor’s, said, “We believe the claim has no legal or factual merit and we intend to defend ourselves vigorously against it. A recent SEC examination of our business practices found no evidence that decisions about ratings methodologies or models were based on attracting or losing market share.”

The pension systems collectively hold $186 billion in investment portfolios and represent 1.7 million workers, retirees and beneficiaries.

The lawsuit says that the rating agencies knowingly gave favorable reviews to the mortgage-backed securities in part because they received big fees from the same groups that they were supposed to be objectively evaluating.

Cordray said the lawsuit is an attempt toward holding Wall Street accountable for its wrongs.

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Ethics laws apply to stimulus money

By Laura Bischoff | Thursday, November 19, 2009, 03:42 PM

As $8 billion in federal stimulus money flows into the state, the Ohio Ethics Commission has a message for public officials and contractors: all that dough is subject to the Ohio ethics laws.

That means public officials cannot profit from contracts using stimulus money or participate when family or business friends might benefit from them.

“The ethics law restricts public officials from securing a financial stake in, or participating in any fashion in the award of public contracts or oversight of public funds where their families and business associates could have a direct benefit, whether funded by stimulus or any other public money,” Ethics Commission Executive Director David Freel said.

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Senators propose ban on convicted felons in casino business

By William Hershey | Thursday, November 19, 2009, 01:35 PM

Sens. Timothy Grendell, R-Chesterland, and Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, on Thursday, Nov. 19, unveiled legislation that would outright ban convicted felons from ever having anything to do with the casino business in Ohio.

Senate Bill 208 goes beyond a proposal from casino backers that would allow a convicted felon to apply for a casino-related license five years after a conviction if the “applicant ….is honest, truthful and of good reputation, and there is no basis in fact for believing that the applicant or other person will commit such an offense again.”

Grendell said the bill is aimed at curbing “the potential for mischief.”

The bill also is tougher than the casino-backed plan in defining who would be subject to a background criminal check, Grendell said. The casino bill defines owner as someone with 10 percent or more of an interest in a casino while the Grendell-Seitz plan defines owner as someone with 5 percent or more interest.

Also, Grendell and Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, introduced Senate Bill 206, that would limit gambling interests from contributing more than $500 a year to a political campaign. The casino industry-backed bill went further, banning all such contributions.

The proposed legislation follows voter approval on Nov. 3 of a plan to put casinos in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Toledo. Penn National Gaming and Dan Gilbert, majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, were key backers.

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National poll: Voters disapprove of Dems’ health care plan

By William Hershey | Thursday, November 19, 2009, 08:44 AM

Efforts by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats to overhaul the nation’s health care system got a thumbs down from voters across the country in a Quinnipiac University Poll released on Thursday, Nov. 19.

In the poll, 51 percent of voters disapproved the Democratic-backed health care overhaul passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, 35 percent approved and 14 percent didn’t know or had no answer.

Also, 53 percent disapproved of Obama’s handling of health care, while 41 percent disapproved and 6 percent didn’t know or were had no answer..

This was slightly better for Obama than the results of a poll released last week for Ohio in which 57 percent of voters disapproved and 36 percent approved his handling of health care.

Release of the poll came a day after Senate Democratic leaders released their version of a plan to overhaul health care.

There was a bright spot for Obama in the poll. Nearly three quarters of voters - 74 percent - like Obama as a person, but just 47 percent like most of his policies.

“Most Americans like President Barack Obama and might like to have a beer with him,” Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute, said in a press release.

“But millions of voters who sided with him last November because they thought he would bring change to Washington aren’t crazy about the kind of change he is trying to bring.”

The poll was taken Nov. 9 - Monday, Nov. 16 with 2,518 registered voters nationally and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

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Strickland blasts Senate GOP budget plan; Husted fires back

By William Hershey | Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 06:36 PM

Gov. Ted Strickland has told Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, that the Senate Republican budget plan unveiled on Wednesday, Nov. 18, “is not a responsible way to address the serious budget challenges facing the state and Ohio’s schools,” Amanda Wurst, Strickland’s spokeswoman said.

“…the governor believes that the Senate has the responsibility to either put forward a realistic and responsible proposal or adopt the tax freeze, even if that means working through the weekend,” said Wurst.

Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, fired back, calling Strickland’s response “almost childish.”

“We accept some of his ideas and try to work with him and then he starts name-calling when he doesn’t get exactly what he wants,” said Husted. The Strickland ideas in the GOP plan include prison sentencing reform and construction reform, said Husted.

Husted accused Strickland of “schizophrenic leadership” by first opposing any tax increases and then proposing a tax cut freeze - which some Republicans call a tax hike - to fill the budget hole.

The Democratic-controlled House already has adopted Democrat Strickland’s proposed freeze on a 4.2 percent income tax cut as the path to filling a $851 million budget hole.

The Senate GOP plan calls for raising about $560 million by freezing two-thirds of the scheduled tax cut and then coming up with the rest through $200 million in casino licensing fees, revenue from oil and gas drilling at Salt Fork State Park and the state Housing Trust fund, savings from prison sentencing reform and other sources.

Republicans control the Senate, 21-12.

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