Updated: 8:59
p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013 | Posted: 8:59 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013
Ohio governor calls GOP debate on budget 'healthy'
By ANN SANNER
The Associated
Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio
—
The Republican
governor brushed off suggestions Wednesday that policies in his two-year state
budget proposal are splintering his Party.
Gov. John Kasich
told reporters at an Ohio Newspaper Association reception that he's OK with
discussions around his plans to broaden the state sales tax and expand the
Medicaid program.
"I don't
see any fracturing," Kasich said. "What I see is a nice, honest,
healthy debate over big ideas. And big ideas always have controversy connected
to them."
The state
treasurer, Josh Mandel, on Monday encouraged his fellow Republicans in the
Legislature to reject the expansion, warning that the state would be stuck with
its long-term effects.
The governor
has framed the expansion as recapturing Ohio residents' tax dollars from the
federal government, but Mandel said he doesn't see it that way.
"There is
no free money," he wrote to House Speaker William Batchelder and Senate
President Keith Faber. "While expanding Medicaid may direct more federal
dollars to Ohio in the next few years, in the long term Ohioans will have to
repay the debt that is funding federal government spending."
Updated: 6:43
p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013 | Posted: 6:42 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013
Democrat questions Ohio governor's speech lottery
The Associated
Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio
—
Ohio's
Democratic chairman is questioning the propriety of a public online lottery for
State of the State tickets organized by Gov. John Kasich
(KAY'-sik).
Through the
contest, the Republican governor offered a limited number of tickets to next
Tuesday's policy address in Lima (LY'-muh). Winners are to be notified Friday.
In a Wednesday
letter to House Speaker William Batchelder, Democratic chairman and state Rep.
Chris Redfern said the speech is a legislative event, not an administrative
one.
Bad advice
Published: February 13, 2013 - 06:35 PM
Akron Beacon Journal
For
sure, John Kasich knew he was inviting the ire of conservatives nationwide with
his decision to break ranks and expand Medicaid in Ohio, thus weakening the
solid flank of opposition to the Affordable Care Act. That would explain the
rather comical insistence by Rob Nichols, the governor’s spokesman, that the
administration’s decision to implement a key program of the reform law in
reality would only mitigate the terrible impact of “Obamacare.” Whatever.
What
the governor may not have anticipated, though, was that state Treasurer Josh
Mandel would be hoisting the banner of conservative outrage. In a letter to
House Speaker Bill Batchelder and Senate President Keith Faber on Monday,
Mandel cited his duty as “the fiscal watchdog of Ohioans’ hard-earned tax dollars”
to urge them to reject Medicaid expansion. His argument, in short, is that the
federal government is in debt; that a Medicaid expansion would increase the
debt burden; and that regardless what federal funds flow to Ohio with an
expansion (a bait, he called it), current and future generations of Ohioans
would be on the hook for the long-term costs of Medicaid.
Politics Notebook: Dustup Over Kasich Campaign
Involvement In State Of The State; IO Fundraises On Bennett; Gay Marriage Rally
Set
Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern
complained to the Speaker Bill Batchelder Wednesday that
Gov. John Kasich's campaign was
inappropriately offering tickets to next week's State of the State Address in
Lima.
Rep. Redfern distributed to reporters a screen
shot from the Kasich Campaign website that offered the chance to win tickets to
the event by entering a lottery.
"As you know, the State of the State
Address, while provided by the governor, is completely a function of the legislature.
It is not an event organized by the executive branch," Mr. Redfern said in
the letter to Speaker Batchelder (R-Medina).
"Ticket disbursement should not be
conducted through a lottery by the governor's campaign committee, nor should
Ohioans wishing to participate be required to give their home address, phone
number, or be solicited for campaign contributions on the governor's campaign
website," he said.
Gov. John Kasich's voluminous two-year
budget plan is the largest the speaker has ever seen and will likely lose at
least a few of its 4,206 pages before the House finishes its work, the chamber
leader said Wednesday.
Speaker Bill Batchelder (R-Medina)
said in an interview that it's too early to gauge a caucus position on the
various major components of the bill (HB 59
), but he reiterated that Republicans will need
some convincing in regards to the proposed Medicaid expansion. With that
component, the sales tax base broadening and the school-funding plan already
triggering some doubts in the minds of the GOP legislative majority, has the
governor dished up more than the General Assembly can successfully digest over
the next few months?
The speaker deferred judgment on whether he
thought the budget plate was too full - a House aide weighed the tome and it
came in at a beefy 21 pounds - but pointed out that he has some 20 members who
are either new this year or were appointed last session.
As such, the review will take some time as will
getting a better feel for where his 59-member majority lands on the various
proposals, he said, adding that weekly caucus "seminars" would be
held to keep members abreast of developments. "I think it's fair to say at
this point we have not heard the bill...so we're probably not in a position to
have a caucus position at all and I will not be able to tell you for a week or
two where the majority of the caucus might be."
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