Latest / Brian Thomas / AFP - Ohio Legislative Scorecard

Transcript

AFP - Ohio Legislative Scorecard · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: Seven thirty here fifty by KCD Talk Stations. It's that
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  Speaker 1: time of week we can hear from Americans for Prosperity.
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  Speaker 1: Donovan O'Neill, you can find well today Buckeye Blueprint dot
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  Speaker 1: Com are going to get an analysis of halfway through
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  Speaker 1: the mid the legislative score session for the year Buckeye
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  Speaker 1: Blueprint agenda items. How far have our elected officials and
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  Speaker 1: columb has gone to achieve those objectives. Well, we need
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  Speaker 1: a scorecard for that, and thankfully Americans for Prosperity has that.
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  Speaker 1: Donovan Neil, welcome back to the morning show. My friend's
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  Speaker 1: always great hearing from you, Brian.
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  Speaker 2: Always a good beginning to the middle of the week
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  Speaker 2: for me. I appreciate that.
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  Speaker 1: I love what you're doing, and the point being is
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  Speaker 1: engaging people and making it easy for my listeners and
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  Speaker 1: other folks in the state about how to try and
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  Speaker 1: improve our economic conditions among other things here but by
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  Speaker 1: helping folks achieve the objectives to little steps, maybe they
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  Speaker 1: can engage a little bit a whole lot. But you
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  Speaker 1: agree the skids to do that. And if you want
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  Speaker 1: to see what the agenda items are that Buckeye that
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  Speaker 1: Americans for prosperity is focusing on go to Buckeye blueprint
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  Speaker 1: dot com, and the statistic are still there from twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty three and not doing real well. We're kind of
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  Speaker 1: in the middle of the road, at least in so
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  Speaker 1: far as economic freedom, the education opportunities, energy abundance among
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  Speaker 1: the topics that you're pushing. So you do a midway
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  Speaker 1: analysis and you're going to ultimately have a complete scorecard.
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  Speaker 1: I guess that rolls out of the end of the
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  Speaker 1: legislative session. You can rank members specifically and give them
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  Speaker 1: letter grades.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, this is our This is actually our second scorecard.
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  Speaker 3: We released our first one at the end of the
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  Speaker 3: last General Assembly. The legislature gets together right every two
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  Speaker 3: years or over duration of two years, and they do
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  Speaker 3: a lot of voting. They introduce a lot of bills.
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  Speaker 3: As a limited government conservative, I don't like that. Most
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  Speaker 3: of us shouldn't like that the politicians are in Columbus
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  Speaker 3: passing bills, passing laws. But some of them, Brian, are good,
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  Speaker 3: and I would actually learned. I think they're going to
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  Speaker 3: they're up over I think seven hundred. I might be mistaken,
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  Speaker 3: but between the House and the Senate, a certainly well
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  Speaker 3: over seven hundred pieces of introduced legislation. A lot of
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  Speaker 3: that doesn't a lot of that doesn't go anywhere, but
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  Speaker 3: you know, we work on some really key pieces of
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  Speaker 3: legislation that our activists, our supporters are focused in on.
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  Speaker 3: And so this scorecard that we've released, this mid session
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  Speaker 3: scorecard sort of provides folks an opportunity to assess the
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  Speaker 3: lay of the land halfway through the legislative session, so
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  Speaker 3: we can figure out what's been accomplished, but then also
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  Speaker 3: sort of set our sights on what else needs to
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  Speaker 3: get done if we're going to make Ohio a much
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  Speaker 3: more economically prosperous state.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Well, one of the items that I think
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  Speaker 1: a lot of my listeners would like having done, given
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  Speaker 1: that we may have about initiative on the ballot to
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  Speaker 1: repeal all property taxes as a constitutional amendment, is AFP
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  Speaker 1: involved in any efforts to reform property taxes in the
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  Speaker 1: state of Ohio. And I had to throw a curveball
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  Speaker 1: at you, if to the extent that is, but that's
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  Speaker 1: a real, real concern for a lot of my listeners.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Well, one of the things we do, Brian Rice, especially
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  Speaker 3: with our Buckeye Blueprint for your listeners who haven't tuned
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  Speaker 3: in before or caught this segment. We go out and
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  Speaker 3: you know this, This isn't a policy agenda that we
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  Speaker 3: create in Washington, d C. At our national headquarters, or
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  Speaker 3: you know, even in our Columbus office where we just
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  Speaker 3: huddle in a room and figure.
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  Speaker 2: Out what'll make a how better.
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  Speaker 3: I actually go out and we do a listening tour,
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  Speaker 3: and we go and meet with all of our different
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  Speaker 3: grassroots communities around the state and hear from them on
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  Speaker 3: the things they think it's going to take to move
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  Speaker 3: Ohio to number one in the nation in property taxes.
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  Speaker 3: As you can imagine, we're identified early on this session
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  Speaker 3: and so long roundabout way of getting to saying yeah,
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  Speaker 3: our activists, our grassroots communities told us this is something
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  Speaker 3: we need to work on.
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  Speaker 2: And there are actually four bills.
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  Speaker 3: There's a number of additional bills, but four bills in
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  Speaker 3: particular that to this point have been signed into law
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  Speaker 3: to help put people back in control of the property
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  Speaker 3: tax crisis that up until this point, right local elected
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  Speaker 3: officials would just thumbing their nose at the taxpayer. We've
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  Speaker 3: put taxpayer back in control of some of that. More
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  Speaker 3: work to be done, but I think headed in the
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  Speaker 3: right direction.
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  Speaker 1: Well, head on the right direction. I think fear of
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  Speaker 1: the unknown, that the idea that we could control our
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  Speaker 1: own destiny by voting to repeal all property taxes. I
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  Speaker 1: think it's got a lot of elected officials with the
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  Speaker 1: deer in the headlights concerned. I mean that forces action
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  Speaker 1: Donal de Dille more than threats from you know, any
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  Speaker 1: organization or political activists out there. If you see the
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  Speaker 1: writing on the wall, like, oh my god, that's going
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  Speaker 1: to be a colossal train wreck, we better do something
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  Speaker 1: ahead of time to fix the problem. Tends to work
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  Speaker 1: it well.
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  Speaker 3: I think what it certainly has done is it's provided
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  Speaker 3: a leverage point to get action done. Now, I'll say this,
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  Speaker 3: you know, in Columbus, when it comes to your you know,
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  Speaker 3: your state income taxes, commercial activity tax.
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  Speaker 2: Some of these other taxes. Over the years, we've moved.
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  Speaker 3: From nine tax brackets down to one. We've actually got
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  Speaker 3: the lowest in the Midwest, the second lowest in the nation.
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  Speaker 3: But when was the last time your school board, Brian
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  Speaker 3: announced that they were going to that. They've been fiscally responsible,
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  Speaker 3: they've made they've made efficiencies, they're they're they're now able
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  Speaker 3: to give you a tax break. They're going to cut
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  Speaker 3: your taxes. Brian, When was the last time you.
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  Speaker 2: Had a school board, city, council, village? When have you
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  Speaker 2: heard of that ever happening?
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  Speaker 1: Quote is quote from executive producer Joe Strecker. It took
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  Speaker 1: him about half a second. Quote, uh, never close.
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  Speaker 2: Quote. There you go. And that's the I don't mean
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  Speaker 2: to laugh at it, but that's the problem because even
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  Speaker 2: with this, even.
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  Speaker 3: With this sort of damocles hanging over local government's head
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  Speaker 3: around the state, political subdivisions around the state, there's still
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  Speaker 3: some in their nose as the taxpayer, and I think
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  Speaker 3: you know, it's where we got to continue to be
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  Speaker 3: vigilant and continue to work to rebalance the rules of
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  Speaker 3: the game in favor of the taxpayer rather than these
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  Speaker 3: political fiefdoms that exist thirty nine hundred of them, by
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  Speaker 3: the way, thirty nine hundred in the state of Ohio,
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  Speaker 3: the sixth most in the country. That's got a change,
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  Speaker 3: and that's part of our Modernizing Ohio Government pillar within.
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  Speaker 1: Our blueprint Modernizing how Government one of the four pillars
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  Speaker 1: we'll talk about the others with Donovan and Neil Americans
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  Speaker 1: for Prosperity again if you want to see the specifics
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  Speaker 1: on any of this and learn how to help out
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  Speaker 1: and advance this very policy agenda. Buckeye Blueprint dot com.
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  Speaker 2: Pause.
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  Speaker 1: Bring Donald O'Neil back. I want to mention covers since
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  Speaker 1: he because I want you to save money and have
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  Speaker 1: better medical.
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  Speaker 2: The talk station.
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  Speaker 1: Seven fifty five KCD talk Station, Happy Wednesday, Brian Thomas
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  Speaker 1: with Donald O'Neil from Americans for Prosperity. We're focusing on
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  Speaker 1: the Buckeye Blueprint, which you can find online at buff
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  Speaker 1: Buckeye Blueprint dot com and figure out a way to
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  Speaker 1: help out. They've made it very easy to do so,
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  Speaker 1: help out in terms of the upcoming legislative scorecard halfway
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  Speaker 1: through the one hundred and thirty sixth General Assembly, and
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  Speaker 1: the four pillars that the a Buckeye Blueprint deals with
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  Speaker 1: is economic freedom, modernizing Ohio government, education, opportunity, and the
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  Speaker 1: all important energy abundance. They just talked about the effort
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  Speaker 1: to get towards zero percent income tax maybe within the
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  Speaker 1: next decade, and there are a few states out that
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  Speaker 1: have that. I guess, how do you reconcile zero percent
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  Speaker 1: income tax and no property tax? We don't have to
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  Speaker 1: dive into that now, Donovan, another complication, but moving over
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  Speaker 1: to modernizing Ohio government, we're talking about burdensome layer a government.
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  Speaker 1: We all know that there's more layers of government than
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  Speaker 1: need be. We could consolidate, we could share services, and
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  Speaker 1: we could limit the amount of money we spend a
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  Speaker 1: run government. That sounds like a solid idea. Where are
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  Speaker 1: we on that? Where's the scorecard show up? Halfway through? Donovan?
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  Speaker 3: Well, part of the part of the challenge that will
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  Speaker 3: the property tax crisis that we're seeing out there right
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  Speaker 3: I think is a symptom, not alone in that there
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  Speaker 3: are a lot of folks, think tanks and other organizations,
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  Speaker 3: lawmakers who look at that and say, this is a
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  Speaker 3: symptom of an underlying problem. The underlying problem is the
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  Speaker 3: amount of government, especially overlapping governments. We have around the
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  Speaker 3: state of Ohio, thirty nine hundred political subdivisions, as I
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  Speaker 3: mentioned in the last statement or that segment.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, sixth most in the nation. We're unique in how
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  Speaker 2: we do that. We love local government so much. We
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  Speaker 2: have the sixth most effumit the nation, right, Brian. We
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  Speaker 2: have to change that. And so there's not a lot
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  Speaker 2: of active.
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  Speaker 3: Legislation to address then, although actually Representative Jack Daniels from
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  Speaker 3: Northeast Ohio has a bill with a handful of co
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  Speaker 3: sponsors to simplify.
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  Speaker 2: Municipal income tax collection.
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  Speaker 3: So in Ohio you may have to file income taxes
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  Speaker 3: with your city, your state, and the federal government. There's
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  Speaker 3: a proposal to simplify and streamline a lot of that.
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  Speaker 3: But we're building the momentum for next session. I think, honestly,
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  Speaker 3: the ability to impact that is going to take a
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  Speaker 3: new governor who's got a bold vision, and we're working
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  Speaker 3: right now to build policy coalitions to begin to address that.
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  Speaker 1: With all these political subdivisions, doesn't that require like relinquishing,
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  Speaker 1: a voluntary relinquishment of control and authority in any given area.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, don't you have to be willing to do this?
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  Speaker 1: Or is there a legislative fix, an edict from on
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  Speaker 1: high that can eliminate these overlaying or overlapping political subdivisions.
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  Speaker 3: Well, you know, this isn't a new problem either. You
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  Speaker 3: go back to fifth about fifteen years ago, the first
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  Speaker 3: Casick administration. This you know, coming out of the two
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  Speaker 3: thousand and eight economic crisis, there was a lot of
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  Speaker 3: effort and there was a lot of approach to a
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  Speaker 3: voluntary way of doing this, right, giving local governments the ability.
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  Speaker 2: To consolidate share services.
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  Speaker 3: But you know they once the economic conditions improved, they
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  Speaker 3: just kind of stopped doing that. And so maybe, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I think that's part of the balancing act here, right,
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  Speaker 3: how much caret and how much stick is needed to
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  Speaker 3: help provide relief to the taxpayers in Ohio while also
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  Speaker 3: making sure our state is economically competitive in the region.
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  Speaker 1: All right, fair enough, it's pivoting over to education opportunity.
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  Speaker 2: Big fan of that.
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  Speaker 1: I am let families determine where their children go to school.
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  Speaker 1: I believe the money should follow the child. We've made
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  Speaker 1: some big steps here in the state of Ohio toward that.
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  Speaker 3: Toward that end, we certainly have, and I think part
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  Speaker 3: of what part of what we need to be able
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  Speaker 3: to go do now, I think is really look at
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  Speaker 3: now that people have choice, there's some competiti there's competition
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  Speaker 3: in the marketplace, buy and large across the state of Ohio.
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  Speaker 2: What do we do to actually through the outcomes?
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  Speaker 3: How do we especially in our public education sector, where
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  Speaker 3: we're putting more money than ever before, despite what the teachers'
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  Speaker 3: unions will tell you, Brian, we put more money in
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  Speaker 3: education than ever before, yet we're still getting.
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  Speaker 2: Horrible, horrible results, and we need.
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  Speaker 3: To I think start to look, you know, well not
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  Speaker 3: start to Folks are taking a look at that and
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  Speaker 3: beginning to have conversations for how do you actually sort
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  Speaker 3: of overcome that challenge. More money into the system doesn't
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  Speaker 3: equal better outcomes. I think we need to be empowering
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  Speaker 3: the front lines of education, the teachers, and ultimately it's
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  Speaker 3: about the families, the parents having the tools and the
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  Speaker 3: resource to the knowledge that if their kid's not succeeding
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  Speaker 3: in school, a knowing they have options through programs like
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: the Edge Choice Voucher scholarship, to take their kid to
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  Speaker 3: a school that's going to meet that child's unique learning needs.
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  Speaker 1: Unique and they are truly unique. You know, some kids,
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  Speaker 1: you know, flourish in a different form of education environment.
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  Speaker 1: Why would you want to deprive children of the ability
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  Speaker 1: to actually learn something. Let's not take children out of
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  Speaker 1: class to engage in protests. Let's stick with reading, writing,
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  Speaker 1: and arithmetic. If I may be so bold as to interject,
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  Speaker 1: and then here's the key, And this is one of
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  Speaker 1: the reasons I am really, really a fan of vag
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  Speaker 1: Ramaswamy with his energy abundance strategy. You know, that's an
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  Speaker 1: open for business sign. If Ohio had abundant, reliable energy
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  Speaker 1: of all forms, including nuclear, I would argue that's an
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  Speaker 1: open for business sign in the state of Ohio. Look,
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  Speaker 1: your power isn't going to go out. And oh, parenthetically,
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  Speaker 1: it's also affordable, oh, one hundred percent.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, from manufacturing to small business to rape pay,
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  Speaker 3: you know, lowly rate payers like you and I, Brian right,
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  Speaker 3: just trying to keep keep our homes warm in the
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  Speaker 3: winter and cool in the summer.
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  Speaker 2: Energy abundance is the key.
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  Speaker 3: And I think I agree with the vager Almaswami as
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  Speaker 3: he's traveled the state and talked about whether it's energy abundance,
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  Speaker 3: housing policy, jobs, and opportunity. He's not looking at it
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  Speaker 3: as a limited pie. He's looking at it as a
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  Speaker 3: how do we grow the pie? How do we put more?
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  Speaker 3: How do we get abundance and use the basic principles
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  Speaker 3: of supply and demand to help bring down costs and
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  Speaker 3: make life in Ohio more affordable with energy bundets. We've
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  Speaker 3: done the work Housebell fifteen did the the you know,
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  Speaker 3: eliminated the final remnants of the House Boll six scandal
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  Speaker 3: and put some real regulatory reform shot clock times into
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  Speaker 3: place to make sure that the regulators are doing their job.
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  Speaker 3: And when an energy project wants to happen in Ohio,
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  Speaker 3: it doesn't just go into a black hole around Cap Square.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, now we've got to see these projects happen.
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  Speaker 3: That's slowly but surely occurring. In fact, the President had
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  Speaker 3: a big announcement yesterday in southern Ohio and the largest
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  Speaker 3: natural gas facilities should be coming to Piked And we'll
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  Speaker 3: doubles in the details that we'll see where that all materializes.
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  Speaker 3: But folks are looking to Ohio because of the bold
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  Speaker 3: work folks did early legislators did early in the session
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  Speaker 3: last year to set the right foundation for energy policy
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  Speaker 3: here in the state.
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  Speaker 1: Of Ohio going in the right direction. Maybe smaller steps
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  Speaker 1: than I might want, but steps in the right direction,
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  Speaker 1: or are they? And that's thanks to Americans for a
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Prosperity and all the listeners out there who've jumped on
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  Speaker 1: the bandwagon and decided they were going to help out
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: in some small way or even big way. And thanks
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  Speaker 1: again to AFP for doing that. Dial Than and Neil
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  Speaker 1: It's always a pleasure for having you on the program.
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  Speaker 1: Keep up the great work, my friend. You know you
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  Speaker 1: always have a form here on the fifty five KRSE
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: Morning Show. Thanks those always, Brian, have a great week,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: have a great week too. It's a seven forty nine
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: right now, fifty five krs DE talk station. We're gonna
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: hear from Jim Lewis the Constitution Bootcamp. Come at to
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Right State un