Latest / Ron Verb / Wednesday 5pm hour 05/06/26

Transcript

Wednesday 5pm hour 05/06/26 · Ron Verb

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This report is sponsored by Taking a Walk Podcast.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: JVN.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Hey, glad you're with us. 507 News Radio 570 WQEN.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Wednesday, May 6th, and the day after Election Day,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: primary election, 54 degrees. How about that for this May weather? Overcast, damp, rainy,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: and chilly. News Radio 570 WQEN, you're on the air.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Thank you for waiting.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: Hi, Ron.
• 0:23
  Speaker 4: How are you?
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I'm well. Thank you for calling.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Um..
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: Couple things that I was hearing on here. You know,
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: I'm moderate Elaine. I'm the one that, you know, tries
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: to look at both sides of things, you know, when
• 0:35
  Speaker 4: I want to make an opinion about something. And one
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: thing that's bothersome is this idea when, you know, Dave
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: Johnson was on earlier and it was like, oh my God,
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: look at the governor of Virginia. Look at the governor
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: of Virginia.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Not Dave Johnson, Dave Thomas. Stay right.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: You're right.
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: I apologize. I apologize. And I mean, I know you've
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: done searches. If you look at right now, guess how
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: many tax laws she has passed for increasing taxes since
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: she became in office? Zero.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she's relatively new, but she's made it clear what
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: she wants to do and where she wants to go.
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: But nothing has happened yet, and the legislators have offered
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: up and passed almost 50 different types of laws or whatever.
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: She is not acting on any of them. The only
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: thing she's passed is to change the Daughters of the
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: American Revolution's tax status. That's the only thing she's done.
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: So I guess I would just say that at some point,
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: if she does do something, whatever, then that's a point
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: to criticize her. But at this point, she has done nothing.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: But sit down. Moderate Elaine, stand by for a second.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Here you go. I'll read it right off my screen.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: As of early May 2026. I think that's now. Would
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: you not agree, Moderate Elaine? I love that name, incidentally.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: That's your new nickname, Moderate Elaine.
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: Well, I know Ted the Conservative got one. I would
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: like to have one.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Moderate Elaine. Like Elaine Venice on Seinfeld. Moderate Elaine. Exactly.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: As of early May 2026, moderates, several tax increases and
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: new tax proposals are being debated or implemented in Virginia,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: largely driven by the Democrat-controlled General Assembly 2026 legislative session.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Key proposals focus on high earners, investment income, and specific
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: services alongside local tax hikes in certain areas. Do you
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: know what that area is? Some of it is property.
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: Taxes on fitness groups. Taxes on fitness clubs.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Or something like that.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: But I mean, do we want to get to where
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: we tax everything? You can't justify by saying when you're
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: expanding taxes on more stuff, you still end up paying
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: more taxes. Let me give you an example. Years ago
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: in the state of Ohio, you never paid sales tax
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: on services, plumbers and that kind of stuff. You follow me?
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: And that changed to where they said, oh, now sales
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: tax applies to services. So if you get a service with, incidentally,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: do you want to know what the one exception is?
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: I'm going to let you guess. There's one exception to
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: one service you don't get charged a sales tax on.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: What do you bet that service is? What's that?
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: No.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: No.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Well, it's kind of like prostitution. Are you ready?
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Legal services.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: It could be.
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: Depending upon which side you end up on.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: So that's the only service that you don't get a
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: sales tax on, those no-good rats. Proposed expansion of the
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: retail sales and use tax to include a wide range
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: of services previously exempted, including gym memberships, pet care, like grooming,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: and Veterinarian services, storage, home repairs, and dry cleaning. So
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: expanding sales tax. Retail delivery fee, a proposed fee on
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: retail deliveries in Northern Virginia. Firearms ammunition tax. Radford property tax.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Radford City Council approved a property tax increase in 2026,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: making the third consecutive year of increases. Warren County property
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: tax increases. Northern Virginia taxes increased. These are all property taxes.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: So be careful.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: Has any of that been implemented? No.
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: And I'm not saying it will or it won't.
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: I'm just saying that.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: That's the agenda. But that's the agenda that they're going for.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: It has not been implemented.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: What is their agenda, though? What are they working through
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: the legislature as we speak? And you know it's going
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: to happen because it's run by the Democrats. Ain't going
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: to be any opposition to it.
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: Well, I would just say, what if you found out
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: that all of that was done in Ohio? Just as
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: an example, I'm just thinking here, to reduce your property tax,
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: where you're actually paying taxes you spend, not just by
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: owning your home.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Well, if you want to reshuffle the deck, the first thing,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: when you ask me a question like that, the first
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: problem I have with Government in general is government's doing
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: too much, getting too big and costing too much. I'm
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: not for the answer can't be reshuffling the deck. The
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: answer is that, hey, we're going to cut your property taxes,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: but we're going to shift that entire burden over to
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: an income tax. So you're still paying the same or more.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: That's the problem.
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: I agree with you. I understand.
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: I understand.
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: That's kind of what they're doing.
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: It was what you mentioned earlier with the lottery.
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: Where, all right, we're going to have this new funding source.
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: But all they did was take money away from there
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: and put it toward something else.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, make no mistake. I'll get to the Republicans
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: in Ohio momentarily. But like when you got Mondami saying, well,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: we're going to give all this stuff away for free,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: but here's what we got to do. We're going to,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: in his case, increase property taxes. He's gone through all
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: these taxes on, of course, more taxes on rich people
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: and all this kind of stuff.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Well, guess what?
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Just like that. Who was that? Where's that? 40, like,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: 8-year-old woman that said, well, bye to the millionaire. Seattle
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: or somewhere out there. Did you see her the other day? Well,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: if all the rich people want to leave, bye. She
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: said bye. Well, guess what?
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow. They did.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: One of the rich guys said, see ya. And he's
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: pulling out, what was a big star? Maybe it was
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Starbucks or something out of Seattle.
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: Was it California or was it Washington?
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: What the hell was her name? I thought it was Seattle.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: She's a weird one. I tell you, when you mention
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: that Spamburger or whatever in Virginia, let me ask you
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: this just as a woman. I find her very odd looking.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, I look at her and I'm like, she
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: is really weird looking. You ever look at her? Give
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: her a hard look.
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: Honestly, I think I've probably seen her, but her name
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: or her face right now is not coming up to me.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: I don't know what she looks like.
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: I'm sure I've seen her, but I haven't paid attention.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Listen, moderate Elaine, do me a favor. You've got to
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: take a– she's really weird to me.
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: All I want to say is, no, my whole point
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: of all of it is I believe holding people accountable
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: when something has been decided and done. And right now
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: we're getting all this whoopsie-whoopsie about something that has only,
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: you know, proposed that this might happen. It might not
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: even come to fruition. Or maybe of all these 50
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: tax proposals, maybe two get implemented. We don't know. We
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: don't know yet. So to ram it down and say, oh,
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: my goodness, how awful. When she hasn't even been the
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: one proposing these things, it's the legislators.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: Oh, no.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: Oh, no.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: She's right at the forefront. Go study her some more,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Moderate Elaine. This is like when Mondami's talking about we're
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: going to do all this kind of stuff and here's
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: how we're going to pay for it. Those aren't suggestions.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: That's what he wants to do and champion it.
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: He wants to do it.
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: But he's not going to. He was talking about giving
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: them free. I want to say I heard free transportation
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: on the buses or something to that effect.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: We do it here in Mahoning County.
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: Well, we're taxed for it, and I don't think he's
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: even proposing that. But my point is, he now realizes
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: once you get in, that might not be what you
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: can do. And I think that's true for many politicians,
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: regardless of party. They make these, you know, nice proposals
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: about what they want to do, and then when they
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: get in, they're like, ah, you know what I mean?
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: So I'm just saying that you don't know... It could
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: be talked about, but maybe it's never going to come
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: to fruition. So hold their feet to the fire, absolutely,
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: once something is decided and done, and then say, look
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: what they did, or look what she did, or look
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: what whomever did. But when people are just throwing out
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: ideas about stuff, I just don't feel at this point
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: it's appropriate to say they're horrible because of it.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Well, they are because that's their agenda. For example, did
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: you know, I just want to focus on this woman.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: This is another lib oddball. Her name is, what is
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: her name? Let me go. Seattle Socialist Mayor Katie Wilson.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: She's facing more backlash because she's against the closed circuit
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: television cameras that are being used in these crime areas
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: to capture crime. And she's denounced them in a past
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: as something that makes the community feel unsafe and vulnerable,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: these closed-circuit cameras. Well, you had an elderly man walking
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: down a street in downtown Seattle last week. month when
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: two men walking by him stopped without any provocation, shoved
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: him to the ground, and beat the living crap out
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: of him, basically. But she says she's against these cameras
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: because of invading, being used against people that are in
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: the country illegally. Her own statement. I'm not making it up.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: So she wants to shut the cameras down because of
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: people that are here illegally. And the argument is, what
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: about all our illegal citizens and the crime that's running
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: amok in that area? What's wrong with you? I mean,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: when you get a socialist person like... Spamburger, I think
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: is her name, in Virginia, or this girl in Seattle,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: or Mondami in New York. Take them at their word.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: They're not conservatives. They're going to do all this stuff,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: and they're championing it all. And guess what? I don't
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: live there. I didn't vote for them. Good luck with it.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: And I won't, and I would never move there.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: And that's my point.
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: That was going to be my point. If that woman,
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: if I was living in Seattle or wherever you said
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: she was from, I would vote against her. You know,
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: that's the recourse we have. We forget that if you're
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: mad about something getting passed as a levy. Well, I
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: think you and Gino had this discussion a week or
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: so ago, whenever you had him on, people voted that.
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean? It's like, be mad at
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: your fellow neighbor, because they're the ones that said it
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: was okay to raise my tax for this, or voted
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: this particular person as mayor, or whatever it might be.
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean? And if you say, well, geez,
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: I don't want to go live there, then I think
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: that's probably the appropriate step that you should take.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: Well, right.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Like, I give that guy credit, the coffee guy that
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: left Seattle, where he said... And there's another rich guy
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: that's leaving New York, a real wealthy guy. And these
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: people are saying, hey, these rich people give to the
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: arts and entertainment. They donate a lot of money in
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: addition to paying a lot of taxes. You keep insulting him.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: So now I think the guy in Seattle is moving
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: to Miami. And I think maybe the guy in New
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: York was there. But they're all moving to Florida. They're
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: all going. Miami is a cheap place to live. But
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: needless to say, they're all moving there because it's just
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: a lot of their business is moving there because of
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: the philosophy of the state. They don't have an income tax? Well,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: it's not just an income tax. There's not an income
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: tax in Florida. But Florida's got many... Many benefits to it.
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: I mean, that's where they make it up.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Well, they have the weather.
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: Well, yeah, they go hand in hand to a degree.
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: But all right, I didn't mean to get off on
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: a tangent, but I'm just saying hold somebody accountable, in
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: my opinion, when they actually finalize something and make a
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: decision on something. Nothing has happened right now in Virginia,
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: not yet now. Maybe come June 1st, something will happen.
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: I don't know. And then you can rake somebody over
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: the coals for making that decision.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: But then it's too late.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: If we have a.
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: Conversation, I don't think it's warranted to say somebody's evil,
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: in my opinion.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Oh, she's evil.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Now listen. Here's your homework. I want you to look
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: at a photo. I'm going to bring up a picture
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: of this woman. God, I mean, no.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: No, I don't need to look at somebody. We're all
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: God's children here now.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: She'll give you the creeps.
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: The gentleman about four calls ago that talked about the
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: funding of public schools. You agreed with it.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Wait a second. Hang on a second. Wait, I got
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: another one for you. Tax hikes looming for Virginia residents. Looming?
• 13:43
  Speaker 4: Looming doesn't mean they've been adopted.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: The average taxpayer in Virginia would see a 21% tax hike.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: It's amazing. Okay, we'll wait until they do it, and
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: then we'll complain about it.
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: And then I'll call back and say, you're right, and
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: this is wrong, or this was why they did it,
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: or whatever.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: I'm going to make you..
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: If we spend all our.
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: Time arguing about things that haven't even happened, it's hard
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: to get to the root of things that actually are happening.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: I'm going to make you grovel when that happens. You
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: just wait.
• 14:14
  Speaker 5: Okay, I will.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: I promise.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: Now, the public schools. So, four callers ago or something, agreement.
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: You know, the public school should be funded by the state.
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: The Constitution says it. The gentleman, it begins with an
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: S that you refer to about they want to eliminate
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: property taxes.
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: He called.
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: He was from Duke.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Plesnik, yeah.
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I agree.
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: I love that gentleman.
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: When he speaks.
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: I think he's very intelligent. I'm totally on board with that.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Extremely.
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: So you've got Plesnik saying that the state should be
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: paying for this to lower our property taxes.
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: You agree with that?
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: The caller four ago, I agree with that. Guess who
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: also agrees with that? Amy Acton.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: And you're going to hate that answer.
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: I see.
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: And you won't even listen. She is for the fair
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: funding formula, Ron. And I'm not saying you have to
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: like any other politician.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: But wait a minute. I can explain to you the
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: fair funding formula. Stand by for a second. It's moderate
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Elaine when we come back. News Radio 570 WKBN. Well,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Moderate Elaine is now talking about what she likes about
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Amy Acton. She's going to be the Democrat nominee against
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Vivek Ramaswamy for Ohio governor, just in case you missed
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: the primaries yesterday. She ran unopposed. And so that's going
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: to be your rundown for governor. And it's pretty much
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: neck and neck, just so you understand. I mean, it's
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: not a blowout either way. It is a neck and
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: neck race in this very red state. Ari, go ahead
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: with your thoughts.
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: No, I was just trying to point out that what
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: makes me a moderate is that very thing. She believes
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: the thing that you believe on one issue. It might
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: be the only issue. okay i don't know where your
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: thoughts aren't on the on the policies of both of
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: these candidates she believed that that state should be following
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: the constitution and pay the lot the lion's share of
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: public school expenses to eliminate and lower the property taxes
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: for everyday homeowners that is a policy she believed now
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: i'm not trying to be controversial but the back He
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: not only wants to expand EdChoice, he wants to expand it.
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: So giving a billion dollars a year to schools like
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: Ursuline and charter schools isn't enough. He wants to expand
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: it in the same breath as we need to hold
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: public schools to a higher standard. So he wants to
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: take schools that already provide data and benchmarks, and these
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: are random as far as I'm concerned, as far as
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: what is considered A, B, or C. And then you
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: go to a private school where they have zero standards.
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: Nobody knows what they do there. They don't know what
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: their test scores are. They don't know how those students read.
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: They don't know what they're reading. So I'm just pointing
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: out one policy difference amongst two candidates. And I'm not
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: saying to go for either one. I'm just trying to,
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: you know, you take an individual and you just throw
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: them under the bus, whether it's the Virginia governor or
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: And you're not actually looking at here.
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: Is a policy.
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: Let's just look at a policy. And one candidate believes
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: that the state should be taking the lion's share of
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: expenses for public schools. And the other candidate wants to
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: explode the ed voucher system.
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: And that's the reality.
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: So when you go vote, when a person, not you specifically,
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: but when a person goes and votes, realize that everybody's
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: complaining about property taxes left and right. And we've got all,
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: you know, we've got this statewide initiative to try to
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: eliminate them. Just so you know, there was one candidate
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: who did want to assist that. And there's another candidate
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: that wants to take a billion dollars and more of
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: your hard-earned money and give it to a black hole.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: That is a policy difference.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: All right, thank you.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: Between the two.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: There's Moderate Elaine. We'll be right back. All right, back
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: to it. On News Radio 570, Dodie KvN, 534, you're
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: on the air.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: Hey, Dave Thomas is called today. I thought was great. I, um,
• 18:37
  Speaker 5: wanted to echo what he said.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I'm trying to place a voice. Let me
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: think here for a minute.
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: My home village.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: How, how was it?
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: Oh my God. It's always amazing. There's my third time
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: and it's, Now, where did you go?
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: Hang on a second. Hang on a second. It's the
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: boss lady back from vacation. Where did you go?
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: We went to Naples, Sereno, Positano, Capri, the Amalfi Coast, Sicily,
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: all over Sicily. We went to Venice and then ended
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: in Rome.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: And are you able to speak the language?
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: No.
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: I wish I would, but we have a driver's. And
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: he can speak the language. We stopped at our family's hometown.
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: That's the first thing we do when we get there.
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: And our driver speaks so he can speak to everybody.
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: And it's awesome. The weather is beautiful. Not a rainy day.
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: Not a cold in the sky.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Do you have any relatives still in that area?
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: Nope.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: Nope.
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: They all came over.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: Whatever.
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: And other parts, like other sides of my family, other
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: lines that I have, but not the one that we,
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: not the town we go to visit.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: And what is it like here? Because you're basically visiting
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: your heritage.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: Oh, it's like a, it's a very poor, old, old.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: Town.
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: It's small.
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: It's pretty cool. We drink there. We have a couple drinks.
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: We try to buy whatever we can from the people
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: who live there. And, you know, they brought us food
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: out and all kinds of stuff. It was like insane
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: the amount of food they brought out. And it was
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: like $ 30. So, of course, we gave them more. But, yeah,
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: it's always great. They're always so happy and excited because
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: when people go there, like no one goes there. They
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: have like a population of 400 people.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: So, yeah.
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: As a driver bring them there, they're like, who is this?
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: Why are they even here? And we stand out like
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: a sore thumb, like totally stand out like an American.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Why since it's your, you would look like the people
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: of the area because that's where your heritage is. And
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: your husband looks like that too.
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: So why do you stand out like a sore thumb?
• 21:09
  Speaker 5: You know, the Americans dress different than they do. It's
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: more of a farming town. It's small. Everybody knows everybody. Literally,
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: there's 300, 400 people there.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: And what kind of, like, did you get a pizza?
• 21:25
  Speaker 6: No, we had basically, like, sausage and, like, buffalo mozzarella,
• 21:32
  Speaker 6: all kinds of, like, you know, local, more like an.
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: Impasta, which we would call that.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: And was all of it good? Delicious.
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: Everything's good.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: Delicious. Yep.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: So it was just traveling your ancestry for the most part.
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: This is the third time we've been there, but the
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: second time we've been to some of those same areas.
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: But the second time we've gone to my family's hometown.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: And why?
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Like some people say, when you go to Europe, some
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: people say, that you realize that how hard we work
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: in America. In Europe, they have a better understanding of
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: enjoying life and relaxing and living life, not just being
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: a slave to working constantly. Is that the same vibe
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: that you got where you were at?
• 22:26
  Speaker 5: Oh, I think it's definitely easier living. I'll tell you,
• 22:29
  Speaker 5: everything's so much deeper there. I mean, so much deeper.
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, if you want to get into like some.
• 22:33
  Speaker 5: Crazy shopping, you can get into that too. But the
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: food is amazing. The dinners are so much cheaper and
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: what you get and the quality of the food. And
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: you know when... Europe, they don't pump it with all
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: the stuff that they do here, which is why I
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: think I lost three pounds and I ate like insane.
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: Like I don't really eat lunch.
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: I'm not a big breakfast eater. Um, I just kind
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: of worked through and I ate like, I think I
• 23:02
  Speaker 5: ate all day. I don't know.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: I ate and drank all day and I think I
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: lost weight.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: How was the flight? Is it long?
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: Probably long.
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: Better save up and get, Better tickets. That's all I
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: can tell you.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: Oh, really?
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: Better tickets. Yeah. Get better tickets. Now, how many points
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: where you can use points? Cause you definitely want to
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: a better seat.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: What was the longest time you were in the air?
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: I think it was like eight hours and 40 minutes.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Oh my God.
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: A little longer on the way, but I had to
• 23:36
  Speaker 5: lay flat so I can sleep.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: You could sleep.
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: What do you mean?
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: You could lay flat on a plane.
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: How can you lay down on a plane? You're in
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: a seat.
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah, but you're not if you buy the right ticket.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: If you get the right ticket, you can... Trust me,
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: it's a lot better.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: What do you mean? You can put the seat down?
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Or is there like a bed?
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: No, it's like..
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: It reclines.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: It moves forward. It moves backward. It lifts its legs.
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: You've got a screen.
• 24:10
  Speaker 5: You've got like a headphone. I mean, they bring you dinner,
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: hot towels. They bring you things, pillows and blankets, and
• 24:17
  Speaker 5: you can.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: Literally slide it all the way flat and sleep.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: And were you able to actually sleep on the plane?
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Weren't you nervous about snoring and that kind of stuff?
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: Oh, hell no.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: I don't snore, but my husband, I will tell you,
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: he could, yeah, he's disturbing.
• 24:33
  Speaker 5: I had to keep nudging him because you could tell
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: the other.
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: Passengers were like, oh my God, he's snoring.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: But no, yeah. So let me get this straight. He
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: would be sleeping. He'd put his chair down. He would
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: be asleep and he would wake you up from his
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: snoring and you would wake him up so he couldn't
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: sleep because he was snoring, even though he can't help it.
• 24:54
  Speaker 5: I know, but you can't disturb the whole plane, for
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: God's sake. Come on, honey, you're snoring too loud. My
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: brother-in-law would even be like, oh, my God, he's snoring.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: So bad. So he didn't get to sleep then?
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: Oh, he got to sleep plenty. It's just when it
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: started to sound like, you know, we had animals on
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: the plane, I had to nudge him. I mean, snoring
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: is bad. He's a bad snorer. Hmm. Yeah.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Well, that's interesting. So the trip was good. The food
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: was good. The plane ride was intense. And does it
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: make you appreciate America?
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, definitely.
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: You know, you're always excited to get back home. I mean,
• 25:46
  Speaker 5: but it is amazing. It's a place, I mean, you
• 25:49
  Speaker 5: could live and live very well. And our house is there.
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: We were laughing, my sister and I, you could buy
• 25:54
  Speaker 5: a house. In our old, like, family town, I could,
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: for like 60,000 euro. And it would be easy life.
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: You'd be farming and, you know, just breathing in beautiful air.
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: You'd be, you know, half an hour from... The sea,
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: you're an hour from Rome, you're an hour from... It's
• 26:15
  Speaker 5: just great. Italy's amazing. Definitely recommend. And each area of
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: Italy is very different. So if you're in the south,
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: it's much different than if you're in Florence versus Tuscany
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: versus Rome versus Rossitano. Sicily is an entirely different story.
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: I mean, but they're all great.
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: Hmm.
• 26:37
  Speaker 5: Never felt nervous or anything. I mean, you know, you've
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: got to be alert, but.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Why do you, why have you gone back three times?
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: Cause it's my favorite place. Like I would go to
• 26:48
  Speaker 5: Italy over anywhere ever in the world.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Do you think that's because it's your heritage that you're
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: drawn to it?
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: I do.
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: I do think partially, but I think now even if
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: you're not Italian, like you.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: Will love, love Italy. It's just, it's beautiful.
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: It's amazing. Food's amazing. The people are great. The, I mean,
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: if you like to stop, if you like the historical aspect,
• 27:10
  Speaker 5: which I was laughing because I was talking to a
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: friend this morning and we were talking about, you know,
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: we laugh here. Like, I'm looking at buildings and I
• 27:19
  Speaker 5: went to saw one of the oldest Greek ruins. It's
• 27:26
  Speaker 5: like the oldest, most well-preserved in the world we went
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: to in Sicily. And the building or the structure was.
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: Oh, my God.
• 27:41
  Speaker 5: It's like 3,000 years old, right? And there's pieces of
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: structure still standing, but yet we have schools that are
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: 50 years old and we want to rip them down.
• 27:50
  Speaker 5: It just blows your mind.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: So I was chuckling about that today when I said,
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: you know.
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: Every building in Europe is 200 years old, 300 years old,
• 27:59
  Speaker 5: 500 years old. You're talking before Christ. I mean, I
• 28:02
  Speaker 5: walked through Pompeii where... there's still structures and, you know,
• 28:08
  Speaker 5: volcano erupted and took all the whole civilization out. They
• 28:11
  Speaker 5: still have the structures there, but we want to rip.
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: Down schools that are 60 years old.
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: Because we can't figure out how to fix them. You know,
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: but these people built before Christ. I mean, you know,
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: so it's impressive and it also makes you wonder because
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: they don't rip those buildings down and they're beautiful and
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: they're structurally sound and fully functioning.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Did they have air conditioning and stuff like that?
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: Well, everywhere I was, yeah. I'm sure there are some
• 28:42
  Speaker 5: that don't, but yeah. I mean, if you're talking, you know,
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years old.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: America's so new.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Did you say you went to, did you meet the Pope?
• 28:54
  Speaker 5: No, I did not go to the Vatican. No, no.
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: I like to just roam about and be around and
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: frolic with the people. I am not a big tour person.
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: We do tours here and there. I did a cooking
• 29:10
  Speaker 5: class in Venice. I mean, I do some things like that,
• 29:13
  Speaker 5: but I like to just walk around.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Did you feel safe?
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: Oh, gosh, yeah. Definitely safe. But, I mean, I've got
• 29:20
  Speaker 5: my head on a swivel no matter where I'm at.
• 29:23
  Speaker 5: You just can't be stupid. You know what I mean? Like,
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: even if I'm in a bus, it's safe. And I
• 29:26
  Speaker 5: still am always aware of who's in front of me
• 29:29
  Speaker 5: and who's behind me. Yeah. I ride the subway in
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: New York City, too, and wouldn't miss a beat and
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: never be afraid. But I still am.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: You know, you'd be aware.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Well, I think that's changed a lot over the years.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: I think I would.
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, it's definitely not, which is, you know,
• 29:50
  Speaker 5: it's not safe. It's not as safe there. And it's
• 29:52
  Speaker 5: gotten a little crazy. But when I was listening to
• 29:56
  Speaker 5: Ted talk. it made me think about how we are
• 30:02
  Speaker 5: definitely more vulnerable than I think we are here. And
• 30:05
  Speaker 5: I know you and I have talked about the fact
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: that I don't think we're deep red anymore. I think
• 30:09
  Speaker 5: we're closer to light pink, if pink and not turning blue.
• 30:14
  Speaker 5: And what I was reflecting on it this morning, and
• 30:18
  Speaker 5: I know you're for a lot, some of these things
• 30:20
  Speaker 5: and you're saying they're just renewals, but I would, my
• 30:25
  Speaker 5: concern is this. It's not that, All these renewals are passing.
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: And I get that, yeah, some of the new levies
• 30:33
  Speaker 5: were turned down and maybe.
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: Did a little worse in terms of.
• 30:38
  Speaker 5: Passage rate than they had in the past.
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: But the fact is, is we are..
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: Overwhelmingly passing renewal levies. And that's a broader problem. And
• 30:48
  Speaker 5: I think that until we get to the crux of
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: what's actually happening in this county, across the state, and
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: in this country, we're going to continue to have almost
• 30:59
  Speaker 5: like a Mondani or Mondami, whatever the heck his name is,
• 31:02
  Speaker 5: in New York City and what's going on there. Because
• 31:05
  Speaker 5: the middle class is really getting squeaked. And so when
• 31:08
  Speaker 5: you have people that are dependent upon social services and
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: the government programs, and government has become the industry, right?
• 31:19
  Speaker 5: So in Mahoning County, we used to be built on
• 31:22
  Speaker 5: steel manufacturing trades. We had a strong middle class. And
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: that's no longer, right? The population is shrinking. It's getting older.
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: The middle class is shrinking.
• 31:34
  Speaker 7: And..
• 31:36
  Speaker 5: The people that are going out and voting are all
• 31:40
  Speaker 5: dependent on this system that our local government has become
• 31:47
  Speaker 5: tied to. It's not tied to private sector, right? It's
• 31:50
  Speaker 5: tied to.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Our— Wait a second here, boss lady. What do they
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: call women in Italy? I have to come up with
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: a word. Listen here, boss lady. When you're talking about
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: this kind of stuff, for example, as I said when
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: I started, as I would say to you, I voted
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: for the continuation of the quarter percent sales tax, which
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: you don't even notice. It's a quarter percent. And a
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: lot of it's paid by people that shop here from
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: out of town to benefit our roads. I mean, in
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: all reality, just hang on. Genetti is the county engineer's
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: budget has been the same for 20 years. So he couldn't.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: He gets it from license plates and gas tax and
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: what have you. It wasn't growing, yet the cost of
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: paving the roads... was continuing to grow, so the amount
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: of miles you could do was basically insignificant. So you
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: would see roads throughout Mahoning County just deteriorating that never
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: got any attention or could get any. So because of
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: that tax and because of his truthfulness about this is
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: where it's going to go and what we're going to do,
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: and he's lived up to that. You follow me? I mean,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: he didn't lie.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: I agree.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: So we're seeing more roads paved in Mahoning County than
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: have ever gotten paved and roads that needed desperate attention.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: And money that goes to the township, you would be
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: a fool to vote against that tax because you don't
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: understand what his situation was. And to be able to
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: fix the roads, it would be stupidity. Now, in my
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: own community in Austintown, they still have a responsibility. They
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: get money from that tax in addition to what they
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: already spend on roads. So to me, roads are important.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: So I had two renewals on that. And I voted
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: for both of those because that, that is something that
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: is worth renewing because of what comes from it. Because
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: if you don't do that, what comes from it is,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: is roads that will deteriorate even more. And you're not
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: going to keep up to them. That is what the
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: point is that I was trying to make on renewals.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: And I voted for those. And like the only other
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: caveat I did, I put a comma in there and
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: I said, I forget where I, I understand any community.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: And I, And I support any community that says I'm
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: going to tax myself additionally for police protection. Because inflation,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: hiring cops is more expensive. The benefits are more expensive.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Police cars are more expensive. I understand why people would
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: say I'm willing to make this sacrifice. And it is
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: a sacrifice to have enough officers to have protection here
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: in police emergency services, police, fire, ambulance. So I get
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: all of those things. and you're getting something for that money.
• 34:39
  Speaker 5: Not debating that. Not debating you whatsoever on the fact
• 34:42
  Speaker 5: that we need roads, and we definitely need fire and police,
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: and I will support them.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: I'm saying, though, that.
• 34:49
  Speaker 5: The funding mechanism and the way that we do it
• 34:53
  Speaker 5: is why I will not support Now it's done. I'm
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: not saying I've never voted for a fire or all
• 35:01
  Speaker 5: of these things, right? I'm saying that the system is
• 35:05
  Speaker 5: holding the taxpayer hostage, and I wouldn't vote for a
• 35:08
  Speaker 5: levy like Dave Thomas was saying, and at the same
• 35:11
  Speaker 5: time vote to abolish property taxes and remove all levies.
• 35:16
  Speaker 5: I'm voting, and I believe that the system needs changed.
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: that absolutely we would be a dummy. You would be
• 35:25
  Speaker 5: so stupid to not think that you have to, as
• 35:29
  Speaker 5: a person living in this community or anywhere, have to
• 35:32
  Speaker 5: support fire, police, and these roads. And schools. And we
• 35:38
  Speaker 5: have to have schools, right? And the state is supposed
• 35:41
  Speaker 5: to be taking care of the schools, whatever. But as
• 35:44
  Speaker 5: a society, that's going to happen, whether it happens through
• 35:47
  Speaker 5: income tax, sales tax, I don't care. I don't want
• 35:50
  Speaker 5: it to happen through property tax because you.
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: Should not attach my home, my asset to that. You
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: can send me a bill. We've talked about this before.
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: That's my issue with it.
• 35:59
  Speaker 5: And I think that what's happened here is that the
• 36:02
  Speaker 5: middle class has gotten so squeezed. Mahoning County, the average
• 36:07
  Speaker 5: income is extremely low. We have an aging population, a
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: declining population, a shrinking middle class, and the workforce are
• 36:18
  Speaker 5: people who rely on all the government funding, the government contracts,
• 36:23
  Speaker 5: the government levies, the government health care, and all of this.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: Stand by. Wait a minute.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Just hold that thought. Hold that thought. Back with the
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: boss later. Call us in line.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: Stand by.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: I've got a lot more to speak with her about
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: when I return. All right, so with the boss lady
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: back from vacation. All right, so..
• 36:46
  Speaker 5: My concern is this. We had low voter turnout. The
• 36:49
  Speaker 5: Republican Party is not turning out. It's very fractured.
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: You've got Vivek, who is, some people say, running behind. Okay,
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: he's behind in the active.
• 36:59
  Speaker 5: People are saying it's that close.
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: If not, he's behind.
• 37:04
  Speaker 5: And I do believe those vetting sites that were referred
• 37:08
  Speaker 5: to because I followed them during Trump's election. They are
• 37:11
  Speaker 5: pretty darn accurate. You've got low voter turnout. We've got
• 37:18
  Speaker 5: people who are struggling. And these people are still voting
• 37:22
  Speaker 5: for the levies. And you may ask yourself why, because
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: I scratch my head every single time. And the reason
• 37:27
  Speaker 5: why is they are dependent upon the levies for their
• 37:30
  Speaker 5: own livelihood. And you're never going to get people to
• 37:33
  Speaker 5: vote against feeding themselves. And so that's how we get
• 37:36
  Speaker 5: them to overwhelmingly, constantly, and it's not.
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: Even like they just passed. They made a statement with
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: their levy approval. In our county, in Trumbull County, they
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: were overwhelming.
• 37:48
  Speaker 5: That tells us we have a major problem.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: Hold on a second.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Hold on a second.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: Hold on.
• 37:53
  Speaker 5: Most of those levies were renewals in the local area.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: But hold on.
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: When you're being pinched, and you don't have.
• 38:06
  Speaker 5: That much money, and you still vote for a renewal,
• 38:09
  Speaker 5: not to give yourself a raise. And this is what
• 38:12
  Speaker 5: I think Dave Thomas was going.
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: Because they could have put money.
• 38:15
  Speaker 5: Back in their pocket, and they still said no, and
• 38:17
  Speaker 5: they still are struggling.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: I don't know that that's a... I'm going to back
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: up on that. I don't know that that's a fair assessment. Yes,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: you can do that. Listen, I'm the first guy to...
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: take a look at all this stuff but you're getting
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: something for the money into people aren't going to say
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: people aren't going to say it.
• 38:35
  Speaker 5: Matters if you don't if you can't put food on
• 38:37
  Speaker 5: the table ron.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: I understand it but people do care about roads and
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: they do care about a cop showing up and they
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: do care about a fire department showing up if your
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: house is on fire most of this stuff that was
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: renewed uh what had to do with uh these were
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: renewals and some of it with the school system and
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: People view it differently if they have kids in school. Listen,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: if you put a new levy on my ballot for
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Austintown schools, I would vote against it. There's absolutely no
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: possible way. But when... The Austintown police had a levy on.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: I voted for it after my son, my son educated
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: me because the bottom line was the department did all
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: the cuts it could do. And there was nowhere else
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: to go. It needed additional funds. There was nothing more
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: to cut.
• 39:25
  Speaker 5: I think you're missing my point, though. My point is
• 39:28
  Speaker 5: that government is expanding to the point where it's creating
• 39:31
  Speaker 5: a system that is feeding itself and is becoming the industry.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: If you're saying to me... Wait a second. If you're
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: saying to me..
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: No, hang on.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: I don't disagree with you if you're saying to me
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of private sector businesses aren't private sector businesses.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: They get all their money from the government, whether it's
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: dealing with autism, whether it's dealing with drug abuse.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: You got it.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: All right, stand by. Just hang in there, because... I've
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: got more to cover with you, all right? Just sit tight,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: and I'll get to more of.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: Your..
• 40:02
  Speaker 8: From ABC News, I'm Chuck Severson.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: U.S.
• 40:05
  Speaker 8: Forces attacked and disabled an Iranian flag tanker that tried
• 40:09
  Speaker 8: to break through the U.S. blockade on the Strait of
• 40:11
  Speaker 8: Hormuz today, says the Pentagon. Sources tell ABC News the U.S.
• 40:14
  Speaker 8: is considering a possible arrangement in which Iran would open
• 40:18
  Speaker 8: the strait and the U.S. would end its blockade of
• 40:20
  Speaker 8: Iranian ports. ABC's Tom Sufi-Burridge in Tel Aviv.
• 40:24
  Speaker 9: That would create a 30-day window in which more negotiations
• 40:28
  Speaker 9: would take place on the more substantive issues. The question
• 40:31
  Speaker 9: of what would happen to Iran's stocks of enriched uranium,
• 40:34
  Speaker 9: which remain in the country, and also the future of
• 40:37
  Speaker 9: its nuclear program, potentially its missile program, and its relationship
• 40:41
  Speaker 9: with its proxies around the region.
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: President Trump at the White House. They want to make
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: a deal.
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: We've had very good talks over the last 24 hours.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: And it's very possible that we'll make a deal.
• 40:50
  Speaker 8: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was interviewed behind closed doors by
• 40:53
  Speaker 8: the House Oversight Committee about Jeffrey Epstein. Republican Committee Chair
• 40:57
  Speaker 8: James Comer.
• 40:58
  Speaker 7: The only thing that I had seen that Lutnick did
• 41:01
  Speaker 7: wrong was wasn't 100% truthful on the brief visit to
• 41:05
  Speaker 7: the island with his family. He corrected that in his
• 41:08
  Speaker 7: opening statement.
• 41:09
  Speaker 8: The Dutch cruise ship, which health officials say has had
• 41:12
  Speaker 8: some cases of hantavirus, once anchored off West Africa, now
• 41:16
  Speaker 8: headed to Spain's Canary Islands. The next steps in managing
• 41:19
  Speaker 8: the outbreak, say health officials. An arrest in Sunday's mass
• 41:23
  Speaker 8: shooting during a party near Arcadia Lake in Edmond, Oklahoma.
• 41:26
  Speaker 8: 23 people injured. 18-year-old Jalen Davis will be charged, says
• 41:31
  Speaker 8: police chief J.D.
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: Younger.
• 41:33
  Speaker 8: Detectives believe this incident began with a disturbance between two
• 41:35
  Speaker 8: females attending the gathering that escalated into an altercation between
• 41:40
  Speaker 8: rival gang members.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: Also attending the gathering.
• 41:43
  Speaker 8: Luigi Mangione's legal defense fund surpassed $ 1. 5 million today, his
• 41:48
  Speaker 8: 28th birthday. Mangione's scheduled to stand trial in September for
• 41:52
  Speaker 8: the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare chief Brian Thompson in New York.
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: You're listening to ABC News.