Latest / Ron Verb / Wednesday 3pm hour 05/06/26

Transcript

Wednesday 3pm hour 05/06/26 · Ron Verb

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All righty. Callers in line, stand by on NewsRadio 570.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Let me see here. On one of these lines, I'm
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: going to find Dave Thomas with the reports as state rep. Hello?
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: I'm not Dave.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Stand by. Hello?
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Hey, Ron.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: There he is. This is Dave Thomas. All right. Election
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: season is done. And welcome, Dave Thomas, back to the
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: program on NewsRadio 570. Did you have a nice election season?
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: I did.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me back on. A little bit strange
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: not to call in during the month of April, but
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: good to be calling back.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's talk a little bit. You know,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: a lot of people are saying, well, and Dave, I
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: confess to everybody, as I said yesterday, in my own
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: community here in Austintown Township and in Mahoning County, I
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: voted no. in favor of the renewals. These were road taxes.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: You follow what I'm saying? Paving that's, that's been going on.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: If you're familiar with Mahoning County, it's a quarter percent
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: sales tax. That's, uh, It's made tremendous difference. You don't
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: even notice it, really. It's made tremendous difference in the
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: ability of our county engineer to get a lot of
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: roads done. The level like we've never seen before, okay?
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: And it benefits the townships as well. So that passed.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: It's a sales tax. In my community, there were some
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: property tax renewals for our roads in our township as well.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and I got to have good roads, I can't have
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: potholes and that kind of stuff. So when people make
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: a big deal out of, well, take a look, you know,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: this stuff passed and a lot of this stuff was renewals. Well,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: that's probably why it passed. Even I voted for these renewals.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to vote against them and have crappier
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: roads at this point in time. So when they act
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: like there isn't an issue with property taxes, Is that
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: a fair argument to make? I mean, I do think
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: people support their police, even additional money for their police
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: and their roads and renewals so far. Comments?
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: We're still kind of looking at some of the numbers
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: from levies across the state.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Most of them failed.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Yes, actually, it's ironic because a lot of folks say, hey,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: it's the November election when more people are going to
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: the polls. where people will vote them down. But at
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: least so far from what I've seen, we're actually seeing
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: a lot more failures or if there's passage, almost every
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: single one I've seen of a new levy is within 5%.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Even renewals were very close too. So we'll have those
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: kind of full numbers back. But yeah, every levy in
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Trumbull County passed new and renewal. Every one in Mahoning
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: passed new and renewal. And I do love that concept
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: of you're all's sales tax for your roads. Um, it
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: just makes a lot of sense. So I'm glad I
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: was glad to see that one. That's how it should
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: be done much more.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 1: And with the renewals in my township, Austintown Township, I
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: voted for them because that's your local roads within your community,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: which need resurfaced and potholes fixed and what have you.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, to me, that's one of the most important
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: things you can do. Trust me, if there was a
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: levy on my ballot for money for my school system
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: or additional money, I would not vote for it. Just
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: so we get a clear understanding.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: You know, on that.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: And actually, one of the levies in Ashtabula that failed,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Ashtabula County, five of the eight passed, the three that failed,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: one of them was actually renewal for the school system.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: And that went down. And that's what we're kind of
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: seeing across the state. If levies passed for school systems,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: we had a record number of income tax levy requests
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: for schools across the state. It seemed like those had
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: a better pass rate. They were close. But anecdotally, if
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: a school levy passed, it was actually that. Otherwise, most
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: of them went down. Now, your chair, because Lorain City Schools,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: theirs passed. Theirs' largest levy request this past year, 11 mils.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, my God.
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  Speaker 1: 11 mils. I mean, that's just huge. That's about $ 400
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: for $ 100, 000 of value.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: And up there, values are high.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, I don't understand that, but thankfully, I
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: don't live there. But basically, when they were talking about statewide,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: property taxes didn't do too good in general.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it'll definitely be. This past November was 87%. It's
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: not anywhere near 87% passage for this election. So as
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: soon as I get those numbers back, I'll let you know.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: But I thought that was a pretty interesting indicator and
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: a lot more, like I said, not property tax ones
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: for schools or local governments, but more on the income
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: tax side. Sure.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: I want to let everybody, I want you to explain
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: something to everybody that's listening. And I mean, all of
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: you that are listening here in my neck of the
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: woods and in Ohio. Traditionally, in the past, when we
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: did the re-evaluations and they said your house is now
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: worth 20 or 30 percent, that was your increase. And
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: that's how it worked. Now, re-evaluations are going on again
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: in Mahoning County. And it's different this time because of
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: legislation you put forth and was approved. So could you
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: explain the difference that everyone will benefit from as a
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: result of you and the Republicans? when it comes to
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: their property taxes and the re-evaluations and the increase. There
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: will still be an increase when your homes are re-evaluated
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: as they are now in Mahoning County, but it's not
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: going to be nearly as big because of the rules
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: you put in place. Explain it so our listeners can understand. Correct.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: That unvoted portion of your property tax bill that's tied
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: directly to your value. So when your value goes up,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: Unvoted portion goes up right along with it.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Inside millage, we call it.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Yep, inside millage and the 20-mil floor.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: And there's even some outside millage, as I understand it,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: that goes up, too, like on joint vocational schools, if
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, JVSs have that, it's called a 2-mil floor, which
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: is very similar to a 20-mil floor. And that's tied
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: directly to your value. That is also now capped at inflation.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: All right, so explain to people. I just want everyone
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: to understand. And I want all of you to listen.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: All right? This is because of what you and your
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: fellow Republicans have done. In other words, if you didn't
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: do any of this stuff that you're about to explain
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: to our listeners, and these re-evaluations would be coming in
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: as they are at 20% or 30% increases, it means
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: that's what your increase would be. Correct? 20% and 30%.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Is that accurate? Correct.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, because a good portion of your bill is
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: tied to your value. The strongest that we could get
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: passed by the current governor and signed is to say,
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: no longer will it be tied directly to your value.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: So when the honing goes up again 20% or 25%,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: instead of your tax bill going up by that portion,
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: it's now capped at whatever inflation was over the last
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: three years, more than likely over the last three years
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: between 7% to 8%.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: So even though with the re-evaluations, folks, the last thing
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: we need is for your property taxes to go up.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: You don't get a vote on it. They just re-evaluate
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: your home and say your home's now worth this or
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: we think it's worth this much. So now your taxes
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: go to this. They automatically go up 7% or 8%.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: And I'm not happy about it, but it's better than 20%
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  Speaker 1: or 30% because you changed how you and the Republicans
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  Speaker 1: changed the Correct.
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  Speaker 2: We limited for the first time what local governments have
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: been relying on, which was higher and higher property values
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  Speaker 2: into that automatic increase in property tax revenue every three years.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: So now that's limited and capped just to inflation, because
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  Speaker 2: the whole concept should be that government really shouldn't get
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: anything without approval. But again, what we could get passed
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: by the governor is, Government shouldn't get more than inflation
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: unless you, the voter, have approved it.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Right. So basically, because of you and the legislation the
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Republicans passed, instead of me seeing a, let's just use 20% increase,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: I will see a 6% or 7% increase. I'll save 13%
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: off that increase. Yes.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Now, if you though, you know, you said one of
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: the levies that none of the levies that you voted
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  Speaker 2: on yesterday were new levies. Let's say your community voted
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: for a new levy. Well, then you may have a
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: higher increase because you've approved more money for a certain purpose.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: Or on the flip side, say your community was like
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: that one in Ashtabula that said, no, we're not even
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: going to approve this renewal. And your bill would actually
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: go down even more than than what that inflationary number was.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: So the voters are still kind of bleeding the charge
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: in a sense, but at the very least, that revenue
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: coming in, what entities were expecting a 30% increase, now
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: they're only getting that inflationary number of whatever it was.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: That cap. Right. I mean, it's still an increase, but
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  Speaker 1: it's not as bad as it would be without you
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: guys doing that. So I want our listeners to understand,
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  Speaker 1: I don't care if they're Democrats or Republicans, what Dave
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  Speaker 1: Thomas and the Republicans got passed. In other words, these
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  Speaker 1: increases are not going to be tied to the 20%
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: or 30% that we reevaluate your home on and say
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: that's the number that's going to be based on what
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: inflation averaged over the last three years. It's a change
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: in how it's figured, correct?
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Yes, it's a whole kind of mindset shift for local governments,
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: and it's a change in how we've always just kind
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: of relied on that revenue coming in and the automatic increases.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: With State Rep Dave Thomas, how did... Wait a minute,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: I think I lost you. How disappointed are you that
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: so many counties, including the one in which I reside
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: in Trumbull County, and so many counties are not taking
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: advantage of the power that county commissioners have to give
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: people a portion of the huge increase back to them
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: with doubling the homestead exemption, as I say, which is
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: once again, for our poorest senior citizens because it's income-based,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: doubling the homestead exemption and doubling the owner occupancy credits.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: How disappointed are you that the majority of our county's
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: commissioners haven't done that?
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: I'm still pushing them. But yes, disappointed. And the perfect example,
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: I have a graph on my Facebook page of an
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: example township of one I spoke at recently. And it
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: showed in the 2023 revaluation, their 32% increase in revenue.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Then it showed now that we're capped at inflation, I
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: put it at 9% in the graph to show the
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: worst case scenario, what their even new revenue will be
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: next year. And I showed then difference with if we
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: were to pass in Trumbull County, for example, a piggyback,
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: which would double the savings for their residents, that'd be
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: money not coming into government, what that difference would be
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: for the township, they would actually be flat this year.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: They wouldn't actually get a cut in their revenue. So
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: it'd be the perfect way to help prevent, even more so,
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: any of those spikes from happening for those, in this case, seniors,
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: for example. And that local government wouldn't actually lose money.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: It's a perfect explanation of A tool that we have, again,
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: with the current governor, I could not get a forced
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: acceptance of that local level for the piggyback, but could
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: give it to counties. About 10 counties did this to
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: pass that double to save directly those homeowners.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Right. If I say in my own county, in Mahoning County,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: and I say, listen, you guys got a huge increase
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: to all of these commissioners. that we have that seem
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: to be oblivious to this. You guys got a huge
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: increase with the re-evaluations, the previous re-evaluations. If you would
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: double a homestead exemption, oh, well, Ron, we don't get
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: that money back from the state. I don't care. If
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: you double a homestead exemption and the owner occupancy, you're
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: only giving a small portion of that increase back to
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: the citizens. You still get the bulk of the increase, correct?
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: Correct.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: Yes, especially from the last revaluation that my graph shows.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: It's all still there. You're just essentially foregoing, and this
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: gets back to the whole concept. If we all agree
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: that the last six years was wrong, which is a
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: great way to at least show we can't do that again,
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: any type of increase.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Give it directly then to the homeowners of a decrease.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Right. I mean, it's pitiful to me, and it says
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: everything about... It says everything you need to know that
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: the Mahoning commissioners and Denny Malloy called me on the
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: program and said he supported all this and was all
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: gung ho on it. Then he faded away. Somehow, somehow
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: he didn't achieve it and he didn't do much with it.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: And he lost his election bid. I think that's part
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: of the reason why he lost. Because he didn't champion,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: had he taken, in my opinion, had he stepped forward
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: and said, I'm going to do this. I'm not going
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: to back off. I'm not going to give in to
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: these school superintendents and these people to show up who
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: tell me we can't double the homestead exemption. We can't
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: do the owner occupancy. I'm going to get another vote
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: out of my fellow commissioners and I'm going to make
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: this happen. I think he would have been successful in
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: his election. But he did not do that. And I
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: think it disappoints people. Meanwhile, if you look in Mahoning County,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Christine Oliver won her race, and a large part of
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: her campaign was doing these two issues, basically doubling the
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: homestead exemption and the owner occupancy. That was a large
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: part of her campaign. And she championed that, and she won.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: And she talked about it last night in her– news
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: conference afterwards that these were the important issues. I think
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: those issues are game changers for people running for office
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: or staying in office. Do you agree?
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. And there's three things with that.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Hold those three things. Hold that thought. Don't forget it.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: I'm going to come back with Dave Thomas. I'll get
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: to your calls. News Radio 570 WKBN. All right, Ron
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Ferb with Dave Thomas. Three things that you were going
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: to mention. Wait a minute, not here. Hang on, hang on,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: hang on. There's Dave. Three things you were going to mention.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah. So this whole conversation kind of highlights three
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: different aspects. And that first one is the reminder to
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: our voters and to our taxpayers of the local control
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: aspect to property taxes. With property taxes being that pure
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: local decision and our local officials having the control of
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: over when property taxes go up, they receive, and when
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: they can go down. So that's why this whole conversation
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: just refocuses that. But to your point, this also, number two,
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: shows that pressure of government. So when the schools come
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: to meetings, when the local governments come to meetings and say,
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: you know, you can't decrease our revenue, you can't impact
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: what could happen in the future, that pressure applies at
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: the very local level, all the way up to the governor,
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: which is why we couldn't force this at the state level,
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: because again, the governor would only allow us to do
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: so much. And side note, this is why I'm so
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: excited for Vivek Ramaswamy and what I think he's going
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: to bring to the state next year. But that kind
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: of leads to the third point, which is the actual numbers.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: Almost to a T, when I've met with a township
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: or even a school, a village, I've And I've showed
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: them their numbers, that graph of how much they increased,
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: what the piggyback would mean for them next year, and
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: how much unvoted increase they're getting next year. Almost to
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: a T, they kind of open their eyes and they realize, well,
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: this is not as much as what we were hoping
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: to get in the future. We budgeted for this, but
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: we're not actually really losing. And that's probably doable given
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: our cash, given how much we've grown. And that's my
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: kind of lead to folks is essentially saying no to
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: unvoted future increases in a way to decrease that tax
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: bill directly to those who need it most without really
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: truly cutting as what many local governments fear without looking
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: at the actual numbers.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: It seems to me when I'm talking about the election,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: it seems to me those people who didn't put the
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: taxpayer first, I can only assess from what I see in...
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: my neck of the woods here. Okay. So if I
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: go back, if Denny Malloy would have continued to step
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: to the plate and convinced another commissioner to get money
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: back to his citizens, if his emphasis would have been
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: on the taxpayer, not on, on, on all the people
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: in government saying you can't give the person that's hurting any,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: any more than any of their money back. And I,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: and I, that's why I think he lost. And I
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: think that's why Christine Oliver lost. One, she ran a
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: great campaign. She ran a terrific campaign. But the reality
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: was those were her key talking points. I support both
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: of these. And if you elect me, obviously there's a
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: general election. I'm going to champion these things and try
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: to get them to the finish line. That's the game changer.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: If you say we don't care about the pain and
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: suffering the taxpayers pay and we only care about government,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: if that's your message, then you should be rejected by
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: the voters.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Comment well that that might be a piece of it
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: but i'll still go back to at the same time
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: when voters are very upset and europe says well i'm
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: upset too over our tax bills we're still actually voting
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: more cases than not to increase them.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: Well we're voting for in our neck of the woods
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: it's renewals and listen some of these renewals are necessary
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: until the system is changed but.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Right Your road renewals, for example.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, are definitely necessary. Stand by. Back with Dave Thomas.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: We'll take some calls and more coming up. Stay tuned.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: The Sky. News Radio 570. WKBN. WKBN. Here's the annoying
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: part as I was reading the Vindicator article. Just to
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: bounce off you, Dave Thomas. It's talking about Mahoney County
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Republican primary. Christine Oliver opposed Mahoney County Commissioner's decision to
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: not double the homestead exemption and owner occupancy property tax exemption,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: which is a good thing. I think it's why she won. Well,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: the state reimburses the county for the value of the
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: original homestead and owner occupancy tax exemption. The recently passed
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: law that would allow county commissioners to increase those exemptions
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: by as much as double does not provide for reimbursement
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: from Columbus. That's what they use as their excuse to
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: not do it. Even though, once again, they still have
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: more money coming in as a result of the reappraisals than...
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: the small portion are giving back to the people that
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: are paying it.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Correct. And I will probably ask to have this on
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: my gravestone. Columbus and the state is not some amorphous
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: being out there. Columbus is you. Still your tax money.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: And if we continue to subsidize growing and growing property taxes,
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: what we're actually saying is that increase that you just
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: talked about and those spikes, they're completely valid and they
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: need to stay. And someone needs to pay for them,
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: and that someone is still you, just through your money
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: that you're sending down to Columbus. So that's why we
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: made the decision not to reimburse and to say that
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: this would actually be true tax reform, which is the
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: government actually getting less in money.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: There you go.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Electricity. Any news there? I mean, as we see our
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: rates double, I mean, I want you to, you go
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: there and I think you're one of the few politicians.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: And first of all, you represent the taxpayer kudos to you.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: I'd vote for you for any office that you would
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: run for because your focus is on the taxpayer. First
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: and foremost. Not like the rest of these politicians whining, oh,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: what are we going to do? What are we going
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: to do? We can't think of the taxpayer first or
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: the pain and suffering that they're going through. That is
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: what your focus is on these taxpayers. Well, we can
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: see what's happening with property taxes, but also our electric
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: rates have doubled. So what we used to pay has doubled.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: So the consumer, whether it's this temporary bump in gasoline
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: prices or the hike we're paying in natural gas or
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: in electricity or in property taxes or just the inflation,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: we've got a stranglehold on everybody's wallet out there. So
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: what's happening with electricity?
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: Well, first, you mentioned gas prices. I signed on to
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: a bill that would have a gas tax holiday. been
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: huge spike um the governor came out and put full
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: water on that on monday we're still going to push
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: it i don't know how that's going to look but
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: we've got to do something um second so uh good
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: news is that ohio is like i've told you leading
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: the nation have right now being built roughly seven natural
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: gas power plants we went from having no new power
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: generation no new power plants to Since 2018, in the
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: past eight years, now we're building seven, which is actually
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: once they're fully on. And it's the problem is it's
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: going to take a few years to actually get them there.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: But once they're there, the whole supply and demand thing
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: right now, just from that seven, will be greatly taken
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: care of. And then I'm actually attending a ribbon cutting,
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: a perinuclear power plant. I think it's next week. up
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: in Lake County, that's a nuclear power plant. Vistra, who
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: owns the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in Davis-Bessey over in
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: Ottawa County, announced expansions of both of those plants in
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: nuclear production. So we're getting even those seven natural gas
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: already within one year of us passing House Bill 15,
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: plus an expansion of both of our nuclear, on top
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: of what probably will be coming in the future, too.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: That's news that we just kind of found out about
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: It doesn't help, okay? But it is the fastest step
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: we could have taken year.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: So it won't make a difference next month, but down
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: the road, it should make the supply and demand issue.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Hopefully we'll go away with that many new plants being
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: put online. My biggest concern, as I said to you,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: is we need diversity when it comes to this. And
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: when we're talking seven additional natural gas plants, that means
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: a lot of natural gas to power those plants, which
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: I'm troubled by the thought that of that demand for
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: natural gas could drive up your heating cost as far
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: as your natural gas is concerned. It's why I personally
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: support diversity, nuclear, hydro, natural gas, and coal, the main four.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: I actually toured a hydroelectric plant in Marietta two weeks ago,
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: and it powers 40,000 homes. Constant, renewable, expensive energy Super
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: cool power plant. We have, I can't remember how many
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: of them along the Ohio River. I want to say
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: four or five of them. And that's something that was
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: built in 2016. Probably we'll get another one here as well.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: But I agree with you. We can't just have one. Whole,
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: I don't think, will be coming back. Our kind of
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: priority is to make sure the current whole plants Don't
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: go away.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: And like I emphasized, Obama, Clinton, Biden, Kerry, the green
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: energy people regulated coal plants so heavily to put them
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: out of business. The goal was let's hit them with
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: all these regulations so they can't survive and then mandate
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: that they be torn down. So that's why we had
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: these coal plants that were on our grid being torn
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: down because of Obama without anything to replace them. Now, Trump,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: as I believe you said... has changed that totally. You
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: are not allowed to rip down any more coal plants.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: So the people who hate Trump need to understand. Trump
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: said this idea of the green energy and ripping down
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: coal plants with nothing to replace it, and then the
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: demand goes up, prices go up. He ended the destruction
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: of the coal plants. Accurate? Yep.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: 100%.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: It's not even enough to just say and stop the
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: destruction of the coal plants. We have to build new.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: And that's That's where those seven come in, nuclear, other sources.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: A great example, our grid, it's called the PJM grid,
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: have a list of all the new energy coming on
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: board and what's essentially being requested to be added to
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: the grid. Two years ago, they compared the list two
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: years ago versus today. Two years ago, during Biden year,
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: over half of that was intermittent energy. renewable, solar, and wind.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: We can't power Kimberly-Clark or the manufacturing plants or the
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: data centers or just our own ocean electricity off of
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: those sources. That's the core reason why our supply and
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: demand is so off now. Today, though, those are down to,
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: I want to say, 20% to 25%. Now it's much
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: more of your steady, your base load, is what we
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: call it, energy, which is much more predictable, much more efficient.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: And dependable.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: And actually we'll get the electrons here.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: And dependable. It's not as iffy. Bottom line.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: And on the natural gas side, I would agree with
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: you of the concern over natural gas prices if we're
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: doing the same thing as previous, which was not actually
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: adding more to the market. But another bill that we passed,
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: which Tex Fisher was instrumental in, That's Senate Bill 103.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: That bill opens the floodgates for drilling and for pipelines.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: So we have all the natural gas underneath us. We're
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: just not really taking full advantage of it. It just
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: makes sense to use the natural gas below us to
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: then actually fuel those new natural gas plants. It's kind
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: of a direct feed.
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, something... Something's got to get done here. Immediate
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: relief isn't going to happen soon. When it comes to
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: these data centers, didn't you pass legislation that says if
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: you build one, you've got to supply the power for it?
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: So we introduced it. It's funny you say that. We
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: actually had the undersecretary for energy, number two in energy,
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: into Columbus on Monday. Had a small roundtable with him.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: And this was actually the bill and the focus of
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: that roundtable.
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: Uh..
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: Household seven oh six we've had several hearings on it
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: already and exactly it says dash this is what the
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: trump administration actually asking other states to do which is
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: our bill and that says after a data center you
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: can't pass along those costs to the other consumers uh...
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: homeowners the other businesses you've got essentially either build your
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: own power plant which is what trying to push them
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: to do now You've got to eat those costs yourself
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: because we can't afford to keep passing them along to
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: everyone else.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: We're falling kind of right in line with what they're
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: trying to push across the nation.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: And the amount of data centers in Columbus is huge, right?
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, we got a lot of them. I don't
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: understand the people that are opposed to them. As I said, listen,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: the people that are bitching and opposed to them, every
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: single one of you are going to use them. I mean,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: that's the reality. You're not going to fight progress. Every
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: one of you will be using that service. And the
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: reality is, and I'll make the argument again, if you
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: put a data center, data center, whatever you want to say,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: in your community somewhere, and these are huge buildings, and
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: I'm opposed to any state initiative, and I want to
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: make this clear, to give any property tax abatement to
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: any data center, on a statewide level or any level.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: There should never be a property tax abatement at all.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: But if you build a facility that's that huge, it
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: will absorb a lot of the property tax burden and
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: move it from the homeowner onto that facility. It's not
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: a bad thing. Comment? Yeah.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: I always tell locals, don't give away the farm or
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: these data centers. Use them to actually lower current residence costs.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: And that's exactly how you can do it. Bring them in.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: Shift it to them.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: They come see you.
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: They need space. They need somewhere to go.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: And they need us. They need our weather. They need
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: our transmission lines. We don't have to give them a
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: sales tax break. We don't have to give them a
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: property tax break. We don't have to do any of
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: that stuff. And the state can't override any of it,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: nor should they be allowed to.
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: And the property tax side, as a purely local state,
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: decision of what abatements are there. At the state level,
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: we had in the budget to remove the exemption for
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: the sales tax. Governor vetoed it. Do not have the
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: 60 votes to override that veto.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Well, hopefully, hopefully, Ramaswamy, if he wins, will change that.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: Yes, I know he's talked about it. He said the
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: same thing. You know, let's have them here, but let's
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: not let them be here. Let's actually benefit from their presence.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Let's give somebody..
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: Here's the dirty secret.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: Let's say Hubbard, which is in my district, for example.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: Let's say Hubbard were to say, no, we're not going
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: to have a data center in our city or in
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: our township. But then that data center goes into Sharon, Pennsylvania. Well,
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: now what actually happens, it's still the same grid. You're
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: still having the same problems. Electricity, wastewater, for example. But
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: who's actually benefiting from the tax base? It's Sharon, Pennsylvania.
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: But who's paying the burden? It's Hubbard.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: Right. I mean, when I see these people, all these
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: people out there bitching, let's get some amendment against data
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: centers and data centers. We don't want them in this stuff.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: I want to scream and say, use your head. You
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: don't understand the electric grid to begin with, but you
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: don't understand you're giving away the benefit of the physical
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: structure being there as opposed to it being somewhere else.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Think for God's sakes, politicians. Here's a novel idea. Actually
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: think this through. If you want to put a data
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: center in Austin town where I live, we don't have
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: the land. I'm all for it. You want to know why?
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: Because these huge facilities, then your property tax burden will
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: decrease and a lot has shifted to that large facility.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: It's of benefits to people and you're going to use
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: it anyway because And it's beyond me. When I see
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: all of this nonsense from people that have an opinion
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: based on, I don't even know what it's based on,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: just the mob. We're opposed to it. We don't want it.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: It's terrible. It's awful. But they'll all use it, and
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: it's on your same grid. You're just not going to
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: get the tax advantages of it out of sheer stupidity.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: That's just my thoughts. All right, what else do you
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: have to add? Because what didn't I cover that you
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: want to let us all know? Dave Thomas.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: I think that's in pieces a lot. A lot has
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: happened over the past month. Come back from our recess,
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: our election break next week. You're going to see us
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: pass the capital budget. You're going to see us do
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: some more things in energy. Tex Fisher and I actually
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: have another bill that helps manufacturers especially with building their
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: own power. There may be opportunities where a manufacturer comes in,
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: you can't actually have a small plant there on site,
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: but if they're willing to pay for a plant to
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: come in to offset their electricity, they should be able to.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: Right now, we're not allowed. We think that should be changed.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: So things like that that are foundational moving forward. But
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: I do want to talk about, real quick, the election
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: again yesterday.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: And part of my concern... what we saw, which was
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: the turnout. Turnout was about normal. It was about 23% statewide,
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: varied county by county. The problem was actually the food
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: turned out. Publican turnout was down tremendously. Democrat turnout was
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: up really high.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: Well, for good God, if that could... if Amy Acton
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: is governor of the state of Ohio, God help us.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Or let me just, give me a minute and then
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: I'll let you speak. If Amy Acton becomes governor of
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: the state of Ohio, God help us. And if the
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Democrats were in charge, none of the stuff that you
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: did that every single citizen of this community and state
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: will benefit from would have happened. Period. Go ahead and
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: I'm done.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: I compare her to the governor of Virginia every day. Um,
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: All the new taxes the governor of Virginia is proposing,
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: all the craziness that's happening there, the redistricting that's happening there,
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: take away all of their Republican congressional seats. She will
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: be actually worse.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: Do you remember when she was the big doctor for
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: the state? She quit. She quit because she couldn't take
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: the criticism and the pressure. What makes you think that?
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: I'll never forget that. When the going got tough, she
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: got going. And so I'm supposed to say, oh, now
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: I want her as governor? Come on.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and she blames the governor. It wasn't her that
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: did all that. It was the governor's choice. But now
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: she wants to be in the governor's seat.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: Which is crazy in itself. But the scary thing is that,
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: you know, Vivek, the clear mandate, he won over 80%
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: of the votes yesterday. That's almost unheard of. In a
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: governor election where you have a well-funded... opposition as well.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: So clearly, I think we're unified behind him. We've got
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: to get behind him. But it was not that far
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: off per actual votes, despite not even having a primary.
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: You compare the total Republicans across the state versus total
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: Democrats for voting. It was only the difference of, I
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: want to say, 100,000. Yes, actually less than 100,000. We
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: got 762,000 votes. combined, Vivek and his opponent got 817.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: Hold that thought for one second. Hold on. I'll wrap
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: up with you right after the break. Dave Thomas, state rep.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: You'll learn a lot when he's on. Ron Furb, Kingdom
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: of Mahoning, back in a minute. 70 WKBN. All right,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: 357 with Ron Furb. All right, so go ahead, Dave.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: You were making a point on turnout.
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: Yep. So that's just kind of my closing is just
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: turnout for Republicans is way down, Democrats way up. Perfect example,
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: Ashtabula County, 96% of registered Democrats mountain voted versus less
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: than 50% of registered Republicans. That's kind of what we've
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: seen across the state. My district alone, there were 6,000
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: less Republicans who voted than what they did two years ago.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: So if this trend continues, what November could look like,
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: I know folks are upset. They're disappointed with what's happening
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: right now. It's tough. But if we don't get out
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: and vote in November, the alternative.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: Is much worse. All right. So I don't even know.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: Did you have an opponent yesterday in the primary?
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: No.
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Good. All right. So everything went okay for you. Yeah. Yep.
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: All right. Well, listen, I am a Dave Thomas fan
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: and supporter, as I think many of you are. He's
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: Artis Swergen's state rep that I know of in my
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: history in this community that's representing the taxpayer and doing
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: so much will benefit and represent all of us. David,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: thank you for making time. It's good to have you
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: back on now that we got the election season behind us.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: And thanks for all you do. Appreciate it.
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: Likewise.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: We'll talk to you soon.
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: It's Dave Thomas, state rep, Republican, NewsRadio 570, WKBN and
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: Ron Burb. Ted the Conservative and more calls coming up.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Taking your calls till 7 tonight. Ron Furb from the
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: Kingdom of Mahoning on News Radio 570 WKBN.
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: From ABC News, I'm Chuck Sievertson. About Iran, we've got
• 38:54
  Speaker 4: things under control, says President Trump today at the White House.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: We have it very much under control. They want to
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: make a deal. We've had very good talks over the
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: last 24 hours. And it's very possible that we'll make
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: a deal. Any deadline? Never a deadline.
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: It'll happen.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: It'll happen, but never a deadline. A key issue the U.S.
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: Wants Iran to hand over its enriched uranium. ABC News
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: senior White House correspondent Selena Wang.
• 39:19
  Speaker 5: This has been a key sticking point for weeks in
• 39:21
  Speaker 5: the U.S. and Iranian negotiations. And Iran has already publicly
• 39:25
  Speaker 5: said before during previous rounds of talks that they will
• 39:29
  Speaker 5: not agree. to export that enriched uranium out of their country.
• 39:34
  Speaker 5: So it remains unclear just how far apart the two
• 39:37
  Speaker 5: sides still are right now.
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: Earlier, President Trump announced that Project Freedom, the U.S. operation
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, is being
• 39:44
  Speaker 4: suspended to allow for more peace talks with Iran. Commerce
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: Secretary Howard Lutnick's closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: on Jeffrey Epstein has ended. Lutnick said earlier that he
• 39:55
  Speaker 4: cut ties with Epstein in 2005, but Justice Department documents
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: showed Lutnick and his family visited Epstein's private island in 2012.
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: After today's hearing, Committee Chair James Comer, Kentucky Republican.
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: The only thing that I had seen that Lutnick did
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: wrong was wasn't 100% truthful on the brief visit to
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: the island with his family. He corrected that in his
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: opening statement.
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: Congressman Ro Khanna, California Democrat. If you saw the exchanges
• 40:21
  Speaker 4: that my colleagues had with him, you would see he
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: made a force of the English language. The Dutch cruise ship,
• 40:29
  Speaker 4: which health officials say has some cases of hantavirus, is
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: off West Africa, now headed to Spain's Canary Islands.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: Three people aboard died.
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: Ted Turner, the cable news pioneer, TV mogul, sports team owner,
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: yacht racer, and much more has died at 87.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: Listening to ABC News.