Agenda for Ohio

Yes I have an agenda. That’s one of the main reason I have this blog. Though I will react to things in the news from time to time and simply comment on the happenings of the day. I will write thoughts, facts and beliefs on issues that are important to me. With that being said, Democrats clearly control the administration of the State of Ohio. I will be holding a fire to them to achieve things while in those offices on the following items.

Election Reform

This to me is number 1 on the list. Jennifer Brunner will have her hands full reviewing all the state procedures, equipment and laws that have been implemented under Blackwell, but also to review the practices of each counties board of elections. We must take away the doubt in Ohio about fairness of elections. As Jennifer promised, she wants things to run so well, no one will know her name.

Redistricting

The Gerrymandered districts for Congress, and State House must be reviewed. A bi partisan procedure needs to be put in place that will work and hold throughout future party changes. We must not take advantage to give Democrats an advantage, as it will be short term, if it is done fairly there is at least a chance the procedure can remain.

Jobs

There needs to be a new approach to bring living wage paying employers to the State of Ohio. Do we need to give away the store to get them, no we don’t. Our state has a great deal of advantages in labor, cost of living, education structure and available facilities. We do need to look at the number of costly fees and licenses that can bury any business and scare them off. There are too many in place that’s man purpose is to provide employment for state, county and local paper pushers. Stream lining and eliminating such things will go a long way toward bringing business to Ohio.

Primary and Secondary Education

Ohio is a mess; we still have not done what it takes to bring our method of funding education to a constitutional level. This will be one of the toughest challenges for the Strickland Administration. But the Republicans did not have the ability or will to do it. We Democrats Must.

Tuition

We are pricing our state universities out of the middle class. If a student gets loans for his tuition and housing expenses for an average 5 years it takes to get bachelors, they could end up starting their career a half a million in debt. This is not acceptable. A strong secondary education system not only helps the youth, it helps the economy and it helps business.

Ethics

The Democrats have won these offices in my opinion primarily on the corruption issue. Things must change and change now. Pay to play must go. State Contracts must be to fair and open bidders; organizations trying to get state contracts should not be tied in any way to the office holders. Finally auditing and oversight and legal personnel must be in place so that if someone does try the road to corruption. It will be caught, stopped and prosecuted quickly and efficiently.

Tax and Spend

With the lower losses due to corruption, with the fair and open oversight of state contracts and with cutting spending we will have a head start. But we have to set the priorities on how our tax money is spent and who bears the burden of that taxation. We will have a balanced budget by law; the question is what is the money spent on, education or million dollar rest areas.

I am sure I have missed a few but this is a good start. If you read this blog often be prepared to hear a lot on this issues from this point on.