Column: Good luck on school-funding change

My Dec. 11 print edition column. Note: I’ll be out of town until the middle of next week, so I might not be posting.

State Rep. Joe Koziura says “it’s not about money anymore” when it comes to improving Ohio’s public schools. He better be right, because right now there just isn’t more money to be had for schools or, frankly, anything else the state might want to fund. That means that those looking for a fundamental change to alter a school-funding system the Ohio Supreme Court has said is over-reliant on local property taxes should ready themselves for disappointment.

Koziura, an affable and proud Lorain Democrat, is a consistent populist. He decries the pernicious influence of lobbyists in Columbus — and the legislative term limits that aid and abet their work — and public spending he cannot defend. For instance, his party’s soon-to-be-former leader in the Ohio House, Joyce Beatty, D-Columbus, will make $320,000 after Ohio State University created a position for her. “Outrageous,” Koziura said.

Yet when it comes to the thorny issue of public school funding, Koziura takes a different view than many other liberals across the state. Look at a child’s family, he said. If the parents are concerned about their kid, then that child probably has a better chance of succeeding; if not, the student is going to have a harder time. Koziura would like to see a system less reliant on property taxes, but he doesn’t see money as a magic bullet.

He’s right, at least to a point. If money was the sole answer, the Lorain school district, which spends among the most money per pupil in the county, would be among the county’s best school districts. Instead, it’s the worst, based on state ratings. My point isn’t to dump on Lorain; it’s merely that the town’s intractable problems wear off on the school district.

Don’t, however, tell districts across this county that it’s not about money. Rich and poor districts alike face looming deficits or painful cuts. The property tax-poor Lorain district recently failed to pass a levy, so it must reckon with a $2.7 million deficit next year. On the other end of the spectrum, voters in the affluent Avon school district recently renewed two levies, but the district still faces a deficit early next decade. Everybody’s present, or future, is gloomy.

And I mean everybody. Median household income adjusted for inflation is down both in rich and poor parts of the county, according to recently reported figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. From 1999 to 2007, Avon Lake’s median household income fell from $82,144 to $78,703; in the same time period, that figure fell in Elyria from $47,481 to $41,318. Whether you eat steak or Spam, chances are you’re buying less of it then you were a decade ago.

The state’s hurting too. Ohio faces a projected $7 billion shortfall in its next two-year budget; considering that the last two-year budget was roughly $50 billion, the state is going to have to do some serious shedding, no matter what help comes from Washington’s seemingly bottomless coffers.

All of this seems to make school funding reform a costly afterthought.

The state Board of Education recommends that the state allocate an additional $1 billion to schools, which would go toward extra help for poor and special needs students, among other extras. John Bender, Lorain County’s state Board of Education representative, likes the proposal, but says it’s “pie in the sky” because of the state’s budget troubles.

Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, said he will offer a school-funding suggestion next year. He can offer the most grandiose plan in the world, but it won’t mean anything if the Republican-dominated Ohio Senate doesn’t like it.

Even if Strickland or the school lobby tries to bypass the Legislature to take a proposal to the voters, it’s hard to see stretched voters supporting any big-money proposal.

Contrary to popular belief, local school districts have been learning to go without for awhile now. Their lessons continue.

Hat in hand

Gov. Ted Strickland is in Philadelphia today along with nearly all of the nation’s other governors. They are begging the president-elect for federal money.

It appears that it’s a given that the state is going to have to mandate a 10 percent across-the-board spending cut, which would reduce the state’s projected two-year deficit from about $7.3 billion to $4.7 billion. Strickland must be hoping that the seemingly bottomless federal coffers can make up the rest; help with Medicaid and unemployment benefits seems to be the state’s most pressing need.

Then again, the deficit is only projected, so it isn’t written in stone. I mean, the state thought it would generate $73 million from a keno gambling expansion to go toward plugging the deficit. That hasn’t worked out. Projections are funny things.

Ruh-roh

The state of Ohio faces an eye-popping $7.3 billion deficit in the next two-year budget, 2010-2011.

I hate to be a broken record on this, but tell me how the state is going to find more money for public education as it faces this nightmare?

Column: How to enrage Ohio conservatives

My Nov. 20 print edition column:

“The phone at our headquarters,” Lorain County Republican Party Chairwoman Helen Hurst said, “has been ringing off the hook.”

The callers weren’t looking for souvenir McCain/Palin yard signs or begging to donate money. Rather, they were expressing their outrage at Kevin DeWine, the Ohio Republican Party’s deputy chairman.

DeWine angered social conservatives, who make up much of the state and national GOP’s core base of support, by suggesting two days after the election that the Republican Party was having an “identity crisis.” In listing the party’s problems, he noted the GOP’s “distracting fixation on social issues.”

“We have to exchange a fiscal message and economic message in for a social message that has dominated the messaging of this party for the last decade,” DeWine said.

DeWine’s insertion of his foot into his mouth insulted church-going conservative Republicans. They are Republicans not because of their support for free markets and limited government. They are Republicans because they think abortion is murder and gay people shouldn’t have the right to marry.

These activists dominate the party’s base, and they won’t surrender or downplay their beliefs. On social issues, Hurst said, “We abandon nothing.”

DeWine, a term-limited state representative from the Dayton area, must mend fences with the right because he wants to succeed the outgoing Bob Bennett as state party chairman. So, in a letter written to Republican leaders across the state, he defended his anti-gay and anti-abortion bona fides:

“I spent eight years in the General Assembly advancing pro-family legislation such as the Defense of Marriage Act and at least six major pro-life reform bills. The executive director of Ohio Right to Life recently credited my ‘perfect voting record on abortion issues.’ Since I became deputy chairman of this party, I’ve met with dozens of pro-family leaders to discuss candidate recruitment, outreach and volunteer support.”

DeWine, so long as social conservatives don’t undermine him at the last moment, will in January take over a party in turmoil. He urges the party to craft a message that appeals to a broader range of people.

After the election, prominent Ohio Republicans, such as former U.S. Reps. Rob Portman of Cincinnati and John Kasich of greater Columbus, have suggested that what the party needs, among other things, is better communication.

Kasich, writing after the election at www.TheNextRight.com, said, “We must communicate clearly what we stand for, and make the case for why our ideas are better.”

Portman, writing for the Dallas Morning News, said the party must craft solutions to problems such as pollution and health care costs. The party also “must put more effort and resources into communicating our policies.”

Criticism of messaging is a common one on the right, mostly because Republicans swear that the media are the reason for their failures. DeWine, in his kiss-and-make-up letter to Republican leaders, cited “media bias” as a reason why his party got crushed two weeks ago.

Now there’s a “message” his whole party can get behind: Shoot the messenger.

Bennett, a few days ago, laughably suggested that DeWine’s comments “were presented in news reports without context.” The Columbus Dispatch dismantled Bennett’s claim by posting audio of the interview online. When politicians say something was taken out of context, what they’re really saying is that they wish the stupid thing they said hadn’t been reported.

But as Republicans figure out how they should talk, the question as to what they should talk about remains open.

It’s easy to argue that the Republicans need to tone down their social stances. Gay marriage, thanks to young voters, probably will be widespread nationally in the next few generations. Roe v. Wade, thanks to Democratic President-elect Barack Obama and the liberal justices he will appoint, won’t be overturned any time soon. Social issues aren’t going to save Republicans.

But don’t tell that to the religious conservatives who man phone banks and knock on doors in order to get Republicans elected.

DeWine did. And look what’s happening to him.

Bipartisan gay-bashing

Gay Americans rallied throughout the country on Saturday to protest the passage of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California.

Ohioans, in 2004, approved a similar ban.

That year, Democrat Jennifer Garrison of Marietta challenged state Rep Nancy Hollister, R-Marietta. Hollister was the lone Republican in the Ohio House to vote against the “defense of marriage act.”

So Garrison attacked her. As the Gay People’s Chronicle (scroll down about halfway) noted at the time:

Hollister was the only House Republican who voted against the bill. She was also the only Republican to oppose it in 2001 when it passed the House on Halloween. That year, the bill died in the Senate.

Hollister’s Democratic opponent Jennifer Garrison, a Marietta attorney, sent campaign literature to homes in the 93rd district saying, “If you believe marriage is between one man and one woman, there’s something you should know about Nancy Hollister.”

The district includes Washington, Monroe, Noble, and Guernsey counties and part of Muskingum County in southeast Ohio.

The cards, which arrived October 7, have a flip side that reads, “DOMA was enacted precisely to protect Ohioans from having to accept ‘marriages’ or ‘unions’ entered into in other states. Despite the value of DOMA, Nancy Hollister voted against it.”

Democrat Garrison then implies that because of her vote against DOMA, Hollister doesn’t represent Southeast Ohio.

“Jennifer Garrison believes marriage is between one man and one woman and will fight to protect our values,” according to the card.

Garrison won. And when the Democrats take control of the House in January, she’ll join the caucus leadership as majority floor leader.

That many Republicans like to bash gays is a given. But, in Ohio, such behavior apparently is rewarded by both parties.

Are you experienced?

So Beachwood Democrat Armond Budish will be the new speaker of the Ohio House, and Medina Republican Bill Batchelder will lead the minority Republicans.

Budish was just elected to his second two-year term; Batchelder has been a state representative for more than 30 years, though not continuously; he served as an appeals judge earlier this decade. He’s a rarity in Ohio — an experienced legislator. That’s thanks to Ohio’s term limits.

This is merely to point out that Batchelder is in a good position to teach Budish and the Democrats in his slim majority caucus a thing or two come January.

Grim 2009

The New York Times shows the huge deficits many state governments will face in 2009. Ohio’s looming deficit is listed as $1.3 billion. Meanwhile, the state Board of Education has come up with a school-funding proposal that would boost, by $1 billion annually, the amount of money state government pumps into public education.

Great. Now where’s the money going to come from?

Capri!

State Sen. Capri Cafaro has been named leader of the Senate Democrats:

Ohio Senate Democrats on Wednesday, Nov. 12, picked state Sen. Capri Cafaro of Warren as their new leader, passing over state Sen. Tom Roberts, D-Dayton.

“I would have loved to have done it but we wanted to be united in our caucus,” Roberts said.

Joining Cafaro on the leadership team will be Shirley Smith of Cleveland as assistant leader, Ray Miller of Columbus as minority whip and Jason Wilson of Bridgeport as assistant minority whip.

The Democrats hold 12 of 33 seat in the Ohio Senate.

This means that the four projected caucus leaders in the Ohio House and Senate will all be Northeast Ohioans: Cafaro is from the Youngstown area, and Senate President Bill Harris is a Republican from Ashland; the two expected leaders of the Ohio House, Armond Budish, a Democrat, and Bill Batchelder, a Republican, are from Beachwood and Medina, respectively.

“I’m very, very truly sorry that this happened.”

Reposted from The Chronicle-Telegram archives, May 3, 2006. Then-13th Congressional District candidate Capri Cafaro, it seems, actually handled herself pretty well. Her father, J.J.? Well…:

Emotions run high during elections.

And even higher for the dad of a losing candidate.

When it became evident that Capri Cafaro would not win the Democratic nomination for the 13th Congressional District, she began to cry.

A Chronicle-Telegram photographer got in position with his camera to capture the moment.

As he began shooting, chaos ensued. First her father, J.J. Cafaro, put his arm around her and tried to get her out of the room but she pulled away.

“Then he belly-bumped me and started to say something but she interrupted him,” Bruce Bishop, the Chronicle’s chief photographer, said later.

“Daddy, no,” Cafaro said. “You don’t want to do this. We’ve run a professional campaign. Daddy, you are such a liability.”

“Do you know how many of those cameras I can afford to smash?” her father replied.

And, as quickly as the ruckus began, it died down and the apologies began.

“It’s not about losing; it’s just that everybody tried so hard to do a good job. Everybody worked so hard and for it to end like this,” Capri Cafaro said.

She reached out to shake Bishop’s hand and her dad reached his hand in to join them.

“I’m very, very truly sorry that this happened,” she said.

Photo: Democratic congressional candidate Capri Cafaro reacts after losing her bid for the 13th Congressional District seat in 2006. Her father, J.J. Cafaro, is standing next to her.

Senate merry-go-round

Ohio Senate Minority Leader Ray Miller, D-Columbus, stepped down on Monday. Miller had a poor run after he took over the Democratic caucus from former leader Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, who was ousted in January. He’s been dogged by ethics questions related to campaign finance, and his caucus remains small: only 12 Democrats serve in the Senate, compared to 21 Republicans. Democrats didn’t add any seats in last week’s election.

The apparent favorite to take over as minority leader is state Sen. Capri Cafaro, D-Hubbard, and the daughter of J.J. Cafaro, a wealthy Youngstown shopping center developer.

Capri Cafaro lost two congressional races before being appointed to Marc Dann’s state Senate seat after he was elected attorney general in 2006.

The Cafaros have, shall we say, a checkered history. From TheHill.com, March 8, 2006:

National Democrats are trying to discredit Ohio shopping-mall heiress Capri Cafaro because they fear her family’s ties to former Rep. Jim Traficant (D-Ohio) could weaken their attempts to link Republicans to the recent wave of criminal influence peddling.

Cafaro aired a 30-minute television infomercial last week on a local network affiliate as she launched her campaign to succeed Rep. Sherrod Brown (D), who is running for the Senate. Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio) won in a landslide against Cafaro in Ohio’s 14th District in 2004.

Worried that Cafaro would run just as badly against a well-funded Republican opponent in Ohio’s 13th District, Democrats are highlighting her family’s ties to Traficant. Cafaro’s father pleaded guilty and paid a $150,000 fine for bribing Traficant to steer government money to his aerospace company.

Capri Cafaro had worked as an executive with the company and, in 2003, accepted immunity to testify against a former co-worker. Traficant was sentenced to nine years in prison for a variety of bribery offenses and expelled from Congress in 2002.

“You can’t have a one-way conversation with voters about corruption. If there’s an issue that separates a nominee from a flawed nominee, it is ethics,” a Democratic campaign operative said. “If you’re ethically clean, you’ll hold the seat and benefit Democrats in Ohio and nationally, since they have a message of going after Republicans on corruption.”

Vic Rubenstein, Cafaro’s campaign manager, told The Hill: “No one ever accused her of doing anything wrong. Our opponents fundamentally want to manipulate legal semantics to frighten people.”

If Cafaro becomes the Democratic leader, she’ll surely be met with snark from Republicans. It’d be easy to dismiss Cafaro, but she’s no dummy — she holds degrees from Stanford and Georgetown. And it’s not as if Miller set the bar particularly high for his successor.

Cafaro’s wealth certainly won’t hurt her with Senate Democrats tired of getting embarrassed every two years.

State Sen. Sue Morano, D-Lorain, said she hasn’t committed to a leader yet, but Cafaro has “leadership ability,” Morano said. The Democrats will meet Wednesday to pick a new four-person leadership team. Might that group include Morano? Maybe; she said she’s open to the idea.