Ohio Senate president and Republican Bill Harris is not making friends with Senator Kirk Schuring (Republican - Jackson - 29th District) these days.
First, Schuring says he condemns Harris for the attributed quote: “come Dec. 31, the education governor [Strickland] gets to cut public schools by 10 percent.”
Schuring told the SCPR in a telephone interview yesterday that educators throughout Ohio are extremely sensitive to the prospects of future cuts to elementary and secondary education and that he [Schuring] will not support any budget bill that forces the governor to make any such education cuts.
There has been an effort in the Republican controlled senate to pass a modified HB 318 (which includes delaying the scheduled 4,2% Ohio income tax for tax year 2009 [Governor Strickland's proposal]). Media reports throughout Ohio indicate that there is a "gang of 5" Republican state senators who are poised to join with the minority Democrats to pass the modified bill.
Schuring tells The Report that he is not one of the five.
In fact, Schuring believes that there are constitutional/legal problems in the offing, if the Senate ultimately decides to go with the Strickland plan to plug a nearly 900 million dollar gap in the 2010 state budget. Schuring is for cobbling together a plan that does not include the delayed tax cut approach.
Interesting enough, Schuring says that there is a proposal which met his [Schuring's] criteria that is one vote shy of passage.
Interesting in what way?
Interesting in that Bill Harris himself could provide the vote for passage, but refuses.
It is beginning to look to the SCPR that the Republican leadership [Harris and former Republican Speaker of the Ohio House - Jon Husted) is playing gubernatorial election year politics.
Stark Countians and all Ohioans should be upset with Republicans (like Senate president Harris) who are willing to damage the already fragile state of financing public education for a perceived political advantage come November, 2010.
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