Days after she voted to force onto the backs of Ohio's public employees (Senate Bill 5) that they share disproportionately to solving the state's financial woes, Republican Party appointee (the 50th) Christina Hagan held a town hall meeting in Louisville.
A citizen stepped forward and asked her to support HB 41 (offered by fellow Republican Terry Boose - Lorain) which provided for 5% cuts in state legislator pay. Since legislators cannot - by the Ohio Constitution - affect their own pay in the biennium term they are serving in, such a cut would not go into effect until the 130th Ohio General Assembly which will take office on January 1, 2013.
Here is the video of the citizen addressing the issue at Hagan's town hall meeting:
Interesting enough Hagan and her town hall props/supports (state Reps. Amstutz and Hall) did not seem to know anything about HB 41. But she did promise to get up to speed. Moreover, she seemed to promise she would for her term donate 5% of her income to a charity.
Readers can be sure that if she does so, there will be a press release extolling her for doing so.
While HB 41 has not even had a hearing, it did make it into the budget bill (which, of course, violates the Ohio Constitution's requirement that legislation deal with only one topic).
As the Toledo Blade headline above says, the pay cut was stripped from the budget bill and not because conferees worried about the constitutionality of the provision being in the bill.
While Republicans (including Stark Countians Hagan and Schuring) are quite willing to exact a pound of flesh from the rest of us, the excision of the pay cut from the budget bill proves they are unwilling to share in the sacrifice they impose on the rest of Ohio.
Hmm?
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