Unless the SCPR has missed something, it appears that the Canton Repository and other mainstream media (with their Columbus news bureaus - oops, forgot, The Rep no longer has a Columbus presence) completely missed (before it happened) a state of Ohio Auditor (SOA) per hour fees increase (from $24 to $41).
Here is an e-mail between The Report and The Columbus Dispatch reporter who wrote the story (in gold color).
RE: Locals criticize state auditor for raising fees
Mr. Olson –
I have not written anything about this
issue before today’s article and am personally unaware of anything in the
Dispatch previous to that.
-Cathy Candisk
From: Martin Olson
[mailto:tramols@att.net]
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2011 10:38 AM
To: Cathy Candisky
Subject: Locals criticize state auditor for raising fees
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2011 10:38 AM
To: Cathy Candisky
Subject: Locals criticize state auditor for raising fees
Ms. Candisky:
Martin Olson here of the Stark County Political Report. Just read the above-reference article. What I am curious about is what information did the Columbus Dispatch put out to the general public pre 9/6/2011 hearing and pre 9/12/2011 meeting that the auditor's fee increase was in the offing. I'd appreciate your response. Martin Olson Stark County Political Report http://starkpoliticalreport.blogspot.com tramols@att.net 330 499 0465 |
Shocking!
As The Report sees it, the per hour SOA auditing increase is tantamount to a statewide tax increase because two out of three local government entities across the state (according to a Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review - JCARR - analysis) use the SOA for audits that are required annually if the government unit receives federal funds (otherwise, every two years).
And, of course, state Reps. Kirk Schuring (Republican - the 51st) and Christina Hagan (Republican - the 50th) mentioned nary a word about the additional drain of local tax dollars (in addition to a 50% loss of local government funding and 100% of estate tax revenues).
So while local governments pay the additional fees, other sorely needed local projects will go unfunded. If residents want the project/programs, they will have to pass a revenue raising measures (i.e. some sort of tax increase) at the school, village, township or city level of government.
Politicians like to say that fee increases are not tax increases. Democrat Ted Strickland during his time as governor raised fees across various agencies of state government by some $36 million but used political sophistry to deny that the fee increases were in reality tax increases.
Statehouse Republicans scoffed at his disclaimer. But now that the shoe is on the other foot, guess what Republicans are doing? Of course, parroting the Strickland line.
The Report hates to keep saying this, but the general public is not buying it from either side and are increasingly saying "a pox on both of their houses." And the alienation between the governors and the governed grows. The governors are bringing public incorrigibility on themselves. The Report does not want to hear complaints from public officials about the cantankerousness of the citizenry.
And because the likes of The Repository, The Columbus Dispatch et al appear to have been asleep at the switch on August 2nd, the measure sweep through with barely a protest. A public hearing was held on September 6th in Columbus. Who in Stark County courtesy of The Rep knew about it? Moreover, at a regular meeting of JCARR on September 12th, the fee increase went through because there was no objection and hence no vote to stop it. Had there been a motion, it would have taken six of the ten legislators to return the measure to the Ohio General Assembly for an up or down vote on the measure.
The SCPR spoke with a Stark County local school district treasurer and learned the district paid the SOA about $26,000 last year at the old rates. So the question that The Report has is this: does the SOA fee increase mean about $40,000 to $45,000 this year? Magnify the increase over 16 other school districts as well as over villages, townships and cities and local taxpayer money draining out of Stark County becomes very large indeed!
As the rule change will not be implemented until October 17th at the earliest, no one can say for sure right now what the final number on Stark County based taxpayer dollars which will be emigrating to Columbus.
Isn't a bit more than ironic that local governments get massive tax cuts from state government and to add insult to injury, local governments are a very undemocratic and unaccountable way have "imposed" on them the obligation to prop up an agency of state government, to wit: the State of Ohio Auditor's office.
Here in Stark County we, in light of the theft of upwards of $3 million from the Stark County treasury over about a five (5) to six (6) year span right "under the noses' of State of Ohio Auditors, should love this quote out of The Dispatch's article on the increase, to wit:
Yes, Auditor Yost, your department (under now Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor) did a splendid job of catching "sloppy accounting, mismanagement and fraud" here in Stark County (sarcasm, of course)!!!
It would have been nice to have had an opportunity for Stark Countians, in particular, to have had the opportunity to weigh-in on Yost's ramrodded through increase. But, as we now know, the mainstream media was asleep at the switch.
On the local front, the SCPR likes to be helpful to the mainstream media whenever possible.
For the benefits of Gauger et al, at The Repository, here is a graphic with a JCARR url on it so that The Rep can be put on the mailing list of JCARR so there is not a repeat of the apparent failure by Stark County's only countywide newspaper to let Stark Countians know about the JCARR action BEFORE IT HAPPENS.
Though only a staff of one, The Report will be keeping an eye on the JCARR mailing so that Stark Countians can be informed about the local ramifications of state of Ohio actions.
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