(VIDEO: STATE REP. SCHURING 2/15/2011) "LET'S WAIT AND SEE" ON STATE DEFUNDING OF LOCAL GOV'T? JACKSON TWP PARKS/ROADS A CASULTY OF SCHURING SUPPORTED CUTS?

 

Back in February, 2011 the SCPR did a blog on the speculated cuts to local government funding at the hand of the State of Ohio.

Here is a video (02/15/2012) of state Representative and Republican J. Kirk Schuring and Jackson Township fiscal officer Randy Gonzalez addressing the prospect of those cuts:



Well, it is time for someone to tell Representative Schuring that the "reality" of the cuts are now being felt big time in the base (Jackson Township) of his constituency, the 48th Ohio House District.

In a Jackson Community Connection piece (Donna Smith, November 19, 2012), Jackson trustee and president James N. Walters is quoted thusly:  " We need to figure out what we are going to do now that we are in a $3 million hole and we need to move forward.”

On November 6th, Jackson voters rejected a "current expenses" levy which was designed to finance Jackson's parks and roads in an effort to offset some of the $3 million is less revenue with a local tax increase:

What does the defeat of the levy mean?

• All Jackson parks' operating houRS are curtailed to dawn to dusk and there will be no lighting,
• Yard waste drop off shortened hours have been implemented,
• Personnel reductions in the roads and parks department may be in the offing.

What are the political consequences to Representative Schuring for having supported local government funding cuts?

Despite working very hard, Democrat Amanda Trump made very little headway in sending Schuring a message that his safe district was becoming less safe.

But now that reality will be setting in with Jackson residents with diminished services by virtue of Schuring's support of draconian state funding cuts, one has to wonder whether or not a similar effort by Trump going forward (i.e. continuing her campaign unabated) might not yield dramatically different results.

It is always been a premise of the SCPR, that it will take something like a stunning electoral defeat of a Kirk Schuring for the Legislature to get the message that Ohioans are "damn mad and aren't going to take it anymore!"

Recently, Ohio Policy Matters (a progressive think tank - LINK), published a comprehensive analysis of the huge impact that the "reality" of the effect cuts will have on the villages, cities, townships and special taxing districts of Ohio.

Here is table that shows the overall picture of how large the cuts are statewide:

And here is Policy Matters' take on how the cuts will specifically impact Stark County:

While the focus of this blog has not included schools, it is interesting to note (according to Policy Matters) that Jackson schools face a 22% cut state revenues in the upcoming fiscal year.

Over the next two years, it will be interesting to see whether or not Jacksonians might increasingly be thinking (as the reality of the cuts sink in) that it might not be that great of a thing to having the budget-cut-supporting Kirk Schuring continue to represent them in the Ohio General Assembly.