(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.

ONCE AGAIN, LOCAL & STATE GOP LINE UP AGAINST AVERAGE GUY? THIS TIME CONSUMER PROTECTION. WILL THE VOTE HELP DEMOCRATIC OPPONENTS IN THE FALL?

The Republican Party is commonly known as the party of the business class whereas the Democratic Party is generally perceived as the political party of "the little guy."

Of course, some say that such stereotyping is just that and that political reality is more of a mix than simply business versus the common man.

That may be, but in the view of the SCPR the Republican caucuses of the Ohio House and Senate in passing House Bill 275 on Tuesday did not help themselves in disabusing stereotypical thinking.

HB 275 is legislation, on its way to Republican Governor John Kasich for his signature, which dramatically tamps down on consumers rights.

On top of Senate Bill 5 (the anti-collective bargaining bill), the passage of HB 275 appears to be more of the same.

The bill according the Legislative Service Commission of the Ohio General Assembly:

• Permits a supplier to offer a consumer a "cure offer" if the consumer files an action against the supplier for an alleged violation of the Consumer Sales Practices Act. 
• Requires a cure offer to contain a supplier's remedy consisting solely of monetary compensation to resolve the alleged violation of the Consumer Sales Practices Act, the amount of attorney's fees to be paid, not to exceed $2,500, court costs, 
• Prohibits a consumer from being awarded treble damages, and court costs and attorney's fees after the cure offer is received, if the consumer does not accept a cure offer and a court or arbitrator awards the consumer actual economic damages that are not greater than the value of the remedy included in the cure offer. 

It is hard to see anything in this legislation which benefits aggrieved consumers.

It will benefit Ohio's court system in likely cutting down on the number of trials.

But it appears to The Report that the bill's structure is primarily designed to save businesses that actually get sued for consumer rights violations the possibility of treble (triple) damages being assessed against them on a liability finding by a court of law.  Moveover, in capping attorney fees at $2,500, it makes consumer cases much less attractive for lawyers to take on.  In this way, it is likely that there will be less suits for violating businesses to cope with.

While local Republican Scott Oelslager (Ohio Senate - 29th) distinguished himself from from the pack in opposing SB 5 (which was soundly rejected [State Issue #2] by Ohio's voters in November, 2011), his SB 5 departure appears to have been an anomaly in the light of his vote for HB 275.

It was no surprise that Stark Republicans Christina Hagan (Marlboro - the 50th) and Kirk Schuring (Jackson - now representing the 51st and running in newly redistricted 48th) followed the party line in joining in on the passage of the bill.

It will be interesting to see whether or not the Democratic opponents to Hagan (Sue Ryan of Alliance) and Schuring (Amanda Trump) in the upcoming fall campaign are able to couple their SB 5 votes with the HB 275 votes and other anti-common-man votes that their opposition research is able to uncover to make Hagan and Schuring wear the stereotypical thinking.

(VIDEO) CAN "AMANDA" TRUMP "KIRK" SCHURING AS DARKHORSE CANDIDATE IN OHIO'S 48TH HOUSE DISTRICT?

The districts may have changed somewhat with the constitutionally required decentennial redistricting of the Ohio General Assembly, however, on old familiar face remains:  the now 51st (seeking election to pretty much the same district, but now redesignated the 48th) Ohio District state Rep. J. Kirk Schuring.

A former insurance agent who was originally appointed to the 51st by the Stark County Republican Party Central Committee in 1993 to replace fellow Republican David Johnson, Schuring ever since has played a game of "musical chairs" with now state Sen. Scott Oelslager ("musical chairs with a twist" - each player gets a seat; just a different seat) between the 51st and the 29th Ohio Senate District.

Because of term limits (which both voted for as a Republican plan to wrest control of the Ohio General Assembly from the control of Democratic strong arm politician Vern Riffe), Schuring and Oelslager are now required to play "musical chairs with a twist" in order to stay in office.

So they stay within the letter of the law, while violating the spirit of it.

It would be one thing if they were highly productive for Stark County.  But they are not.  Oelslager (e.g. "open records law and votes against the Republican Party position [e.g. SB 5] has been better than Schuring who has produced precious little as a legislator and is much more prone to vote the party line including Senate Bill 5.

Enter Amanda Trump.  Though a lifelong Stark Countian (a graduate of Perry High School, as is Schuring; Trump also is a graduate of The Ohio State University), she is only now beginning to make her mark as a Stark County politician.

As the SCPR sees it, Trump's main hope in unseating Schuring would be to hammer away has his support of Senate Bill 5 (hated by public employees like teachers, policemen and firemen) and that he is an excessively loyal Republican.

Other key issues will be the defunding of local government by the Kasich administration aided and abetted by the likes of Schuring in the General Assembly as indicated by his votes for the Ohio budget which contains severe cuts in the state Local Government Fund (some 50% with projections that it will go even higher with tweaks to the budget), the elimination of the Ohio Estate Tax, the elimination of the tangible property tax without a fully compensating offset as originally promised and cuts in K-12 education funding.

At a gathering of the Stark County Democratic Party's Jefferson - Jackson Club last Thursday Amanda said that by her count the 48th District is 50/50 Republican/Democrat.  Moreover, she did touch on the key issues as set forth above.  However, she did not tie Schuring in specifically to those issues.

Hmm?

By inference he apparently thinks that her count is enough to put her in a "deadheat" political race horse with Schuring.

She ought to try that one on Stark County Democratic Party political director Shane Jackson.  The Report thinks he would be just a tad skeptical of that premise.

The SCPR thinks it will take more than just a partisan divide to unseat Schuring.

Money is said to be the "mother's milk of politics."

It is interesting to look at the relative fundraising efforts of Trump and Schuring, to wit:

While they have raised through the pre-primary campaign finance report nearly identical monies, Schuring has a little better than a two to one lead in "balance on hand."

It seems as if Trump does not have far to go in terms of absolute dollars to catch Schuring, but such is a mirage as Schuring, having some 19 years of shoulder rubbing with the fat cat lobbyists who course through the Ohio General Assembly, has yet to put on his Secretariat-esque funding raising gallop.

And she does appear to have some fundraising expertise of her own.  Otherwise, why would Canton Mayor William J. Healy, II allow her to organize fundraising events for him?

Nevertheless, readers of the SCPR can be sure that if it looks like Trump is a legitimate threat to unseat Schuring, the coffers of the Ohio GOP and Republican favoring lobbyists will be raining money millions of pennies from heaven.

If Trump has a "dark horse" chance of defeating Schuring, it will have to be the vigor of her youth (Schuring turns 60 this year) and issues such as Senate Bill 5 that will be key to her.

Here is a video of Trump speaking to the Jefferson-Jackson Demcrats last Thursday's and The Report's brief post-meeting interview.