HAGAN AND SCHURING HAVE THE CHUTZPAH TO SHOW UP AT STARK COUNTY'S SCHOOLS?

Yesterday's election was a disaster in Stark County's Osnaburg and Nimishillen townships.

For Stark County's remaining 15 public school districts, the defeats of the East Canton and Louisvile school levies had to be alarming.

Especially alarming for school districts who are on the November ballot with levies.

Now "the chickens are coming home to roost" as a consequence of the Ohio General Assembly passing Governor Kasich's biennium budget (2012 - 2013) in June of 2011.

In that budget East Canton loses some $614,000 and Louisville some $1.7 million in State of Ohio funding.

And here is the list of legislators (which includes Republican Christina Hagan (the 50th) and Republican Kirk Schuring (the 51st, to be the 48th, but not Scott Oelslager) voting for the measure:

Louisville schools, which has not had a levy pass in 20 years, decided early yesterday morning (just hours after the election results were tallied) to place the levy back on the ballot for November's election.

Fat chance that it will pass then.  A presidential year, a down economy, and plenty of uninformed, anti-tax types showing up to vote?  Good luck Louisville!

East Canton schools really took an electoral mugging.  Wow!  86% (rounded off) to 14% (rounded off).

Lake schools officials are still reeling from the beatings they took in 2011 and back into 2009 on a "bond issue" mind you.  These are the easiest levies in the world to pass.  And this one should have been real easy because all it was was a local match to get millions of State of Ohio money to fix some falling apart Lake school buildings.

So what do East Canton, Louisville and Lake have in common?

They are all located in the 50th Ohio House District which is represented by Christina Hagan.

Remember, Hagan voted for the Governor's budget bill which visits sizable cuts in state funding of all three districts.

Lake's is the largest at about $2.4 million dollars.

So the question has to be:  When are the voters of Osnaburg, Nimishillen and Lake going to wake up?

And extending the question:

How long is the Kasich/Hagan/Schuring tax shifting gig going to play in Peoria err East Canton, Jackson, North Canton, Louisville, Uniontown, Hartville and Plain Township?

Hagan has prevailed upon her fellows in the Ohio Legislature to make her seat a virtual lock for any Republican candidate through gerrymandering.  The 50th is indexed at about 56% Republican in its newest configuration.  And, she is out raising big bucks to boot.

It appears to the SCPR that it is next to impossible for her Democratic opponent to win.

But the operative phrase is "next to impossible," not "impossible."

We all know that the Good Book says that "all things are possible with God."

And, indeed, it will take a miraculous turn of the head of 50th District voters to send a stunning message to Columbus that no matter what their political machinations might be, people can and if provoked enough will pin them back on their ears.

Sue Ryan tells the SCPR that core of her campaign is centered on going to Columbus and fighting to reverse the 50% in state budget Local Government Fund funding of Ohio's political subdivisions and to make funding of public school districts a top priority.

She says that Stark's villages, cities, townships and other political subdivisions that receive funds from Ohio's Local Government Fund are being devastated and that if they are to survive, it will take voters to send persons like herself to Columbus.  In the meantime, they can expect that the likes of her opponent will be pushing more and more of the tax burden of local government down the villages, cities and township voters in Ohio's 88 counties.

Ryan bills herself as the candidate who will work for working class, middle income families who have to struggle day-in, day-out to make ends meet.

In this day and age, sending one's kids to school is hardly "totally" taxpayer supported as it was when yours truly went to public school.   Property owning parents of school age children pay their property taxes, a large portion of which support the schools.   All parents in many districts have to pay multiple fees and a number of districts have "pay to play" athletics or "pay to participate" in band, chior, et cetera.

Taking a look at fund-raisers for the two candidates, it seems pretty obvious Ryan practices what she preaches.

Hagan, on the other hand, has hit the big time:  Brookside Country Club at $150 a pop and possibly all the way up to $5,000.

But working class, middle class folks can pay more taxes as more and more school districts are forced to put levies on the ballot.

Hmm?

Returning to the baseline question that voters of the 50th and the 48th ought to be asking themselves:

How long is the Kasich/Hagan/Schuring tax shifting gig going to play in Peoria err East Canton, Jackson, North Canton, Louisville, Uniontown, Hartville and Plain Township?

VILLAGE POLITICS: WHAT DO COUNCILMEN THOMAS HOUGH AND RON BELTZ HAVE IN MIND FOR HARTVILLE?

UPDATE: 04/29/2009 AT 4:45 PM

Tom Hough was elected in November 2005, took office in January 2006. That is the year [Hartville Council] passed the prayer resolution. Ron Beltz was elected in November 2007 and took office in January 2008.

Original post

Last Sunday the STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report/SCPR) noted that Republican Hartville Village Councilman Thomas Hough wrote a letter to the editor of The Repository that should be instructive to citizens of Hartville.

In the letter, Hough launched a typical right wing attack on President Barack Obama.

Time will only tell as whether or not Obama turns out to be an effective president. Over 50 per cent of Americans are hopeful for Obama.

But not with Thomas Hough and Rush Limbaugh.

It is interesting that Hough did not refer to himself as being a Hartville councilman or “a pastor at Sixteen St. John's Church, an independent evangelical Bible church" located in North Lawrence (a little north of Massillon).

In The Report's view Hough is not only "right wing," but way, way, way right; and, to boot, religious Right."

Hough, who along with fellow councilman Ron Beltz, (Beltz shares with Palin her former denomination identity - Assembly of God), made instituting prayer before council meetings a top council agenda item when they first took office.

The Report wonders whether or not the likes of Palin and Stark Countians Hough and Beltz are the leading edge of a relative new burgeoning movement called the "Christian Nationalist" movement?"

One writer describes the movement thusly:

[W] hat Christian nationalism is, and how it differs from Christian fundamentalism. It's an important concept to understand, because the threat to a pluralistic society does not come from those who simply believe in a very conservative interpretation of Christianity. It comes from those who adhere to a political ideology that posits a Christian right to rule.

Christian nationalists believe in a revisionist history, which holds that the founders were devout Christians ... never intended to create a secular republic; separation of church and state, ... .

Some folks discount political figures who serve at the local level in terms of what their views portend for their policies and programs both at the local level and higher level if they have greater ambition.

But not The Report.

Yours truly has seen these "religious Rightist" folks try to politically take over local communities where they can be successful because of a largely disengaged local electorate. All they do once is power is create political havoc.

Accordingly, Councilmen Hough and Beltz bear watching by Hartville voters.

DISCUSSION: IS HARTVILLE'S SEWER RATE HEADED TO $50 PER MONTH?

The STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) believes these are particularly hard times for the village of Hartville.

Mayor Ed Tucker is scrambling these days to get state and federal (can you believe it?) money to improve and update the villages' sewer plant. Right now use is at 97% and the rates are soaring.

In early January, Tucker told the Akron Beacon Journal that he was opposed to reworking the sewer system because it cost too much. Here is a Google summation of Tucker's position as of January 8, 2009:

... Hartville mayor opposing sewer work. Proposed $1 million design for $6.4 million plant expansion too costly, says Tucker, who favors repairs

Interestingly enough "patch and repair" is what Tucker favored when in challenged former Mayor Beverly Green in 2007. Green worked hard to get the village up-to-date on its sewer system. It is poetic justice that the problem is now Tucker's.

Why would The Report say parenthetically "can you believe it?" Because when Republican Ed DiGiacomo was mayor from the 1980s through the mid-1990s, the village turned down the opportunity to obtain Community Development Block Grant money due to the federal "strings attached."

But things are different in Hartville these days. The Report has been told that Longaberger is down to precious few employees in Hartville and, of course, the storied Schumacker Lumber is no more. However, there is one bright spot: Scott Process Systems, Inc. It is said to be growing and probably is the main reason Hartville is staying afloat these days.

Since Tucker and his administration are besieging Ohio and Washington officials for a handout, it must be that Tucker has converted from a "patch and repair" man to an "expansion man."

The price tag for expansion will be high. When Green was mayor, a resident's sewer bill was at $9.00 or so, increased to $17.00+, then to $27.00+ and now council is considering an increase to $33.00+. How far off can $50.00 a month be?

The political warfare continues in Hartville and the sewer issue is only one of many fronts that the political battles have been and will continue to be waged.

Tucker and his political cohort ousted Bev Green and her friends on council. Now, The Report understands, Tucker and his political friends are blaming Green and her supporters on council for everything that ails Hartville these days.

Four council seats are up this time around. And The Report expects "a battle royal" for control of the reins of government. The Report will not be surprised to see Green and her allies go for a rematch in November by trying to wrest control from the Tucker crowd.

Will Hartville see another sea change in its political makeup in November, 2009?