Reply #11: Rethink Issue 1 [View All]

[BillORightsMan]

Just think about who those contractors are that will be getting the infrastructure bids. Gov. Taft could not get Third Frontier to stand up by itself, so they coupled it with the (agreed) much-needed capital infrastructure improvements.

From the Toledo Blade Ohio Bush donors richly rewarded - 'Pioneers and Rangers' handed access to contracts, policymakers
By JAMES DREW
and STEVE EDER
BLADE STAFF WRITERS Oct. 30 2005

COLUMBUS - The Ohio business leaders and lobbyists who steered at least $4.1 million to President Bush's re-election campaign last year collected more than $1.2 billion in taxpayer dollars for their companies and clients, a Blade investigation shows.

~snip~

• The state of Ohio paid about $800 million to the companies and lobbying clients of Ohio's 30 Pioneers and Rangers during the last six years, an analysis of a state expenditure database shows. The money flowed from the state to the fund-raisers for a number of purposes, including charter school payments, development grants, and tax refunds.
  
  
• Records showed that the federal government paid more than $447 million to the firms of the President's Ohio fund-raisers and their lobbying clients since Mr. Bush took office in 2001.
  
  
• The revenues of some of the firms headed by Ohio Bush Pioneers and Rangers are determined partly by the amount of subsidies they get from Columbus and Washington and by the regulatory decisions made by government officials.
  

Other bullet points in the article include Health Care Interests, Timkin's tie-ins, Schools and Fund-raising, Voting Company's Stake, Rare-Coin Scandal. Couple this with Tom Noe's money-laundering charge, and you have a pay-to-play system throughout Ohio's GOP-led government, with ties going all the way up to and including the White House. I don't think Issue One will change any of this "culture of corruption" at the statehouse. Do you really think the OH GOP would craft an issue any other way, but to benefit their cronies?

:dilemma:

I'm gonna hedge my bet that the Statehouse will turn Blue in 2006, vote NO on Issue 1, and a new stand-alone infrastructure item is crafted.

:patriot: