In November Ohio voters will be asked to vote on three issues – here are my thoughts on all three.
Issue 1 – Amend the Ohio Constitution to increase judicial candidate age to 75 from current age from 70 – I tend to have a problem with telling people they can’t do something because of their age – if a judge is in good health and they want to continue serving and there is no good reason for them not to serve then why not let them serve. If this issue goes down to defeat 71 of Ohio’s 718 judges will not have the option to seek a new term. If your wondering about a judges mental acuity – the Ohio Bar says that there are procedures in place to remove a judge if his or her mental status is in question. VOTE YES
Issue 2 – Will change which public employees would be able to bargain collectively and over what issues – Here’s my brother Bob’s post in favor of Senate Bill 5 for my friends on Facebook who don’t access our family blog on a regular basis.
Bob makes a point that he doesn’t think it’s unreasonable to ask public employees to contribute more towards their health insurance and their pensions. I would agree, but according to an Associated Press review of State Employee Relations Board data which shows public employees already pay more than the 15%. If pensions are not funded by public employees because they opted not to take a pay cut for this to be the case shouldn’t we honor that agreement ?
I disagree with Bob’s comment that public employees have more job security than private sector employees based on recent federal job’s reports that show a significant number of public sector workers losing their jobs because of state budget shortages. There is a way to address Bob’s concern about all teachers being essential, vote down the school levy in your particular area. For the first time in my lifetime I will be voting against my local school levy because it doesn’t seem to me that the money we are throwing at education is getting the required results. I am still of the fence on this one, but I will probably VOTE NO.
Issue 3 – Amend the Ohio Constitution to say that no law shall compel a person to participate in a healthcare system – in essence opt out of the affordable healthcare act individual mandate. I’m a proponent of the individual mandate because people who don’t have insurance affect the premiums that we all pay when they need treatment, but a vote one way or the other on this issue will probably be moot as the Supreme Court will most likely take up this issue in 2012. VOTE NO.
Webner House 
Your position in opposition to your brother’s is interesting. You present a solid counterpoint. It isn’t good to see droves of people added to the unemployment rolls but there is an awful lot of waste in state gov’t.
The education dilemma is difficult to solve. There are as many shirkers in education as there are elsewhere but, as you both point out, adding more money hasn’t improved much.
Are there casinos in Ohio? We’re voting here and I don’t want them but we really need jobs.
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Thanks I always appreciate your comments whether for or against. My brother and I often don’t see eye to eye especially when it comes to politics, but sometimes I just do a blog so we are “Fair and Balanced” as he tends to lean a bit to the right.
Ohio is in the process of building casinos in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus last I heard. I voted for the casinos because it was my opinion that we have a lot of money that is going out of state – I can’t tell you how many bus trips I have been on to go gamble in Indiana or Kentucky so my thought was why not keep the money in Ohio not to mention the jobs it will create. The casino site in Columbus is in a part of the city that really needs reviving so I am hopeful that having the Casino will affect the surrounding area in a positive way.
I can’t recall what state you live in ? Does it look like the casino issue in your state will pass or fail ?
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I live in Maine. We will have casinos on the ballot next month. I will vote for them because people here need work and I can’t justify my aesthetics at the cost of someone’s livelihood.
We have one casino that has contributed to the community and has not attracted crime, that I am aware of. There is a campaign against gambling and it sites a few examples of embezzlement where the proceeds were spent at the casino. Embezzlement happens when there are no casinos too.
It’s fun to read what you Webners think about issues.
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Breaking news, the local paper supports the two proposed casinos, the state stands to gain 10s of millions (or so they tell us). In any event, the state will not be offering anything in the deal (or so they tell us).
The argument had been made that casinos were not good enough for one of the counties supporting it and the analogy was made that it was like “telling a starving person a hot dog wasn’t good enough and allowing them to starve.”
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