Taxpayers Don't Stand a Chance: Why Battleground Ohio Loses No Matter Who Wins (and What to Do About It) by Matt Mayer

Matt Mayer’s new book Taxpayers Don’t Stand a Chance: Why Battleground Ohio Loses No Matter Who Wins (and What to Do About It) is an in-depth case study on the perennial election battleground state of Ohio, including a microanalysis of Ohio’s political landscape.  This unique book describes in rich detail how Ohio went from being an economic and political leader to a national laggard. As shown by specific examples, Ohio’s fall occurred because the political system puts entrenched interests ahead of taxpayers and politicians spend precious resources on the wrong issues or make things worse. With the news media’s failure to give equal coverage to conservative ideas and to expose government excesses, voters can’t make informed decisions. The political and journalistic failures stop key economic reforms from being implemented, make it impossible for Ohioans to prevent higher taxes, and keep Ohio indentured to labor unions. These failures are happening in states and localities everywhere. Because Ohio is a battleground state, these failures have national implications making it a must read for conservatives, political junkies, and grassroots activists across America. This book does more than just cite problems, it lays out major reforms aimed at giving taxpayers a chance to fight back and win.

Click to Like Taxpayers Don't Stand a Chance on Facebook

In our county that’s exactly the question we are pondering – and now researching – after the Knox County 912 Patriots recently hosted an information session on an upcoming November Knox County health levy.  The featured speakers at the information session were the Knox County Health Department (KCHD) Commissioner and Public Information Officer (PIO).  In 2011, according to a handout from the KCHD, the department spent nearly $3 million ($2,983,295 to be exact) and took in just over $2.9 million ($2,908,269) for a shortfall of approximately $75 thousand.  Sounds like they need to make a some cuts, right?  Oh no, think again, you silly, silly fiscal conservative!  It really just means they haven’t spent enough yet.  It means (drumroll please) … we NEED a bigger levy!  You see, if they just spend more — in order to meet the “increased demand” for their “free” services — then that’s just like an “investment” back in the community.  Don’t get it yet?  Well … that’s because you don’t understand how a finely tuned government machine really works.  By giving the health department more money (well, they are actually taking it, but don’t worry about that) they can do more education in the community and that leads to healthier residents which will help boost the local economy.  What’s that?  You say you still don’t understand?  Well … that’s just because you hate your neighbors and you want them all to die.  You are definitely one of those people in the 1% that we’ve heard about on NBC.

Sounds pretty bad doesn’t it?  Well, although those weren’t the exact statements made, they are the implications of many statements that were actually made in the meeting to some individuals in our watchdog group.  Statements from the Commissioner such as “I want to support the health department programs because I want to help my neighbors” — implying, of course, that we don’t want to help them.  But we can handle attempts to intimidate, can’t we?  What we can’t handle is the absence of logic, which leads us into the discussion about the new levy that Knox county health department is proposing.  What we learned was very enlightening – and very frightening.

The KCHD is seeking a five year 0.8 mil levy, not the 0.4 mil replacement as in the past.  It is estimated the amount of tax revenue from the new levy will be $930,000 annually.  As we said, right now the KCHD has an annual deficit of approximately $75,000.  Per the Commissioner, the extra income from the levy is to be used for education, more diabetes prevention, and as a “cushion”.  There was also mention of mapping all the septic tanks and water wells in the county.  Why would this be necessary?  Emergency preparedness was cited.  9/11 was mentioned a couple of times as justification for some programs.  Hmmm, does the ol’ quote

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.

come to mind?

The KCHD offers a number of “Family & Community Health Services”.  Fees for the medical services offered at the KCHD are paid by the consumer on an income based “sliding scale”.  There is a medical clinic, dental clinic, home health, smoking cessation classes (that gives out free nicotine replacement therapy) and other services too numerous to list here.  None of these services are self-supporting according to Commissioner Miller.

After reviewing the Ohio Revised Code chapters listed below it is clear that the KCHD is operating outside of their scope of responsibilities and is redistributing our wealth to accomplish – here is the frightening part – their principles.  (We will get to their principles shortly)!

The Ohio Revised Code (ORC) contains all acts passed by the Ohio General Assembly and signed by the governor. This basically means all the LAWS that have been enacted by the legislature of Ohio.

State Department of Health – Established by ORC Chapter 3701 consisting of a Director of Health and a Public Health Council. This section also establishes the powers and duties of each.

Local Boards of Health – Established by ORC Chapter 3709 which outlines the powers of the local Boards of Health including nuisance abatement and communicable disease control.

Local Health Districts – Established by ORC Chapter 3709, powers and duties of Boards of Health and Health Commissioners are outlined in ORC Chapter 3707.

Now for those scary principles.  The following is taken word for word from the KCHD brochure:

We Serve Everyone

Services at the Knox County Health Department are available to everyone, regardless of income, age, race or sex. We serve everyone; the poor and the wealthy; the young and the old, the insured, the uninsured and the under-insured.

The Principles of Public Health Workers are:

• We believe in social justice in health.
  (the greatest good for the greatest number; fairness)
• We advocate for others.
• We believe good health care is a right. (Not just that health care is a right, but that everyone deserves good health care.)
• We believe in the equality of access. (Everyone should be able to find and receive health care)
• We believe in government’s responsibility to provide protection.

These are not the principles of a free people that believe in liberty and individual responsibility.  These are the principles of communism.  The phrase “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”, quoted from Karl Marx, co-founder of communism, is what we thought of when we read these words.

We will also point out again that healthcare in not a right!  We have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  If health care will make you happy … pursue it, but not on our dime.  At the federal level it is not the  government’s job to “provide protection” except to defend this country from invasion.  At the local level, we have city police and the county sheriff to “provide protection”.  Does your local health department want police powers?  Good question.

The fact that this philosophy has so pervaded our country – that a government entity would publish this collectivist propaganda – is truly revealing about the state of The United States of America.

So how does all of this pertain to the Healthcare Freedom Amendment?  The question you should be looking into is, since March 19, 2010 has your local health department implemented any new programs that are compelling directly or indirectly, any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in a health care system?  If so, there is an organization that would sure like to know.  As for us, we’ll be looking into it in Knox county.

If you have any leads in your county for healthcare related programs which have been created since March 19, 2010 please let us know by filling out the form below:

Buckeye Firearms Association

DELAWARE, OH – Representative Margaret Conditt (Butler County District 55) held a fundraiser at the Middletown Sportsmens Club on Saturday, May 12, 2012.

The plan was to invite a handful of supporters, spend a few hours shooting at targets, and raise a little money for her reelection campaign. But what actually happened took everyone by surprise.

Rather than hosting a typical fundraiser which would ordinarily draw a few dozen people, Rep. Conditt ended up hosting a major event that drew over 200 attendees and raised tens of thousands of dollars.

What happened? Rep. Conditt got an “accidental” assist from a group of anti-gun politicians and activists, including Ohio Representatives Ted Celeste and Tracy Maxwell Heard along with Toby Hoover of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence and Brian Rothenberg from Progress Ohio.

During a recent press conference, these gun control advocates launched a partisan and personal attack against Rep. Conditt, calling her upcoming fundraiser “distasteful” and “offensive, linking it to the recent shooting at Chardon High School where a 17-year-old shot several students, killing three. They called out Conditt and urged her to cancel the fundraiser.

Shocked and insulted at being linked to a mass murderer, gun owners and sportsmen around Ohio responded immediately, flooding Conditt’s campaign office with donations and requests to attend her event.

Denouncing the attack on Rep. Conditt, Buckeye Firearms Association (BFA) called for Celeste and Maxwell to apologize for their remarks. BFA also announced they would begin collecting donations for the candidate and pledged matching funds up to $1,000. They reached that goal within 4 hours of the announcement. Subsequent donations poured in from gun owners in Ohio and 16 other states, including donations from as far away as California.

Linda Walker, BFA Leader and NRA Board Member, along with Sean Maloney, BFA Minuteman and attorney in West Chester, presented a check to Conditt at the May 12 fundraiser totaling $3,231, including the matching funds.

While presenting the check, Walker said, “The attack on Margaret Conditt was just partisan grandstanding. Celeste, Heard, and the others who suggested that ordinary folks who own guns or want to spend a few hours at a range shooting at targets are somehow linked to a deranged mass murderer should be ashamed of themselves. It’s vile and offensive.”

For the record, shooting range fundraisers are not unusual. And despite what anti-gun activists might think, the shooting sports is one of the safest and most popular activities in the U.S. According to a 2010 study by the National Sporting Goods Association, 44.5 million people over the age of seven regularly participate in the shooting sports (including target shooting, hunting, and muzzleloading).

This makes shooting sports more popular than the vast majority of common sports activities, including bicycle riding, bowling, jogging, fishing, basketball, soccer, and tennis. In fact, the shooting sports are twice as popular as golf (21.9 million), over three times as popular as baseball (12.5 million), and nearly 5 times as popular as football (9.3 million).

When asked if she ever considered canceling the fundraiser, Rep. Conditt said, “No. Not for even one second.” Addressing the standing room only crowd, she smiled and said, “I want to thank Ted Celeste and Tracy Maxwell Heard for helping to make this fundraiser such a huge success.”

Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots political action committee (PAC) dedicated to defending and advancing the right of Ohio citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities, including self-defense, hunting, competition, and recreation. We work to elect pro-gun candidates and lobby for pro-gun legislation.

# # #

Click here for NSGA report referred to above.

For more information, please visit www.BuckeyeFirearms.org.

Follow BFA on Twitter and Facebook!

On Friday, June 8th at high noon across the United States, including five cities in Ohio, We The People, have the opportunity to Stand Up For Religious Freedom.

First the president proclaimed that his Justice Department would no longer defend the Federal Defense of Marriage Act.  Then the Human Health Services department unveiled a new mandate requiring nearly all private health insurance plans to include coverage for all FDA-approved prescription contraceptive drugs and devices, surgical sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs.  (For background on the HHS Mandate, you can read more here.)  And now Barack Obama has announced his full support for gay marriage.

Conservatives and religious groups need to stand tall and join the 112 nationwide rallies on Saturday, June 8th in opposition to the HHS Mandate and Obamacare.  Let us remind our Supreme Court Justices that We are One Nation Under God.  Let the Silent Majority wake and make the Founding Father’s proud.

Let the Freedom Bells Ring.

Stand Up for Religious Freedom - June 8th - StandUpRally.com

Additional Information

The rallies are being organized by an impressive number of groups across the country including many Ohio groups such as:

• Stand True Pro-Life Outreach - Dayton
• Created Equal - Columbus
• Life Issues Institute - Cincinnati
• Greater Toledo Right to Life - Toledo
• Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati - Cincinnati
• Greater Columbus Right to Life - Columbus

From the Stand Up for Religious Freedom website:

The Pro-Life Action League and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society are pleased to announce that the next Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally will take place on Friday, June 8, in cities and towns across the United States.

The June 8 Stand Up Rally builds on the tremendous momentum created by the first Stand Up Rally on March 23.

On that day, over 63,000 Americans came out in 145 cities coast to coast pushed back against the new mandate from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that requires all employers provide free contraceptives, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs through their health plans, even in violation of their consciences.

Now the fight continues with the next Stand Up Rally on Friday, June 8.

Ohio rally locations are as follows (check the Stand Up for Religious Freedom website for updates):

Cincinnati
Fountain Square
520 Vine Street (map)
Email the Cincinnati Rally Captain

Cleveland
Anthony J. Celebreeze Federal Building
1240 E. 9th Street (map)
Email the Cleveland Rally Captain

Columbus
John W. Bricker Federal Building
200 North High Street (map)
Email the Columbus Rally Captain

Dayton
Site to be determined.

Toledo
Lucas County Courthouse
700 Adams Street (map)
Email the Toledo Rally Captain

Why this repeal effort?

Analysis of the Westerville School District’s spending proves that, with proper fiscal management, the interests and rights of all interested parties – STUDENTS, employees and, equally important, you the taxpayer – can be fairly represented. It has been proven, time and time again, that fair wages and good benefits can be provided to district employees while providing our children with a good education without breaking the back of the taxpayer.

Consider:

• Westerville School District residents now have the highest tax rate in Franklin and Delaware counties.
• The district has awarded many staff wage increases of 43% in 6 years (in the middle of a recession).
• The district overpaid the “Win-Win” contract by almost $1,000,000 – due to a lack of oversight.
• A simple change in the healthcare plan will save the taxpayers over $4,100,000 per year.
• The administrators pay nothing towards their retirement. Just paying their share would result in over $600,000 in savings.
• The taxpayer is still paying part of the WEA union representatives’ salary – who has ZERO class time.

Taxpayers for Westerville Schools has presented dozens of ideas for savings to the Board of Education proving that we can have a great schools district with sustainable spending that doesn’t call for raising taxes every 2 to 3 years.  We have the expertise needed to make a positive difference – one of our members saved the district over $20,000,000 – just 2 years ago.

On May 7, 2012 taxpayers for Westerville Schools, with the representation of the 1851 Center,commenced circulation of an initiative petition to repeal the 6.71 mil tax increase narrowly approved in March after taxpayers defeated a similar measure at the November 2011 general election.

The Westerville effort marks the inaugural action of the 1851 Center in assisting taxpayers in using a previously obscure section of the Ohio Revised Code to lower their school district tax burdens, while forcing Ohio school districts to control spending and reign in labor costs rather than raising taxes.

“For years, many disingenuous Ohio school districts have chosen political gamesmanship over fiscal responsibility, placing tax hikes on the ballot at low-turnout elections where their own constituents’ voices are disproportionately heard,” said 1851 Center Executive Director Maurice Thompson.  “The goal of our tax rollback project is to help taxpayers across the state fight back against this gamesmanship by subjecting the tax increase to the general election ballot.”

The 51-49 percent vote for the tax increase came just four months after a 61-39 defeat at the general election.

This is definitely going to be a petition effort to follow.  We encourage you follow Taxpayers for Westerville Schools on Facebook and support their petition effort which is being kicked off in a big way on May 19th.

1851 Center Executive Director, Maurice Thompson, was interviewed on 610 AM in Columbus on Thursday, and we’ve included that audio below.  He does an excellent job of describing the project and how the 1851 Center is supporting the effort.

Ohio is a key battleground state in the upcoming Presidential elections, and the goal of the conference is to provide voters with education and information regarding conservative positions in order to make informed decisions.  The event will open with Matt Kibbe, President and CEO of FreedomWorks, and will also include breakout sessions focusing on topics including the Ohio Workplace Freedom Amendment, healthcare, voter ID and voter fraud, and discussions on the 2nd and 10th amendments. Nationwide, state and local groups will be in attendance, from Freedom Works and Americans for Prosperity to the Buckeye Institute and Ohio Liberty Coalition.

NW Ohio Conservative Coalition’s Linda Boyer says; “Saturday’s going to be a day of unity and education for conservative governance.” Linda went on to say; “If Benjamin Franklin and our founding fathers could stroll into the main hall on Saturday,  they’d look around and be proud that we’ve been able to keep the Republic that they gave us.”

The event will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn at Levis Commons in Perrysburg, Ohio, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The registration fee is $25.00 per person, which includes lunch. As space is limited, pre-registration is highly advised. You can pre-register at  www.nwohioconservativeconference.com.

Update: We previously reported that Michelle Malkin would be a speaker. Unfortunately Ms. Malkin had to cancel her appearance.

A Trillion Dollars of Student Loans: A Crisis Created by Washington
Richard Vedder, Professor of Economics, Ohio University
Live Webcast – Thursday, May 10, 2012 – 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST

Richard Vedder is the Ruth Kennedy Distinguished Professor of Economics at Ohio University. He also serves as director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois. Among the more than half-dozen books he has authored is Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much. He writes frequently for the Wall Street Journal, National Review, and Investor’s Business Daily.

To sign up for the lecture visit the Hillsdale College link below to register for the webcast:

http://www.hillsdalefirstfridays.com/Hillsdale/Microsite/may6_microsite.aspx.

Click to visit site

Liberty minded Ohioans have a new website (in addition to this one, of course!) to keep an eye on politicians and issues around the state.  Media Trackers Ohio examines stories published in the mainstream media, explores claims made by some of the more partisan Ohio political groups, and provides the facts on the issues, people and elections that matter in the state.  Media Trackers Ohio is dedicated to media accountability, government transparency, and quality fact-based journalism.

“Government transparency”? “Fact-based journalism”?  You mean there are still journalists that care about those pesky things?  Well, thankfully for the internet and citizen bloggers, we have a place to get the facts.  Sounds pretty good to us.  Ohio Liberty Coalition welcomes this group of bloggers and journalists in the fight to preserve liberty.  We recommend that you ‘Like’ Media Trackers Ohio on facebook page and follow them on Twitter so that you can keep up-to-date on breaking stories around Ohio.

Jason Hart, One of the blogger-journalists writing for the site, had this to say about the work he’ll be doing on Media Trackers Ohio:

I’m excited to be managing the Ohio office of Media Trackers, given the success of Brian Sikma’s Media Trackers team in Wisconsin.  I volunteered a huge portion of my free time last year to researching and writing about Senate Bill 5, and anyone who has devoted energy to a Tea Party group knows how draining that sort of work can be — especially when you watch the unions dump tens of millions of dollars into killing what your research proves to be obvious reforms.  Needless to say, I’m happy that my day job is now to report on Ohio news of importance to conservatives, and I’m very optimistic about the impact we can have at Media Trackers Ohio.

The Media Trackers brand is about fact-based, non-partisan coverage of media and politics in the state.  We’ll be addressing inaccuracy in Ohio’s traditional media and holding politicians of all stripes accountable.  Given my own experiences I think our most important function be offering perspective & research that’s simply not being provided by other outlets. There are no shortage of groups operating in Ohio whose ridiculous assertions and seedy connections are rarely brought to account; we’ll be working to change that.  If you visit our site at http://ohio.mediatrackers.org, you’ll even see a place to submit news tips for us to follow up on.  I hope you’ll take advantage of that when there’s something you feel deserves more coverage or analysis!

Here are a few of our first posts that may be good to call out or quote:

• FBI Busts Occupy Cleveland Members in Alleged Bomb Plot
• Despite Denial, ProgressOhio Regularly Coordinated with Occupy Movement
• We Are Ohio Bankrolled by Liberal Unions, Not Bipartisan Citizen Groups
• Occupy Cleveland’s Absurd Response to FBI Bust

Contact: Tom Zawistowski

Columbus, Ohio - The Ohio Liberty Council announced today that it is changing it’s name to Ohio Liberty Coalition after a unanimous vote by its Board at its April meeting.  Tom Zawistowski, President of the OLC explained, “For over two years there have been complaints from another conservative organization, whose name is the Liberty Counsel, that our name – Ohio Liberty Council – was confusing to the public.  The Liberty Counsel is a non-profit public interest law firm which is based out of Orlando, Florida.  After months of discussions to address the issue, it was mutually agreed that we could clear up any confusion in the public’s mind if we just changed the last word of our name from Council to Coalition. Therefore, effective immediately, the Ohio Liberty Council is now Ohio Liberty Coalition and our new web address will be www.ohiolibertycoalition.org.”

The phone numbers and mailing address for Ohio Liberty Coalition will remain the same.  For a period of time, people accessing the previous web address will be redirected to the new web address and directed to update their bookmarks.  All of the organizations email addresses will have to change to the new domain. Our new facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/OhioLibertyCoalition while our Twitter address remains @OhioLiberty

The Ohio Liberty Coalition is a coalition of Liberty group leaders whose purpose is to unite conservative grassroots organizations for greater effectiveness in the state and nation, and to provide resources for member organizations to strengthen their groups. The OLC currently has over 75 liberty-minded groups across Ohio who are members of its coalition.

New Ohio Liberty Coalition website: www.OhioLibertyCoalition.org

You’ve heard the egregious examples of waste, fraud, and abuse on a daily basis. Our elected officials and unaccountable career bureaucrats are on a path of reckless spending that will bankrupt America – unless we act. The time has come to stand up and take action. We can no longer afford to sit by and wait for the government or mainstream media to inform the public about what’s going on behind closed doors.

Please join our friends from the Franklin Center on Saturday, May 12th from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in Westerville to learn how you can get involved to hold our elected officials accountable and set this country on a better path for future generations.

Keynote Speaker: ACORN Whistleblower James O’Keefe

Reserve your space today!:http://citizenwatchdogwesterville.eventbrite.com/

The Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity will provide a full day of in-depth training to equip you with the tools and skills to become a more effective activist. We’ll be joined by some of the nation’s leading experts in information activism and investigative reporting.

For only $10 per person (the cost of lunch and materials), you will learn:

• How to become an information activist
• How to use investigative reporting tools and skills
• How to analyze budget numbers
• How to hold elected officials accountable through social media

Together, we can begin the hard, but important job of taking back America.

About the Franklin Center: Working against a growing tide of mediocrity and bias in the media, the Franklin Center is committed to breaking the monopoly of information in the states. With transparency, accountability, and fiscal responsibility as its watchwords, the Franklin Center identifies, trains, and supports investigative journalists working to detect and expose corruption and incompetence in government at the state and local levels. -

http://www.franklincenterhq.org/

Click to View O'Keefe Ohio Medicaid Fraud Video