Congressional Race Watch 2010

Just a couple news links about people who will have their names in various electoral hats next fall!

On Saturday, the House of Representatives passed the major financial regulation overhaul bill pushed for by the Obama Administration. Pat Tiberi and Steve Austria voted against the bill, Mary Jo Kilroy voted for it.

This week the Franklin County Board of Commissioners spent $7 million on a grant to help prevent premature births and lessen the ill effects of such births. Paula Brooks (who will be challenging Pat Tiberi for his seat in Congress) is quoted by the Dispatch as saying, "We're saving our children, and we're also making sure our community is on the cutting edge of dealing with an issue that's very vexing."

That's it for today folks, tune in next week!

Ohio House Bill 318: Income Tax Cut Delay

Thanks to an update e-mail from the Columbus Library I found out about House Bill 318, the bill designed to postpone the income tax reduction and give legislators a pay cut. The goal for this bill is to keep as much money in the state budget as possible (probably a good idea given the , and it looks like a pretty solid bill.

Key provisions include:

1. 2 year postponement of the last part of the income tax cut
2. Reduces legislator salaries and supplements by 5%
3. Eliminates statutory automatic annual pay increase
4. Various other rule and compensation changes

Now's the time to read the bill (linked again for you in these parenthesis) and then let your state Senator know how they should vote on this issue. Since, after all, they represent you.

Financial Regulation Reform

So now that the health care situation is more or less under control (?) legislators are looking to the financial industry. They're looking to put tighter controls on banks and other institutions that like to do crazy risky stuff and bring down the markets or abuse customers in a way that puts and keeps a helluva lot of us in debt.

This is complicated, because there's an awful lot of money tied up in convincing legislators they don't really want to do that. The banks and brokers and investment firms are spending millions upon millions of dollars on lobbyists and the like to keep the government from making any changes.

The House committee dealing with all this already passed a bill, and now the entire assembly must debate and vote on it, possibly by the end of this week. In response, Senator Dodd is deciding to push ahead with the Senate's version, so the momentum doesn't get lost...but in doing so is sacrificing bi-partisan support. Meh.

So if you have feelings on the subject, now is the time to let your representatives in the House and Senate know!

Not Much To Look at Here...

There isn't a whole lot to say right now, namely 'cause I've worked a series of turn and burn, 12 hour shifts over the past few days. That's left precious little chances to do much more than sleep and work, so...I've fallen behind the times.

I do have a few links from my Google News Alert system worth sharing, so I'll use that as a cop out tonight:

Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are having trouble with Obama's Afghanistan plan...but for different reasons. Members from Ohio aren't any different.

The Columbus Blue Jackets are having problems money-wise, and the possibility of them finding a new home has surfaced (even if it isn't seriously on the table yet). While Mayor Coleman is pretty fired up about trying to find a solution, Franklin County Commissioners are a little less enthusiastic.

So that's it. For today. I have bigger plans for Thursday...but at the moment, I need to get back to focusing on learning to be the boss at my new job.

Some News Round Up Action

Today is gonna be quick and simple...in my news searchings, I came across four stories mentioning local politicians and I thought I should share.

The first three are from the Columbus Dispatch:

This story here discusses voting records of Ohio representatives, specifically how they did or did not vote with party leadership. It opens with an interesting anecdote about a defense spending bill that Pat Tiberi bucked the trend on.

Another from the politics page is about earmarks, and who in central Ohio is seeking them in Congress and who isn't. If nothing else, it does show GOP lawmakers from the area are willing to walk the walk on fiscal responsibility.

The final piece from the Dispatch goes into how the Democrats are unable to come up with a cohesive health care agenda, and the lawmakers from Ohio are prime examples of this. Some want a public option, some don't, compromise isn't a word anyone knows, etc etc.

The fourth piece today is actually from the Times-Standard from Eureka, CA. It's on a solar power bill co-sponsored by Pat Tiberi, giving tax credits to solar panel manufacturers in hopes of stimulating job growth.

That's all for this week...tune in next week, same bad time same bad channel.

Morse Road Special Improvement District

I've been working at a different location the past couple weeks, and as a result have had the chance to drive a commute I typically don't. My drive twice a day has been the vast stretch of Morse Road, from about 270 all the way till it dead ends into High St. I haven't been down Morse past about Cleveland Ave for the better part of two years, so all the construction threw me off.

Starting at Cleveland Ave, there's all sorts of stuff going on. Looks like they're tearing up sidewalks, putting in retaining walls, redoing turning lanes and medians. Drive a little further down, you see trees all wrapped in canvas sitting next to holes dug between the road and the sidewalks. Move East to West along Morse, it's easy to see to progression of the project and I'd say it's looking pretty good where they've finished.

I see a banner hanging from a (new looking) street light, near the junction with I-71, that stated simple "Morse Road Special Improvement District." Needless to say, I had to Google this to find out more.

I found out from Business First of Columbus that a group of property owners along more from Indianola Ave to Cleveland Ave grouped together to form a Special Improvement District. Under Ohio law, it's an area where the residents effectively form a non-profit organization to help maintain and improve on their common areas where the local government isn't willing or able to.

I also discovered a story from the Columbus Dispatch dated August of 2008 about the start of the 2nd phase of the Morse Rd improvement project...essentially, $18 million was spent on infrastructure including reworking sidewalks and laying utility pipes. I wasn't able to locate any stories more recent than this... apparently further judgement/interest is being withheld until the project wraps up (which it seems pretty close to doing).

Seems pretty nice...a pretty good effort, and a definite facelift for the area. The next question (and one that's been asked for the last 2-3 years apparently) is whether or not it will help fill the empty store fronts all along Morse Road. Hmmm...