State Rep Jennifer Gross - What's happening in Columbus?

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Thank you. Happy Wednesday to youtoo, Bryan. Another is this just
another illustration of the dysfunction of theRepublican Party in Columbus, because I know
it started early on with the appointmentof a House Speaker, Jason Stevens amid
some you know, the Blue twentytwo turmoil and everything that's gone after that.
But a judge, Franklin County CommonPolice Judge Mark Surrat, on Friday,

(00:23):
stripped Stevens of his control over theGOP caucus campaign fund. How did
this end up in front of ajudge? What is going on and where
did this controversy come from? JenniferGross Well, Brian, first, I
want to tell you today we aremore united than ever. However, he
wasn't appointed. The speaker was votedin by twenty two Republicans and thirty four

(00:48):
Democrats. So it wasn't Republican caucus, and for those listening caucuses, our
majority, it wasn't the majority ofRepublicans who appointed this speaker or voted him
then it was thirty four Democrats andtwenty two Republicans. So what then happened
was we appointed then the leaders ofour caucus and we did a formal declaration

(01:11):
we signed, We had a formalmeeting. That's the majority. So there
are forty five of us who saidwe will control the campaign fund. And
there's forty five that is the majority. That's the caucus. Right, he
has twenty two, we have fortyfive, and so we set that all
up. Then he proceeded to Nowmost of the money was probably theirs,

(01:32):
and I can't say how much wasin there, but he proceeded to spend
all the money in the primary,sometimes against candidates that and by the way,
he was censured by the Ohio RepublicanParty also, so then he spent
all the money down to approximately twentyfive thousand dollars. But there are benefits

(01:53):
to having that account, and theyI wasn't involved in the league part of
it, but there were three attorneysthat worked and together they succeeded in making
sure and because he continued to functionas a leader, did not ask the
rest of us how we wanted tospend the money. Where the money was

(02:15):
going to go. It's a campaignfund. So that money was taken and
he spent it all and they wedidn't give up the fight. And so
now we have the campaign committee.You need to have that when when you're
getting ready to run into the generalwe have some pretty hefty battles ahead,

(02:36):
got no question about it. Goodstory. Well, according to reporting,
the fund raised and spent four pointseven million dollars since last year. And
as you illustrate, some of thead campaigns were against Republicans who ran against
Stevens supporters and others allied with theMarin camp in this year's primaries. I
guess did he have exclusive say overwho got money, who got ad campaign

(02:58):
money or not? I mean,was there no oversight from the caucus the
rest of the Republicans in Columbus.That's a great question, Brian, because
actually there was. Phil Plummer wasour appointed member that should have had a
role, So it should have beenboth sides. We agreed that there would
be representation from the side, thepart of the caucus which is the majority,

(03:19):
let's be really clear, the majorityof forty five of sixty seven Republicans,
and that we would have a sayin how that money went. But
what happened during the primary was hetook it and ran. Who made all
those decisions? I would guess,since seize the head that he had the
final decision. But Ultimately, wehad no say my side of the caucus,

(03:42):
the mayor in camp had no sayin what happened. But I want
to I want to say to youtoday excuse me that we met last night
and we there were smiles all throughoutthe room. There were actually some people
from the Stevens camp at our meetinglast night because they realized the writing on
the wall. We are united.We're getting ready to run into a huge

(04:02):
battle. You know, Trump ispulling slightly lower nationally, yeah, if
you can imagine, I mean whateverpolls, but in Ohio he's winning a
resounding win. But we've got aMarino race against the guy who is the
final vote on Obamacare. We needto get rid of that guy. And

(04:23):
we've got some massive battles ahead.And that's the down ticket. Our justices,
our judges, and the state reppeople need to understand that their vote
counts even for the representative like meon the ballot. They need to vote
all the way down and they needto care about who is beyond Trump.
So, without question, so anyway, so we're united. I'm glad to

(04:43):
hear that that's some positive news underwhat always appears to me a rather dysfunctional.
I mean, the Republicans run thestate. Why they aren't in lockstep
unity for the good of the stateof Ohio. Just storming makes me scratch
my head. Where the Blue twentytwo came from and what their motives are
kind of a fuddling to me,and why listeners as well, And that
is I mean, that is sothat's what's so heartbreaking for me. A

(05:05):
solid look at the platform, solidRepublican, I mean, fiscal limited government,
you know, pro liberty, Republican. That's what's so amazing and frustrating
to me is that people go,you guys are in the state, Well
not really. Our speaker was electedby thirty four Democrats and twenty two Republicans.

(05:26):
So who elected our speaker not Republicans. Democrats did because Republicans, by
majority, chose Derek Marin. Sopeople, and I think a lot of
people are like whatever, Republicans areRepublican. But today we're going to bet,
we're going to We're getting ready tovote on the largest capital budget in
the history of Ohio, increasing spendingcurrently by four point two billion dollars.

(05:50):
People ought to be writing the representatives, their senators saying this is ridiculous or
if they want it because they're gettingwhatever in the budget, they should,
they should go ahead and say yes, vote on that. But we need
to hear your representation, needs tohear from you. I listen, though
some of my lefties would say Idon't, but you know, I'm not

(06:13):
into some of the things they areinto. Well, Representative Gross, let's
past them, because I want youto put a little more flesh on the
bones of that statement, because itsounds like an outrageous amount of money,
and I guess are there. Ihave to hear my notes. You're voting
on sixty bills today, just aboutI'm hearing fifty six bills. Fifty six
bills. Let me just take abreak right now. We'll bring you back

(06:34):
and we'll let you complete the thoughtson this, because now I got even
more questions more with Representative Jennifer.Representative Jennifer Gross talking about north of fifty
almost sixty bills are going to bedealing with today and today I'm currently working
on the four point two billion dollarsspending bill. You mentioned that that sounds
like a whole lot of money,Jennifer, and I note that for one
of the line items includes four hundredand fifty six million dollars for higher education

(07:00):
institutions across the state. I meancolleges are getting almost five hundred million dollars.
Not for me, Brian, No, I know that, And real
real quick, I need to say, your wife, you are a very
smart man. Sounds like you gotmarried a very very great Woman's out of
my element, OutKick my coverage.I always say smart men, Mary smart

(07:24):
and trust me, I hit ahome run on that one, no question
about it. So yeah, Imean there's some really bad bad things in
there, there are some good thingsin there, and so that's what makes
it really hard. I think thatyou know, we're having a hard time.
Remember we knew that when the CaresAct money came in. We knew
when ARPA money came in, wewere going to have to decrease the demand

(07:45):
on spend that was supposed to bea one time spend. Remember that.
Now that's dried up, and sopeople are still wanting all the money.
And some Republicans, because Democrats don'tdo this, need to use the word
no. No. We you knoweverybody, we're paying twenty six percent more
for eggs and fifty percent more forwhatever. I was looking at a list

(08:07):
I can't remember, maybe chicken orbeef or whatever. Oh, it's crazy
and it's costing everybody. And Ijust I'm a I don't mean to plug
for him, but I'm a DaveRamsey person. So whenever I vote for
every Ohio and I think, youknow, how am I going to answer
how I spent your money? It'syour money. We don't make money.
So well, this is one thingthat defends me. And I know your

(08:31):
fingerprints aren't on this, and atleast I presume so correct the record if
they are. But the Cincinnati Opentennis tournament is going to get twenty seven
and a half million taxpayer dollars fora sporting event. The Mason is that
the Mason one. You know theywere going to leave the state, and
it brings in a large amount ofmoney. I wasn't instrumental or even part

(08:54):
of the development of all of that, but the revenue it brings in compared
to this bend is more so.It's a revenue plus Paul Brown Stadium or
whatever it's called these days. Paycourse. I mean, you know you're
like for me once. Yeah,that's where that skepticism comes from. I

(09:15):
do want to say with all thosebills, I want to I just do
want to call out a couple ofthings. First of all, we're going
to put pet insurance on our insurancethings, so we're doing that today.
We are recognizing September twenty second asVeterans Suicide Awareness because suicide Awareness month is
September and we lose twenty two veteransa day, and so September twenty second

(09:37):
is so we're just redating that,and then expunging some records of human people
that are victims of human trafficking,like if a woman or a young girl
was forced to prostitute herself, expungingsome of those records. So there are
some good bills, but there's alsosome expansion of medicaid in these bills.
There's the four point two capital budget. There's a lot the bills with appropriations.

(10:01):
What that means is that they eitherare money from the budget that was
already passed it or it's again newspending. And that's my issue. If
there's new spending in a bill,it isn't that I don't like the topic,
it's that we already had a budgetthat should have been all in the
budget. In January. And thelittle secret is if you didn't get your

(10:22):
money in January, just keep tryingto apply for it during the year and
the softies will give you more money. Well, whose money is that?
Yours? Including seven million dollars forthe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
Cleveland. Wow wow yeah, uhhuh you see? I mean? Is
that? Oh and let's not forgetwe're also taking out a bond to pay
for it. So what that meansis we're also taking out a loan that

(10:45):
service. So our highest spend plusthe loan equals no. For Jennifer gross
interest rates are still high, aren'tthey, Jennifer on you're going to be
borrowing money at it? Yeah,okay, they're not a three percent any
longer. So debt services a bigproblem anyhow, Jennifer grows can't thank you
for coming in the morning sh totalk about this. Get in touch with
your elected officials. If you're unhappywith spending, and I know a lot

(11:07):
of people are, now's the timeto act. Maybe it's too late,
I don't know, but all ofthat's going to take place today, yes,
today, And there are some otherbills that may come on too that
are not they're equally not good.So I bet you don't have time to
talk about all of them though thatwe are out when you have what I
want to tell people, when wehave fifty six bills in one day,

(11:28):
there's no way everybody to know what'sin those bills. And that means the
stock Yeah, how really excellent point. We'll put an exclamation point on that
underline and put it in bold andall caps, Jennifer Gross look forward to
having back on the morning show.Keep fighting, good fight on behalf of
the Ohio tax payer. We needresponse fiscally responsible folks like you to take

(11:50):
care of matters. So good luckon that today and look forward to having
you back on the show real soon. Thank you as always, Brian,
have a great anniversary. Thank youvery much. Coming up after up of
the ourt news, Orlando Son