AFP - Taxpayer Torch Awards

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Station. It's seven point thirty here at fifty five KRC
Detok Station. Very happy Wednesday to you, and welcome back
to the fifty five KRC Morning Show from Americans for
Prosperity Donovan and Neil. Donovan's always a pleasure to have
you on the show. Welcome back, Brian, always great to

(00:21):
be with You. Got an award to give out.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Huh, well, we gave it out, Actually we gave it
out last night.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yeah, well, let's talk about it. Went the Matt speaker. Speaker,
Matt Huffman. And this is in connection with your your
efforts with the Buckeye Blueprint campaign. I guess you've been
given this award way for several years now.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Oh yeah, actually, and I don't know if you recall this,
Brentce was years ago, but you actually were there for
our inaugural Taxpayer Torch Award when we gave that in
twenty seventeen to John Houstad for his work as Secretary
of State. So this is an award that we've get,
we gave for a number of years. It unfortunately got sidelined.
I think no one really knows the lower history of

(01:06):
why I got sidelined. But that was around COVID time.
We decided to bring it back though, because of the
outsized impact that then Senate President now Speaker Matt Houffman
played in accomplishing so many important reforms last session into

(01:26):
this session, coupled with holding the line on some really
bad bills and I've been on your show and talked
about them, but some really bad bills that had moved
out of the Ohio House and over the Senate. So
just played an outsized impact in so many different ways.
Happy to talk about him, but that compelled us to say, hey,
we're going to bring this award back, and there's somebody
who is well deserving of it, and then hopefully that'll

(01:48):
inspire some other folks down the line to try to
compete and earn that earn that recognition in the future.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
All right, what kind of factors are you looking for
with this and what specifically did you id to with
Matt Huffman.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Well, yeah, and one of the things that we were,
you know, in particular, looking for is bold conservative leaders
who stand firm for reform and deliver results. And so
when you look at last session into this year, we
expanded school choice for all ohiolands. Yes, we moved from
four brackets down to two, and then just in the
last six months, moved that down to one bracket, a

(02:25):
flat income tax bracket. We protected folks from costly mandates
on energy bills and in fact, in just the first
four months of this year, unleashed energy production here in
Ohio by streamlining and speeding up permitting processes. Regulatory reform,
property tax relief, which continues to be debated and discussed,

(02:46):
but they're moving bills on that issue in Columbus. Will
be there today actually testifying on one in particular regarding
the twenty mill four but and in holding the line
on government spending. All of this, right, Brian, this is
these are the foundational pieces of our Buckeye Blueprint, and
so all of that accomplished in the last twenty four
or so months. Much much more work to be done, right,

(03:07):
We're not near arriving. But that's the kind of leadership, right,
that comes from helping elect Buckeye Blueprint champion state representatives
and senators right who then elevate leadership like Speaker Matt
Hoffman into that position, leadership to provide that vision that
ultimately helps move us closer to being the number one

(03:29):
state in the nation for freedom and prosperity.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, let's hope so. And I know, obviously the points
that you made are fantastic ones. I got to cling
to the property tax comment because we, of course had
some suggestions from Mike Dwin's Blue Ribbon Committee which didn't
make a whole lot of sense to me. I'd be
quite candid with you, but after Dwine veto the ones
that were in the budget. But we're moving fast toward

(03:53):
this property tax repeal next year, and I think more
and more people are going to sign the petition to
get it on the ballot, and more and more people
are going to gravitate toward doing that, going to force
Columbus to do some tough work. And where's Americans for
prosperity on that whole pile? There? That the whole mess
that we're dealing with right now, Have you guys come
up with a solution of your own? Don't want to

(04:14):
put you on the spot, but I.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Am no, no, quite or right. We've actually been talking
about this issue for a while and while eliminating how's
income taxes, our number one priority capping and reforming property
taxes here in the state of Ohio is a very
close number two, or maybe it's one a right, and
that it's something that many of our our constituents and
volunteers have been talking about. Now. What we would like

(04:36):
to see happen, right is that there reforms that the
General Assembly had vetted and reviewed last General Assembly so
just about twelve months ago, have been incorporated into legislation
this year. Has been debated, vetted, much of it's moved
through committee. A lot of it actually ended up in
the state budget. The Wine vetoed it as a probably recall,

(04:58):
and a lot of that would have helped bring train
parency to the system, would have capped the ability for
these spikes and increases, and would have put some more
accountability mechanisms in place at a local level to get
that done. If that doesn't happen, right, that's where that
threat of eliminating the ability to levey a property tax
in the state outright hang. The concern there right, just

(05:20):
speaking pragmatically, and it's coming from a guy who works
for an organization and advocating to eliminate the income tax
in the state. So I don't like taxes, period, but
there's a large shortfall that would impact police and fire
and roads, and bridges, infrastructure, much of the public services
most people kind of look to government to do and

(05:41):
there's not really a plan to backfill that right now.
And so what we really I think need to have happened,
and I think most of Highlands want to see have happened,
is that we get these reforms into place that give
the taxpayer more control over their local jurisdiction so that
we don't see these unvoted increases, cur that we don't
see these spikes, and that when people want to understand

(06:02):
what's going on with their tax bill, they can do it.
David Thomas is doing a lot of work. They were
up David Thomas from the entire other side of the
state from your listeners in Ashton Villa County, that is
doing a ton of work and won't be testifying on
a bill that addresses some of these issues later today
in the House waves the Means Committee.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
What of the notion that we wouldn't have to worry
about the property tax if we just were able to
successfully eliminate all the fraud, waste and abuse that exists
in our state government's budget. I mean, I keep hearing
this all the time. You know, Medicaid Medicare and the
amount of people who are improperly registered for that. If
we just clawed back that money or didn't send it
out in the first place, our budget would be in

(06:40):
much better shape.

Speaker 2 (06:43):
Without a doubt, I mean, and that's one of the
things that is being worked on right But it's a
massive behemoth not to create excuses. There is was a
proposal put into the state budget that would have the
state auditor go in and look at Medicaid millionaires and
if the Medicaid system is actually properly reviewing in a

(07:05):
post COVID era, who is actually getting these dollars. It's
incredibly costly. It's the number one expense for the state.
But here's the deal, Brian, in local property taxes that
if they're eliminated overnight, that's equivalent, you know, two years

(07:27):
of education funding from the setting that comes to about
twenty two to twenty three billion dollars. And so it's
a large chunk of money. And that Medicaid audit may
only identify about a billion dollars. A billion's a big number,
but it may only identify a billion. There's a lot
of work to be done to bring down the cost
curved government here in the state of Ohio. It's all

(07:48):
in Columbus. It's the fifty or I'm sorry, it's the
thirty nine hundred political subdivisions across the state that are
the big government behemoths that's bearing down on the Ohio
tax payer right now, no.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
Question about it. Well, well, then, on a call to action,
where would you like my listeners to turn to to
get involved?

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Donovan o'eil, Well, we had so many of our volunteers
and supporters get to join us. So well than just
about celebrating the elected officials, it was about recognizing the
work of our volunteers. And you can get involved with
us by going to Buckeye blueprint dot com. Buckeye blueprint
dot com sign up, take action, join us. We've got
chapters popping up all over the SEAK and we'd love
to have your listeners join us.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Buckeye Blueprint dot Com Call to Action, Donald and Neil,
keep up the great work. I'll look forward to another
conversation next week. Have a great time or have a
great day and great week, my friend. Thanks Brian seven
thirty nine. Right now, if you have KRC detalk station,
Deb Meyer from oter Exsit was on yesterday talking about
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