Jack Windsor - Ohio House Veto Failure

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Chuck Ingram on fifty five KRC The Talk Station.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Hey, thirty one fifty five KRC the Talk Station, Happy Wednesday,
and welcome back to the fifty five Carse Morning Show.
Editor in chief of the hamp Press Network, Jack Windsor
also apparently friend of my last guest, Marcel Sturbage. Jack,
good to have you back on the morning show.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Hey, it's great to be here, Brian, Thanks for choosing
me today.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
I understand you have endorsed Marcel Sturbridge for Secretary of State.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
I have.

Speaker 4 (01:31):
Marcel has been a great source for many of the
stories we've written on Ohio election reform, and a guest
on my radio show multiple times and just quick and dirty.
The reason I've done it is that I think he
is the guy who actually understands what the gaps are
in Ohio's election integrity and has a plan to get
it done. And he's not running around Ohio going, hey,

(01:53):
we've got the gold standard in election election law, no
election outcomes.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
He is definitely not singing that, but he is. He's
very coherent and very clear on what he wants to
do to ensure the integrity of the election. He just
went through it, and he was able to rattle off
quite a few things, some of which you just kind
of scratch your head, Jack and wonder, well, why the
hell isn't that in place already? How difficult can it
be to ensure that someone is actually a citizen of
the United States of America before they cast a vote.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
Yeah, it's wild, isn't it. And what he's talking about
right now, he's been talking about for a while. And
when President Trump obviously was inaugurated, one of the first
things he talked about was making sure that we reform
election laws and increase election integrity and spoke to the
very thing that Marcell's talking about. We should not be
putting people who are not citizens on the voting roles

(02:43):
because it's an exacerbated risk. And of course it takes
time and money to take him off the voter roles,
and it seems like a no brainer.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
It really is. And again, I just it's one of
the frustrating things that I'm sure it's equally frustrating for you, Jack,
knowing how you are about politics. Why is why are politics?
And how it's so frustrating Republicans run the show. They've
got both houses they got the governor's office, they have
Secretary of State's office, they have the auditor's office, they

(03:12):
have everything. You think it will be this well oiled, efficient,
you know, fiscal responsibility, limited government, free market kind of state.
And yet it's like hurting cats up there.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
It really is, isn't it. I Mean, first of all,
you have the I call it the rhino problem. There
are Republicans in name only, and then you know the
other issue. There are people who are Republicans and they're
in these districts that are purple where sometimes it's hard
for a Republican to pull out a victory, and so
that shows up and sometimes how they vote or don't vote,

(03:42):
or what they do while they're at the state House
because they recognize that there are people who are on
the left side of the aisle who might not be
so happy if they go, you know, too far right.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
And it is it's maddening.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
You would think with the trifecta is what Republicans have here,
that we get a heck of a lot more done.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
You would absolutely anyway, well, a change of governor would
would be very helpful. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed
for VV Ramaswami because he's got great ideas and he
is as an enthused guy as you can ever find.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
Jack, he is super fantastic. And mid terms are always
tough for the party in charge, and so in Ohio,
Donald Trump is won here multiple times, obviously by wider
margins each time, and without him being at the top
of the ticket.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
You go, Okay, do you have somebody to.

Speaker 4 (04:31):
Put at the top of the ticket that can help
Republicans down ballot? And Vik brings an energy and attention
that I think is good for Republicans here in the Buck.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
I stay.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
Jack Wins are editor in chief of High Press Network.
When we come back, we'll get on Focus here and
we'll talk about the efforts to override Dwine's vetos, one
of which was successful, but one of the other two
more with Jack Wins are on those after these brief words,
don't go away.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
Fifty five KRC. You're listening to Lee Filter.

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tomorrow possible. That's found most care for better outcomes. Expect
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two seventy five traffic being diverted off of the highway
and Fifer Chuck Ingram on fifty five krc DE talk station.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
AY thirty seven and fifty five KRCD talk station Happy Wednesday.
Brian Thomas Swift, Jack Winsor, editor in chief of the
how Press Network, pivoting over to the budget. The budget
can in Ohio here contain three I call them babystep,
but some efforts to help us deal with the outrageous
property tax bills. We're facing three separate provisions the line

(06:18):
I and vetoed all three for reasons that still escaped
me and Jack, maybe you can explain that if you
figured it out. But he said, we need to study
them more. We need a working group to look into this. Well,
by all accounts, they've been studying and looking at this
with a different working group leading up to the budget,
which incorporated three ideas from the prior working group who

(06:39):
came up with like twenty three different suggestions on how
we can deal with property tax. So there, the work
has been done. There, it is in the bill, and
yet Dwine chooses to veto those but not veto the
six hundred million dollars going to the Cleveland Browns. So
you may or may not want to address that one, Jack,
But that just really frankly pisses me off. But they
did successfully override one of the three vetos. So where

(07:02):
are we on this, Jack?

Speaker 4 (07:04):
Yeah, So there were three or actually there were four going.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
Back that he that he vetoed.

Speaker 4 (07:10):
It was a school cash balance carryover forty percent. There
was a recalculating the twenty mil floor, which gets you know,
so far in the weeds my mind starts to hurt yep.
And then there was empowering the county Budget commission authority,
allowing them essentially, this group of commissioners to say no,

(07:30):
now that's excessive, we can't do that, so more local control.
And then the one that actually was overridden on Monday.
It takes away I call them tools for schools and
other taxing authorities in the form of the types of
levees that they use, and one of the examples that

(07:53):
I give is what they would call emergency levees or
restricted emergency levees. Those those tools are taken away, and frankly,
part of it is that those words can be misleading,
They can be missnober yes and misnomers when these things
are being cussed and discussed during the budget process. One

(08:15):
school district we found was in an emergency levy situation
for twenty years, and one lawmaker said, okay, now, explain
to me an emergency that last twenty years. And so
these are those structural changes that really give their design
to give voters more transparency when they go to the
ballot box.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
All right, but they didn't vote on a couple of
the overrides. I learned this morning from Donovan and Neil
from Americans for Prosperity. They were concerned about voting on
those because they didn't know if they had enough votes
to override. And they only get one bite at the
apple in terms of voting to override the vetos, so
they put it on hold. So maybe in September or

(08:52):
whenever when they come back, they're going to vote on those.
But I guess if they weren't sure they had enough
votes to override the veto, there's no certainty that those
are going to be overrid when the next vote.

Speaker 4 (09:03):
That's a great observation, and I'm with you on that.
I talked to state Representative Beth Lear and I said,
do you think you can take another crack at these sometime
later in the fall when everyone officially returns from summer recess.
And the answer was yes. But I want to go
back to what you said earlier, Brian. Some of the
things that have caused outrage here. Number one, it appears

(09:24):
that the can has been kicked down the road so
far that there's not going to be any immediate property relief.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
Now, there are some.

Speaker 4 (09:30):
People who would say these reforms were not going to
provide immediate property relief anyway. But you said DeWine wanted
to take a better look at this. Well, you also
said there was a commission, bipartisan commission that created over
twenty property tax reform ideas that were baked into this budget,
and Diwine of course took his veto pen and cut

(09:51):
those out. But the thing with DeWine's working group is,
now we found out yesterday there's there's more reason for
people to be upset. When he originally put that together.
The two people he put in charge are lobbyists. One
is from the Cincinnati area Bill Sites, he's a former
state representative, and the other is former Congressman Pat T Berry,

(10:14):
who's now CEO of the Ohio Business Roundtable. But Sites,
for those who don't know, after leaving the state House,
he's now a lobbyist. And get this, Brian, this is
the part that has people really peeved. He represents clients
like Cincinnati Public Schools, Sycamore Township, Cincinnati, Hamilton County Public Library.
And you go, okay, well, what does that matter because
those are entities that are reliant on tax Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
So you go, okay.

Speaker 4 (10:38):
The guys that he put in charge of this commission
are our lobbyists that are probably going to be there
pushing for the reforms that most Ohioans don't want. Right,
and then we found out yesterday he released a list
of nine other folks to be on that commission, And
as I look at them, there's like a treasurer, auditor, auditor,

(10:58):
superintendent of of one public school system, another superintendent, Hamilton
County commissioner, Pickaway County commissioner, and then a Pike County commissioner,
And you go, Okay, that's good. These local taxing authorities
are represented. But I don't see any state reps. I
don't see any policy experts. I don't see any property

(11:19):
tax experts. I don't see any small business representation. I
don't And so it's it's so focused on this one sector.
I think a lot of people are now going, all right,
what's what's thewine going to try to bake up? And
does you have enough control over some Republicans in the
General Assembly that we're going to get more watered down
property tax reforms.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
I think anybody's reading tea leaves will probably go in
that direction. Like me, Jack, I think that's exactly what
we're going to get. Knowing Dwine's record, most notably and
considering who's on the hand Select committee there. But this
raises sort of an interesting specter. It will kick the
can down the road. Whatever the committee comes up with
is going to have to be turned into some form
of legislation that's going to have to go after go

(12:00):
through the legislative process, since we're done with the budget,
and if they don't override the vetos. That is to say,
doesn't this make more likely or create the potential of
the constitutional amendment petition that's circulating more likely to pass
because they are kicking the can down the road and
we are not going to be getting any immediate property
tax relief that we can see. I mean even baby

(12:21):
steps might go along the way, and you could advocate no, no,
give it time to work, give it time to work.
We'll get the relief. It just is going to be instantaneous, that,
my friend, will be instantaneous.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
Yes, it will be instantaneous.

Speaker 4 (12:33):
And as I look at this, my visceral response, my
hot take on Monday, when the General Assembly just got
one of those things overridden, I said, this is actually
going to be positive for the people who want to
abolish property tax because people are already peeped, and I
got emails yesterday from folks who said, well, isn't it
interesting that the General Assembly did or the House did

(12:55):
what they did on Monday? I no joke, got a
tax bill or a notice on Tuesday this that you know,
my taxes are going up X amount, which is you know, astronomical.
And so you're you're going to have this really interesting situation, Brian,
where people are going to be even more pissed off
than they are now.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (13:11):
But but the lobbying, uh, I don't know power influence
resources of the people opposed to massive tax reform here.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
I think you're seeing it, and I think the wine
leads them.

Speaker 4 (13:24):
So it's going to be this clash of old way
of doing it in politics, and probably a bunch of
money behind a campaign to make sure that that thing
doesn't pass, and then a bunch of grassroots people in
Ohio who go, no, come hell or high water, we're
putting this on the ballot and I don't want to
pay property taxes.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
Any Yeah, and that is definitely going to be the
challenge because as you poured out I think statement the
obvious that is going to be a well financed opposition
to that ballot initiative. And you know, just random folks
like me saying it might be a good idea are
not going to be backed by the money. There's just
not There's not a lobbying group or some organization that's
going to hurt all the individual people into one sound,

(14:01):
solid voice.

Speaker 4 (14:03):
That's exactly right. And so right now they're in that
signature gathering phase. In fact, I think the idea was
to have those signatures gathered for later this year, and
it looks like earliest would be May of twenty twenty six.
If they can't get them, it's then November twenty sixth,
and then you're looking all the way into twenty seven, right,
And so people want property tax relief.

Speaker 3 (14:24):
Now we'll find out.

Speaker 4 (14:25):
Dewayne's commission is set to meet on Thursday, so we'll
see what they come up with after that first meeting.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
Well, I observed earlier than I had before, Jack, I
just the thing that really irks me the most about
property taxes. It's all predicated on some randomly chosen figure
your house's worth. It's unrealized gain. I've been in my
house for almost thirty years. I know what I paid
when I built it. And I know what they tell
me it's worth now, and it's gone up a lot
in value. It's only worth whatever somebody's willing to buy it,

(14:52):
does sell it, or to pay for it at the
time of sale. That's the only time you ever know
the value of your home. And yet here we are
saddle with this insane recalculation because well, COVID change the
landscape of real estate market in this country overnight.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
Yes it did.

Speaker 4 (15:09):
And you know, I feel for everybody who has that
unrealized game, because just because your home value goes up
forty thousand or fifty thousand dollars, it doesn't mean that
you have some you know, corresponding I know, likewise, cash
stash that you can pay your taxes with.

Speaker 3 (15:23):
I also feel for the older folks on fixed incomes.

Speaker 4 (15:27):
My dad, you know, and some of the listeners probably
have dads and grandparents who are struggling. And it comes
down to the age old question if I've paid my
home off and now I'm on a fixed income or
don't make as much as I used to and I
can't afford my property bill and you can take my home,
that I ever really owned my home or did the
government always own my home, and I think that's what
has people so peeved. That why there's so much momentum

(15:49):
around abolishing property tax now as the GA and the
governor continue to kick the can down the road.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
Well, and that's a course I hear from my listening audience, Jack,
is that you never own your own home home as
long as they can make demands and take your home
from you because you can't pay property taxes, you are
not a real property owner. Jack wins Our, editor in
chief of the Ohio Press Network. Check out his podcast
what he has to say throughout the week. I always
enjoy talking with you, Jack. It's a real pleasure to
have you on my program and I'll look forward to

(16:15):
doing it again real soon.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
Hey, thank you to Joe. Thank you to you as well. Brian.
Have a great day. You do the same.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
It's say forty eight right now. If you have KRC
the talk station, don't go away.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
Fifty five KRC. Men,