ProgressOhio

So I guess it wasn’t just my imagination. The ABJ had an interesting article about the current “tortoise” legislature and the reasons therefore.

“Two years ago, lawmakers had formed committees, held hearings, introduced, passed and sent to Gov. Bob Taft a $1.5 billion capital budget bill loaded with state construction monies and pet projects for local communities all before January had come and gone.”

When Taft was newly installed as Governor, the House had already introduced 171 bills by Feb. 12th. Why the stall now?

It seems that Husted is continuing his grade school game of “show me yours, and then I’ll show you mine”. This became apparent when Husted and Harris “saved” SB 1 and HB 1 for the governor to use to fix school funding. Of course they gave the governor little or no notice of this nicety before issuing a press release on the matter, intent instead on goading the Governor into giving them fodder for further mocking press releases on school funding.

Not content with that slap down, Husted dared Strickland to unveil his school funding plan when he introduces his two-year proposed budget by March 15. If Governor Strickland does not do so, we likely will hear yet another flurry of Husted press releases.

Husted is mad. He believes that his Republican Governor and General Assembly have already fixed school funding, except maybe “charterizing” the entire state. As the article stated, Strickland’s campaign to “Turn Around Ohio” from 16 years of Republican mismanagement was unfair:

This infuriates Republicans because in their hearts they believe they have been doing a good job, and that those votes against their candidates last fall were really a great misunderstanding and the natural swing of the political pendulum.

Yes, Jonny, it was all really a misunderstanding. And we just want you, the General Assembly majority party, to sit around Columbus until you can jeer at every proposal that comes out of the Governor’s office. Grow up Husted.