ProgressOhio

On one side stands those in favor in Issue 1: virtually every elected official from both sides of the aisle, virtually every business leader (including the Chamber of Commerce), virtually every civic leader and The Columbus Dispatch.

On the other side stands Bill Todd, who last election cycle donated money to Mayor Coleman's campaign before losing to him by 40 points and the Buckeye Institute, who famously brought on Ken Blackwell after he lost to Gov. Strickland by almost 24 points. This isn't the first time Todd & the Buckeye Institute have teamed up - an IRS complaint was lodged against them in 2007 for illegaly coordinating with Bill Todd's mayoral campaign.

The Buckeye's latest line of attack is that our city's employees, who are disproportionately firefighters and police officers, are overpaid. Citing numbers from the federally run Economic Research Service, the Buckeye Institue says that median household income in Columbus is $37,897, while city employees, including overtime, made $53,059.

If one checks on the Economic Research estimates, you'll find that the median household income in Franklin County is actually $48,076, over $10,000 more than the number the Buckeye Institute is pushing. A simple calculation from the spreadsheet they provides shows that the median salary for a city employee, sans overtime, is <drumroll> $48,124.

I'm not sure what is more astounding, that the city's wages track area income by less than $50 or that the Buckeye Institute thinks this is a story.

The Buckeye Institute isn't the only outlet that found this persuasive. "Dirk Thompson Hunt for the Truth" who was last seen stoking a month old story for racial invective, was moved to run with this story. Have fun guys.