Innovation Ohio

What you need to know about Ohio Politics and Policy

IO Report shows why Romney needs to “reboot” his policies

There’s a story in the New York Times describing yet another reboot of the Romney for President campaign. We’ll call this reboot, the compassionate Romney. Compassionate Romney speaks into a camera for 60 seconds and tells you it’s hard out there, he knows it, and, well, he cares. Then it’s blame Obama and ends with “my plan will work.” This tear-jerker comes ten days after the 47% video in which he dispassionately tells a roomful of power wigs half the country are shirkers and he’s written them off. This reboot should go into the file marked: “Will say anything to get elected.” What this more tender Mitt Romney is saying doesn’t square with the policy proposals he’s brought forth as his surefire plan. Here’s what we know of the Romney-Ryan Plan:
  • Tax cuts for the wealthy
  • Paid for by effectively raising taxes on the middle class, elderly and working poor
IO worked with the Center for American Progress on a recent report: The Real Cost of the Romney-Ryan Plan to Ohioans. Here are some key takeaways from the report:
  • Millionaires in Ohio would receive around $87,000 in tax cuts under Romney-Ryan. To help pay for that, the currently untaxed health coverage that 6 million families in Ohio receive from their employers would be taxed. The bill per year, per family would range from $1,000 to $1,900. The mortgage deduction would also take a hit, nailing middle income earners. Taxes on mortgages would increase over $1,000 per family.
  • Working families and single parents struggling to balance work and childcare would get hit by Romney Economics. Currently, 158,000 families claim the child care tax credit. Romney’s plan is to reduce that credit by 58%. This would cost each of those families in Ohio $318 more per year for child care through the increase in taxes. Helping lower income workers with child care through this tax credit is an incentive to work.
  • 1.6 million lower income working families in Ohio qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit and the refundable portion of the child tax credit. Both of these credits were improved in the Obama Stimulus in 2009. Romney’s plan calls for rolling back those improvements which would cost these Ohio working families about $876 each per year.
There’s so much more – read the report linked above. The point is high rollers win, most people lose in Ohio under Romney Economics. We’ve looked at the numbers in Ohio, but given that these are federal policies, middle class and lower income workers are clobbered from sea to shining sea by the Romney-Ryan plan. Don’t get fooled by gauzy campaign ads — Romney may reboot his message, but he hasn’t rebooted his budget and tax priorities.

Paul Ryan Kicking Off Romney-Ryan Ohio Under the Bus Tour

We showed you how Romney Economics doesn’t add up for Ohioans a couple of weeks ago with this report. Well, the Romney-Ryan duo are running around Ohio for the next three days trying to sell us a bill of goods. Here’s a little graphic we put together to let you know where they’ll be. We also added some information for them. We’ve got the average income and effective tax rate for each community they will visit. Romney has shown recently he just doesn’t get it – we thought we’d help. The data contained on the map comes from a report we did in conjunction with the Center for American Progress. You can see the data and an explanation of effective tax rates here. Click on the map for a full-size version.

Mike Curtin on Why Ohio Needs Redistricting Reform

Mike Curtin, former newsman and vice chairman of the Columbus Dispatch is well known to Central Ohioans who follow public events and politics. In his 38-year career in journalism moving from public affairs reporter up through the editorial ranks to eventually run the Dispatch, Curtin is viewed by most as a fair and balanced observer of Ohio politics. Now a candidate for the Ohio House, Curtin is talking about the winner takes all approach Ohio has to congressional and state legislative district apportionment saying that in this “hyper-partisan age” something needs to be done to take all of the power out of the hands of whichever party controls the Statehouse. “If you look at the maps – any of the maps – they’re absurdities,” Curtin told Colleen Marshall on The Spectrum. Curtin used his own community as an example. He lives in the village of Marble Cliff which for 70 years has been a sister community with Grandview Heights – sharing schools, municipal services and a library district. The two communities are contiguous, but not on legislative district maps, and Curtin says this is simply a twisted mathematical construct to benefit the people currently in power in Columbus in Washington. “They (current district maps) are geographical monsters that serve only the politicians in power,” Curtin said. Ohioans have an alternative, however. It’s State Issue 2 and it will be on the ballot this November. Innovation Ohio supports a yes vote on Issue 2 and we’ll be talking more about it over the next six weeks. Check out Curtin’s entire interview (3 minutes):

[Video] Exposing the fraud in Romney-Ryan budget plan – It only takes 90 seconds

Earlier this week Innovation Ohio spent some time with our colleagues from the Center for American Progress Action Fund to release our latest report: The Real Cost of the Romney-Ryan Plan to Ohioans. Read the report or one of our earlier blog posts to find details about how a Mitt Romney presidency would hit your wallet and make it more difficult to afford health care, college tuition or pay for retirement. In this video, Dale Butland, IO’s communications director, exposes the fraud in Romney’s plan from the macro level. Take a look:

[Video] Janetta King on who will foot the bill in Ohio for the Romney-Ryan plan

Hopefully you know by now about our report, created in partnership with the Center for American Progress Action Fund, on how the Romney-Ryan economic and tax agenda will adversely affect Ohioans. If you don’t have time to read the entire report, how about taking a few minutes to hear from IO’s president, Janetta King. In this video from an event in Columbus, Ohio earlier this week, King discusses exactly who would pay more in taxes if Mitt Romney were to become president and corrects some inaccuracies in a recent Columbus Dispatch editorial about the federal loan to the auto industry.

Husted’s rough week …

Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted begin his tenure in fairly bipartisan fashion? Didn’t he initially stand up to Gov. John Kasich and some of the more right-wing policies of the Ohio GOP? Somewhere along the way Husted made a course correction and became Ohio’s Secretary of Suppression. His policies have led to court battles which have led to Husted looking like every other partisan for partisan’s sake winger out there polluting our state and national political processes. Last night, Hannah News Service even had to roll out the white text on red background. There’s Breaking News. Husted has been whupped in court again and he and the Ballot Board are going to meet this morning to rewrite the ballot text for State Issue 2. I asked Dale Butland, IO’s communications director and longtime Cap Square observer for his thoughts: “The same desperate politicians who are doing everything they can to eliminate the votes of those they fear might not support them are now lying to voters about the Issue 2 reforms.  This is what you expect to see in a banana republic, not a great state like Ohio.  It’s gotten so bad that a federal judge and the Ohio Supreme Court have been forced to step in and slap these politicians down.  Voters can stand up for honesty and fair play by voting “yes” on Issue 2 this November,” Butland told me. We’ll have some coverage at the Ballot Board this morning and hopefully get a post up from one of our policy folks later today. What Dale told me, though, is key. Issue 2 is important. It’s proscription for fixing Ohio’s redistricting process may seem a bit complicated, but an attempt is being made to bring fairness into the process. Voter advocates aren’t asking for a process that favors either party, they’re looking for congressional and statehouse districts that reflect Ohio, not a Kasich-Boehner fantasy of Ohio.

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