Patricia Rideout, new Director of Cuyahoga County DCFS

Ed FitzGerald names new director of Cuyahoga County child-welfare department

Spector, Harlan. Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 7, 2011.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald has chosen a lawyer and longtime child-welfare administrator to take over the Department of Children and Family Services, an agency stung by criticism that it has not done enough to protect high-risk children.

FitzGerald hired Patricia Rideout, a former top deputy of the Cuyahoga department in the 1990s and a former consultant for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a leading child-welfare organization. Through the foundation, Rideout helped bring reforms to dozens of local child-protection agencies, FitzGerald said.

Rideout also served on a task force created last year to help reform the Cuyahoga department, after two children were killed and two others were starved nearly to death despite involvement by the county agency.

The task force called on the department to improve services for families beset by domestic violence, substance abuse and mental illness -- problems that underlie many abuse and neglect cases. But critics questioned the panel's credibility from the start, because then-director Deborah Forkas picked the members, assigned areas of study and refused to allow members to review agency files of the high-profile cases.

The agency under Forkas also made controversial budget cuts, and it mishandled several cases that came to light, including recommending custody of an infant to a convicted cocaine trafficker with a long criminal history. Several weeks later, the man was charged with killing a woman and dumping her body on Interstate 90.

FitzGerald fired Forkas shortly after he took office this year.

Forkas last fall took some responsibility for the department's shortcomings, but also said other county managers and contract agencies failed to understand the depth of family problems, which she blamed on the economy.

FitzGerald said in an interview Thursday a key challenge for Rideout is properly balancing protective custody with a goal of family reunification. The department must also address an unacceptably high number of children who remain in county custody until age 18, he said.

"She's really had a unique vantage point to find out what's worked and what hasn't worked across the country," said FitzGerald.

She will be paid $140,000 year for what FitzGerald described as "quite possibly the most thankless job in county government."

FitzGerald said he could not speak to restoring funding to some programs that have been cut, including certain task force-recommended services for families after reunification.

Lawyer John Lawson, a long-time guardian ad litem for children in the system, said he has seen little improvement since the task force recommendations. Lawson, who also sat on the panel, said he thinks Rideout's success will largely depend on county political leaders who took office this year under charter reform.

"It's new turf for everybody," he said. "I wish her well."

Rideout was not available for comment. She had been a chief deputy in the 1990s under then-director Judith Goodhand, who was credited with improvements but also left under criticism that the agency didn't do enough to prevent deaths of several children whose families had been under the county's watch.

Rideout is also a former director of foster care and adoption at Bellefaire JCB in Shaker Heights, and currently works for Case Commons Inc., a New York City-based non-profit that provides new technology for child-welfare workers.

Senator Grendell responds to child advocates' concerns

Trouble at the last minute
Another of example of legislating without benefit of enough thought
Ohio.com, June 22, 2011.

Red flags should go up whenever legislators make last-minute additions to bills during the final legislative stages. Chances are, such insertions are ill-considered. It is a disservice to the public when they slip amendments into legislation without the benefit of full airing.

The chairman of the Ohio Senate Criminal Justice Committee, Timothy Grendell, added to the criminal sentencing bill, House Bill 86, a notification provision so broad it promised to increase the stigma on foster children who must be placed in new communities due to no fault of their own.

With little time left on the legislative calendar to consider the House-approved sentencing bill, Grendell added language that required children services agencies, when they placed foster children with mental, emotional or behavior problems in new communities, to notify the school superintendent and private school officials within the district, plus the juvenile court, the county sheriff and the chief law enforcement officer of the municipality where the foster home was located.

In short, as child protective agencies quickly pointed out, the amendment applied a notification policy more relevant to the state's sex-offender registry to foster children, whether or not they have had problems with the law. The agencies argue correctly that without any justification, the notification measure would single out and further stigmatize children who already are traumatized by their experiences and need therapeutic care to rebuild their lives in a new environment away from home.

The criminal sentencing bill, including the foster-care notification, is scheduled for a vote on the Senate floor, most likely before the end of the week. Thankfully, Grendell has acknowledged the concerns raised by child advocates. He significantly scaled down the scope of his initial proposal. More reasonably, the proposed notification now would be limited to foster children who are adjudicated delinquent for violent crimes.

Better still would be removing the provision, the proper assessment still lacking, the episode illustrating again the trouble with legislating by stealth.

Foster care youth and alumni express concerns about Foster Youth Community Notification Provisions

Senate Criminal Justice Reports out Sentencing Reform Bill
Hannah Report, June 22, 2011.

After five hours and two recesses for drafting changes, the criminal sentencing overhaul cleared committee on a party line vote, with all Republicans voting for and all Democrats against HB86.

The chair, Sen. Tim Grendell (R-Chesterland), began the hearing by describing the substitute bill, which includes the following changes, among others:

- Earned credits to be “provisional” up to five days plus possible bonus days, but no more than eight percent of original sentence. Involuntary manslaughter would now qualify for earned credit.
- The “Foster fix” now reflects the language of SB2 rather than House amendments to HB86.
- Encourages minimum sentencing where appropriate.
- “Bifurcates” sentencing for third-degree felonies, making certain offenses including gross sexual imposition and corruption of a minor up to five years in prison.
- Increased risk reduction sentencing from 75 percent to 80 percent.
- Provides that the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC) will review all inmates 65 and older and determine why they are still in prison.
- Eliminates the 10-year cap on judicial release under certain conditions.
- Commissions a DRC inmate assault study.
- Adopts certificates of achievement and employability as a “second-chance” program.
- Incorporates Sen. Kearney’s SB44, which prohibits inmates from possessing a photograph of their sex crime victims.
- Makes use of risk assessment tool non-mandatory.
- Specifies that only a child that furnished, brandished, used or discarded a gun used in a crime will be subject to firearm sentencing specifications.
- Prohibits the issuance of speeding tickets based on the unaided visual determination of an officer.
- Specifies that only the head administrator of a school attended by a foster child adjudicated delinquent would know of the child’s background, in addition to the top law enforcement official in the area, and shields the address of the child’s foster home.

The committee then heard from a series of witnesses opposed to the addition of the delinquency notification provision, including Alex McFarland, a former foster child and a member and former president of the Ohio Youth Advisory Board; Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer Ben Kearney of Berea Children's Home and Family Services; Associate Director for Government Relations Mark Mecum of the Ohio Association of Child Caring Agencies; and Judge Theresa Dellick of the Mahoning County Juvenile Court, who added her comments to written testimony otherwise supportive of juvenile justice changes in the bill.

McFarland discussed the "discrimination, prejudice and stereotyping" foster children will be further subjected to under delinquency disclosure provisions. Sen. Turner agreed that the addition would amount to a "Scarlet Letter" for foster children.

Witness Kearney said HIPAA confidentiality laws would not apply to delinquent foster children under treatment. "The unintended consequences of this provision will damage the lives of Ohio's youth."

Said Mecum, "Foster children need care and support from the state of Ohio -- their legal custodian -- until we find them permanent, loving families. This type of warning mechanism for communities could lead to mistreatment of the youth, promotion of a stigma that foster children are dangerous, disincentives for foster parenting, and establishment of a dangerous statutory precedent."

Sen. Nina Turner (D-Cleveland) noted the racial dimensions of a provision that could apply disproportionately to minority youth.

Dellick suggested the notification requirement be limited to foster youth adjudicated delinquent for crimes of violence, and the chair agreed.

"Done deal. That's a good suggestion," Grendell said.

The committee recessed for an hour to draft the change. When it adjourned, OACCA reiterated it's opposition to the notification provision, notwithstanding the pending change. Lamar Graham, a teacher, college advisor and former foster child, and Arlene Jones, a caseworker for a child service agency, and former foster child, concurred with OACCA.

Lisa Dickson, a former foster child and advocate of foster children, then read off one by one the 22 agencies that have submitted a joint letter in opposition to the notification requirement: Ohio Foster Care Association, Children's Defense Fund-Ohio, Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, Catholic Charities, Bellefaire Jewish Children's Bureau, Public Children Services Association of Ohio, The Ohio Council, Voices for Ohio's Children, Ohio CASA, Ohio Adoption Planning Group, National Alliance on Mental Illness of Ohio, Ohio Grandparent Kinship Coalition, Daybreak, Maryhaven, Overcoming Hurdles in Ohio Youth Advisory Board, Pathway Caring for Children, Ohio Independent Living Association, National Center for Adoption and Law Policy, Northeast Ohio Adoption Services, Adopt America Network, and The Village Network.

Dickson expressed sympathy for the murder committed by a foster child in Grendell's district, which the chair cited in defense of the notification requirement, though the witness suggested it should not be used as a broad brush for all foster children adjudicated delinquent. It prompted a reaction from the chair.

"We have instances of foster children in other counties that have killed their foster parents, but I won't bore you with that tonight," he said.

Executive Director David Singleton of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center offered proponent testimony on other provisions of the bill, specifically, certificates of achievement and employability and the “Foster fix” restoration of judicial presumption in favor of concurrent sentences, which dates back to the 1996 determinate sentencing scheme.

“A key step in significantly reducing the expensive prison-return rate is to remove obstacles to employment for people with criminal records,” he said, calling the certificates “a good first step.” He agreed with Sen. Lehner that the concept should be extended to people with criminal records who are no longer, or never were, in prison.

On concurrent sentences, Singleton agreed with the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association that all elements of the original determinant sentencing scheme must be in play for the system to work as intended. He noted, as have many over the past several years, that the Ohio Supreme Court ruling in State v. Foster (2006) hobbled the use of concurrent sentences in lieu of consecutive sentences.

Yet Singleton said current language is too watered down and will nevertheless result in relatively low-level offenders receiving consecutive sentences.

Sen. Eric Kearney (D-Cincinnati) commended Singleton for making ex-offenders his life's work. "I know your background, and you could have made a million dollars on Wall Street."

Several representatives of Mothers Against Drunk Driving also submitted written testimony opposing OVI provisions of the bill.

The chair followed with several recesses to draft a number of changes to the bill, including the rollback of the delinquent foster child notification requirement to those guilty of violent crimes.

When the committee reconvened the final time, the substitute bill was accepted without objection and then amended with several changes:

- A “technical amendment” which, among other things, specifies that juvenile competency hearings apply to all offenses under R.C. 2152 except juvenile traffic offenses, and provides for the expungement of lower level criminal findings in “reverse bind-over” cases. The amendment was accepted along party lines.

- A “purely technical amendment,” which was accepted without objection.

- An amendment removing transitional control language from the bill, which was accepted without objection.

- An amendment which preserves juvenile court jurisdiction in reverse bind-over cases, and which transfers certain notice requirements from clerks of court to prosecutors. It was accepted without objection.

- An amendment incorporating final, “comprehensive” DRC changes, which included the following, among others: deletes judicial review of certificates of achievement and employability; eliminates the “convoluted” earned credit language of substitute bill, in Grendell’s words, and instead allows DRC to reduce credits for certain institutional infractions; makes GPS monitoring the responsibility of the courts rather than DRC; allows a judge to defer sentencing for fourth- and fifth-degree felonies up to 45 days when no appropriate community sanction is readily available, allowing DRC to assist the court in finding alternatives to incarceration; eliminates the “Coley amendment.”

The 45-day deferral increased the original proposal for 30 days in an amendment to the amendment. Sen. Kearney questioned the entire concept and was joined by Sen. Turner in opposing the deferral language. The full DRC omnibus amendment, however, was accepted without objection.

- A final amendment adopting the change to the foster child notification requirement, which restricts disclosure to the school attended by the child and the highest ranking local law enforcement official, and to children adjudicated for violent crimes. The amendment was accepted along party lines.

Before the final vote, Grendell offered general comments about criminal justice legislation over the past two General Assemblies.

“This is the longest time I have spent on any bill, other than the Great Lakes Compact, during my time in the Legislature,” the chair said, suggesting he and his longtime aide from the Legislative Service Commission would be having nightmares about HB86 for some time.

The bill was then reported out along party lines in a 6-3 vote.

Grendell concluded the hearing by announcing the committee will not meet again before summer recess.

Child welfare advocates express concern regarding Foster Youth Community Notification Provisions

Senate prepares to vote on 'get-out-of-prison-sooner' bill
Measure would shorten inmates' sentences and save Ohio $78 million a year
Johnson, Alan. Columbus Dispatch, June 22, 2011.

Ohio's criminal-sentencing overhaul is growing, with provisions added by an Ohio Senate panel yesterday requiring prisons to justify why they are keeping inmates 65 or older, provide certificates to help former inmates get jobs, and create an instant diversion program for shoplifters.

The Senate Judiciary Criminal Justice Committee voted 6-3 late last night to pass a substitute version of House Bill 86 loaded down with new amendments. The bill will be considered by the full Senate today.

Savings are estimated at $78 million annually on prison costs, by diverting nonviolent offenders to community programs and giving inmates credit that would reduce their sentences for participating in treatment and training. It would provide the option of treatment instead of prison for low-level, nonviolent drug offenders, allow release of inmates who have served at least 80 percent of their sentences, and equalize penalties for crack-cocaine and powder-cocaine possession.

Gov. John Kasich supports the main provisions of the bill, which he called "common-sense improvements that are badly needed."

One change approved last night would require the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to issue a report justifying why prisoners who are 65 should still be kept in prison. The state now houses 320 prisoners 65 or older and nearly 1,900 inmates 60 or older.

Other changes include a provision that would give inmates who have completed certain programs a "certificate of achievement and employability." That would shield potential employers from on-the-job liability if they hire ex-offenders.

Sen. Tim Grendell, R-Chesterland, the committee chairman, said another change would permit a sort of instant diversion program for shoplifters. They would not be arrested, but could arrange a community program with the store in lieu of jail time.

"This ought to help us some and save money in the process," he said.

Another addition didn't sit well with child-welfare advocates. They opposed a provision to notify the area school superintendent and law-enforcement chief when a foster child found delinquent for a violent offense moves into the community. They said the provision is discriminatory and serves no purpose other than labeling children who are already struggling.

"It's unclear what use, if any, law-enforcement agencies would have for the information," said Mark Mecum of the Ohio Association of Child Caring Agencies. "The state has no grounds to treat any children like this - particularly foster children."

Benjamin Kearney, a psychologist with Berea Children's Home and Family Services, said the law doesn't protect privacy or provide consequences when violated.


"You can't stop that kind of gossip once it starts," he said. "Soon enough, foster parents will be asked, 'Why did you bring that felon into the community?'"

Grendell said he introduced the amendment because a foster youth was involved in a homicide in his district several years ago.

"I don't know what could have been done to prevent that," Mahoning County Juvenile Court Judge Theresa Dellick said in testimony on the bill.

A change tucked into the bill by Grendell would prohibit law enforcement from issuing a speeding ticket without using a radar gun, stopwatch or other device unless it is raining, snowing or in other inclement weather. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled last year that an officer could use visual judgment to gauge speed in issuing a ticket.

Dispatch reporter Rita Price contributed to this story.

Shared sacrifice - or not

Budget plan spares rich of the worst: Kasich, GOP defend it, but tax cuts, end of estate tax among provisions favoring wealthy

Vardon, Joe. Columbus Dispatch, June 13, 2011.

Talk of "shared sacrifice" was in the air last week as the Ohio Senate approved the $55.7 billion state budget.

But in a spending plan that whacks schools, local governments, higher education, nursing homes, day care for children of low-income parents, the Ohio Consumers' Counsel, children's hospitals and work-support programs for the poor, one group was notably exempted from the pain.

Ohio's biggest earners.

Republicans who control the legislature filled an $8 billion shortfall without raising state taxes for anybody, an accomplishment many thought unlikely.

But they eliminated the estate tax beginning in 2013, which affects only the top 8 percent of estates. When the Senate restored $85 million in school-funding money, the lion's share went to more-affluent districts.

And the two-year budget incorporated the final portion of state income-tax cuts begun in 2005, with the largest dollar reductions going to those with an annual income above $200,000, who contribute about 25 percent of all income-tax dollars going to the state.

While the percentage cuts are the same for all, the $200,000-plus Ohioans could take home an estimated average of about $950 from that tax cut, while those in the most-common tax bracket - making about $40,000 to $80,000 - get about $80.

"Lawmakers and the governor in Columbus have made it clear they're going to take care of rich people," said Jack Frech, job and family services director in Athens County.

When asked how the rich are being asked to sacrifice in the budget that his chamber would pass a few hours later, Senate President Tom Niehaus searched for an answer last week before citing the state income-tax cuts, which took effect in Strickland's final days.

"There are no specific policies targeting the wealthy, but as taxpayers of the state of Ohio, they suffer along with the rest of us," the New Richmond Republican said. "Some might argue they suffer less, but they still suffer along with the rest of us, whether it's in opportunities that exist, and inability to expand businesses in a tough economic climate."

When House Speaker William G. Batchelder, R-Medina, was asked about the burden on the rich, he gave a long reply that didn't answer the question.

However, Gov. John Kasich did have a response for sparing the rich.

"What we've been doing is driving successful people out of Ohio, which has put Ohio in a ditch," Kasich said. "I don't know why we would want to punish success in Ohio."

Ken Mayland, president of Clearview Economics, an economic-forecasting company in Cleveland, said preserving the income-tax cut and eliminating the estate tax are both "arguably good economic policy."

Mayland said he was "under no illusions that it's easy to cut spending."

Speaking specifically on the estate tax, Mayland said "what's lost in the shuffle is that there are people who will move out of the state because of it."

Zach Schiller, research director at the liberal nonprofit Policy Matters Ohio, released a report last week that favors keeping the estate tax - which is a 6 percent tax on estates worth more than $338,333. The tax is 7 percent on estates worth more than $500,000 and is paid when assets are transferred after someone dies.

Schiller said the tax generated $231 million for local governments and $55million for the state's general fund last year, and he contends that the notion Ohioans leave the state because of that tax is false.

Schiller also told The Dispatch that he is in favor of a rollback of the income tax for Ohio's top earners - a proposal he concedes would be dead on arrival to Kasich's desk.

"Given the scope of the cuts, the slashing of funds to local governments and human services, there is not the kind of sacrifices being asked of the affluent that others in Ohio are going to experience," Schiller said.

Kasich insists that the budget he proposed March 15 was pieced together without political considerations.

When asked what sacrifices he was asking the rich to make, Kasich said "you may be asked to give a little more for your schools," referring to his budget formula - later changed by the Senate - that applied the largest funding cuts to the state's wealthiest schools.

The House and Senate added a combined $165million in operating money to ease school-funding cuts, much of that directed at wealthier, suburban districts.

The Senate also added a $17 per-student bonus for schools rated "excellent" or better, totaling about $28 million over two years. An analysis by education advocacy groups found that two-thirds of that money would go to districts the state classifies as high wealth.

To further illustrate that he has been judicious in fiscal policy, Kasich pointed to grant money he's clawed back from businesses that failed to meet promises to create a certain number of jobs in return for state funds about $1.6 million from 12 companies.

The governor also cited the creation in the budget of a commission to study closing some corporate tax loopholes that cost the state millions of dollars.

Senate Republicans also inserted into the budget a 5 percent pay cut for most lawmakers beginning in 2013 (the rest in 2015). They called that a gesture of "shared sacrifice" to people throughout the state affected by budget cuts.

Frech, the director of Athens County's Department of Job and Family Services, runs programs for the poor in a county with a 33 percent poverty rate. He said he hasn't seen any attempts at true shared sacrifice.

Frech said his department laid off 25 employees two years ago because of dwindling funds, and it may lay off 20 more this year because of the $1.2 million cut in state aid slated for his department.

In Appalachian communities such as his where high-paying jobs are scarce, Frech argues that tax cuts when state budgets are tight do more harm then good.

"They consider themselves to have done a great job because they haven't raised taxes and they didn't cut human services as much as they could have," Frech said. "But they're bad. They're terrible. There are people struggling to survive out there every day."

Congratulations, Representative Ted Celeste

A long-time advocate for children and youth, Representative Ted Celeste is also recognized for his contributions to education. In fact, Representative Ted Celeste crafted Ohio’s policy to allow foster alums that attend Ohio Community Colleges to have a greater value of their OCOG grant (state financial aid) than other students, in recognition that most others are commuters while foster alums must finance their own housing.

On June 10, the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at Ohio State University has named State Rep. Ted Celeste (D-Columbus) the recipient of its "Outstanding Public Service Award" for career contributions to public service. The school cited Celeste as a “stalwart supporter of education and leader throughout his career” and for his leadership in the “effort to create OSU’s Science and Technology Campus which houses space for biotech and biomedical startup companies,” among other accomplishments. (From The Hannah Report)

Gates Foundation Grant Goes to Three Ohio Colleges

Gates Foundation Funds Three Ohio Colleges to Develop Programs to Increase College Completion
Hannah Report, May 25, 2011.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has selected Stark State, Lorain County Community College and Sinclair Community College to participate in its "Completion by Design" project to devise and share new approaches to help low-income students ages 16-26 obtain a degree, certificate or credential. Schools in three other states will also be part of the five-year effort.

The project begins with an initial $500,000 planning grant to be shared by the three schools, which were selected by the Gates Foundation after a rigorous competition announced last October at the White House Summit on Community Colleges.

“This program is important not only in that it focuses on the student completion that our state needs at this time, but also in that it can only be successful with the full engagement and support of Ohioans at many levels,” Stark State President John O’Donnell said in a statement.

“Completion by Design” aims to build on proven, existing practices already underway at these community colleges that focus on areas such as course scheduling, advising and curriculum development.

“We need many to be onboard with this program at many levels: from students, faculty and staff at our respective institutions, to policy leaders in Columbus who will help us develop policies that favor completion, to business leaders who will advise on the skills they need from our completing students,” O’Donnell said.

Nationally, community colleges serve nearly 11 million students, and enrollment has surged as the recession has forced many Americans to return for additional training and education. However, according to recent federal data, just 22 percent of first-time, full-time students in community colleges graduate in three years. For Hispanics and African-Americans, the rates are lower -- 17 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

A report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce forecasts that by 2018, 63 percent of jobs will require at least some post-secondary education. The report also shows that without a dramatic change in course, the labor market will be short three million educated workers over the next eight years.

Collectively, Stark State, Sinclair and Lorain will work over the next 12 months to develop a plan that will outline pathways encouraging more students to complete degrees, certificates and workforce credentials. In addition, the plan will address such aspects as data sharing, best practices, and statewide policy development.

“We believe that today’s students -- particularly low-income students -- need smarter, affordable postsecondary options that lead to high-quality outcomes,” Hilary Pennington, director of education, postsecondary success at the Gates Foundation, said in the release.

Spotlight on Economic Development Grantmaking in Ohio

Direct link to article:  http://pndblog.typepad.com/pndblog/2011/05/spotlight-on-economic-dev-in-ohio.html

May 30, 2011

Spotlight on Economic Development Grantmaking in Ohio: An Update

(This post originally appeared on the Philanthropy Front and Center - Cleveland blog.)
Three years ago, Philanthropy: Front and Center spotlighted key facts about economic development grantmaking in Ohio. Earlier this month, they released an update to the original report (Spotlight on Economic Development Grantmaking in Ohio, 2011) which found that grant dollars for economic development increased from $24.5 million in 2005 to $62 million in 2008, a 152 percent increase. As a share of total giving in Ohio, economic development grants doubled, from 7 percent to 14 percent.


Giving to two major subcategories, employment and training services and urban development, accounted for nearly three-quarters of all giving for economic development in Ohio. A significant increase in giving for employment training and services can be attributed to a major gift of $20 million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to the University of Akron Foundation's Austen BioInnovation Institute; the gift is expected to create 2,100 jobs.



The report also identified the top ten foundations awarding grants in Ohio for economic development as well as the top 10 recipients of economic development.



A special area of the Foundation Center's Web site provides access to the report, free online resources including an interactive map of economic development grants in Ohio, a video highlighting the report's findings (see below), audio and video recordings of local leaders in the field talking about Ohio's funding landscape, and links to other published reports.

To read or download the report (2 pages, PDF), click here.

The report and web page were funded in part by the Cleveland Foundation, the Generation Foundation, the George Gund Foundation, and the Burton D. Morgan Foundation.

Ohio Near Top of Federal Workforce Funding

Ohio Near Top of Federal Workforce Funding
Hannah News Service, May 27, 2011.

129th General Assembly - Ohio ranks near the top of federal workforce assistance in new grants announced by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The agency awarded nearly $15 million Friday to more than 200 public housing authorities across the U.S., including several of Ohio's major urban areas and a number of its regional centers.

Ohio will receive over $707,000 in "self-sufficiency" grants to 11 local housing authorities, surpassed only by Texas ($1.18 million), California ($1.05 million), North Carolina ($1.02 million) and Virginia ($780,000). Trailing the Buckeye State in HUD workforce awards were New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Illinois, Georgia and Michigan, the latter marked for $162,000.

HUD's Public and Indian Housing Family Self-Sufficiency Program seeks to assist residents on public assistance in finding jobs leading to economic independence. The awards allow housing authorities to hire program coordinators that connect residents with local education and training opportunities, job placement organizations, and local employers. By linking housing assistance with other resources, the program seeks to enable families to increase earned income, reduce or eliminate the need for welfare assistance, and make progress toward economic independence and housing self-sufficiency.

"Family self-sufficiency programs have a proven track record of helping families succeed," HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said in a statement. "When families are given the tools they need to join a skilled workforce they move beyond HUD's rental assistance programs to self-sufficiency. This is how Americans will win the future -- individually and collectively."

Public housing residents sign a contract to participate, outlining their responsibilities towards completion of training and employment goals over a five-year period. Families on welfare are asked to pursue independence from federal assistance before the contract expires. Residents may create an escrow account with their increasing income, which they may use for continuing education, major purchases or improved credit scores.

A HUD study issued earlier this year evaluated the effectiveness of the self-sufficiency program. Conducted between 2005- 2009, the report found "substantial financial benefits" for participants completing the program. This study is the second of a three-part evaluation of the program. The first study found participants fared better financially than those who did not enroll in the program. HUD will launch the third and final study of the series this year.

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research will also undertake two other related studies this year. One will determine whether certain family self-sufficiency participants still enrolled when the Prospective Study ended went on to graduate from the program, and whether they met their goals for financial self-sufficiency. The second will test the effectiveness of the program nationwide -- the first national study of the self-sufficiency program as part of HUD's Transformation Initiative, created in 2010 to "encourage more transparency and accountability within the agency."

Following is a complete list of Ohio's family self-sufficiency awards:

• Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority $131,431
• Chillicothe Metropolitan Housing Authority $50,325
• Dayton Metropolitan Housing Authority $65,042
• Fairfield Metropolitan Housing Authority $56,580
• Geauga Metropolitan Housing Authority $63,654
• Lorain Metropolitan Housing Authority $64,782
• Lucas Metropolitan Housing Authority $55,110
• Morgan Metropolitan Housing Authority $49,849
• Springfield Metropolitan Housing Authority $69,000
• Trumbull Metropolitan Housing Authority $50,078
• Zanesville Metropolitan Housing Authority $51,487

Total:  $707,338

The complete list of family self-sufficiency grants by state can be found at the HUD link:
http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=2010PH-FSSPHAlist.pdf

Radio interview with ODJFS Director Michael Colbert

OH Budget Proposal Bridges Gap from Foster Care to Adulthood

Public News Service Ohio, June 7, 2011.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - More than $2 million could help Ohio's foster youth find their way in the "real world," but only if the state Senate budget passes. Lawmakers are proposing the additional funding for programs that assist teens as they transition out of foster care and learn to live as independent adults.

Wright State University student Adrian McLemore says foster youth often walk alone on the rough road from their teen years to young adulthood - and he knows, because he aged out of the system in 2004.

"The system kind of says, 'All right, here's your bags, good luck in life,' without any really clear direction as to where they go from there, whether we're preparing them to go to college or go to a vocational or technical school, or just asking them to function as a productive citizen."

McLemore says funding for foster youth needs to be flexible, because their individual situations vary.

"Everyone has different needs and different responsibilities. Some people who come out of foster care have maybe further developed on down the road, and so we may not need to allocate as much services towards them. And then, we have young people who may need a lot of resources. "

The director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Michael Colbert, has met with many of Ohio's foster youth, and says he is impressed with their resilience. He adds that it's crucial to prioritize support for their future success.

"These are very good young people. They've had some tough times and, by giving them a small bridge to help them better themselves in life, we are making Ohio as a whole better, and this goes a long way for such a little investment."

Colbert points out that today's foster teens are Ohio's future citizens and leaders, and that by supporting them now, they won't need other types of support in the future.

"What you don't want is young people to leave our system and come back, right back in another system. You want them to leave our system and go on to become productive citizens in life."

The money in the Senate budget proposal would provide resources and support to help improve outcomes for these adolescents, such as job training, housing assistance and basic life skills. Each year in Ohio, more than 1,000 teens age out of foster care when they turn 18.

The Senate could vote on the budget as early as next week.

Teen jobless rate 23% in April

Teen jobless rate 23% in April

The rate for youth between the ages of 16-19 is nearly three times the 9% national average.

Tucker, Randy. Dayton Daily News, May 16, 2011.

DAYTON — Abbie Ballentine is among the dwindling number of Ohio teens and young adults expected to have jobs this summer.

The 18-year-old Springfield resident recently started working in the dairy store at Young’s Jersey Dairy near Yellow Springs.

“I have a girlfriend my age who’s been looking for a job for almost a year, and no one will call her back,” said Ballentine, a Northwestern High School graduate who said family connections helped her get hired at Young’s.

“I work about 20 hours (a week) now, and I’m looking for a second job. Not many people are hiring.”

That’s no surprise considering the unemployment rate for youth ages 16-19 was 23 percent in April — nearly three times the 9 percent national unemployment rate, according to the most recent Department of Labor figures.

Minority youth have been disproportionately affected, with the unemployment rate for black teens, for example, at 37.5 percent last month. But the trend has encompassed all major demographic groups, and most economic indicators point to another disappointing summer this year.

“This has been going on for quite some time, and there’s really no reason to think it’s going to get better this summer,” said William Even, a Miami University professor who co-authored a recent study on the impact of rising wages on youth employment for the nonprofit Employment Policies Institute in Washington, D.C., a conservative think tank.

Even noted the percentage of young people ages 16-24 who are employed in the summer has been declining since 2000. The Great Recession helped push summer unemployment for that group to 19.1 percent last July — the highest July rate since the government began tracking such data 1948.

Even said one reason for the decline in summer youth hiring is rising labor costs. He said business owners fear they can’t afford to hire more workers or are reluctant to assume the cost of new hires in a sputtering economy.

The government has raised the federal minimum wage by a little more than $2 during the past five years to $7.25 an hour. The amount is higher in many states, including Ohio, where it’s $7.40 an hour.

But even government agencies that subsidize wages for low-income youth have found a tight job market for the kids in their programs, said Rocky Rockhold, supervisor of special projects and youth activities at the Montgomery County Department of Job and Family Services.

“Companies have laid off and let go so many workers that they can’t provide quality supervision for a young person,” Rockhold said. “Even though we pay their wages, companies have expressed to us on more than one occasion that they’d love to bring on one of our youth, but they don’t have the resources to train or supervise them.”

In addition to the cost of labor, high unemployment has forced young people to compete with older workers for jobs historically held by teens and young adults.

“It’s true, the average age of our applicants has grown a little bit over the years as more middle-aged and older workers have applied,” said Joe Woods, regional marketing manager for McDonald’s. “But we’ve turned that into a benefit for our customers by having folks with broader skill sets; folks who are problem-solvers and have good customer-service skills.”

That might be good for customers, but it’s bad news for young job seekers with little or no work experience, said Matt Mayer, president of the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions in Columbus.

Mayer believes youth unemployment should be considered a serious public policy issue with long-term consequences that could lead to a further drag on the economy.

He said young people need practical work experience to set them up for future success as contributing members of society.

“We’re not allowing kids in the long-term to pick up the skills and experience that help them figure out how to work,” Mayer said.

“I had a paper route when I was 12, then worked at pizza place and a Dairy Queen and a grocery store, and I matriculated up the system, learning jobs skills in the process. It’s much harder for kids to get those kinds of opportunities now,” he said.

Cieria Rodriguez-Toney, 2011 FosterClub Outstanding Young Leader

Congratulations to Cieria Rodriguez-Toney for being chosen by FosterClub 

to be recognized as a 2011 Outstanding Young Leader.

Prior to being elected as the Ohio YAB's first female President, Cieria served as Vice President for two years.

Cieria has participated in youth panels for several organizations, including Capital Law School's National Center for Adoption Law and Policy and the 2011 Northeast Ohio Independent Living Summit. She was invited by the Ohio Supreme Court to present during a 2010 Judicial Teleconference on Youth Voice in Court.

 Throughout the state, Cieria continues to support the efforts of county youth advisory boards, including:

• Co-presenting a workshop for Lorain County foster youth on how to build and maintain foster care youth/alumni communities
• Co-presenting a workshop for Stark County youth on navigating relationships with biological parents

During her time in foster care, Cieria felt disconnected from her Hispanic heritage. As a young adult, Cieria is currently advocating for opportunities for Ohio foster care youth to reconnect with their culture during their time in foster care. Particularly, she would like to see the Columbus International Festival offer a youth track, at cost to the public but free of charge to foster youth.

Because of her passion to make a difference, Cieria recently helped facilitate the 2011 Hispanic Leadership Conference.

Cieria is an articulate advocate, skilled at diplomacy and very reliable. She exemplifies the type of vision  and determination that young people need to succeed. And... she is also a wonderful mother:

2011 FosterClub AllStar Dauntea Sledge

Dauntea Sledge is a former Franklin County foster youth who currently serves as President of the Franklin County Youth Advisory Board, and Media Spokesperson of the Ohio Youth Advisory Board. He is an active member of the Ohio chapter of Foster Care Alumni of America.

Dauntea's volunteer experience includes the following:

• Bridges Out of Poverty Steering Committee
• Youth Violence Prevention Board
• Franklin County Citizen Corps Counsel
• Salesian Boys and Girls Club
• Americorps VISTA 

After attending the Bridges Out of Poverty and Getting Ahead programs as a participant, Dauntea now assists facilitators in leading workshops that support the Bridges Out of Poverty Initiative.

During his time with the Salesians Boys and Girls Club, Dauntea was the runner-up for "Youth of the Year" and received the "Turned Around Teen of the Year" award.

Dauntea spent a year volunteering for Americorps Vista, working for Community Properties of Ohio, working with people in poverty and broken homes.

Recent activities that Dauntea has been involved in include:

• Participating in an FCAA/FosterClub Focus Group to investigate launching an Americorps pilot targeted specifically for foster care youth
• Presenting as part of a Youth Panel during the 2010 Ohio CASA Conference
• Co-presenting workshops for youth during the 2010 Northeast Ohio Independent Living Summit
• Sharing the importance of "Youth Voice In Court" during a 2010 Judicial Teleconference hosted by the Ohio Supreme Court

After presenting during the 2010 Judicial Teleconference on Youth Voice in Court, Dauntea was asked to write an article for Common Ground, a publication of the Ohio Supreme Court that goes out to each of Ohio's 88 judicial districts. The decision was made that, from now on, there will be a Youth Corner in the Common Ground Publication.

During his time in foster care, Dauntea was able to stay in touch with his younger brother Antonio, in order to support and encourage him, and make sure he is aware of resources to assist in navigating both foster care and young adulthood.

Dauntea and Antonio currently volunteer to co-facilitate monthly activities for Village Network Columbus in order to help to prepare foster youth for adulthood, and encourage them to support one another as peers.

Additional investments that Dauntea makes with his time include:

• Supporting the goals of National Center for Adoption Law and Policy to starting a free legal clinic for current and former foster youth
• Supporting ODJFS in improving the quality of caseworker visits
• Supporting Ohio CASA in their desire to include the voices of current and former foster youth on Citizen Review Panels.
• Being a wonderful father to his two children: 

Proposed Local Government Fund Reduced By Half

Ohio's pact to support local governments has a 76-year history

Marshall, Aaron. Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 27, 2011. 

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gov. John Kasich's state budget proposal swings the wrecking ball at the state's Local Government Fund, blowing open an unprecedented hole in a funding stream handed down to locals for generations.

Some local officials say that by doing so, the Republican governor also demolishes a 76-year-old pact between the state and local governments forged when state lawmakers first passed a sales tax in 1934.

Blow the dust off Ohio history books and it becomes evident that the state sales tax, which took effect in 1935, was begun as a way to help counties provide services to the poor, help communities provide essential services to their residents and help pay for local schools.

"I shall now approve the sales tax with the knowledge that, by doing so, our schools and local governments will be saved from bankruptcy and chaos in the year 1935," said Democratic Gov. George White in a Plain Dealer article on Dec. 13, 1934, after lawmakers had agreed to the state's first sales tax of 3 percent following a raging two-year debate.

"I know now that the poor will be fed and clothed and our children given the opportunity of a free education which is the birthright of every American school child and that the safety and health of our people will be

Fast-forward 76 years and the Local Government Fund, first created by siphoning off 40 percent of the sales tax, is being decimated by Kasich's budget proposal, which chops 25 percent from the fund in 2012 followed by 50 percent in 2013 when compared to 2011 funding levels. The penny-pinching pushdown has local government officials wondering whether the 1935 promise has suddenly been stamped with a 2011 expiration date.

"This has been a program since the 1930s -- it's not like this is one-time money or even a two-time windfall program," said Ohio Municipal League executive director Susan Cave. "Clearly, local governments have become reliant on it over the years. I think everybody anticipated that there would be cuts, but the magnitude is what has been a surprise."

Setting the stage for the 1935 sales tax enactment was a successful 1933 amendment to the state constitution pushed by Ohio's real estate agents. The amendment sliced one-third of property tax revenues from the rolls for schools and local governments.

"Local governments were obviously struggling and the state was recognizing that local governments were struggling," said Brad Cole, director of research for the County Commissioners Association of Ohio. "It was obvious the one-third reduction in property taxes was going to be a huge problem, so they thought giving them a portion of this sales tax was the way to go."

Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said the promises made long ago weren't necessarily relevant as the governor sized up how to fill an $8 billion shortfall.

"I don't think there is any way you can compare 2011 with 1935. I think many people have broken that promise over the last 70 or 80 years," Nichols said. "We recognize that we are working within an $8 billion budget hole, and there is less money to go around, making it increasingly important that local governments embrace the reforms and tools we give them to cut costs."

The Local Government Fund may have started as 40 percent of the state sales tax in 1935, but over the years the pots of money flowing into the current $640 million annual fund have been diversified. This year, the Local Government Fund amounted to a 3.68 percent share of all of Ohio's major tax revenues.

Cole said while the cuts to the Local Government Fund are deep, they are also coupled with the Kasich administration's moves to snatch reimbursements local governments had received from the state because of tax code changes made in previous years.

"On a number of fronts, you have revenue being redirected to the state from the local governments that is far more than we have ever seen before," Cole said.

The plea from the Cole's group: Make sure our pain is proportional, perhaps in line with the 17 percent shrinkage in the state's budget that $8 billion in general revenue fund cuts would represent.

"There are certain priorities we had to protect, and those were programs that serve Ohio's neediest citizens," said Kasich spokesman Nichols. "For local governments, the budget document gives them the ability to rein in their costs and find ways they can cope with the holes in their budgets."

Nichols cited the controversial changes to the state's collective bargaining law included in Senate Bill 5 as well as the increased use of shared services and health insurance pooling for local communities included in Kasich's proposal.

While communities agree the changes will help cut costs, they are skeptical it will be enough to fill the gaping budget hole delivered by Team Kasich.

"If every one of those things were enacted it would help, but it wouldn't fill the gap," said the Municipal League's Cave. "And these things are all prospective...the relief that is being talked about is going to take a while to get here."

Rep. Ron Amstutz, a Wooster Republican who heads the House's Finance Committee where Kasich's budget proposal is undergoing hearings, said it's too soon to tell if local governments will take too big of a hit in the overall scheme of things.

"We have a lot scarcer set of resources than is typically the case, so there are going to be some real limitations on what we can do to be resolving the issues brought to us," Amstutz said. "But listening and understanding what kind of problems might be coming if we don't make adjustments, and deciding what we do while staying within the boundaries of our resources is the charge I know we have."

Many thanks to Capital Law School for reinstating AdoptUs Kids

Adoption Photos: Foster kids hope to click with families using website

Price, Rita. Columbus Dispatch, Feb. 28, 2011.

Hand on one hip and smiling big, the 12-year-old clearly gave the camera her best. An accompanying profile says she likes reading, country music and science, and she thinks that living on a horse farm would be a dream come true.

But like all the other children on this website, the bespectacled blonde also has a simpler wish - to belong to a loving family.

Her story and dozens more are again available to prospective parents online through the reconstituted Ohio Adoption Photolisting website.

The state dismantled the popular site more than a year ago because of budget cuts, but it's back, at least until the end of this year, through an agreement with the National Center for Adoption Law and Policy at Capital University.

The center had tried to secure private funding to revive the site, executive director Denise St. Clair said. When that failed, officials worked out a deal for the state to pay the center a little less than $2,000 a month in state and federal money to operate the listing.

Child-welfare advocates say it's great news.

"We're absolutely ecstatic," said Greg Kapcar of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio. "It provides important opportunities."

The site doesn't showcase private or international adoption; the children listed are in foster care and available for adoption through Ohio's county children services agencies. Last names and foster-home locations remain confidential.

Unlike the old site, which mandated county participation when it was managed by the state, listing is voluntary. St.Clair said advocates hope that will help make the information more fluid, creative and up-to-date. They want caseworkers and kids to be in charge of the content, tweaking as necessary and keeping it upbeat and free of anything that could cause embarrassment. "We encourage the counties to engage the kids in writing their own profiles," St. Clair said.

Advocates say Web presences are crucial in the world of adoption. People want pictures and information on their own time, not necessarily by agency appointment. Some states are making their listings of adoptable kids increasingly elaborate, with video, voices and even music.

St. Clair said she knows that some think of the approach as kid-shopping, but she takes a different view.

"I can understand that point to a certain extent," she said. "But I'm looking at it from the other side - these kids need and want families."

The profile for a smiling, gap-toothed boy says he needs a family willing to offer patience and love. He's only 7, but he has already had a lifetime of disappointment.

VISION in Dayton leads to campus housing

Kudos to the VISION Youth Advisory Board for their advocacy efforts to provide campus housing during breaks for former foster youth attending Wright State University!!

Quote from Adrian McLemore, posted on Wright State's website 

and featured in Sunday Dayton Daily News today:

"When I aged out of the foster system, I moved straight to Wright State. Being a former foster child, I had nowhere to go during breaks. See, we're not allowed to go back to where we were. Dan Bertsos and others at Wright State helped me to be sure I always had someplace to stay. They saw things in me that I couldn't see. I've learned a lot about myself and have become a leader, helping other foster kids find their way to college and to break the cycle of foster care."

—Adrian McLemore, Political Science major

Filling the $8 billion hole in Ohio's budget won't be easy

Tax or ax? To balance Ohio's budget, lawmakers basically have just two unpopular choices
Siegel, Jim and Darrel Rowland. Columbus Dispatch, Jan. 2, 2011.

- $8,000,000,000.

We're not used to seeing Ohio's probable state budget shortfall for the next two years written out that way, with all the zeros.

Perhaps it somehow better conveys the enormity of the task facing the administration of incoming Gov. John Kasich and the state legislature, which will be controlled by Kasich's fellow Republicans.

Maybe Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor could help solve the problem. He sold his 2008 Big Ten championship ring, 2009 Fiesta Bowl sportsmanship award and 2008 gold pants trinket for beating Michigan and now must repay $2,500.

'Course, he'd have to repeat his deeds 3.2 million times to come up with the necessary cash.

OK, let's think bigger: Put a super-surcharge on fans attending next season's revenge game against Wisconsin of, say, a mere $75,000 apiece.

Still wouldn't be enough.

All right, let's talk about more realistic options - although realistic may be in the eye of the beholder.

Firing every state employee would get you more than half of the way there, but not much more. About 85 percent of state general revenue funds (money from state taxes and some matching federal dollars) are passed through to local boards, agencies and governmental entities. That means major cuts to "state" government actually wind up reducing funding to schools, cities, universities, counties and townships, most of which have their own fiscal woes.

Raising the state sales tax from 5.5 cents on the dollar to 8 cents, a 45 percent jump, would bring in about $6.5 billion. Wiping out the 2005 income-tax cut (21 percent), could mean about $4.3 billion. Majority Republicans likely would argue that either option would devastate the state.

Ohio charges many dozens of fees for various licenses and services, and nearly all of them could be raised to some degree. Ohio also gives away more than $7 billion in tax exemptions, credits and deductions that could be eliminated or reduced.

But Kasich and a number of Republican lawmakers have signed a national no-tax pledge that covers not only taxes, but also fees. Under the pledge, some could be raised, but others must be lowered so there is no net increase. However, some veteran legislative Republicans are quietly questioning whether the budget can really balance without more revenue, and there seems to be a growing expectation that Kasich will violate the no-new-fees portion of the pledge.

There are other ways to pick up more money. Selling state buildings could provide a quick cash infusion, but would cost Ohio more in the future for lease payments. Selling the Ohio Turnpike could also mean major up-front cash, but doing so could also have ramifications and would be difficult to pass over objections from a host of lawmakers from both parties across northern Ohio.

In mid-March, Kasich and his team may unveil some truly unique ways to balance the 2012-13 budget, including perhaps combining and privatizing state functions.

So what is the $8 billion shortfall anyway? Simply put, it is roughly the amount the state is lacking if it wants to continue to providing the same services it provides today for the next two years, starting July 1.

No one can pinpoint the exact budget shortfall because there are too many unknown factors, including the estimated tax-revenue growth, some future costs, whether Congress plans to help again, and just what state leaders want government to look like when they're done. But most experts agree $8 billion is a good place to start the conversation, and some say it's more like $10 billion when such factors as the state's debt on unemployment compensation is included.

The current two-year budget is balanced with about $8.7 billion in one-time money that is not expected to be available again. More than $5 billion is from the federal stimulus package that, depending on one's perspective, either saved Ohio and most other states from potentially devastating cuts, or simply put off tough decisions for two years.

Despite what you may have heard during the campaign this fall, there is no way state leaders can save billions simply by "trimming fat" or "enacting efficiencies" that won't be noticed. Experts will tell you that most of the low- and even medium-hanging fruit has already been harvested to balance the current budget, which suffered from an unprecedented drop in tax revenue.

Rather, state leaders will soon learn a political truism: Talking about cutting the budget is easier than actually cutting it. Perhaps that is why nearly every prior state budget crisis was at least partially fixed with tax increases, regardless of which party was in charge.

So you want to cut? Eliminating all tax funding for a dozen state agencies - including the departments of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, Development, Veterans Services and Youth Services (juvenile prisons) - saves about $3.4 billion, less than half the shortfall.

Republicans have talked about significantly reducing the number of state agencies, which might save money long term. But significant savings in the first two years are far less likely.

Cutting Medicaid, which makes up about 40 percent of the state general revenue fund, is ugly because it eliminates about $2 in federal money for every $1 in state cuts. In addition to hitting Ohio's poorest and most fragile citizens, cuts also can hurt hospitals, doctors, nursing homes and others in the health-care industry.

Deep cuts to grades K-12 education would force further reductions in teachers and programs and likely send property taxes upward, leaving Ohio's overall tax burden worse.

Major cuts to universities could trigger huge tuition increases, which could be considered tax increases on the middle class.

Ohio's prisons are already overcrowded, and while there have been recent proposals to move nonviolent prisoners to community programs, the short-term savings are about $50 million over two years. And some lawmakers are nervous about constituents' reactions to freeing criminals.

Ohio sends more than $1 billion a year directly to local governments and libraries, making it a tempting cut. But libraries have an amazing ability to organize their patrons to fight cuts. For cities and villages, most of that state money pays for police and fire protection.

While groups including Greater Ohio and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce have recently recommended major changes to the state's 19 {+t}{+h} century system of local governments, even if local officials pledge to consolidate and become more efficient, such moves take time to see big savings.

And finally, the state pays 12.5 percent of every local property tax levy approved by voters. This is a huge, growing expense for the state ($1.7 billion a year). But while most homeowners are likely unaware that the state is picking up one-eighth of their property tax bill, they are sure to notice if the state stops doing it.

Try it yourself
The Dispatch has created an interactive online exercise that lets readers attempt to balance Ohio's next budget. Users can make any or all of 34 policy choices, then see the results.

Try your hand at balancing the state budget

Interesting point-of-view about Ohio's budget challenges

Thomas Suddes commentary: Here's what's in store at the Statehouse for 2011
Suddes, Thomas. Columbus Dispatch, January 2, 2011.

Ohio's Republican-run General Assembly will aim in 2011 to:

• Write a state budget without raising taxes.

• Make Ohio congressional districts even more GOP-friendly.

• Tilt in management's favor Ohio's 1983 union-bargaining law for public employees.

Gov.-elect John Kasich and his fellow Republicans may be positioned to meet their policy goals - if the GOP doesn't splinter. In 2011, the GOP will run Ohio's House and Senate, will hold every statewide elected executive office and will have a 6-1 Ohio Supreme Court majority. And for the first time since Robert A. "Mr. Republican" Taft was briefly speaker in the 1920s, running Ohio's House will be an iconic GOP conservative: William G. Batchelder of Medina.

The state budget debate, which will get rolling in March, will be a huge GOP test. Democrats left Kasich with a hole $8 billion deep. To fill that pit without raising taxes or making Medicaid a take-two-aspirin, call-us-tomorrow program would be a bookkeeping miracle.

The Apportionment Board (Kasich; Republican Auditor-elect David Yost; Republican Secretary of State-elect Jon Husted) will redraw the legislature's districts. The legislature itself will redraw U.S. House districts; Ohio has 18 congressional districts now but will lose two because Sun Belt states are growing. Ohio isn't.

Because of Ohio Democrats' November losses, Ohio's U.S. House delegation has 13 Republicans, five Democrats. All five Democrats are from the Cleveland-Akron-Youngstown triangle or a Toledo-Vermilion corridor along Lake Erie. Anywhere south of that corridor or, further east, roughly south of U.S. 224, is a GOP preserve. So if you're Democratic U.S. Reps. Marcy Kaptur, Dennis Kucinich, Tim Ryan and Betty Sutton, GOP bull's-eyes are on your back. The fifth U.S. House Democrat is Rep. Marcia Fudge of Cleveland, who is African-American. The Voting Rights Act will likely shield her district from GOP stunts.

As to collective-bargaining, tauter management of public employees by Ohio Republicans isn't, or shouldn't be, the same as public-employee bashing. But it would be remarkable if Ohio Republicans make that distinction, given the national GOP's vicious propaganda war on public employees.

Before elections, Ohio Republicans compete for police-union and firefighter-union endorsements and woo "Reagan Democrats" in unionized building trades. But after the vote, some politicos harrumph that binding arbitration (for cops and firefighters) and paying prevailing wage (on public construction projects) might cost too much. Amazing, isn't it, how stepping off a soapbox and into the Statehouse can void someone's vows?

Politics aside, the Statehouse also will offer some pageantry in 2011, the 150th anniversary of the capitol's completion. The Capitol Square board, which oversees the Statehouse, plans commemorative events throughout 2011.

Thanks to a needed restoration in the 1990s, the Statehouse appears much as it did in 1861. That's when future President James A. Garfield was a Republican state senator from greater Cleveland and future U.S. Supreme Court Justice William B. Woods was an Ohio House Democrat from Licking County.

Among this year's 132 Ohio legislators, there may or may not be men and women with prospects as good as Garfield's and Woods' proved to be. But Garfield, "elected on a pledge to pare expenses," according to his biographer, Cleveland State historian Allan Peskin, thought "his colleagues ... obsessed with 'a crazy crusade in favor of retrenchment.' " Woods, a veteran Democrat who only later became a Republican, nudged Ohio into financially helping Abraham Lincoln's GOP administration fight the Civil War, according to the late Louis Filler, an Antioch scholar.

That is, as General Assembly members, future President Garfield and future Justice Woods let themselves have second thoughts - something Ohio's lock-step partisans need to try.

Ohio's least productive two-year session in decades?

Ohio lawmakers set record for legislative inaction

Cincinnati.com, Dec. 26, 2010. 

 The just concluded two-year session of the Ohio Legislature has set a modern record for legislative inaction.

One explanation may be the state's first experience with politically divided chambers since enacting term limits 10 years ago and reducing lawmakers' political experience.

The Columbus Dispatch reported Sunday that only 58 bills became law during the 128th General Assembly, compared to an average of 247 bills during the previous 20 years.

House lawmakers met only 52 times and Senate lawmakers only 58 times, compared to an average of about 83 times every session in previous years.

Sen. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican, said it was the least productive two-year session he's seen in his decade in Columbus.

What's the future for Medicaid in Ohio?

According to a 2010 report from the Buckeye Institute, Crushing Weight: National Health Care Law Threatens to Make Medicaid an Unsustainable Burden for Ohioans:

• National spending on Medicaid, America's largest health insurance program, has grown nearly 500 percent over the past two decades.

• Medicaid now represents one-quarter of Ohio state spending -- $14 billion annually -- which more than doubles its share over the past two decades.

•  A typical household of four in Ohio pays approximately $2,000 annually to finance the state Medicaid program. 

•  In many states, including Ohio, Medicaid pays providers a much lower amount compared to Medicare and commercial insurance rates. This causes many providers to refuse Medicaid patients, and leads to an unacceptably low quality of care for many beneficiaries and an overuse of emergency rooms.

• Medicaid is one of the last places states look to cut during economic recessions because each dollar a state cuts results in a loss of federal funds.

• The Heritage Foundation estimated that nearly 565,000 additional Ohioans will be enrolled in Medicaid at a seven-year (2014–2020) additional cost to the state of nearly $1 billion because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“ObamaCare”).

• The expansion to everyone below 138 percent of the federal poverty level will add about 20 million Americans and over half a million Ohioans into Medicaid.

• States will pick up a small portion of the cost of the expansion population, but they will have to pickup their usual portion of the cost for individuals who are eligible under the previous state eligibility guidelines.

• States are required to raise primary rate physician reimbursement rates in 2013 and 2014 with federal funding, but states will no longer receive these federal funds beginning in 2015.