Citywire
By David Lewis & Errin Norris |
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Issue 1 is a proposed constitutional amendment that would allot a maximum of $200 million in state-issued bonds to compensate Ohio veterans of the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq conflicts. These benefits would be limited to veterans who served active duty, and were, at the start and finish of their service in these conflicts, Ohio residents. The amendment would entitle these veterans to stipends of $100 a month, to a maximum of $1,000. Furthermore, Ohio veterans who served elsewhere during these conflicts will receive stipends of $50 a month, with a limit of $500. Any person who has been honorably discharged, or remains in a reserve component of any military branch, may qualify for these benefits. Additionally, immediate family members of deceased soldiers who meet these conditions would be eligible to receive a $5,000 death compensation. If this amendment goes into effect, the benefits it allows will be available until December 2013.
Editor's Take: While I hate to see the state incur further debt with these bonds, I would have a hard time voting "no" on anything that helps take care of Ohio's veterans. I vote yes.
Issue 2 is a proposed constitutional amendment that would establish an Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board. This board would be responsible for regulating livestock care and establishing standards that would "endeavor to maintain food safety, encourage locally grown and raised food, and protect Ohio farms and families, according to Ohio's Secretary of State). The 13 appointed members of this board would be authorized to enforce guidelines regarding every aspect of livestock care, such as diet and sanitary conditions, and to document animal mortality and morbidity rates, as well as other statistics that could be used to enforce safe and humane livestock conditions. All decisions made by this board would be subject to review by the Ohio General Assembly.
Editor's Take: Absolutely. Agriculture is a critical part of Ohio's economy and cultural heritage, but setting progressive industry standards for the treatment of our livestock would be an excellent priority.
Issue 3 is a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow for one casino each in Cincinnati, Columbus, Toledo, and Cleveland. This amendment would also allow a tax on these casinos that would be distributed among all Ohio counties. A fixed tax of 33% of all gross casino revenue would go to the state, 51 percent of would be distributed to each of 88 Ohio counties, 34 percent of which would be divvied up between Ohio school districts, and 5 percent to each of the four host cities. The rest of the tax money would go to such programs as creating a gaming commission and funding treatment for gambling addiction, and bolstering the states horseracing industry.
Casinos would be allowed to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and although they would be subject to health and building codes, their establishment would override any zoning, land use regulation laws.
Editor's Take: Vote yes. With the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Gov. Ted Strickland's executive order authorizing slot machines, the plan would provide the state money it desperately needs, although it circumvents the general fund, and, thus, the state's budget. TruthPac, the main opposition group, is largely funded by the horseracing industry, which wants to minimize competition for the slots they thought they were going to get, but installing state-run slots at semi-rural horseracing tracks not only minimizes long-term income from employee income tax, it involves minimal infrastructure improvement and pays into the same lottery fund that has been embarrassed by the failure of the keno program. I think the government should shy away from running gambling operations...they aren't that good at it.
New technology has endowed the Columbus police department with the ability to scan license plates as easily as driving down the street. The device, known as a "mobile plate scanner" or "automatic license plate reader," minimizes the effort required to identify vehicles of interest by operating automatically. Mounted inside of a police cruiser, the scanner uses optical character recognition to run license plate numbers through a database and find any violations attached to the vehicle's registration. This allows the police to scan literally thousands of plates per day, resulting in the towing and impound of any vehicle with associated back taxes, parking tickets, or other unpaid violations, moving or otherwise. The speed and automatic nature of the device has raised eyebrows at the ACLU, whose representatives fear that it affords police an unprecedented ability to obtain personal information. The Columbus police department maintains that the technology is being utilized by the auto theft division to identify stolen vehicles, and that is has so far been enormously successful in recovering property. The plate scanners were funded by over $1 million appropriated from the Law Enforcement Contraband/Seizure Fund, revenue generated from seized and forfeited property.
Editor's Take: Assistant editor Abigail Hartung had her car towed and impounded from a full parking meter in the Short North during lunch hour for having unpaid parking tickets. I have heard of this happening to lots of people recently, and it's obnoxious. The only section of last year's revenue budget that was projected to increase was money generated from fines and fees. During an economic downturn, towing and holding working people's vehicles only hurts the community. You guys used to wait until we got our birthday money to collect on parking, Sheriff of Nottingham; what gives? We just passed your damned tax increase, didn't we?
Originally Published: October 1, 2009
