Friday, July 31st, 2009
On August 4, voters will decide whether to permanently increase the city’s income tax by 25%—from 2% to 2.5%.
WOSU News Director Mike Thompson moderates this debate between Columbus City Council Member Andrew Ginther, who represents supporters of the income tax increase, and Columbus attorney Bill Todd, who argues against it.
Tuesday was a big day for the city of Columbus and its Division of Police. How big? $12.7 million dollars big. As part of the stimulus package the federal government Tuesday handed out $1 billion in policing grants. Columbus will receive $12.7 million to hire 50 police officers. The federal money will be enough to pay the officers’ salaries and benefits for three years. The city promises to pay the officers for a fourth year.
This is a huge deal. The federal government will write a check to pay for what amounts to two new police classes and pay their salaries for three years. But surprisingly there were no local press conferences , no press releases from local officials touting the windfall. Not a one. When we asked we were told Mayor Coleman was not available for an interview.
Huh?
The problem is city of Columbus leaders have their eyes on a bigger windfall - next week’s $100 million income tax vote. Word of the federal money might prompt voters to ask, “If the feds are giving us this money, why do we need to raise taxes to prevent police layoffs?” Politically, the grant was a white puffy cloud with a lead lining.
We and other reporters did ask the above question. Columbus Public Safety Director Mitchell Brown points out the money will run out in three years but he says the city’s revenue problem is permanent. The income tax increase, he says, is the permanent solution to maintaining the city’s police and fire divisions.
It’s a very good argument, so why not make it in a press release? WOSU receives close to 200 press releases a day - many of them from local officials. The mayor’s office sends out at least once a week, same for Columbus City Council. Here’s part of one we received from City Council Wednesday, the day after the grant announcement:
Columbus City Councilmember Andrew J. Ginther and Columbus City Attorney, Richard C. Pfeiffer, Jr. have launched the City’s annual liquor permit renewal objection process.
If the city’s annual liquor permit renewal objection process is worth a press release, wouldn’t saving 50 police officers jobs warrant a similar announcement?
Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy likes press releases. The Columbus Democrat sends out about one a week. But when the heart of her district wins federal money to hire 4 dozen cops, nothing. Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown issued one press release on Tuesday - “Praising New Federal Funds for Piketon.” But no release praising the $79 million Ohio law enforcement agencies will receive.
Why the sudden humility? Recall they were all there in January when President Obama awarded stimulus money to save a Columbus police recruit class.
(It should be noted that Republicans Rep. Pat Tiberi and Sen. George Voinovich also did not issue press releases praising the police money. Of course by doing so, they’d have to praise the Democratic President).
It’s called managing the message. But the media managed quite well without the local press releases. We led with it during many of our newscasts. The Dispatch put it on the front page, upper right, above the fold. The local TV stations were all over it.
All without a press release.
The long process of finding a new host for WOSU’s radio talk show has ended with a walk-off home run.
Ann Fisher, long-time writer for The Columbus Dispatch, will take over hosting our late morning talk show in early September. We could not be more excited to have Ann join WOSU. She is the ideal person to move the show forward. WOSU listeners surely will embrace her depth, intelligence, journalistic instincts, energy and passion for Central Ohio, its people and issues.
Thus ends the difficult search process. “Difficult” does not come close to describing the task we faced trying to choose between several extremely talented candidates.
Here’s an inside look at the process. We had 171 applicants which we narrowed down to 7 semi-finalists. As I and members of our search committee interviewed them, we asked them to interview one of us as if he/she was doing a radio interview. This was our first hint of how the candidates would sound on the air. No lie, the short interviews showed that just about every semi-finalist could have done the job well. (We also know more about WOSU Content Czar Brent Davis than we really need to.) Then we had to narrow the field to three finalists.
The three finalists met with our search committee and other members of the WOSU staff. We asked them about their vision for the show, what guests would they book, what topics would the pick, if they were a tree, what kind of tree would they be. You name it, we asked it.
We then asked them to host a one-hour mock talk show with an in-studio guest. This we felt was the best way to test how they would sound on the air. We decided against having the candidates “try-out” live on the radio as some other stations have done. That would not have worked for several reasons. It’s not really a good programming strategy. Listeners like consistency and having a “host-of-the-day” would be disruptive. Secondly, most of the candidates had other jobs. Try explaining to your boss that you need a day off for personal reasons and then have her/him hear you on the radio.
After all these interviews, tests, and very thoughtful discussions, it became clear that Ann was the best choice to build upon the foundation laid by Fred What’s-His-Name.
The show will be different than Mr. Andrle’s program. (Note the above absence of the words “Open Line”). It will be a little more newsy, a little more nimble in reacting to the news of the day and the week. Ann will bring a different sound and perspective to the airwaves. She will make it her own. But the fairness, balance and civility will remain.
Stay tuned.
- Mike Thompson
Ohio’s state tourism budget is getting a $4.7 million boost, days after the new state budget cut dedicated funding by more than 90 percent from last year.
The money will come from funds that have been allocated, as in past years, for Ohio Department of Development marketing initiatives, said Amir Eylon, state tourism director. The source of that line item, which totals $8.4 million for fiscal 2010, is unclaimed funds.
The move will bring the state tourism budget for fiscal 2010, which started July 1, to $5.1 million, including the $400,000 that was allocated in the new budget. That’s still a one-third reduction from last year’s budget, but Eylon said it will allow the division to “continue to deliver core services uninterrupted” while working to establish a new public/private partnership model for next year. Keep reading…
For at least the past two months every episode of Columbus on the Record has featured a discussion about Ohio’s state budget crisis. Enough already. The budget has been resolved - for now. The cuts are in place. The fees raised. Public education reformed (according to Democrats). Slot machines, er.. video lottery terminals… are waiting to be shipped to the horse tracks.
It’s been an important story and one I think our panelists have covered well. But I’m getting a little tired of talking about it, and I’ll bet you’re getting a little tired of listening to us talk about it. So this week we’re looking for new topics.
Slot machines are still in the news - opponents vow to file suit and ask for a 2010 vote. And there is still one more budget crisis left - the one belonging to the city of Columbus. We’ll certainly talk about the city’s looming, yes looming, income tax vote.
Any other suggestions?
- Mike Thompson
Wednesday I moderated the Columbus Metropolitan Club debate on the City’s proposed income tax increase. After a slow start and a brief electrical outage it got really fun. City Council Member and tax supporter Andrew Ginther and opponent Terry Casey did excellent jobs laying out the arguments for and against the tax increase. Business consultant Allen Proctor played the role of fact checker and did a very nice job keeping all of us honest.
From the moderators stand, a few observations:
Both men had a dizzying amount of numbers and information to bolster their cases but the debate come down to this: Has Columbus managed its money well enough over the past several years to warrant a 25% income tax increase?
Andrew Ginther scored points by noting that Terry Casey supported the last tax increase when the city faced very a very similar situation.
Casey scored points by showing how Columbus’s revenue growth has far exceeded inflation and population gains since the last tax hike. (Consultant Proctor noted that much of the growth can be credited to annexation which has largely stopped.)
Andrew Ginther did a very nice job but seemed to have a hard time defending the city’s budget management over the past ten years - Ginther has only been on city council for 2 1/2 years. The question I kept hearing: “Why isn’t Mayor Coleman here?”
Both men had props. Ginther had the best. He displayed a picture himself as a boy wearing a 70’s style shirt (minus the leisure suit) and a Star Wars belt. It was taken in 1983 - the last time City Council raised the city’s income tax.
We’ll discuss on Friday’s COTR.
- Mike Thompson
Not quite.
Governor Strickland and legislative leaders this week will enact the state’s $54 Billion 2-year state budget. It has three things: deep cuts, slot machines, a lack of new taxes. But there are serious doubts about whether the plan to put slot machines at the state’s 7 race tracks will pay off as Ted Strickland hopes it will. He projects it will generate some $900 million dollars over the next two years, but the Columbus Dispatch this weekend raised some serious questions about those projections. Delays caused by lawsuits and market forces may keep the state from realizing those revenues.
No matter how successful the racinos are, the budget process will continue for the next two years. The state continues to lose jobs and income tax revenue. Billions of dollars in likely one-time federal stimulus money was used to avoid cuts and taxes this year. State officials no doubt will have to revisit the state budget to keep it in balance.
WEIGH THE PROS AND CONS OF THE PROPOSED COLUMBUS INCOME TAX INCREASE.
Be a part of the studio audience and join the discussion for a special edition of WOSU TV’s Columbus on the Record. The broadcast taping will take place on Thursday, July 30, at 6pm from the Battelle Studios at WOSU@COSI, 333 West Broad Street. Please register by phone: 292-9678.