State Issue 1 deserves our support

10/30/2005

On Nov. 8, citizens throughout the state will be asked to vote on Issue 1, the "Jobs for Ohio" ballot issue. Approval will improve Ohio's ability to create and compete for jobs now and in the future.

There are three components to the "Jobs for Ohio" ballot initiative.

First, it renews Ohio's critical local government road and bridge-building program. Projects to be funded include local road, bridge, water supply, and storm and sanitary sewer improvements.

Next, it will create new jobs for Ohio's future by making grant money available for technology research and development and for helping to commercialize new products and bring them to market.

The grants will be made in such areas as alternative fuel development and the search for improved treatments and cures for cancer and other diseases.

Finally, it provides grants to local governments to prepare "job-ready sites," enabling local communities to compete for new businesses and industries and create jobs through the development of sites equipped with all utilities - from water and sewer lines to power and telecommunications.

Issue 1 does not increase taxes. Funds for repayment of Issue 1 bonds are already built into Ohio's future budgets.

The generation of new revenues for state and local governments will help expand our job base statewide, and all Ohioans will benefit.

This nonpartisan issue has wide support from legislators of both political parties and from numerous business and labor organizations, the Farm Bureau, the higher education community, and others.

Please give every consideration to Issue 1 when you vote on Nov. 8.

SIDNEY A. RIBEAU

President

Bowling Green State University

Csar Estrada Chavez was not a man who should be publicly honored and commemorated by naming a street after him.

To the migrant farm workers, who understandably might think he helped them get more pay for less or easier work, he is a likely hero. But for the rest of us, the effect of his life's work has been higher prices.

Mr. Chavez rode the coattails of the labor movement that had developed during the Great Depression - a movement that engendered the idea that it is acceptable to pursue a higher wage or easier work by interfering with voluntary arrangements between employees and employers.

And simple withholding of labor wasn't enough. While Mr. Chavez proclaimed non-violence, some of his methods indicated otherwise.

Those in City Council genuinely seeking the antidote to Toledo's economic doldrums should be finding ways to promote a positive work ethic and avoid celebrating its antithesis.

PETER S. MILLER

Marin Drive

By all accounts, Harriet Miers has been a conservative her entire adult life. Ms. Mier's problem is that she is conservative like Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, but not like James Dobson or Sean Hannity. President Bush learned who is in charge of the Republican Party and found out that it certainly is not him.

The new right-wing religious zealots are named Robertson, Falwell and Limbaugh. These modern day Scribes and Pharisees have hijacked the Party of Lincoln and now have such a far right-wing litmus test that conservatives like Harriet Miers need not apply. Should this scare us?

You bet it should.

HAL SIMON

Maumee