Issue 1 is investment in future
4/26/2010Ohio's economy needs help. Most traditional manufacturing jobs that left are not coming back. We need new businesses to locate in Ohio.
In the May 4 primary, there is something we can do about it. Issue 1 is a request for authorization to issue $700 million in bonds to fund the eight-year-old, bipartisan Third Frontier initiative, which has provided great benefits to companies in the state. Issue 1 will not create any new taxes or raise existing taxes.
From 2003 through 2008, the state's investment in Third Frontier programs generated $6.6 billion of economic activity, and created 571 companies and 48,000 jobs. In sales, outside investment, and other indicators of growth activity, the state has earned nearly $10 for every $1 invested in Third Frontier.
Voting yes on Issue 1 will create jobs via the Third Frontier initiative. It is important that Ohio continue to invest in its economic future, to improve our lives and the lives of future generations.
Bob Savage, Jr.
Broadway
It is amusing that Toledo residents are up in arms over a $15 monthly trash fee ("Longing for a city that is long gone," Readers' Forum, April 19).
In Lima, Ohio, we pay $19.72 a month for trash pickup and $40 a month for water and sewer service.
As for the uproar at Toledo Public Schools and residents griping that teachers make too much and should take a pay cut, I suggest letter writers take a day off and go to school.
I have a sister who is a retired teacher. After hearing her stories, I wouldn't teach for any amount of money. You have to be a parent, warden, and psychologist for modern students.
James Perine
Lima, Ohio
Local 349 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees was told cuts needed to be made to the Toledo Public Schools budget.
Without going to members first, union officials met with school administrators. They proposed an amendment to the current union contract that would ask one quarter of its members to take a 50 percent pay cut for the summer months. It also would start a nonunion pool of workers to cover union jobs during the summer and the school year.
At the meeting to vote on this amendment, union officials dismissed an idea proposed by members for an across-the-board, smaller pay cut for all members.
Before the vote was to be taken, Local 349 President Andy Hurley said that the amendment would save the jobs of custodians. He implied that the other three-fourths of the union members would lose their jobs if they did not vote for the proposed contract amendments.
As usual, when cuts need to be made, they're made off the backs of a few.
AFSCME and Local 349 officials should be ashamed of themselves.
Cara Rawlins
Heatherdowns Boulevard
As Toledo remains in a state of confusion over money issues, the city is not lacking an ample supply of whiners, crybabies, and politicians who think they know what's best for us.
Toledo Public Schools officials have mastered the art of threatening voters with school cuts, while not being willing to take pay cuts or reduce their own numbers ("Vote to save Libbey puts TPS budget back in flux," April 3).
Mud Hens and Walleye president and general manager Joe Napoli ran to Mayor Mike Bell over the proposed 8 percent entertainment tax, and the tax vanished.
When some wiggle out of their tax responsibilities, I assume they are willing to let the middle class, the poor, and senior citizens cover for them.
Sam Tarsha
Walden Avenue
Our two children have received excellent support from Toledo Public Schools - one in the special education unit at Larchmont Elementary School and the other at Grove Patterson Academy.
We have witnessed firsthand how effective the school system's "Success for All" reading program is. Don't take this remarkable program away. Our son entered Grove Patterson as a kindergartner, and is now in fifth grade. The formula works.
Support Issue 3, a 0.75 percent income tax for Toledo schools on the May 4 ballot, and allow the momentum to continue. If the tax fails and class sizes are increased, the effectiveness of every educator will be in jeopardy.
TPS has not had new money since 2001. It is time.
Ellen Wisniewski
Secor Road
City Council finally had the backbone to vote yes on exigent circumstances and give the city administration the power to balance the budget by requiring unions to make changes to their contracts and accept cutbacks put in place by the city ("$15 trash fee, forced union givebacks OK'd," March 31).
Council also imposed a trash tax of $15 a month to balance the city's budget.
Now, all of the unions except police have negotiated lesser amounts their members will have to concede, balancing the budget only until December 2010. On top of that, the trash tax was not renegotiated. Do we have exigent circumstances in Toledo or not?
Taxpayers continue to pay and the unions continue to get the breaks.
The same scenario will be replayed when union contracts are renegotiated in 2011, and the trash tax never will go away.
Taxpayers will continued to be dumped on until City Council and Mayor Mike Bell's administration have the guts to stand up and negotiate contracts that are realistic about pension pickups and health-care costs.
Maybe it's time for taxpayers to unionize. Exigent circumstances in Toledo? What a joke.
George Mezinko
301st Street
Will the proponents of globalization and the North American Free Trade Agreement explain how these positively affect Americans, other than providing toasters and TVs at half price?
As Mayor Mike Bell and other mayors across this country struggle with declining tax bases and increased costs for services, how can anyone expect to balance a budget when no one's got a job?
Imagine if Toledo made spark plugs and weight scales again, and had two Jeep plants, a brewery, and a downtown featuring Fortune 500 companies' world headquarters. Would we be slashing our lifestyle?
Every time a container ship arrives from China or a truck drives up from Mexico, in comes a piece of what used to make America great - products people made with their hands.
If Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton had shared the real meaning of NAFTA - No Advancement For Tomorrow's Americans - maybe their dream would not have become America's nightmare.
Matthew Golkiewicz
Petersburg, Mich.
The April 17 Crime Stopper was about a woman stealing speakers from a store ("Clues wanted in theft from The Andersons"). That week, two men were shot and one died, but that did not warrant a Crime Stopper.
If minor thefts are fodder for Crime Stopper, why don't you publish the pictures of the CEOs who are stealing the pensions and livelihoods of the working class?
Those crimes also need to be stopped.
Lillian Covarrubias
Bricker Avenue