Ohio's Government Needs A Change

September 15, 2005

How much more apparent can it be that our governing leadership of Ohio needs to be drastically changed all the way from the statehouse to the county level.  Most everyone knows about Governor Taft's poor leadership, allegiance to the corporate culture and his flagrant indiscretions on the golf course.  And we all know of "Coingate" and how our tax dollars have been squandered and stolen.  As you might imagine, the mismanagement spreads much further than that.

How often do we hear of such a tight fiscal budget that healthcare and services to the needy have to be drastically cut because the money is just not there.  But do you know at present Ohio has stockpiled a $1.14 billion surplus in the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) welfare reform program?  More than 1/2 of the money is listed as unobligatged, meaning the state has no specific plans to spend it even though Ohio's poverty rate rose from 10.3% to 11.3% this past year.

Ask some of our own Medina County agencies, such as the Community Action Council, what hoops they have to jump through to get any of that money to help those in need.  Ask the same question of Ohio's 87 other county agencies.  TANF must be gleefully watching the interest grow - unless it's invested in rare coins - because very little is going to under-priviledged folks.

Buz Cormany
Medina, OH

Note:  Buz's source was an artiacle by Ted Wendling of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.