1851 Center will argue that state taxpayers maintain standing to challenge the constitutionality of Corporate Welfare

Columbus, OH – The Supreme Court of Ohio on January 23 unanimously agreed to determine the extent to which Ohioans may take legal action to force state government to comply with constitutional spending, indebtedness, and corporate welfare constraints.

The 1851 Center for Constitutional Law will now spearhead the litigation, briefing and arguing the merits of the position that the Ohio Constitution demands broad access to the courts for taxpayers seeking to enforce the Ohio Constitution’s structural restraints on government. The Center had originally submitted to the Ohio Supreme Court a “friend of the court” brief asserting that Progress Ohio and other left-wing challengers must be found to have taxpayer and “public interest” standing to challenge the constitutionality of Governor Kasich’s JobsOhio legislation.

The 1851 Center asserts that if Ohio’s high court gives a pass to lower court rulings that Progress Ohio does not possess standing in this case, the Court will essentially bar all Ohioans from enforcing the Ohio Constitution’s stringent spending, debt, and “anti-corporate-welfare” provisions, effectively rending these provisions unenforceable.

Read the full post http://www.ohioconstitution.org/2013/01/24/high-court-will-determine-ohioans-right-to-challenge-jobsohio/

Does Governor Kasich really want to authorize people to pick winners and losers by funding “chosen ones” with taxpayer dollars?  What does that say about him?  Don’t we need “small government” people in the State House?  Didn’t ‘they’ balance the last biennium budget by stealing funds from school funding and local governments? How does Gov. Kasich justify raises to government employees?

Mostly, why should he be granted a second term?

Watch the “king” speak from his perch here – - -> Governor Kashich explains why the governor has more standing than Ohio citizens

As you may or may not know, Friday, November 16th, the Federal Government is asking all states to declare if they will setup state Health Care Exchanges as part of the compliance with the ObamaCare law.  With the passage of Issue 3 last November, the Ohio Health Care Amendment, one of our goals was to prevent the creation of Health Care Exchanges. In an article that ran Tuesday it appears that Governor Kasich will NOT agree to setup a State Health Care Exchange:
http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2012/11/13/obamacares-ohio-insurance-exchange.html?goback=%2Egde_3044330_member_185455666
In our conversations with the Kasich administration, we are confident that this story is accurate.  I have seen some emails today asking people to call the Governor’s office on this issue. I am asking you not to do that because it is not necessary. I think we have gotten our point across to the people who count and they are with us on this one. We will get the actual response from the Governor to you as soon as it becomes available Friday.

There are also two other important questions that the State has to answer on Friday.  One is if Ohio wants to continue to regulate the Insurance Industry in Ohio or turn it over to the Feds.  We have made it clear that we do not want to turn the regulation of the insurance industry over to the Feds.  Finally, they have to say if Ohio wants to turn over responsibility for determining Medicaid eligibility to the Feds.  Again, we do not want Ohio to turn that responsibility over to the Federal Government for Ohio citizens.  We will look forward to seeing the Governors answers to those two questions as well.

It is highly likely that Issue 3 will be litigated and it may go all the way to the Supreme Court and, if need be, that is where we will take it.  Everyone should understand that ObamaCare is so poorly written that it is subject to all kinds of litigation, because the Federal Government is going to claim it says one thing and we are going to argue that is says something else, as they get into the details of how to implement this law. We did the right thing with the passage of Issue 3 and it puts us in a better position than a lot of states to fight this monstrosity and keep it from destroying our health care system. Now the fight continues with Friday’s response. We are expecting good news.

Best Regards,

Tom Zawistowski
President
Ohio Liberty Coalition

The Buckeye Institute has released it’s report on the five government pensions “Hanging by a Thread: Big Payouts and Promises Leave Ohio Pension Plans on the Brink of Collapse–or a Massive Bailout.” Adam Schwiebert, their Diehl Fellow, wrote the report.  The report can be found here: http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/uploads/files/Hanging%20by%20a%20Thread.pdf.

Next, in support of the report and the effort to meaningfully reform Ohio’s government pensions, they have created a dedicated page on their website for pension-related information. Consistent with their other first-in-nation innovative tools (government salary & estimated pension tool; Tax Calculator; and Job Comparison tool), they have created a “Compare Your Retirement” tool that allows you to enter the yearly pension you would like to have when you retire to see how much cash you will need to already have today and how much cash you will need to have when you are ready to retire to have the  pension you desire. As a comparison, they provide you with the actual median yearly pension each of the five pensions pay based on the pensions’ 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports. They also provide you with how much those median yearly pensions will require and how much government workers will receive in total if they retire when first fully eligible and live to 78 years old. The “Pensions 101″ page and the newest tool can be found at http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/pensions101/.

Please share this information with your family, friends, and neighbors so that they can better understand the serious financial burdens that our pension system is placing on our state.