Although many Americans have followed its media coverage more closely than any political story since Watergate, “There is no such thing as the fiscal cliff,” said Michael J. Beazley, City of Oregon administrator and Lucas County Land Bank president.

“It’s a metaphor, and the challenge is that nobody really knows what it means to fall off a cliff,” Beazley said. “Very few people usually talk about it afterward. They’re usually smashed at the bottom.”

The term “fiscal cliff” comes from a statement Ben Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, made to the House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee in February. Bernanke said the U.S. faced “a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts and tax increases” that would take place Jan. 1.

Local politicians prefer to refer to it as a fiscal “slope” or “scree,” because they say the economic effect will be felt gradually, not immediately as the word “cliff” implies.

“I think it’s not so much a cliff as a slippery slope, but the problem is it’s the kind of slippery slope that you have in the Himalayas,” said Peter Ujvagi, Lucas County administrator. “They call that stone — marble and small pebbles — ‘scree.’ You have to be very, very careful how you walk on it because one missed step and you’re sliding down the mountainside.”

Whatever it is called, many local city and county politicians, business leaders, administrators of government entitlement programs, religious and civic social service agency personnel and educators have called what could happen “irresponsible” and “bad public policy.” Congress could allow the nation to fall off the cliff by allowing the policies scheduled for early 2013 to go into effect. Or, as some suggest, Congress could purposely choose to not reach a compromise before Jan. 1 and force the nation to jump off the cliff as a way to motivate politicians to reach an immediate and comprehensive solution to the nation’s fiscal problems.

“That is a highly irresponsible approach for people to take,” said Steve Herwat, Toledo’s deputy mayor of operations. “The idea of thinking, ‘Let’s force the country into recession so that maybe we’ll wise up and not do what we’ve been doing’ is a ludicrous way to approach the issue.”

Wade Kapszukiewicz, Lucas County treasurer, said that if going over the cliff didn’t “destroy the economy, it would at least certainly send it back into another recession. Unemployment would go back up, and perversely, some right ideologues might look at this as some sort of short-term victory for their side because it would look like [President Barack] Obama failed.

“My attitude is: We just went through an election. It’s over. The voters’ verdict is clear and straightforward. They want their representatives to serve them well and do what’s in the best interest of the country.

“And they don’t mind cuts to services — program cuts, spending cuts — as long as there’s the sense the burden is being shared and that the wealthiest among us pay a higher share.”

‘Totally artificial’

Beazley

David H. Davis, professor of political science at the University of Toledo, said the fiscal cliff is “totally artificial.”

“It was put in because Congress thought it would be a way to force itself to do something,” Davis said. “We automatically lose the Bush tax cuts. But we don’t have to. We could extend them for six months, a year or four years.

“There are mandatory cuts divided equally between military and civilian. That’s all artificial. It could go away. Now, nobody wants it to totally go away because there is a feeling, particularly by President Obama, that this is the time to make some important changes. And he’s certainly got a good point.”

Gbenga Ajilore, associate professor of economics at UT, said he “can see that argument because that’s what Congress did two years ago, but the problem with that argument is the fiscal situation is a real problem. We have a $16 trillion debt.

“That’s unsustainable. And it’s increasing because the economy isn’t doing well. Revenue, unless we have a 5 percent growth, is not going to go up as much. So that’s why we’re looking at an increase in taxes. You just can’t assume the economy’s going to turn around. You have to find ways to extract revenue. That’s why you fix the tax code.

“Fundamentally, there is a problem that needs to be fixed. You can argue that the Jan. 1 deadline for the fiscal cliff has created a fabricated crisis. But the fundamental issue of the debt and deficit is a problem that’s not going to go away.”

Politics vs. Wall Street

Mark Haskins, vice president of program services for Lutheran Social Services of Northwestern Ohio, blames Congress and Obama for the current situation.

“There were problems inherited from the Bush regime, but I’m tired of hearing about it. And what’s going on now is not better. The deficit has grown. So the problem started with Bush, because when Clinton left office, the budget was basically balanced.

“But Obama has continued the trend. The argument that, ‘I inherited this’ may be true, but it’s gotten worse. And I know why it’s gotten worse. There’s no sort of compromise like what occurred under the Clinton administration, when all kinds of things were done between the Republicans and the Democrats.”

Haskins said the only way to deal with the fiscal cliff is to either cut spending or increase revenues.

“I’m not an expert. But I do understand, as almost everyone understands, that the deficit is not good, and a growing deficit just makes things worse. And something has to be done to address it.”

David Black, associate professor of economics at UT, attributes the fiscal cliff crisis to Wall Street and the “major financial meltdown (2008 to 2010) of the flow of financial capital from lenders to borrowers that keeps the economy flowing, and it hasn’t been completely fixed yet.”

‘Increased uncertainty’

Michael Dowd, chairman of UT’s Department of Economics and an associate professor of economics, said Lucas County businesses will struggle because of the increased uncertainty the business community faces in dealing with the fiscal cliff.

“They won’t know what their tax bill is for next year other than these draconian levels that will be imposed by the fiscal cliff,” Dowd said. “With increased uncertainty, businesses are likely to reduce any sorts of investments in their own businesses — capital, machines, software — because they can’t project their own tax bills or profits in six months, a year, two years down the line.

“That also will likely discourage any additional hiring. Increased uncertainty is also likely to cause the consumers to pull back on spending.”

Andrew Solocha, associate professor of finance at UT, said consumers have already begun changing their shopping behavior.

“It’s already started. I really think people don’t have enough money in their minds budgeted for all these things, and there’s a conflict now between uncertainty and ‘Do I spend my money when I don’t know what’s going to happen at the end of the year?’

“It’s having an impact now on the Christmas shopping season before we potentially arrive at the fiscal cliff in January 2013.”

Loss of payroll tax cut

Ajilore said the two fiscal cliff issues Lucas County residents should be concerned about are the payroll tax cuts that are scheduled to expire and the loss of unemployment benefits.

“One of the big things about this recession is the increase in the long-term unemployment. Jobless benefits that helped tide the unemployed over may be lost, and that will hit people hard.”

Ajilore also said the payroll tax would have a more far-reaching effect on individual Americans than the Bush tax cuts because workers will see less money in their first paycheck of 2013, but the Bush tax cuts are getting all the press “because of how taxes are viewed politically.

“There’s an ideology that taxes are a drag on the economy. And to raise taxes, that just leads to big government. And there’s the general sense that we believe in small government, which means we need to cut taxes. The Bush tax cuts are a proxy for that ideology. The ideology says that if you let them expire, you’re raising taxes and that’s going to be a drag on the economy. That’s why the right ideology always focuses on that versus the payroll tax.”

‘Everybody will be hurt’

Mark V’Soske, president of Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce president, said “if all the proposed [changes] go into effect, everybody — not just businesses, but everybody — will be hurt.”

“The marriage penalty will be re-established,” V’Soske said. “Dividends will be taxed at a higher rate. So will capital gains, and not just for the wealthy, but for every working person with a 401(k) or any kind of retirement investment. And retirees are going to be hurt badly.

Mark V'Soske

“But look at the business side; 75 percent of the U.S. economy is built on small businesses, not corporations. Many small businesses’ taxes are treated as regular income, personal income, to those individuals. And that will rise for many of [those] small businesses.

“That means fewer people will be working. Less people will get benefits. Businesses are not going to hire. They’re actually going to lay off people. If you increase the cost of doing business, you’ve got to cut somewhere. So regardless of what happens, I think we’re going to see a recession. It sounds like I’m preaching gloom and doom, but the reality is everybody is going to pay more. It’s going to cost more to do what we’re doing, and I think there’s going to be higher unemployment.

“We’re going to hurt a little more before we see the light of day if the right decisions are made at the federal level as to what’s happening. And that’s a big ‘if.’”

Potential loss of jobs

Deb Ortiz-Flores, executive director for the Lucas County Department of Job and Family Services (LCDJFS), said that the biggest problem her agencies face is the loss of funds to administer their programs, which may result in the loss of jobs.

Ortiz-Flores said LCDJFS faces a loss in the 50 percent matching funds the federal government pays for administration of at least five programs:

• Medicaid and health care services program;
• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly called food stamps;
• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), child care subsidies that cover child care expenses so TANF recipients can complete required work hours;
• The Supplemental Security Income through Social Security;
• The Lucas County Division of Child Support Services.

“In Lucas County in 2007, we had 60,000-some people on food assistance,” Ortiz-Flores said. “We’ve lost almost half of that in our administrative dollars, but yet we have 96,000 to 98,000 people on food assistance now. The benefits for folks did not change, but the administrative dollars for us to administer the benefits changed drastically. We had 400-some employees in 2007, and we’re down to less than 320.

“When I started in 1999, we had over 650 employees, and we’re down to less than half the staff size.”

At Lucas County Children Services, Julie Malkin, public information officer, said the agency has no idea what to expect.

“When the economy went down in 2008, we thought we’d see an increase in caseload. Nationwide, that did not happen. If Congress doesn’t come to terms with the current budget issue and starts to cut programs, we may be affected, but we simply do not know.”

United Way

Jane Moore, interim president and CEO at United Way of Greater Toledo, said the cuts to federal programs may “impact the community to such a degree that it would affect our ability to stay on our main focus in graduating kids.

“It will affect every aspect of education, income and health, from community health centers to the Department of Education, which would lose billions. We don’t know how that will trickle down to Toledo Public, Sylvania and Perrysburg schools, but we know it will have a severe impact on kids and families.”

Moore said United Way works with students “to get ready for school, to stay in school, to re-engage with school; and we work with their families to be able to support them.

“So families need to be housing stable, and HUD (Housing and Urban Development) is slated for the same extensive reductions. For the housing stability efforts, Lucas County gets $4.2 million. Well, you can do the math real quick and see what kind of impact that would have.

“If families aren’t housing stable, their kids aren’t going to be focused on their learning. If families are not healthy and don’t have access to health care, kids are not going to be focused on their education. If families are not financially stable — while it impacts directly services for kids and families, it also could have an impact on people who have jobs in those systems. So if the financial stability is eroded, that’s going to have a serious impact.”

Heating and health care

In Lucas County, the federal low-income utility assistance program is administered by the Economic Opportunity Planning Association (EOPA). Its ability to offer assistance with winter heating bills would be severely affected.

“That helps a lot of people who are working. It’s not just for the very, very poor,” Moore said. “So families who are struggling during the winter with utilities rely on that, and a cut in that funding would have a serious impact on housing. If you don’t have any utilities, eventually you may start in the shelter system, which starts this whole kind of cycle downward.”

Ohio Medicaid began offering SCHIP, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, in 1997 to cover uninsured children. The program is also known as Healthy Start.

Moore is concerned that SCHIP’s funding may be cut, something she fears because it provides health insurance for children of working parents, usually employed at minimum wage jobs without health insurance benefits.

In addition, the Dental Center of Northwest Ohio serves children covered through SCHIP, and cuts in federal funding would severely limit oral health care coverage to children living in Lucas County.

‘Leadership matters’

Patrick A. McLean, the City of Toledo’s director of finance, said it makes a difference who the voters elect.

“Leadership matters, and who gets elected matters,” McLean said. “What we’ve seen over time in Washington is through redistricting and through the primary process, we’ve seen the partisan divide has gotten worse.”

Solocha said voters could become a bigger part of the solution if they become more proactive.

“If they’re Republican, they need to go to the Republican leaders and tell them to start compromising,” Solocha said. “And those people who are strongly Democrats need to explain to their contingency that they need to compromise as well. This is an important issue. This is not the same as it was last time. We’re in credit trouble. We weren’t that far over 60 percent (national debt as compared to GDP) before. We are now. So we’re in a much deeper debt crisis than we were before. So there is a little bit more urgency this time than there was last time.

“None of us can do anything ourselves, but collectively, we can. That was probably reflected in the election.”

Veterans Affairs

Shedrick Williams, with the Lucas County Veterans Service Commission (VSC), said a loss of federal funding would not affect his agency’s services because VSC is funded by Lucas County millage, not the federal government.

“We’ll still be able to have services for veterans, like emergency financial, rent assistance or anything of an immediate emergency need,” he said.

Williams said he isn’t concerned about a loss of services for the veterans served by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), either.

“From my experience, when this has happened in the past, the federal government doesn’t shut down. After a while, we operate without a budget. And at some point, if the budget isn’t pursued forward, they usually won’t table it. They never stop giving those services out, like the VA or financial aid or anything like that to assist people. It’s never stopped it in the past. Never.”

Planned Parenthood

Administrators at Planned Parenthood fear a disruption in birth control, HIV testing, men’s and women’s  health care, emergency contraception, pregnancy testing and sexually transmitted disease/infection testing, treatment and vaccine services should funding be cut in the wake of tax policy changes. More than 3,300 Lucas County residents made nearly 6,500 office visits to Planned Parenthood between July 1, 2011, and June 30, 2012, according to Celeste C. Ribbins, vice president of community initiatives for Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio.

Religious charities

Mark J. Hill, vice president of development for Lutheran Social Services of Northwestern Ohio (LSS), fears that not dealing with the fiscal cliff situation appropriately may result in the loss of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement for the mental health services his agency offers.

“We’re hopeful when the levies pass, when public services stay funded, because we don’t have that funding, and we wouldn’t have the staff to handle what will result if public agencies aren’t able to see people,” Hill said. “We don’t have any public dollars outside of Medicare and Medicaid, other than some of our clients’ insurance. So we’re raising money for people who are uninsured and who are ‘the least of these’ in the community.”

Hill is also concerned that the loss of federal funds could limit his organization’s services to severely troubled teens and older citizens in its assisted living and long-term care facility.

“In terms of the fiscal cliff, it’s always a concern because it’s the clients who matter,” he said. “And they’re going to be the first to suffer from that if Congress doesn’t do something.”

Suzie Stapleton, administrator at Assumption Outreach Center (AOC), said going off the fiscal cliff will have a “dramatic, Day One impact” on her clients.

“A lot of our people are elderly, living on $500 Social Security widow’s or widower’s pensions,” Stapleton said. “They’ve got to pay their rent and their utilities out of that. There is no money left.”

Stapleton said in addition to retirees, AOC also serves people with mental or physical disabilities, recently released ex-convicts, young single mothers, and young men who can’t find work and live in the ZIP codes of 43604, 43608, 43610, 43611 and 43620.

If the country goes off the fiscal cliff, “it will just make life tougher,” Stapleton said. “Right now, we give them a sense of hope. But if they’re going to get less and less, I’m not sure how much we’ll be able to give unless the people of Toledo become more generous, and I don’t know how they can be more generous than they already are.

“We want to prevent people from having to go into garbage cans and Dumpsters scouring for food. We want to uphold their dignity. I’m afraid that if we get more budget cuts, that it’s going to affect poor people more than almost anyone else. I’m afraid people would be forced to steal just to eat.

“If we’re not careful, we’re going to put people in a position where they aren’t going to be able to pay their bills. They’re going to lose their places. It puts a burden on society, on the poor — an extra burden they don’t need.”

Local business woes

John Gibney, vice president of marketing and communications for the Regional Growth Partnership, said that in the economic development world, ‘fiscal cliff’ serves as another term for uncertainty.

“In general, businesses do not like any type of uncertainty,” Gibney said. “In the time between now and a resolution, we might see companies putting off capital investment and hiring decisions. Once the issue is ultimately resolved, it becomes a ‘known’ and businesses will be more apt to move ahead.”

Mark Austin, Lucas County chief deputy treasurer, said a rise in unemployment may wreak havoc on both the unemployed and the local business community.

“If any person draws a paycheck from any job, and they don’t have that paycheck, that means they can’t buy things,” Austin said. “That means they go on unemployment, or if those unemployment benefits aren’t there, they suffer. And if they can’t buy things, the vendors who sell those things don’t get the money.

“Lucas County gets most of its revenue from sales tax. If the sales tax receipts aren’t coming in, that means the county has to tighten its belt even more, which means it isn’t able to deliver services or it’s more difficult to deliver services.”

Practical advice

Dowd said the best advice for anyone trying to adjust to the loss of pay that will result if the payroll tax cuts are not renewed is to return to “first principles.”

“‘First principles’ is understanding monthly income and yearly income versus monthly and annual costs — the expenses you face,” Dowd said. “It’s budgeting. It is getting a clear handle on income versus expenses. Where are you spending money? What’s the amount you have in savings? What cushion do you have?’

“Get a handle on your costs. Have an idea of your expected income each month. The more information you have, the better you can perhaps make adjustments to your spending. That’s a hard question, because no individual is certain.”

Ajilore has four suggestions for taxpayers.

“First, consider cashing in investments in 2012 since the taxes on investments will increase if we fall off the fiscal cliff.”

Ajilore also said taxpayers can figure out now what their taxes will be for 2013. He suggests looking at your 2011 tax return to identify your tax bracket. After determining how that tax bracket will change, study how the tax treatment of charitable contributions will change (fewer deductions allowed in 2013 if the nation goes over the fiscal cliff), and check the 2011 payroll tax to determine how that will change should the 2 percent payroll tax deduction expire.

Ajilore encourages those losing unemployment benefits to determine how they can re-create themselves by transferring some work skills into another field where they can earn at least some money.

He also suggests checking the IRS website to see what resources it offers that will help people determine exactly how their taxes will change in 2013.

It’s not politics anymore

Dowd said the fiscal cliff discussion can no longer center on the politics of the Republican and Democratic parties.

“It’s math at this stage,” Dowd said. “The estimates now are that my kids will have a lower standard of living than I do, and that’s the first time that’s ever happened in the U.S. And that’s a very sad thing.

“Connect the dots. Their standard of living will be lower but the debt will be higher. It’s a bad situation.”

Solocha said one of the real issues the nation must face is the divergence among the political parties.

“You have to have politicians willing to create policies where they may not reach their goal, but at least the country’s going in the right direction,” Solocha said. “And that requires a consensus amongst both parties. And that’s been very difficult over the past four years.

“In my view, a Republican needs to stand up and say, ‘Here we are. We’re ready to compromise. Let’s go into a room and knock this off.’ I think that could be done.

“But there’s got to be somebody who has the courage. And this takes a lot of courage, I would think, because it’s your career and everything you’ve ever worked for. Can you imagine a politician who signed the contract to not raise taxes turn around and say, ‘Well, for the greater good of the United States, I can’t honor my contract because there’s a greater good to all this.’

“That takes a lot of guts. You have to stand up to your peers.”

However, as a political scientist, Davis disagreed, saying it’s not possible to talk about the fiscal cliff with out talking about the Republican Party.

“That’s what brought about the problem. We have two political parties that are bitter enemies,” Davis said. “That’s quite unlike the situation for much of 20th-century American history. They would cooperate when it got time to make the deals. They would do that.

“The Republicans today are very intransigent. A lot of them would rather see the whole thing tumble down. You may not have to mention the Democrats, but you cannot not mention the Republicans. Most Republicans would rather see the whole thing tumble down as a way to disgrace the Democrats.”

‘We must act’

Beazley said there is a broad consensus that the nation must act.

“The question is, ‘What type of a fiscal slope should we have as opposed to a cliff?’ And then, ‘What are the components of that slope?” Beazley said.

“You’ll have one side, ideologically, that will say, ‘OK. I think there was a clear consensus. Romney, in the election, said we’re not going to do any tax increase at any level, but I will close loopholes at a variety of levels to make up some of this gap, and we’ll cut spending.’

“The Obama side said, ‘We’re going to raise taxes on people who are millionaires’, and drawing some line. He made that very clear in his campaign as well.

“Each side presented a clear message about what they intended to do if they won. Obama won the election narrowly. He doesn’t have control of the House. The House side wants to follow the Romney approach.

“What I don’t have is solutions.  Go back to the 1970s. Nine percent of all the country’s income was locked away in the top 1 percent of earners. That’s gone up to closer to 25 percent now.

“Twenty-five percent of all income — not wealth, income — is going to the top 1 percent. So the spending power of the middle class has been stagnant or trickled down consistently for 10, 20 years now. Whereas the economy has grown significantly during that time, the growth has been sequestered in the top 1 percent.”

Consumer confidence

Beazley said Lucas County residents should take hope that the nation can survive the fiscal cliff situation because consumer confidence has been growing.

“We can rely on two empirical measures — actual consumer spending, which is going up, and the actual question asked to consumers, ‘Are you feeling more confident?’ and that is going up as well,” Beazley said. “Compared to historical levels, consumer confidence may be low, but that’s because we’re still climbing out of a recession. Consumer debt is on the increase, which is usually a sign that people are going back to work, that they have confidence that they’re going to continue to have a job, continue to pay their bills.

“People are spending again. That’s good for the economy. More people go to work, and it feeds on itself.”

Political preservation

Beazley said “there isn’t a good way to prepare for a fiscal cliff outside of a parachute. That’s why I believe it is very likely that the problems will be dealt with.

“No. 1, the cliff jump will be postponed. This Congress will very likely, at minimum, take action to defer the challenge pursuant with a temporary bill to extend the tax cuts and most of the status quo until sometime in 2013 when the new Congress and the post-inauguration administration comes in and deals with it. At minimum, that is likely to happen.

“I don’t see it as very likely that this Congress and this president right now will have a ‘grand bargain’ that deals with this problem for a five- or 10-year period or brings a significant deficit reduction compromise on taxes and spending.

“But that is more likely than an actual falling off the fiscal cliff. I expect the sides to negotiate in a challenging way. The failure of the sides to really achieve genuine compromise and solve the problems will be trumped by the political preservation needs of all sides. That political preservation need will allow them to at least come up with some compromise or to postpone the problem. I strongly believe that. That’s the likeliest thing. I don’t expect us to be going over this cliff.

“There is no reasonable way to prepare for this sort of hit. The best thing to do is to not jump. And I expect that even Congress can get that right. And I have low expectations of Congress.”

Tags: Andrew Solocha, Assumption Outreach Center, Ben Bernanke, Celeste C. Ribbins, David Black, David H. Davis, Deb Ortiz-Flores, Dental Center of Northwest Ohio, Economic Opportunity Planning Association, Fiscal Cliff, Gbenga Ajilore, Jane Moore, John Gibney, Julie Malkin, Lucas County Children Services, Lucas County Division of Child Support Services, Lucas County Land Bank, Lucas County Veterans Service Commission, Lutheran Social Services of Northwestern Ohio, Mark Haskins, Mark J. Hill, Mark V’Soske, Medicaid, Michael Dowd, Mike Beazley, Patrick A. McLean, Planned Parenthood, Regional Growth Partnership, Shedrick Williams, State Children’s Health Insurance Program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Suzie Stapleton, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, United Way, University of Toledo, Wade Kapszukiewicz

This entry was posted on Friday, November 30th, 2012 at 12:10 pm and is filed under Community, Government.
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Voters practice politics in Lucas County like they approach the comfort food menu at a fast food joint. The relatively smart and healthy choices are usually ignored for less challenging options.

There was not one surprise in any Lucas County race this year. The usual suspects won, like cheeseburgers win over salads at McDonald’s. Sherrod Brown. Bob Latta. Marcy Kaptur. Randy Gardner. Michael Ashford (unopposed). Teresa Fedor (unopposed). Future Toledo Mayor Matt Szollosi. Barbara Sears. Pete Gerken. Tina Skeldon Wozniak. Julia Bates (unopposed). J. Bernie Quilter. Wade Kapszukiewicz.

Would you like fries with that?

It’s not that these are bad people; they are just easy options, chosen for comfort and familiarity as much (if not more) as for competence and results.

In the Lucas County Recorder race, voters chose Phil Copeland over George Sarantou. It is gracious and proper to congratulate Copeland, even as one shakes one’s head in disappointment. Under Jeanine Perry, the recorder’s office has stayed out of the news, a testament to its efficiency and competence. Let us hope its employees can compensate for Copeland’s lack of a plan for the office (“I want to go and be a part of it and I may have some ideas when I get in there,” Copeland said, a fair approach when talking about decorating a kitchen but a suspect plan for dealing with an important county office).

Even scarier is that Jack Ford is reportedly maneuvering behind the scenes to garner an appointment to Copeland’s soon-to-be vacated seat. There is buzz that Carty Finkbeiner and current City Council President Joe McNamara are working to help Ford make that happen. Finkbeiner’s days in government are over, but if McNamara is embroiled in moving Council backward with Ford, serious doubts should be cast on McNamara’s judgment if he is truly considering a campaign for Toledo mayor.

Sarantou’s loss was part of another stellar showing for the Lucas County Republican Party, a pitiful group establishing a legacy of epic failures and incompetency. The Lucas County GOP loses so often, it makes the Pittsburgh Pirates’ current 20-season losing streak look like a rousing success.

Making a ‘metafur’

My first-grader’s school was closed on Election Day to serve as a polling place, so he was going to work with me for the day. We left our house at 6 a.m. to make sure I could vote. Six-year-old Evan, who has been absorbing political commercials and propaganda, was anxious for President Obama to retain his job. Evan’s mom and I disagreed on this point; she is an unshakeable liberal who eschews Republican candidates like she shoos away summer flies and I am a conservative-leaning moderate who tries to vote case by case. I voted for Obama in 2008 but have seen enough of his idea of “hope and change” to switch allegiances to the GOP candidate. As we drove to the polling place, Evan asked me repeatedly if I was still voting against Obama and I repeatedly said yes. My jaw, despite regular doses of prescription Motrin, still ached from an earlier double root canal surgery, so I preferred not to talk. But I wanted to encourage Evan’s interest in the voting process so I tried to explain to him why I was voting against his guy.

“This vote is more about you and your little brother Sean than it is about me and your mom,” I told him. “The country needs to make some major changes about money and planning so you and Sean can grow up to be what you want and be comfortable enough to have families if you want to. I believe Mr. Romney is more likely to try to make changes that will benefit you than Mr. Obama is.”

“You don’t know that for sure, do you Dad?” he asked.

“No, I don’t,” I said. “But voting is sometimes about choosing a person based on potential and hope.”

Evan was silent for a beat.

“Daddy, I thought President Obama owned hope.”

I laughed to myself and told him, “No one really owns hope. I voted for Mr. Obama last time but you were only 2 and Sean was just a few months old. Today, I don’t have the same faith in him.”

Evan and I arrived at the precinct voting station a little early and stood in line with about 50 people. The line moved fairly quickly and Evan stood by patiently as I filled the ballot circles and turned in my ballot. We both received “I Voted” stickers, which we placed on our jackets, and walked to the car.

Evan was quiet for a while, then asked, “Daddy, did you vote for President Obama?”

“No, I voted for Mr. Romney. Remember, I think that’s the best choice for you and your future.”

“It’s OK,” Evan said. “I won’t tell Mommy.”

“I think she’ll know, son,” I said.

“But wouldn’t it be easier to keep President Obama?” Evan asked.

“Easier isn’t always better,” I said. “In fact, easier is usually not better. McDonald’s may be more fun, but it’s not as good for you as making a smart dinner at home.”

Evan sat quietly for a few miles.

“Can we go to McDonald’s today?”

“Not today,” I said. “There will be too many voters there.”

“Why would voters be at McDonald’s?” he asked.

“Never mind,” I said.

“You’re making up a ‘metafur,’ aren’t you?” he replied.

I smiled. “Yes, but don’t tell your mom.”

“I think she’ll know, Dad.”

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Contact him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.

Tags: Barack Obama, Barbara Sears, Bernie Quilter, Bob Latta, Carty Finkbeiner, George Sarantou, Jack Ford, Jeanine Perry, Joe McNamara, Julia Bates, Lighting The Fuse, Marcy Kaptur, Matt Szollosi, Michael Ashford, Michael S. Miller, Mitt Romney, Pete Gerken, Phil Copeland, Randy Gardner, Sherrod Brown, Teresa Fedor, Tina Skeldon Wozniak, Wade Kapszukiewicz

This entry was posted on Friday, November 9th, 2012 at 12:00 am and is filed under Lighting The Fuse, Opinion.
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Toledo Free Press endorses the following candidates:

For state representative in District 47, we endorse incumbent Barbara Sears over Jeff Bunck. Sears has been dedicated to fiscal responsibility, supports business-friendly legislation and provides information to constituents on a regular basis. Sears is a conservative, but she is moderate and she deserves another term in office. Her endorsements include the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and the Ohio National Federation of Independent Business.

For state representative in District 46, Republican Dave Kissinger’s emphasis on economic development catches our attention, but he has not made a strong enough case to unseat incumbent Matt Szollosi. Szollosi has reportedly started a quiet drive to run for mayor of Toledo in 2013, a factor voters might want to keep in mind as they choose who will serve the district.

Michael Ashford is running unopposed for state representative in District 44; more disappointingly, Teresa Fedor is running unopposed for state representative in District 45. This is one of the reasons people become apathetic about elections, when there are no opponents or opponents who stand no chance of winning. It is, however, one of the reasons why we have to vote. The respective political machines want us to stay home so that their choices face no real challenge.

Like many people, we believe the region would benefit from a representative reboot in the newly configured Congressional District 9, but the lack of fervor in Samuel Wurzelbacher’s campaign against Rep. Marcy Kaptur disappointed us and did not convince us that he will be the one to replace the long-serving Kaptur.

In District 5, we endorse incumbent Republican Bob Latta, but offer respect to the strong campaign run by Democrat Angela Zimmann.

The divisive race for U.S. Senator between Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican Josh Mandel has not put either man in a good light. Brown is nothing resembling a centrist, and Mandel’s inaccessibility and his defense of what one of his ads describes as “normal” marriage do not speak well for him. We endorse the third choice, nonparty candidate Scott Rupert, who may not have a high profile but who offers intelligent and clear ideas. What a wonderful comment it would be for voters to eschew the nastiness of Brown and Mandel and give Rupert a chance.

We expect Lucas County Treasurer Wade Kapszukiewicz to prevail over Republican Norm Witzler, but an expectation is not an endorsement.

Another place needing change is the Lucas County Commissioners Office. While we do not see a change coming this year, it certainly does not hurt incumbents Pete Gerken (facing John Marshall) and Tina Skeldon Wozniak (facing Brent McCormack and Kevin Haddad) to have opposition and be reminded that political offices are not meant to be permanent positions.

We also remind voters that in the Lucas County Recorder race, George Sarantou is the clear choice over Phil Copeland. Sarantou has the experience, vision and understanding to continue the solid work of Jeanine Perry.

See you at the polls.

Thomas F. Pounds is president and publisher of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Contact him at tpounds@toledofreepress.com.

Tags: Angela Zimmann, Barbara Sears, Bob Latta, Brent McCormack, Dave Kissinger, George Sarantou, Jeanine Perry, Jeff Bunck, John Marshall, Josh Mandel, Kevin Haddad, Marcy Kaptur, Matt Szollosi, Michael Ashford, Norm Witzler, Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Ohio National Federation of Independent Business, Pete Gerken, Phil Copeland, Publisher's Statement, Samuel Wurzelbacher, Scott Rupert, Sherrod Brown, Teresa Fedor, Tina Skeldon Wozniak, Tom Pounds, Wade Kapszukiewicz

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2012 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Election 2012, Opinion, Publisher's Statement.
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Lucas County voters will decide Nov. 6 whether Democrat Wade Kapszukiewicz will return to the treasurer’s office for a third term or if Norm Witzler, a Republican who previously served on Waterville City Council, will replace him.

Kapszukiewicz said he’s proud of his record as a treasurer who looks beyond balancing the books and tries to use the resources of the office to move Lucas County forward.

Witzler said he’d like to change a few things about the way the office operates and also described himself as a responsive leader who, while on City Council, made a point of answering every letter and phone call he received.

Wade Kapszukiewicz

Kapszukiewicz won his first election at 23, when he was elected to the board of the Lucas County Educational Service Center, now called the Educational Service Center of Lake Erie West. He was elected to Toledo City Council in 1999, then re-elected in 2001 and 2003.

He attributes his desire to seek public office to the Rev. Tim O’Brien, a professor he met while pursuing his bachelor’s degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee.

“He came from the social justice wing of the Catholic church,” Kapszukiewicz said of O’Brien, whom he called the most important influence on his professional life.

Kapszukiewicz has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from Marquette and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan.

When he decided to run for treasurer in 2004, Kapszukiewicz said, “I was attracted to the ability to use the treasurer’s office to help move the county forward.

Kapszukiewicz said he tries to be more than just a “bean counter.”

“Don’t worry, rest assured, all the beans are counted,” he said, “But at the end of the day, if that’s all I did I’d be doing the community a disservice.”

He cited his office’s decision to purchase $18 million in bonds to help finance the Huntington Center and the creation of a $5 million loan program for small businesses that he said has allowed 38 employers to create or retain 375 jobs. Any income that may have been lost by lending that money to businesses at low interest, instead of keeping it in the county’s stock portfolio, is more than made up by the positive economic benefit from those businesses’ operations, he said,

Kapszukiewicz said he sees those decisions as sound financial investments, but, “more than that, I see them as investments in the quality of life for Lucas County citizens.”

The incumbent said he’s most proud of his work with a coalition of other county treasurers to pass legislation establishing a funding stream for the Lucas County Land Bank and speeding up the process by which the Land Bank acquires vacant tax-foreclosed properties. Close to 700 properties have been acquired by the Land Bank with the goal of either rehabilitating or demolishing them to stop the erosion of property values in Toledo, he said.

Norm Witzler

A lifetime resident of Lucas County, Witzler said that although he’s not the incumbent, he still brings plenty of financial acumen to the race, gathered through formal education and through his experience over the years.

Witzler went to Bowling Green State University for two years to study accounting, then spent another semester at the University of Toledo before deciding to begin a building trades apprenticeship instead.

He was employed as a plumber from 1968-84 and later worked for Chrysler. For the past five years, he has worked at a Home Depot store in Toledo.

Witzler served three four-year terms on the Waterville City Council, being elected in 1992, 1996 and 2000. He said he wanted to be a voice for people in Waterville, and made a point of responding when people contacted him with concerns.

“I returned every phone call and every letter that I ever received,” he said. “I can’t say that for the rest of the Council when I was involved, or the mayor.”

His financial experience includes serving as the treasurer for Family House, a families-only homeless shelter in Toledo.

Witzler said he would like to be more aggressive about delinquent tax collections.

Kapszukiewicz contested the idea that he’s not aggressive enough, saying he’s been “extraordinarily tough on people who are trying to game the system and avoid paying taxes.” He cited his introduction of tax lien sales in 2006.

Witzler also said he would like to revisit some of the structures the Land Bank plans to tear down with an eye toward rehabilitating them instead. Although rehabilitation would cost more, he said, it could also get properties back on the tax rolls sooner and with higher values.

He said his decision to run also came from not wanting the treasurer’s office to be “another unchallenged seat in Lucas County.”

Tags: Norm Witzler, Wade Kapszukiewicz

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2012 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Community, Election 2012.
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Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan talked to a crowd about his ticket’s plans for foreign policy, the economy and energy independence in the chilly Grand Aire hangar at Toledo Express Airport on Oct. 8.

“This is not an ordinary election. We’re not just deciding who’s going to be the next president for four more years. We are deciding the meaning of America. We are deciding what kind of people we are going to be and what kind of country we are going to have for an entire generation,” said the U.S. representative from Wisconsin.

“When President Obama came in four years ago, he inherited a tough situation, no two ways about that. Problem is, he didn’t make things better,” Ryan said.

Like his running mate Gov. Mitt Romney did in Virginia today, Ryan called for a change in foreign policy, specifically citing the recent killing of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and other Americans in Libya.

“If you go home after this and turn on your TV, you will likely see the failures of the Obama foreign policy unfolding before our eyes. If you look around the world, what we are witnessing is the unraveling of the Obama foreign policy,” Ryan said.

“Four Americans were murdered in a terror attack in Benghazi. The point is, in a Romney administration, when we know we are clearly attacked by terrorists, we won’t be afraid to say what it is,” Ryan said.

“This was not simply an isolated incident but indicative of a broader failure. Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon. The Middle East is in turmoil. Nearly two dozen nations we witness on our television screen are burning our flags in protest and riots,” he continued. “If we project weakness abroad, our adversaries are that much more willing to test us, to question our resolve.”

Ryan also said Obama’s possible defense cuts would strain the National Guard and reserves even further.

Europe’s economy served a warning many times in Ryan’s speech.

“You see in Europe, they waited too long. They kicked the can down the road. They came up with excuses,” Ryan said. He added that youth employment in Europe is at 20 percent and 50 percent in Greece and Spain.

Ryan also said more than 50 percent of recent American college graduate aren’t working or can’t find jobs in their chosen fields.

Romney has the leadership skills for job creation, Ryan stressed.

“The president has no new ideas. He doesn’t know how to grow this economy. Mitt Romney knows how to grow the economy because Mitt Romney has the experience because he knows how to create jobs because he’s done it before,” said Ryan, later citing Romney’s experience as a businessman and overseeing the Salt Lake City Olympics.

The vice presidential nominee also focused on the importance of small businesses, tax rates and creating jobs through pursuing energy.

“You see when we lower tax rates across the board, by closing loopholes primarily for the well-to-do, all that we are saying is, it’s your money in the first place, you keep more of it,” Ryan said.

On the first day of a Romney/Ryan presidency, Ryan vowed to approve the Keystone Pipeline. This idea received a standing ovation from the crowd.

Ryan also said the ticket’s energy plan would make America energy independent by the end of the decade.

He added, “We will send less of our money to countries that don’t like us. That’s a good idea.”

Ryan also emphasized God and religious freedom and their ties to the United States in his speech.

“[America’s] the only country founded on an idea,” he said. “That idea is so precious, Thomas Jefferson wrote it in the Declaration of Independence … our rights come from nature and nature’s God, not from government.”

Crowd response

Ike Parker, a minister from Delta, said that part of the rally spoke to him.

“I don’t like the things that Obama approves of like abortion, gay marriage, pills for 14-year-old kids, girls who are in school,” he said.

Parker said he had been a lifelong Democrat before Obama.

“I just hope that people will wake up and come to their senses [to] the way this country is going and the way Obama has driven it down the road,” he said.

Eventgoer Rita Gilbert of West Toledo said this is the first rally she has ever attended.

“Actually this is hope and change we can really believe in,” she said.

Rita’s husband, Ron, who used to work for Marathon Oil, said he was interested in Romney’s and Ryan’s thoughts on energy and thinks the country should look into coal energy.

“We have enough coal in the State of Ohio, West Virginia and Indiana to produce energy for the whole United States for the next 200 years,” Ron said. “[The government’s] looking in the wrong direction, they really are. We could be totally energy independent.”

Head of the Lucas County Republican Party Jon Stainbrook, U.S. Rep. Bob Latta and State Reps. Barbara Sears and Randy Gardner spoke before the vice presidential nominee. Each drove home the need for Romney supporters to be vocal and go door to door.

Latta also praised Ryan’s financial know-how.

“There’s not one person in Washington or I don’t think in this country that understands the federal budget and what’s happening to this country better than the next vice president,” Latta said.

Democratic response

During the Ryan rally, the Obama for America campaign had its own event. Lucas County Treasurer Wade Kapszukiewicz was at the airport Oct. 8 with a small group of Obama supporters and focused mostly on Obama’s auto industry rescue.

“We’re glad Paul Ryan came to Northwest Ohio, but we’re disappointed he does not support the auto rescue plan which saved our local economy and we’re disappointed he has embraced the policies of Mitt Romney, which, if they were implemented, would have sent certainly this region if not the country into a depression,” Kapszukiewicz said.

He added, “We are better off today than we were four years ago. Four years ago when the president took office, unemployment was well above 8 percent. Today it’s 7.8 percent, the lowest it’s been in over four years. In Lucas County, unemployment has gone from 8.5 percent to 7.6 percent. When Obama became president this economy was losing 800,000 jobs per month, every month. Now we’re gaining 150,000 jobs per month, every month.”

Ryan will debate Vice President Joe Biden on Oct. 11 in Danville, Ky.

-Managing Editor Sarah Ottney contributed to this report.

Tags: Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Wade Kapszukiewicz

This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2012 at 7:54 pm and is filed under Community, Election 2012.
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Jasmine Ponce moved with her family to Toledo from Mexico about eight years ago.

They bought a two-story house in South Toledo and planted pear and peach trees in the front yard, along with vibrant flowers that now spring from the lawn and wrap around the white trellis that shades the front sidewalk. Ponce’s house bears a bright purple shade, but it stands out on its side of the block for reasons other than just its color.

The house is a well-kept oasis amid a few vacant, crumbling properties. The houses at 551 and 559 Colburn St. were in fine shape when Ponce moved in. But now, grass and trash have claimed both houses, which are empty shells of siding and mortar with jagged holes where glass once covered window frames. At 551 Colburn St., a tiny window in the attic reveals a charred interior where a fire took hold just a few weeks ago.

Ponce has witnessed these homes sink into disrepair. She’s been kept awake at night by thieves who break into the house next door to rip out pipes and metal wiring. She’s smelled the smoke billowing out from a fire two houses down.

“I don’t remember anyone living there; people would go in to check on it sometimes, but after  a while they just stopped coming,” Ponce said. “Now we get scared when we hear the noises of people stealing things next door.”

A new hope

But things are about to change for the Ponce family.

One of the houses scheduled for demolition.

Both 551 and 559 Colburn are among the first on a list of 900 houses set for demolition across the city. Demolition crews will start in South Toledo, crushing more than 80 houses on the neighborhood’s most blighted blocks.

The Lucas County Land Bank announced Aug. 7 that the agency received a $3.4 million grant from the Ohio Attorney General’s office for the project. The county is matching the grant with fines collected from delinquent taxpayers. The state money comes from the lawsuit settlement in which the attorney general sued mortgage companies for contributing to the housing collapse.

This news comes at a time when the assessed value for Lucas County properties is 20 percent lower than it was six years ago. The number of people living in the city is consistently dropping; it peaked in the 1970s with 383,800 residents and had bottomed out to 287,208 as of the 2010 census. And AOL Real Estate has ranked Toledo the 10th emptiest city in the country, with an 11.5 percent rental vacancy rate and a 3.8 percent homeowner vacancy rate.

“The land bank isn’t about the 551 and 559 Colburns of the world — it is about the beautiful homes, that, through no fault of their own, have seen property values go down,” Lucas County Treasurer Wade Kapszukiewicz said.

The land bank is offering cleared property to nearby owner/occupants for $100. The Ponce family secured 559 Colburn St. and will extend their garden.

Kapszukiewicz said the agency is offering this deal to homeowners who live on their property, with the idea that they will foster the vacant land into a productive space.

“These properties look like nobody loves them,” Kapszukiewicz said. “That will change.”

Upset landlords

Landlords will have to pay $250 for the cleared lots because the agency is trying to promote owner/occupant activity. This upsets landlord Elvin Smith.

“I love the Old South End, but it’s a losing battle,” he said.

Smith said he thinks landlords should have been given the grant money so the government could have stayed out of the reclamation process. Some rules that the city enforces, he said, work to create more blight. For example, any time he has a property for sale or rent, he has to put out a sign — a law, he said, that brings unwanted guests.

If he didn’t have to post these signs, he said, fewer people would break into his properties to steal pipe and metal. He marks this as the root cause for many of the properties that fall into disrepair.

“Most of these could have been converted right after they became vacant,” he said.

The land bank compiled its list of demolition-ready houses through neighbors and organizations that submitted information about blighted properties. The Broadway Corridor Coalition, for example, sent volunteers out into the neighborhoods a few months ago to take stock of the condition of the houses and mark which ones were empty and damaged.

South End ‘neglected’

Pastor Dave Kaiser, leader of the South Toledo Community Center, helped to orchestrate the volunteer housing surveys a few months ago. Kaiser has been stationed at the church on the corner of Walbridge Avenue and Broadway Street for two years.

David Kaiser

His kitchen staff serves more than 160 meals a day to some of the very people watching vacant houses crumble around them.

“The South End’s been neglected,” Kaiser said. “It’s really, really impossible to get people to move into a neighborhood that has a significant number of abandoned homes. From the appearance to the activity, it’s the easy things like the grass being knee high to terrible things like drugs and prostitution being conducted inside.”

He looks forward to fewer houses sandwiched beside each other in the South End, whether this facilitates community gardens or larger yards so kids can play and neighbors don’t feel so cramped, he said.

Some 1,000 homes in his neighborhood lie vacant.

Kaiser applauds the land bank’s actions, but said he wonders how the city and the county will maintain the grass left once houses are demolished. The city pays to maintain property left vacant, mostly by foreclosure, with a fund that shrunk by $325,700 this year.

Kaiser offered to have his regulars do the job in the South End. If someone comes in asking for money, he typically assigns them a job before they can receive cash. He said he’d ask people in this situation to mow vacant lawns.

Flint, Mich., home to one of the first land banks, has run into problems maintaining its land-bank-acquired properties. Formed in 2004, the Genesee County Land Bank has seen foreclosures in the city jump from 900 in 2007 to 2,900 last year and 2,700 this year. The land bank has about 10,000 properties and has completed 1,800 demolitions.

Land banks aim to sell properties to neighbors, but the agency in Flint has found that hundreds of the vacant lots sit next to other vacant lots and there is often no neighboring homeowner to offer a deal. Maintaining every property has become difficult with a budget of $450,000 to do a $1-million-a-year job, said Douglas Weiland, director of the Genesee County Land Bank.

Karen Poore, executive assistant to the Lucas County Treasurer, said the structures of the Genesee County Land Bank and the Lucas County Land Bank differ.

The Lucas County Land Bank is selective about the properties it acquires, only going after a property when the agency finds an opportunity to do something productive with the land. For example, this has sometimes been achieved by sending letters to homeowners with an application to buy a vacant property, such as the case of the Ponces.

“The properties that are in our pipeline that we’re acquiring are there because we’ve identified someone who wants that property at the end of the tax foreclosure process,” Poore said.

Until they finalize the deal, the land bank is responsible for maintaining the lot, she said.

All 900 of the houses set for demolition are not in the land bank “pipeline,” she said. The agency owns 166 properties, has sold 125 and is trying to acquire 245, according to Poore’s records.

The demolition list will be continually updated, as county employees inspect each property to verify that demolition is the best option. The project will utilize city equipment and crews. The city typically demolishes fewer than 300 houses a year.

Tags: David Kaiser, Genesee County Land Bank, Lucas County Land Bank, Wade Kapszukiewicz

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2012 at 3:01 pm and is filed under City of Toledo, Community, Featured, Lucas County.
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Demolition crews will go to work in a few weeks in South Toledo, crushing more than 80 houses on the neighborhood’s most blighted blocks.

This marks the beginning of a 17-month process to destroy about 900 houses that have been gutted and stripped, burned out and flooded. The Lucas County Land Bank announced Aug. 7 that the agency received a $3.4 million grant from the Ohio Attorney General for the project. The county is matching the grant with fines collected from local delinquent taxpayers.

The state money comes from a lawsuit settlement, in which the attorney general sued mortgage companies for contributing to the housing collapse.

This news comes at a time when the assessed value for Lucas County properties is 20 percent lower than it was six years ago.

Lucas County Treasurer Wade Kapszukiewicz hosted the news conference Aug. 7 in front of two foreclosed-upon houses on Colburn Street.

“The land bank isn’t about the 551 and 559 Colburns of the world — it is about the beautiful homes, that, through no fault of their own, have seen property values go down,” Kapszukiewicz said.

Grass and trash overrun the facades of both houses, which are empty shells of siding and mortar with jagged holes where glass once covered window frames. At 551 Colburn St., a tiny window in the attic reveals a charred interior, where a fire took hold just a few weeks ago.

The house next door to 559 Colburn, on the other hand, stands before a yard of peach and pear trees, vibrant flowers and a white trellis that shades the sidewalk leading to the front door. This house’s facade is an even purple, with not a chip peeling. The Ponce family has lived in this house for eight years and 17-year-old Jasmine Ponce said she has watched the house next door fall apart.

But now, they have big plans.

The land bank sold 559 Colburn to the Ponce family for $100, as part of the agency’s latest demolition project. The Ponces will extend their garden onto the lot. Kapszukiewicz said the agency is offering this deal to homeowners who live on their property, with the idea that they will foster the vacant land into a productive space.

“These properties looks like nobody loves them,” Kapszukiewicz said, gesturing to the houses behind him. “That will change.”

Landlords will have to pay $250 for the cleared lots, because the agency is trying to promote owner/occupant activity. This upsets Landlord Elvin Smith.

“I love the Old South End, but it’s a losing battle,” he said.

Smith said he thinks landlords should have been given the grant money so the government could have stayed out of the reclamation process. Some rules that the city enforces, he said, works to create more blight. For example, any time he has a property for sale or for rent, he has to put out a sign — a law, he said, that brings unwanted guests.

If he didn’t have to post these signs, he said, fewer people would break into his properties to steal pipe and metal. He attributes this as the root cause for many of the properties that fall into disrepair.

“Most of these could have been converted right after they became vacant,” he said.

The land bank compiled its list of demolition-ready houses through neighbors and organizations that submitted information about blighted properties. The Broadway Corridor Coalition, for example, sent volunteers out into the neighborhoods a few months ago to take stock of the condition of the houses and mark which ones were empty and damaged.

The list will be continually updated, as county employees inspect each property to verify that demolition is the best option. The project will utilize city equipment and crews. The city typically demolishes less than 300 houses a year.

Tags: Caitlin McGlade, Lucas County Land Bank, Wade Kapszukiewicz

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 7th, 2012 at 12:36 pm and is filed under City of Toledo, Community, Economy.
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Basketball courts gave way to political paraphernalia Wednesday as 800 Mitt Romney supporters packed the Bowling Green Training and Community Center for the presidential candidate’s Northwest Ohio appearance.

Several hundred others parked at the Wood County Fairgrounds and attempted to squeeze onto shuttle buses at the last minute to catch the former Massachusetts governor’s speech. To attend, guests needed free tickets that were given away on a first-come, first-served basis.

Following an introduction of country music, speeches by local Republicans and a fervent “Mitt, Mitt, Mitt, Mitt” chant, Romney took the stage and told his audience that he is fighting for the “soul of America.”

“I want you to know that despite all the challenges around the country and all the people that are suffering and all the people having a hard time making ends meet, I’m optimistic about the future,” Romney said. “Things are about to get a lot better in this country; we’re going to get Washington in a new direction in November.”

Gov. John Kasich joined Romney on his Bowling Green trip. At the sight of the two politicians, crowds erupted in applause and cheers only before matched by the reaction to Bowling Green Mayor Richard Edwards’ reference to the city’s national tractor-pulling championship while welcoming the crowds.

Kasich told his audience that Romney is the candidate that has “tools to create jobs” and stressed his own philosophy of reducing taxes, balancing the budget and building a rainy day fund. He drew cheers when he said the state no longer has a deficit and that the rainy day fund went from 89 cents — what it was when he took office — to half a billion dollars.

Among other measures, Kasich’s budget eliminated the estate tax and cut funding for local governments to close the $8 million deficit the governor inherited.

Romney also took on the tax subject, railing against the present business tax policy and regulations that he said keeps the small business owner down. Romney criticized President Barack Obama’s record for the first 10 minutes of his speech.

He rejected a recent comment Obama made about personal success.

“I just want to say exactly what he said about it, speaking of small businesses and businesses of all kinds, he said ‘If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that, somebody else made that happen,’” Romney said.

Romney called this an attempt to “denigrate and diminish the achievement of the individual.”

Obama’s full statement about that was: “If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life, somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges … if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

Romney then laid out five initiatives he would take to move the economy along. He said he would take advantage of energy resources, open new markets in Latin America, balance America’s budget and “restore economic freedom” by lowering small business taxes and cutting regulations. He also said he would give kids and young adults the tools they need to succeed by giving the power to parents and students instead of teachers unions.

He then took questions from some of his supporters, prefacing his Q&A session with a disclaimer that if members of media asked questions he’d “try and dodge them.” He followed up with a quick laugh.

Romney fielded questions about how he would boost the oil industry and how he might help older people receive training for new job skills.

He said he would initiate the Keystone Pipeline. As for job skills, Romney pointed to a program in his state that offers fiscal incentives to businesses to hire people who have been unemployed for more than a year. The money the business owner receives goes to training the new hires, he said.

Romney touched on a couple of the social subjects as well, announcing that he “felt like we’re all Catholic today” in the fight for religious freedoms.

He left the crowd, a mostly middle-aged to older white group, electrified and gleaming. As Sandy Barber, the leader of the Fulton County Republican Party, filed out of the community center she told her friends that Romney had a “Reaganistic” quality about him. Barber said she saw Romney speak four years ago but that he is much more enthusiastic and energizing today.

His five points, coupled with his business background, resonated with her.

“Seeing him just confirmed how I felt about him,” she said. “I have confidence in him.”

Business owners Lynnette Bartnikowski and Carol Haas also admired his business background, saying that Obama’s administration has made it tough to operate. Bartnikowski said present EPA regulations would make it impossible to start her heating, ventilation and air conditioning company now. She started it decades ago.

Haas said she wants to pay less taxes.

“Do you ever write quarterly checks?” She rolled her eyes. “Try it for a while.”

She said she sees evidence that life is not getting better for individuals because more and more customers have to pay for doughnuts at her bakery with checks and credit cards instead of cash.

But unemployment has decreased statewide and in Lucas County within the last few months. Democrats also point to the rallying auto industry as evidence that the economy is picking up. Lucas County Treasurer Wade Kapszukiewicz and United Auto Workers President Ken Lortz hosted a news conference in Toledo Wednesday morning, hours before Romney took the stage 20 miles down the road.

Kapszukiewicz and Lortz raised concern regarding recent questions surrounding Romney’s involvement with Bain Capital while the firm was closing up offices and laying off people in Ohio.

“Romney’s values as I see them are putting profits before people,” Lortz said. “There’s nothing wrong with profits — you’ve got to have profits, that’s what makes healthy companies that’s what creates job security, but it’s the way you go about doing those things and it’s not by offshoring work.”

Lortz said during the news conference that local automakers are setting records now, as a result of government loans years ago. He said the companies have since reformed much about the interior of the businesses: employees have taken between $7,000 and $35,000 in cuts, they’ve taken benefit cuts and they’ve agreed to not strike for six years.

Republican Rep. Bob Latta was unable to make it to Romney’s visit to his hometown because of House voting that lasted into the evening. He took a quick break to comment on Romney’s race and goals. He said Romney’s campaign is, first and foremost, about jobs.

“The American people have to ask themselves this question: Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” Bob Latta said.

Kelly Wicks, who has owned Grounds for Thought in Bowling Green for 23 years, said his answer is “yes.”

Wicks is also running as a Democrat for an Ohio House seat. He rejects the claim that Obama has made times more strenuous for the small business owner. Contrary to arguments that the Affordable Care Act will place more burden on businesses, he said he’s looking forward to having more health insurance options. The financial burden for him has always been rooted in increasing premiums from private insurers. Plus, he added, many of his employees are under the age of 27 so he sees them enjoying the benefits of sticking to their parents’ health care for a few more years.

He has not seen any tax increases since Obama took office.

“There are many small businesses that try to blame [problems] on the Obama administration and it’s nonsense,” Wicks said. “It’s not any one over-burdensome rule that is holding our businesses back.”

Tags: Bob Latta, Caitlin McGlade, Carol Haas, John Kasich, Kelly Wicks, Ken Lortz, Lynnette Bartnikowski, Mitt Romney, Sandy Barber, Wade Kapszukiewicz

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 19th, 2012 at 12:57 am and is filed under Community, Election 2012.
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