SEPTEMBER 26, 2008 COUNTY HUMAN SERVICE PROGRAMS IMPACTED BY BUDGET CUTS

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1 SEPTEMBER 26, 2008 COUNTY HUMAN SERVICE PROGRAMS IMPACTED BY BUDGET CUTS The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has announced preliminary numbers for implementing the Governor s budget cuts using OBM s Budget Directive #7. While most county line items, except for child support, were spared in the first round of budget cuts, the second round of cuts will impact additional county allocations. ODJFS was directed to make $79.8 million in total cuts, using the across-the-board 4.75% threshold OBM required for all other affected state agencies. ODJFS is absorbing $36 million of these cuts internally through accounting techniques, leaving $44 million in net cuts. Of that $44 million, $32.2 million must come from county line items. The following are the preliminary numbers for affected county line items: County Line Item Dollar Amount Cut (in millions) TANF (410) 12.7 Child Care (413) 3.9 Child Support (502) 1.4 IM Control (521) 6.1 Child Protection (523) 3.7 Adoption Assistance (528) 4.4 Note that the TANF line item does not include federal dollars. All of the cut will be taken from state GRF (maintenance of effort). Direct services for Medicaid and Disability Assistance (i.e. medical payments, nursing homes) were spared from the cuts. However, IM Control was reduced, which counties utilize to provide eligibility services and case management to Medicaid and Food Stamp recipients. The IM Control reduction will hinder access for individuals and families seeking Medicaid and Food Stamp services. If you recall, the IM Control allocation suffered a 13% reduction at the start of SFY 08. These numbers remain preliminary until September 30. CCAO, in partnership with OCDA, OJFSDA, and PCSAO, are working on recommendations for ODJFS concerning implementing the cuts in each line item. 1

2 Please note that this is the second round of cuts impacting child support. In the first round, child support was dealt a $3.4 million cut. With this second cut of $1.4 million, child support cuts total $4.8 million or just under 15%. TAXATION COLLECTING FINAL TANGIBLE PROPERTY TAX PAYMENTS; COALITION SEEKS PERMANENT REPLACEMENT OF LOSS REVENUE After 150 years, the Ohio Department of Taxation was poised to collect its final round of tangible personal property taxes from the majority of businesses last week. The payments on the phased out tax were due September 22. Elimination of the tax viewed as a detriment to business investment was a cornerstone of Ohio s 2005 tax reforms. The 2008 assessment rate of 6.25% drops to 0% next year for all businesses except certain public utilities and telephone companies that are being treated differently. Under existing law, counties and other taxing districts must be reimbursed in full through the first five years until 2010, after which reimbursements for non-school local governments would be phased out over a seven-year period from 2011 until When reimbursements to nonschool local governments end in 2019, there will be a permanent revenue loss of nearly $500 million each year to local governments. Current law permanently earmarks 70% or approximately 1.2 billion of the Commercial Activity Tax for school purposes. There is no similar guarantee for other local governments. CCAO is a member of The Coalition of Local Governments and Services, which seeks permanent replacement of the revenue loss resulting from the elimination of TPP. Attached to this issue of the Statehouse Report is a briefing paper entitled The Tangible Personal Property Tax: The Unfinished Business of Tax Reform, which explains the history, revenue implications, and Coalition Proposal for replacing lost tangible personal property tax revenues. The Coalition is seeking $11.2 million in the next biennial budget to prevent the loss of reimbursement dollars in A copy of this briefing paper will be sent along with a cover letter to all candidates for 128th General Assembly. ODNR HOSTED WIND SEMINAR FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS Last week, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources held a day-long seminar, Harvesting the Winds of Change. The seminar provided information to local government officials, landowners, and wind developers about wind energy development in Ohio. The Department was spurred to hold the meeting as Governor Strickland s Economic Stimulus Package calls for the state to invest in sectors of the economy that will support new, emerging renewable energy technologies. Some of the various keynote speakers at the event included the following: Ohio Attorney General Nancy Rogers, the Governor s Energy Advisor Mark Shanahan, ODNR Director and former Columbiana County Commissioner Sean Logan, Champaign County Prosecutor Nick Selvaggio, Power Siting Board Executive Director Kim Wissman, and CCAO Executive Director Larry Long. Other speakers included environmental advocates, utility representatives, agency representatives, wind energy developers, as well as representatives from the Great Lakes Wind Consortium. Nearly all the speakers offered a variety of useful information for local government officials, many in the form of Power Point presentations. These numerous presentations can be 2

3 downloaded from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources website at: The seminar was hosted by numerous groups, including the following: Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio Attorney General, Ohio Department of Development Office of Energy, Ohio Air Quality Development Authority, and the Ohio Power Siting Board, in cooperation with the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, Green Energy Ohio, Ohio Farm Bureau, Ohio Farmers Union, Ohio Municipal League, Ohio Prosecuting Attorney Association, and Ohio Township Association. SECRETARY OF STATE ALLOWS MORE WAIVERS TO COUNTY BOE S IN RESPONSE TO CONCERNS OVER POLLING PLACE SETUP DIRECTIVE Compiled in part from Gongwer After the Ohio Association of Elections Officials communicated concerns and frustrations on behalf of its members, Secretary of State Brunner announced an expansion of waivers for the back-up paper ballot directive that requires a secondary paper ballot line in counties with touchscreen voting machines. "We held discussions with local election officials and with our regional staff to understand the unique needs in more rural and smaller, one-precinct polling locations," Ms. Brunner said in a news release. From these discussions we believe there are additional options for boards that can otherwise meet our goal of shortening voting lines." The additional waiver "will help voters and poll workers in small, single precinct voting locations, while protecting overall preparations to minimize long lines that can be anticipated in multiple precinct polling places, especially in the larger, more urban areas of the state," according to the Secretary's office. "Under the new waivers, any single precinct polling location with 700 or fewer registered voters may apply for a waiver. Once accepted, the polling place will still have back-up paper ballots for voters should long lines form or an emergency take place." ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS ON EARLY ABSENTEE BALLOT REQUESTS In other news, an Associated Press article is reporting that roughly 300,000 voters have requested absentee ballots for the November presidential election in Ohio's four largest counties, where applications for the ballots were sent to all registered voters by mail. Voters generally have been less responsive to the option of voting absentee in smaller counties that did not mail out the applications, fueling critics' concerns that treating voters unequally could negatively affect turnout for the Nov. 4 election. Voters in the smaller communities roughly three-quarters of Ohio's 88 counties have to take the extra step of requesting an application from their local elections board. This year marks the first time Ohio has allowed any voter, without giving a reason, to cast the early, absentee ballots for a presidential election. They can be cast by mail or in person before Election Day. Counties with large cities aggressively have pushed absentee voting as a way to shorten lines at the polls, a problem that gained Ohio unwanted national attention during the 2004 presidential election. Initial results show that the largest counties may achieve those goals. In 3

4 Franklin County, which includes Columbus, about 130,000 of roughly 800,000 registered voters or 16 percent have requested an absentee ballot to vote by mail. That is about a quarter of the total number of voters who cast a ballot in the county during the 2004 election. In Athens County, by contrast, only about 1,100 or 2.5 percent of the county's 44,000 registered voters have requested an absentee application. The county did not send voters applications. Long lines on Election Day are less of a concern for smaller counties. But, some are concerned that voters in these counties aren't provided with the same convenience as their counterparts in the big counties with more resources. "In an ideal world you'd love to see everyone offer the opportunity to vote by whatever means are permissible under the law," said Dan Tokaji, an elections law expert at The Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law. Tokaji cautioned that he has not seen evidence that proves that making absentee voting more accessible leads to higher turnout. Officials won't know until Election Day whether the counties that made voting by mail more convenient see a greater percentage of voters cast a ballot. But, the initial numbers generally do show a contrast in voter response between larger counties and smaller counties, and between larger counties that sent applications and smaller counties that did not send applications. There also generally is a contrast between small counties that sent them and small counties that did not send them. Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, has received about 128,000 absentee applications from its roughly 1.1 million registered voters, representing about 11.6 percent of voters. In Fayette County, a rural county between Columbus and Cincinnati, about 500 or 3 percent of the county's 16,000 registered voters have requested an application. The average percentage of voters sending in applications in three small counties that mailed the applications Washington, Williams, and Tuscarawas was, at 6 percent, twice as high as the percentage of voters who have requested applications in three other small counties that did not mail them Fayette, Athens, and Perry. ISSUE 6 QUALIFIES FOR BALLOT; CASINO OWNERS AT ODDS OVER OHIO BALLOT ISSUE; PENN NATIONAL PROTESTS PETITIONS; LAKE COUNTY PROBES FOR FRAUD Compiled in part from Gongwer Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner on Thursday determined that the constitutional amendment for the November ballot proposed by My Ohio Now has enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. The secretary of state s office said the proposal contains 480,003 valid signatures, exceeding the required 402,275 valid signatures needed statewide to qualify for the ballot. The required 402,275 equals 10 percent of the ballots cast in the 2006 gubernatorial election. Petitioners also needed signatures equaling at least 5 percent of the ballots cast for governor in 2006 in 44 counties. The petitioners met that threshold in 77 counties. Two out-of-state casino giants squared off Tuesday in a high stakes battle over a Nov. 4 ballot issue that will determine if one of them can build a $600 million gambling resort complex in 4

5 Clinton County. Lakes Entertainment of Minnesota and MyOhioNow, a joint venture asking voters to approve a casino constitutional amendment (Issue 6), ran into new opposition from No on 6, a committee funded by Penn National Gaming Inc., owner of Argosy Casino in Indiana. Hours before Issue 6 proponents held a news conference to decry the "multi-million dollar assault" against their measure, opponents filed a protest with Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner seeking to derail its certification. The protest contended that backers of the amendment failed to file a statutorily required form before commencing paid petition circulation efforts. By the end of the week, the Secretary denied the protest. Separately, a second casino opponent - the Ohio Roundtable-led Vote No Casinos committee - said "a major, multi-county investigation concerning alleged wide-scale fraud in the gathering of signatures" for the issue is underway. It released a letter the Lake County Board of Elections sent to officials in seven other counties advising them that authorities had evidence of at least three circulators who did not witness signatures, or who signed blank petitions that were then circulated statewide. "As part of this on-going investigation, the Lake County Sheriff's Department has advised this office that another circulator is a convicted felon," the Sept. 17 letter said. "If any other counties have part-petitions containing the names of these four circulators, we would greatly (appreciate) your assistance in providing that information and copies to this office." Supporters of Issue 6 branded Penn National as "an interstate bully trying to buy its way into an election" because development of a casino near Wilmington could siphon half of its gambling revenue. In addition to the Argosy, Penn National owns the Charles Town Casino in West Virginia. Both attract customers from Ohio. "Penn National wants to keep its multi-million dollar profits from Ohioans, and not see a competitor in southwest Ohio that employs Ohioans and benefits Ohio's economy," said Rick Lertzman of MyOhioNow. Mr. Lertzman said proponents would spend $14 million to $15 million on their campaign. About $3 million was spent on the petition drive. Bob Tenenbaum, spokesman for No on 6, said the amendment backers were being "disingenuous at best. I would argue that anyone who's talking about spending $17 million on an issue campaign should not be accusing anybody of trying to buy an election." Mr. Tenenbaum pointed out that in addition to casinos, Penn National also owns Raceway Park in Toledo. "Penn National is a company with a significant investment... in the state," he said in an interview. Brad Pressman of MyOhioNow characterized the opposition's protest over the amendment petitions as frivolous. "This (whole) initiative by Argosy Casino and Penn National is doing nothing more than trying to keep Ohio down," Mr. Pressman said. "They were in favor of casino gambling back in 2006, pouring millions of dollars into the Earn and Learn initiative which in our mind was grossly deceptive. We don't think they've changed," he said. CCAO, at this time, does not have a position on Issue 6. PAYDAY LENDING BALLOT ISSUE SHORT ON SIGNATURES, CCAO URGES A YES VOTE ON ISSUE 5 Opponents of a new state payday-lending law have fallen short of the number of valid signatures needed to put the referendum on the ballot, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner ruled 5

6 yesterday. However, the Committee to Reject House Bill 545, also known as Ohioans for Financial Freedom, has 10 days to gather enough valid signatures to qualify for what would be state Issue 5. The group has been collecting additional signatures for the past few weeks. The Secretary of State's office said the proposed referendum contains 185,729 valid signatures, meaning the bulk of the signatures were declared invalid. To qualify for the ballot, supporters of the referendum need at least 241,366, or 6 percent of votes cast in the 2006 gubernatorial election. Referendum backers also need valid signatures equaling at least 3 percent of the ballots cast in the 2006 gubernatorial election in at least 44 counties; they met that threshold in only 33 counties. Both proponents and opponents of the issue expected today's news, and both sides expect the referendum to make the ballot. "We are going to continue to work very hard to take our message to the people of Ohio that their financial choices are being taken away and they should vote no on Issue 5," said Kim Norris, spokeswoman for Ohioans for Financial Freedom. Sandy Theis, spokeswoman for Vote Yes on Issue 5, said, "We expected them to fall short on the first round, but are confident they will make the ballot. "When you charge people 391 percent interest to borrow money, you can buy your way onto any ballot in the country," she said. Theis provided a spreadsheet showing that payday lenders have spent more than $1.2 million on television advertising, on top of the $850,000 spent on gathering petitions and conducting polls, according to initial campaign-finance reports. Payday lenders are trying to overturn part of House Bill 545. If a majority votes "no," lenders could continue to charge a 391 percent annual interest rate ($15 per $100 borrowed on a twoweek loan). If a majority votes "yes," lenders would be limited to 28 percent under the bill, or perhaps 28 percent plus a $15 origination fee, as permitted under Ohio's Small Loan Act. In related news, the CCAO Board of Trustees has voted to support the ballot issue, which means support for the efforts by the General Assembly and Administration in enacting legislation that limits lenders interest rates to 28 percent and makes other restrictions. The CCAO General Government & Operations Committee passed a motion supporting the measure September 18, 2008, and the Board of Trustees adopted the position at the Board meeting September 19. CCAO SUPPORTING STATE ISSUES 1 & 2 Just a friendly reminder, CCAO is supporting the renewal of the Clean Ohio Fund through passage of State Issue 2. A sample support resolution that boards of county commissioners may wish to adopt is available on CCAO s home page at If you have questions, please contact CCAO Staffer Brad Cole at (614) or bcole@ccao.org. The Association has joined the Ohio Association of Elections Officials, Secretary of State Brunner, and an array ofbi-partisan policy leaders in supporting State Issue 1. This ballot issue would modify time frames in Ohio s constitution relative to petition filing dates for an initiative or referendum authorized by the state constitution. If you have questions, please contact CCAO Staffer Cheryl Subler at (614) or csubler@ccao.org. 6

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