STATE OF OHIO - BUDGET CHANGES/EDUCATION OFFICIALS LOBBYING?

The educational "professionals" special interest groups are already at it arguing for their piece of the pie!

Governor Strickland asked for a worse case analysis from the ODE on Monday. On Tuesday State Superintendent Delisle gave her analysis in an e-mail to local superintendents trying to make the case of how "devastating" additional cuts would be. Friday morning Governor Strickland proposed what many state legislators believe to be an increase in taxes or as the Governor terms it a rollback of the final year of income tax rate reductions that were effective January 1, 2009.

Now the special interest groups run by former school administrators and funded with your dollars through membership dues that many of the local, city and exempted village school districts pay have begun to lobby to ensure that education doesn't have to take a cut. We have attached a sample letter from the Ohio Association of School Business Officials to members and urged them to "act now and contact legislators."

We question whether it is fair that the educational community wants no decreases in funding from the state while the Governor has reduced or held steady the wages of many state employees, and has also reduced their numbers. Every state agency has been impacted but our educational community refuses to do their part in helping the Governor solve this problem.

This is pathetic and one of the reasons why local levies for new money across the state are difficult to pass.

The following is the sample letter from the Ohio Association of School Business Officials:

"Dear Representative (or Senator)_______,

We in the _______ School District are alarmed by the latest news about the state budget crisis.

This latest crisis was caused by the court action delaying the installation of Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs) which was to yield the necessary revenue to maintain a balanced state budget. We are concerned that school districts could be harmed even during this school year if no replacement revenue is found. The Governor has proposed delaying the final phase-in of the personal income tax to resolve the budget deficit. We urge you as a legislator representing this school district to work with your colleagues in the legislature to support the governor’s proposal to resolve this issue or develop an alternative resolution that avoids reductions in school funding.

To the _______ School District, the loss could be as much as ___ yet in this fiscal year. This would mean [insert examples of layoffs, reduction of programs, etc].

The students in our district and our community would suffer greatly if this loss occurs. As state leaders, we are counting on you to find a revenue source that would replace the VLT funds to avoid this devastation.

We appreciate the priority on education you have already demonstrated in this budget. Please work to maintain that commitment and solve this crisis as soon as possible."

As always you can contact us at carecommitteepac@yahoo.com.