Today’s State of the State Address

By michael on 02/7/2012 @ 9:49 AM

The Hamilton County Democratic Party sent out the following press release yesterday:

“Governor Kasich gave his second State of the State address today from the Wells Academy, an elementary School in Steubenville OH.  Possibly he hoped by doing so he could make peace with teachers following his disastrous backing of Senate Bill 5 last winter.

“In a long rambling speech (the longest on record) the Governor was very short on specifics regarding the coming year and eager to gloss over the tumult of the past year that led last September to his becoming the least popular Governor in the nation.  It’s quite an accomplishment after less than one year in office.  But a new poll out just this afternoon suggests he has his work cut out for him.

“The poll released by Public Policy Polling (see link below) finds Governor’s Kasich’s approval rating still at a mere 33%, his disapproval at 53%.  It also finds that if they had it to do over, Ohio voters would re-elect Governor Strickland by a margin 20 percentage points, a landslide by any calculation.

“Governor Kasich touted the return of thousands of auto manufacturing jobs to Ohio, failing to mention of course that both he and Mitt Romney were not in favor of saving the auto industry not so very long ago.  Now he cannot bring himself to acknowledge it was the tough decision made by President Obama in 2009 that saved the American automobile industry.

“While the Ohio employment picture is improving along with that of the rest of the nation, it cannot be ignored that public employees in Ohio have taken the brunt of the decisions made in Columbus.  City and township governments across the State are still struggling to cope with the consequences of cuts to the Local Government fund and the elimination of the estate tax.  Public employees are continuing to lose their jobs with no end in sight while local government is forced to contemplate tax increases to compensate.  These are the consequences for which Kasich should take responsibility.

“Ironically, Governor Kasich pointed to infrastructure and education as two major elements in attracting new jobs to Ohio.  This while he advocates cuts to infrastructure and education spending, offers proposals to dismantle public education in the near future, and prepares to auction off the Ohio Turnpike.   In Hamilton County alone, major infrastructure projects like the I-75 widening completion have been place on hold, possibly for decades.  Fortunately Ohio voters can see through the spin, as today’s poll illustrates.”

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/02/ohio-odds-and-ends.html