It is time for the Ohio legislature to stop playing games with the lives of Ohio citizens.  It is time to settle down and put political grandstanding aside in order to finalize a budget plan.  Continuing resolutions (CRs) serve only to allow members of the legislature to avoid making hard decisions and these delays hurt Ohioans. 

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

It is time for the Ohio legislature to stop playing games with the lives of Ohio citizens. It is time to settle down and put political grandstanding aside in order to finalize a budget plan. Continuing resolutions (CRs) serve only to allow members of the legislature to avoid making hard decisions and these delays hurt Ohioans.

Relying on CRs makes planning impossible for Ohio schools. Delaying the budget puts school districts, providers of much needed social services and other state agencies and programs into a situation equivalent to living paycheck to paycheck. No long range planning can occur. Decisions about staffing and programs have to be made with uncertain information. As my legislator, I ask you to push your colleagues to do the job we elected them to do and finalize the budget so that citizens will no longer suffer.

Further, these delays put local districts that have recently passed levies in a difficult position. Promises were made when the levies were passed. The legislature?s inaction and funding uncertainly makes it difficult for districts to keep those promises which, in turn, creates doubt and mistrust between the school district and the community it serves. Many districts exploring whether to put a levy on the ballot this fall planned to make those decisions during their July board meetings. With the uncertainty of state money and inability to plan long-term, it is impossible for them to do so.

The only idea proposed by Senate Republicans to create a one-year budget and make future funding contingent on a statewide ballot initiative is, at best, irresponsible. Under this plan, districts would not be able to do concrete planning without knowing whether there will be education dollars available. In November, if there is a ballot initiative, many local voters who are faced with voting for a levy or voting for the ballot initiative may mistakenly believe that they need support just one of them when, in reality, both sources of income are necessary.

Strong education is the key to Ohio?s future, the key to rebuilding Ohio?s economy, and the key to providing jobs for Ohio citizens, your constituents and voters. I implore you to work together with the governor to ensure that we will have a two-year balanced budget in place within the next week. I urge you to encourage the Senate to work around the clock on negotiating meaningful and sincere solutions. The non-action of the Senate right now looks to me like blatant political one-upsmanship and game playing. You are my state Senator and, as one of your constituents, I plead with you to do what is right for Ohio and this state?s children.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
July 08, 2009