Republican leader gambling with Ohio's public education

When Gov. Bob Taft, Senate President Richard Finan and House Speaker Larry Householder meet Monday behind closed doors to talk about public school funding, they would do well to invoke the name of another prominent Republican officeholder, George V. Voinovich. Perhaps then, Taft, Finan and Householder will be inspired to act as statesmen and come up with a serious solution to the school funding crisis.
Why use the word "serious"? Because the latest proposal on how to address the constitutional deficiencies identified by the Ohio Supreme Court comes from Householder and could best be described as "cha-ching." The speaker's plan to funnel $3.2 billion into public schools in the next two years includes an estimated $900 million from 1,500 gambling devices that would be installed at Ohio's seven horse-racing tracks.
Never mind that revenue from gambling isn't a sure thing -- just ask the folks at the Ohio Lottery -- but even with the most sunny forecast on how much the video lottery terminals would bring in, and even with the current state spending on education included, Householder's plan would still need at least $1 billion.
Deep cuts: How would he make up the shortfall? By cutting deeply into the operation of state government. All non-mandated expenditures would be fair game. Money for capital projects? Forget about it. Money for job-creation initiatives? Not likely. An incentive package with a price tag of hundreds of millions of dollars to persuade General Motors Corp. to keep its Lordstown assembly plant open after 2004? Uncertain.
Indeed, the biennium budget that Gov. Taft has submitted to the Ohio General Assembly won't be worth the paper it was printed on if Householder's proposal becomes the solution.
And if Taft's budget is ripped apart, higher education in Ohio will be a major casualty. Taft's spending blueprint contains an increase in funding for the state's colleges and universities, which have certainly not been given the budgetary importance they deserve in past years. Ohio is near the bottom of the list of major states when it comes to public support for higher education.
But while Householder's plan has made headlines in recent days, he isn't the only prominent Republican officeholder who is trying with a wink-and-a-prayer to meet the Supreme Court's order to the legislature to develop a system for funding public education that will pass constitutional muster and does not rely on property taxes.
In his State of the State address earlier this year, Taft unveiled his school funding plan and it, too, is founded on the "rob Peter to pay Paul" principle.
In other words, there is no mention of the "T" word from Taft, Finan or Householder.
Problem: Therein lies the problem with any plan developed by the Republican-controlled legislature and the Republican governor: Pillaging the budget to fund public education would make Ohio a Third World state.
Former governor and now U.S. Sen. Voinovich realized that in 1998 when he pushed for a 1 percent sales tax to be placed on the statewide ballot in the May primary. Voinovich parted company with many in the Republican Party and had to contend with those who opposed increased funding for public education. But Voinovich recognized that more state revenue had to be generated.
State Issue 2 went down in flames, which might explain why the current GOP leaders in Columbus won't even mention a tax increase. But isn't leadership all about making tough decisions and then persuading a majority of the population that those decisions deserve their support?
Taft, Finan and Householder have acknowledged that the amount of money the state spends on each public school student must be increased. Now, they need to acknowledge that they can't reach that goal with existing revenue, or with the ill-conceived gambling option.