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Advocacy group files suits
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
A liberal advocacy group that has filed a series of lawsuits against Gov. John Kasich is accusing the Republican administration of funneling public funds to chambers of commerce that support controversial changes to the state’s collective-bargaining laws.
ProgressOhio alleges Kasich’s appointees in the Department of Development, JobsOhio and the Third Frontier Commission are directing millions of dollars to business groups that have or will endorse Senate Bill 5, which will appear on the November ballot.
“I don’t care what governor is in power, I don’t care if it’s a Republican or a Democrat, the fact of the matter is this is now a laundering scheme that allows for public money to flow into organizations that will be compromised in their decision-making over issues such as Senate Bill 5 in the future,” said Brian Rothenberg, executive director of ProgressOhio.
He also said, “Regardless of who is governor, we now have public funds directly or indirectly intermingling with the politics of whoever’s in power. And those power-holders will be able to make decisions that will affect all Ohioans.”
Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols called Rothenberg’s comments “so untrue that it’s silly.”
In a released statement, he said, “The business community understands the importance of controlling costs in order to survive and has clearly understood the importance of helping local governments do the same thing. This type of baseless attack is the desperate tactic of anti-reformers who are so afraid of the real facts that they won’t even put them on their website.”
ProgressOhio has filed suit questioning the constitutionality of JobsOhio, the new private nonprofit created by lawmakers to take control of the state’s economic development programming.
JobsOhio will not be subject to the state’s open meetings and records law, though it will be required to issue periodic reports on projects it supports.
ProgressOhio and other critics of the setup say the new nonprofit eliminates public oversight of the state’s economic development incentive programs.
Local chambers are receiving public funding to support JobsOhio’s work. Many of those same groups are supporting SB 5, Rothenberg said.
“It leaves an impression to the public that there is no public oversight and that public dollars could be washed through and be used to further the governor’s partisan agenda on the ballot,” he said. “It’s a dangerous precedent.”
He added later, “This is a recipe for an ethical and criminal problem.”
In a released statement, Jason Mauk, spokesman for Building a Better Ohio, the SB 5 proponent group, said ProgressOhio’s claims were “an absurd reach in logic with absolutely no basis in fact. It’s nothing more than a publicity stunt designed to generate headlines.”