Challenges abound in new year

From politics to the economy to the environment, 2012 will be a year of challenges for the Mahoning Valley. With the presidential election as the backdrop, the decisions made by this region will have major ramifications locally and statewide.

There’s a lot at stake, especially for the predominantly Democratic Mahoning and Trumbull counties. With President Barack Obama’s struggling to gain a firm political footing for his re-election bid this year, state and national Democratic Party leaders will be looking to this region to deliver the vote in the November general election.

While there are advantages to not having a Democratic presidential primary in Ohio, the major disadvantage is that the Republicans, who are having a no-holds-barred election, are dominating the airwaves. This isn’t good when the Democratic standard-bearer is trying to get his party faithful excited about his re-election bid.

Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras and his counterpart in Trumbull County, Dan Polivka, would be indulging in political wishful thinking if they claim that the traditional party supporters, especially white-male, noncollege, blue-collar voters, are excited about Obama.

The November 2010 statewide election in which Republicans swept all the offices, including governor, was a preview of this year’s contest. The enthusiasm gap between the GOPers and the Democrats was huge. Although Gov. Ted Strickland lost his re-election bid to Republican John Kasich by a sliver of a vote, the fact is that heavily Democratic regions like the Valley failed to turn out the vote. It has long been a political truism that a 60 percent-plus vote in Mahoning County is required in a statewide election to give Democrats a chance of winning.

Will President Obama be able to rally the troops this year? An official involved with his re-election campaign in Ohio insists that the president is not turning his back on any group of voters, including the white-male, noncollege, blue- collar workers. The official also down played a recent New York Times story that said the campaign had decided to write off this particular group because of widespread disenchantment with the economy and the job situation.

Perceived momentum

The campaign also believes that the defeat of State Issue 2 in November was a major victory for labor unions and their Democratic allies. The issue was a referendum on the collective-bargaining reform law that was rammed through by the Republican-led General Assembly at the urging of Gov. Kasich.

President Obama is aware that the Mahoning Valley reflects the traditional Democratic Party and the way he campaigns in this region will speak volumes.

The economic challenges that will confront Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties stem from the national recession that began in late 2008 during the tenure of President George W. Bush but also from the state of Ohio’s financial downturn.

Local governments have had to absorb major cuts in state funding, and the governor has warned that the next two years will be just as difficult. Therefore, county, city, township and village officeholders will have to find a way to reduce their costs while still providing the services taxpayers expect.

Youngstown Mayor Charles Sammarone has talked about the consolidation of the city’s 911 emergency telephone service with Mahoning County’s system and the consolidation of the city and county health departments as being priorities. There are other avenues that all area governments can pursue, such as central purchasing of goods and services.

Given the economic realities confronting the region, The Regional Chamber will be in a strong position to resurrect its plan for metropolitan government in Mahoning and Trumbull counties and the consolidation of the administration of school districts in the two counties.

The environmental challenges that will confront this region center on the oil and gas rush triggered by the Utica/Marcellus shale exploration. Many Valley residents with large tracts of land stand to make a lot of money by leasing their mineral rights to drilling companies, but the question that still has not been answered fully relates to the environmental impact of fracking — a process of drilling into the shale.

Local governments have no say on the leasing of land or the rules and regulations on the drilling, and the Kasich administration has made it clear that Ohio is open to this industry.