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Effort to bring casino to Ohio lost on list
Published on Sunday, Aug 10, 2008
COLUMBUS: Pack a lunch. Drink some coffee. Plan on spending some time in the voting booth in November.
Along with the presidential election, Ohio and U.S. legislative races, and two state Supreme Court contests, the ballots will be crowded with as many as six statewide issues.
Yes, a half dozen questions for the voting public to ponder. Oh, yeah, don't forget your reading glasses.
Three issues — to roll back deadlines for initiative petition drives, up the state debt by $200 million for conservation efforts and preserve water property rights — are brought to you by the fine folks in the Ohio General Assembly.
For the others, you can thank unions, payday lenders and casino developers.
Like the locusts and the buzzards, the people who want to bring gaming closer to home are back, although voters have thrice rejected efforts to amend the Ohio Constitution to allow casinos.
In past years, this has been the most contentious issue, but oddly, payday lending and the mandatory sick leave initiatives have sides colliding in 2008.
Issue 4 on the ballot this fall would ask voters whether they want to require companies that employ 25 or more workers to provide up to seven sick days annually. Unused sick time would be carried over to the next year.
In recent weeks, Gov. Ted Strickland, who is proving time and again that he is no true friend to unions or workers, has been trying to negotiate a compromise with the business community to keep the issue off the ballot.
The unions collected enough signatures to force lawmakers to introduce a resolution to address mandatory sick days, but the idea languished. A second drive was launched for additional signatures to go directly to the ballot.
Strickland's efforts were met with disdain by the business community and distrust by the unions.
The unions, wisely, aren't willing to drop their drive until legislation is passed and the governor's signature has dried, but legislative leaders have signaled that they will not bring lawmakers back to Columbus before the election.
Strickland is concerned that the mandatory sick leave, which would make Ohio unique among states in the nation, will harm efforts to attract and retain jobs.
He should also worry about the growing number of his own party who believe the governor is catering to Republicans and businesses while turning his back on his base supporters.
Although he could not depend upon their help with sick days, Strickland has the support of House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, and Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, to fight the payday-lending industry.
After a law was passed to lower the allowable interest rates from 391 percent annually to 28 percent, the payday-lending industry claimed its narrow profit margins could not withstand the new restrictions.
Somehow the squeezed industry, which has been barely existing with 391 percent rates, has been able to raise a mountain of money to launch a petition drive and fund a $16 million television and radio advertising blitz to win the hearts, minds and future paychecks of the Ohio public.
So Issue 5 would ask voters to repeal the 28 percent cap.
The ads will tell you that
1,600 payday-lending stores and 6,000 jobs are at stake, and poor people will have no place to turn for a short-term loan.
Strickland's Ohio Department of Commerce already is disputing that argument, noting more than 1,000 businesses have applied for the new small loan licenses created by the bill that reduced rates to 28 percent annually.
The thornier problem for the anti-payday lenders is explaining where people will go for short-term loans. To date, banks and most credit unions provide little or no help.
Last on the list and lost in the clamor over sick days and pay days is the effort to bring a $600 million casino complex to southwest Ohio.
And the supporters are crossing their fingers and praying it stays that way until they can fill the airwaves this fall with fanciful tales of high-paying jobs, plush resorts, large piles of cash for each and every county in the state and fun for the whole family.
Not to mention the estimated 5,000 slot machines.
Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com.
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