This week’s bullet points of local information you might want to know, but may have missed:
- The Licking County Democratic Party hosted State Senator and Gubernatorial Candidate Joe Schiavoni on Tuesday. At said meeting, Schiavoni attempted to pour cold water on any push for a $15 an hour wage or even public colleges being tuition free, saying that such was not “realistic”. To him, aiming for $10 was a much more attainable and worthy pursuit. Furthermore, when pressed on what the state can do to help incentivize local communities adopting public transit, he expressed his belief that we need to become “creative” as to how we address the issue – a theme he kept repeating throughout his responses to questioning -, noting that he doesn’t think everyone will see adopting such as worthwhile.
- Our Governor, John Kasich, was on MSNBC this week speaking with Chris Matthews and while Matthews was pandering to Kasich as some model for “moderate Republicanism” or at least as another “compassionate conservative”, Matthews lent praise to Kasich for his support of “school choice”. You know, the model for education which is designed to undermine our educational system and gradually privatize it? Yeah, that.
- A vote is coming this Tuesday with some degree of importance. For starters, there is a primary race in Newark’s Seventh Ward between two Democrats – Sean Fennell and Jim Amore – which has taken an unfortunate turn to worst that politics has to offer. What’s especially tragic here is that this primary – closed to anyone who isn’t a Democrat – will likely determine the next member of City Council from this ward since no Republican or Independent candidate is challenging them. Is this right? Should everyone in the ward have a chance to vote between the two men who will likely represent them come January? The other major vote is on a levy for 911, put up by the County Commissioners without much explanation beyond some assurances that approval will permit the Commissioners to spend some County dollars on “other” projects. The County Auditor has come out opposed to this measure, calling it unnecessary.
- Statewide, the legislature is pondering a series of actions. One of them includes a bill which will reduce funding for schools with “declining” student populations. Undoubtedly, one may well easily connect the dots with this population/funding decline with the diversion of both to privatized forms of education which aren’t held to the same public, high standard. The other matter they are pondering would harm the protection provided by the Medicaid expansion by forcing childless adults out of coverage if they get a better paying job and then lose it and would prevent any such adult from accessing this coverage anew.
The Licking County Progressives 