Suppose, for instance, Greater Cleveland car-insurance (Progressive) mogul Peter B. Lewis, a liberal (in both senses) donor to Democratic causes, was a huge fan of for-profit charter schools.
No matter who backs them, for-profit charters are a horrible idea. But does anyone seriously think Ohio General Assembly Democrats would be so outraged about for-profit charters if Lewis were promoting them, rather than Akron Republican cashbox David L. Brennan?
Same goes the other way. Imagine, for example, a world where Ohio’s public employee labor unions had consistently backed the election of Republicans to the General Assembly.
Would the Ohio House and state Senate, both Republican-run, have passed union-busting Senate Bill 5? To ask the question is to answer it.
And the Democratic side of the Ohio House isn’t Sunnybrook Farm, either.
Last session, House Democrats didn’t exactly flinch when then-Gov. Ted Strickland, also a Democrat, handed rich Ohio homeowners a property tax break by taking the income lid off Ohio’s homestead exemption for older Ohioans.
Because the state treasury makes up any property tax money that a public school district loses due to the homestead exemption, Strickland’s administration evidently wanted a two-fer: To please some well-off voters while appearing to increase the state’s percentage share of public school costs.
That is, state government, a Democratic state government, could claim it was “doing more” for schools than, in the world where skies are colored blue, it actually was.
But in fairness, much Democrat-Republican jousting in Columbus hides what’s really at stake most of the time: It’s either (a) Ohio’s haves vs. Ohio’s have-nots or (b) one gang of business interests vs. a rival gang of business interests.
As to battlefield (a), the “haves” do quite well, thank you for asking. As for battlefield (b), personal-injury lawyers win one year, insurance companies win the next year — and the referees (Ohio legislators) win every year.
That’s how the merry-go-round spins. The average Ohio taxpayer stands a better chance of collecting on a Mega-Millions ticket than of getting a full hearing in Columbus. Why? Because Ms. or Mr. Taxpayer doesn’t donate to campaigns, and donations buy you a Statehouse hall pass.
Why else do so many senators and representatives have fund-raisers at posh Columbus restaurants rather than back home, in their legislative districts?
After all, it’s their districts they represent, not Columbus lobbyists. Right?
This isn’t really the way the people’s business is supposed to get done, is it?
Thomas Suddes is an adjunct assistant professor at Ohio University. Send email to tsuddes@gmail.com.