BuckeyeBlog

With the mess unfolding in Cuyahoga County, I’m unclear why this isn’t getting a little more attention in Columbus. Governor Strickland abdicated his responsibility by claiming “the most proper thing for me and others to do is to do nothing that would be perceived as an attempt to interfere with that investigation…”, as if a state investigation would somehow interfere with the federal efforts.

Although Governor Strickland clearly won’t be the one to do it, it surely needs to be investigated how the county is spending taxpayers’ money. This is a large issue in the investigation, considering that the feds are looking at allegations contending that Commissioner Dimora helped steer construction contracts to his buddies. He and his fellow commissioners help allocate $1.5 billion in spending. Federal and state taxpayers contribute almost 37% of the tax money that pays for that spending. As the county budget office puts it, that’s the “largest source of funding to the County.”

County Auditor Frank Russo must report to State Auditor Mary Taylor about the county’s finances. Considering that Mr. Russo is being investigated along with Mr. Dimora, and considering the large amount of money the state pours into Cuyahoga County, Auditor Taylor should show some leadership where Governor Strickland has failed to do so and start looking into the gritty details of Cuyahoga County’s spending. The taxpayers of Ohio have a right to know if something fishy was going on with the money they have provided to this county.

Tags: Cuyahoga County

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 at 3:55 pm and is filed under Accountable Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.