BuckeyeBlog

On to the Ohio Senate for HB 420, modeled after federal earmark legislation, which would require by 2009 that the Office of Budget and management come up with performance measures for state government, and also require the development of online databases of state real property and “state awards,” including contracts and other “financial assistance and expenditures.” As to best practice standards,

The standards, at a minimum, must address all the following areas: (1) budget and performance integration, (2) competitive sourcing, (3) E-government, (4) human capital, and (5) financial performance improvement. (R.C. 126.55(A). The Director of OBM must also establish performance measures to increase transparency and to ensure citizens and agencies have a better understanding of what is being accomplished.

This is more than sunshine; it’s nuclear fusion.

I’ve had a favorite pair of Wayfarers lying around for about 20 years, and a few weeks ago I dug them out and had prescription lenses put into them. Now I wear them everywhere, even when it’s raining as it is this morning. Since I can’t afford a Ferrari, this is as close as I’ll come to a mid-life crisis.

Driving at high speed through a school zone this morning, I saw a kindred spirit: a woman in tennis shoes, shorts, a yellow hooded rain slicker, mowing her lawn.

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It was a small crowd at today’s Ways and Means Committee hearing at which Rep. John Adams, R-Sidney, gave sponsor testimony for H.B. 534. The bill would phase out Ohio’s personal income tax over 10 years.

By my count, there were only 14 people present, and all of them looked to be pros - staffers, journalists and ne’er do wells.

Mostly the testimony brought out posturing posing as inquiry. The chairmen of the committees ought to do a better job policing this behavior, requiring questioners to pose actual questions, rather than merely to pose. (Of course, I should eat less, and exercise, too.)

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“No fewer than four McCain staffers and advisers mentioned as a possible vice-presidential pick the 36-year-old Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal.”

Say, that wouldn’t be a trial balloon, would it?

No sooner does it get floated than stalwarts such as the Club for Growth start firing on it, noting several significant non-conservative votes and intimating that the Republican party is just a little too desperate for another Reagan–so much so that they’re willing to call anyone Reagan so long as the person isn’t actually spitting on conservative values.

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Just as Ohio can learn something from Florida regarding education choice and taxes, it can also learn something from the Sunshine State about health care reform. The Florida legislature just passed a bill that would allow a “no-frills” health insurance policy to be sold in the state. These policies would be much cheaper than other policies because they would not include a variety of politically-motivated mandates, such as the kind Ohio is adding.

Unfortunately, Ohio is pursuing health care “reform” that is going to have the opposite effect of Florida’s. Governor Strickland’s health care task force, according to Gongwer News Service ($):

A group of health care stakeholders appointed by Gov. Ted Strickland has generally agreed that the state should require Ohioans purchase health insurance and subsidize low-income individuals who can’t afford it….

However, for an individual mandate to be feasible, members generally believe there should also be a guaranteed issuance of coverage…

This type of plan to increase government control will only result in higher prices for health insurance in the state. Florida is looking better all the time.