Speaker 1: My Bill Cunningham, the great American to course our governor,
Speaker 1: as Governor Mike Dwine finds myself somewhere in Cleveland this
Speaker 1: afternoon trying to get out. I'm sure, and nonetheless, Governor
Speaker 1: Mike Dwine, welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And
Speaker 1: first of all, Governor, the last couple of days, I've
Speaker 1: watched the criminal activities of seemingly a deranged, homicidal fool
Speaker 1: who tried to kill your fellow Governor Josh Shapiro by
Speaker 1: fire bombing his home. I'm amazed, first of all, that
Speaker 1: this person can get over a fence, have a Molotov
Speaker 1: cocktails home brew, throw it through a window, walk in,
Speaker 1: and he said he had a mallet with him, that
Speaker 1: he was he was gonna kill Josh Shapiro. If the
Speaker 1: Governor had come down the steps saying what's going on,
Speaker 1: we could have had a real tragedy. Part of the
Speaker 1: risk of being in public life that you've been there
Speaker 1: for I guess half century or more, is is there's
Speaker 1: some nut jobs that may want to come after you.
Speaker 1: You've I've been kind enough being invited to your home
Speaker 1: and I noticed there was one or two highway patrolman
Speaker 1: standing around, but not I don't know about two o'clock
Speaker 1: in the morning, did what happen to Governor Josh Shapiro
Speaker 1: calls you any alarm or concern about your own physical safety.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, you know, our heart goes out
Speaker 2: to the Shapiro's. Uh, you know, I texted him as
Speaker 2: soon as I've found out. We had worked together on
Speaker 2: different things having to do with the border when we
Speaker 2: had these Palestine train derailment. You know, that was almost
Speaker 2: right on the border, and so we we we got
Speaker 2: to know each other through that. So, uh, you know,
Speaker 2: a shocking thing, a very very you know, very very
Speaker 2: sad situation. I think, you know, every governor around the
Speaker 2: country and every governor's security uh you know, probably was
Speaker 2: going to at least in theirs, some assessment of you know,
Speaker 2: how well are we doing? Uh, you know that's what
Speaker 2: that's what you always do. And you know, we certainly
Speaker 2: have have security. You know, there are people who write letters.
Speaker 2: We get letters that you know are threatening most of
Speaker 2: the time when they check them out. These are people
Speaker 2: who uh you know, aren't aren't really serious, but there
Speaker 2: are people out there. They're bad people out there, and
Speaker 2: so it certainly is concerned. I mean, when you think
Speaker 2: about it, Bill, you know just a few years ago
Speaker 2: that uh, you know, there was going to be an
Speaker 2: attempt on the governor Governor Whimmer of Michigan to kidnap her,
Speaker 2: if you remember that, and they you know, they stopped
Speaker 2: that before it actually took place. Uh, So you know,
Speaker 2: here you've got Michigan, here you've got Pennsylvania. So it's uh,
Speaker 2: it's very concerning.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about the Bengal deal. Of course,
Speaker 1: Uh you live in Green County and uh, pretty close
Speaker 1: to Cincinnati, far away from Cleveland we are this afternoon.
Speaker 1: But the deal is, it was positioned by the media
Speaker 1: was that the Cleveland Browns were getting six hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty million to Jimmy Haslam to move the Brownies from
Speaker 1: on the Lake to southern Cauyhoga County as part of
Speaker 1: like a two and a half to three billion dollar development,
Speaker 1: and that the Bengals and the Brown family came hat
Speaker 1: in hands. What about us? So I head on Representative
Speaker 1: Adam Bird of New Richmond, who laid out the plans
Speaker 1: as to why the Bengals aren't going to get the money.
Speaker 1: Senator Blessing of Coleraine Township said, the Bengals aren't going
Speaker 1: to get the money. It's a different deal. And you're
Speaker 1: the governor, I would ask you, are the Bengals going
Speaker 1: to get three hundred million dollars or so out of
Speaker 1: either either the general revenue fund or through bonding? And
Speaker 1: so the Bengals can do their one third part. According
Speaker 1: to Denise Treehouse, she said, one third from the state,
Speaker 1: one third from the Bengals slash NFL, one third from
Speaker 1: the county. Where do you stand on this shoe of anywhere?
Speaker 2: Governor Mike DeWine, Well, Bill, thanks for asking. First of all,
Speaker 2: I am a Bengals fan, uh and season ticket holder
Speaker 2: for a long time, you know, enjoy watching them a
Speaker 2: great deal, and so would be my first confession, I
Speaker 2: guess so. But look here, here's how I look at it.
Speaker 2: Let me just kind of walk people through this because
Speaker 2: I think it's a it's a good question, and there's
Speaker 2: been a lot written and I want to maybe try
Speaker 2: to clarify some things. You know, First of all, the
Speaker 2: state has put money. Taxpayers of the state have put
Speaker 2: money into stadiums going back, uh, you know, sixty years ago,
Speaker 2: fifty years ago, and it's been you know, off and on.
Speaker 2: Every few years there's been you know, an expansion of
Speaker 2: a ballpark or reconfiguration or building a new one, and
Speaker 2: the state has put some money into it. It's never
Speaker 2: been a huge amount or not a huge percentage. I
Speaker 2: don't think it has ever been over fifteen percent of
Speaker 2: the total total cost. But we do that and people say,
Speaker 2: why do you do that. Look, we do that because
Speaker 2: part of the quality of life in Ohio, and I
Speaker 2: think we have a great quality of life is we
Speaker 2: have great professional sports that are close to virtually everybody
Speaker 2: in the state. We also have theater, we also have
Speaker 2: the arts. We have you know, all kinds of different
Speaker 2: things that make our lives better and sports is one
Speaker 2: of them. And we want to be able to compete
Speaker 2: and keep these teams here in Ohio. So that's probably
Speaker 2: going to continue. But we have now more sports teams.
Speaker 2: We have two new soccer teams, not you know, not
Speaker 2: real new, but relatively new, and you know, we like them.
Speaker 2: That's that's great. It looks like it's going to be
Speaker 2: a women's soccer team that's going to come to Cleveland.
Speaker 2: So that's going to be another team. And we could
Speaker 2: go on and on, and the truth has been that
Speaker 2: we no longer can afford to take money from the
Speaker 2: general fund, from directly from the tax payers, because when
Speaker 2: we do it, we're taking that directly away from education,
Speaker 2: We're taking away from mental health, We're taking that away
Speaker 2: from you know, helping people who have addictions. But there
Speaker 2: is there is a pathway, uh, and I think it's
Speaker 2: a it's a good pathway. And this is what I
Speaker 2: have suggested to the legislature, and it's what is in
Speaker 2: the what was in the bill that I sent to
Speaker 2: the legislature, and that is that we increase the fee
Speaker 2: or tax, whatever you want to call it on these
Speaker 2: sports gaming companies that are making you know, hundreds and
Speaker 2: hundreds of millions of dollars they're taking out out of
Speaker 2: the state every year. Uh, they don't they don't work
Speaker 2: in the state, they don't have employees in the state.
Speaker 2: It all goes outside. And so getting the fee that
Speaker 2: we charge them higher to help us with these stadiums
Speaker 2: in the future makes sense. Frankly, I have to look
Speaker 2: at this from the Bengals point of view, of the
Speaker 2: Browns point of view, or the Reds. I have to
Speaker 2: look at it from you know, the whole state. So
Speaker 2: here's what our proposal would do. Would we would raise
Speaker 2: this sea that we charge these gaming companies. We would
Speaker 2: raise it, take it from twenty to forty. We would
Speaker 2: still not be the highest in the country New York
Speaker 2: State for examples of fifty. This would not come from
Speaker 2: the gamblers, It would not come from the citizens who
Speaker 2: place a bet. It would come directly from these companies.
Speaker 2: We looked the other day bill, for example, at some
Speaker 2: of the states that have low, low tax versus they
Speaker 2: say New York. The odds that these companies were quoting
Speaker 2: was identical in these states. So by putting his tax on,
Speaker 2: they're not going to hurt or change the odds for
Speaker 2: our gamers. That this would generate somewhere between one hundred,
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty to one hundred and eighty to
Speaker 2: one hundred and ninety million dollars a year. My plan
Speaker 2: would be to put that into a fund, and that
Speaker 2: would be the fund that would grow every year and
Speaker 2: it could be used for all the things you know,
Speaker 2: to put the state share in. It certainly wouldn't pay
Speaker 2: for the renovation of these ballparks the stadiums completely, but
Speaker 2: it would it would do the state share, which we
Speaker 2: should be doing. And it's I think it's a good proposal,
Speaker 2: and that's proposal that I've asked the General Assembly to pass.
Speaker 1: All right now. On that issue, I asked your friend
Speaker 1: Adam Byrd who's in the leadership of the House, about that.
Speaker 1: And I also ask him about increasing marijuana, that's a
Speaker 1: different issue, and he said he said he's not going
Speaker 1: to vote for that because that's a tax increase. It
Speaker 1: may be a fee increase, but all these conservative Republicans
Speaker 1: have just said we're not doing that. And so because
Speaker 1: we're increasing taxes, how would you respond to the Senator
Speaker 1: Blessing and others who said we're not doing that.
Speaker 2: Well, it's it certainly is better than taking it from
Speaker 2: taxpayers in Ohio. Uh. This is not taking taxpayers Ohio money. UH.
Speaker 2: It's taking it from these gaming companies. They're out of state.
Speaker 1: UH.
Speaker 2: And and they're they're taking hundreds literally hundreds of millions
Speaker 2: of dollars in profit every single year. They can they
Speaker 2: can spend a little that money and it would be
Speaker 2: a tax. And again, they're not going to leave Ohio
Speaker 2: or the sixth largest state as far as gaming. Uh,
Speaker 2: They're going to continue to be here. And just as
Speaker 2: in New York and New Hampshire and some other states
Speaker 2: that have higher fees than we would have or higher
Speaker 2: taxes than we would have, you know, they're not they're
Speaker 2: not going to leave uh And so this money, there's
Speaker 2: some justice that seems to me that these gaming companies
Speaker 2: that really don't have any investment, investment in stadiums or
Speaker 2: anything else, would have to pay you know, some of this,
Speaker 2: some of their profit would go towards maintaining the ballparks
Speaker 2: and the stadiums that we have in this in the
Speaker 2: state of Ohio.
Speaker 1: Say, if you're one third of the deal, you're the governor,
Speaker 1: you got the lawmakers or are saying the ones I've
Speaker 1: spoken to are saying no. Also, the Bengals went the
Speaker 1: money up front governor. In other words, according to Denise Streetthouse,
Speaker 1: it's about nine hundred million. They don't want this over
Speaker 1: the next five to ten or twenty years. They need
Speaker 1: it like immediately, like three hundred million dollars from the
Speaker 1: state as the state's part of the puzzle. Are you
Speaker 1: saying that's a non starter.
Speaker 2: No, I wouldn't say it's a non starter. What I'm
Speaker 2: saying is we can't pay for it out general funds.
Speaker 1: We can't.
Speaker 2: We can't rob education, we can't rob mental health. We
Speaker 2: just can't do that. Bill. Listen to all the people
Speaker 2: who are lining up for money. So the only way
Speaker 2: we can we can effectively do it, is it again,
Speaker 2: of the fee or tax or whatever you want to
Speaker 2: call it, of these gaming companies that are making such
Speaker 2: a huge amount of money. We can do that. We
Speaker 2: can levy that tax or leave that fee and create
Speaker 2: the money. Frankly, that is necessary to meet some of
Speaker 2: these needs. There are all of these needs as you
Speaker 2: see around the state. Now, what percentage the state ends
Speaker 2: up putting in it, I don't know. That would have
Speaker 2: to be determined in the future. The state has put
Speaker 2: in to my recollection bill, and most of the state
Speaker 2: has ever put in I think was fifty million dollars.
Speaker 2: Now I may be wrong. I have to check, but
Speaker 2: it's it's so when we're talking about, you know, six
Speaker 2: hundred million from the from for the Browns and trend
Speaker 2: fifty uh you know for the Bengals, I'm not saying
Speaker 2: that's impossible. If possible, you can monetize this money. Know,
Speaker 2: you're having a flow of that money coming out. But
Speaker 2: this money would also be available frankly from the minor
Speaker 2: league baseball teams Dayton Dragons for example. You know this,
Speaker 2: this would be available for soccer, you know what, every
Speaker 2: other major league sport that we have in the state
Speaker 2: of Ohio. So you know, why can't guarante see what
Speaker 2: would be available. But again, at one hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: to one hundred and eighty a million a year, that's
Speaker 2: going to flow out month after month after month. People
Speaker 2: are not going to stop gaming as much as you
Speaker 2: know we might want them to, but they're not going
Speaker 2: to do that, and so the money is going to
Speaker 2: be their bill to I think, you know, make a
Speaker 2: major contribution, uh to to all of these stadiums when
Speaker 2: it comes time, you know, for them to be rehabbed
Speaker 2: or if there's a building of a new one.
Speaker 1: I got to talked about the coroner's office being eliminated,
Speaker 1: but we'll get to that in a moment. So, uh,
Speaker 1: if you get in an additional one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: to say two hundred million a year and chop it
Speaker 1: up among seven or eight sports teams, that doesn't leave
Speaker 1: a large piece and the bengalsals eight three hundred million
Speaker 1: dollars like now.
Speaker 2: Well, Billy, you know every everything you know and by
Speaker 2: the way, you know when you talk about Bengals, I
Speaker 2: mean that request is coming from the county. Uh. You know,
Speaker 2: the county has been the ones who have made that request,
Speaker 2: us request to us. But you know it is something
Speaker 2: that you know, Look, the Bengals stadium, uh has has
Speaker 2: to be brought up to speed. We understand that, you know,
Speaker 2: the other stadiums do as well. But you talked about
Speaker 2: cutting it up amongst seven ways. Uh. The truth of
Speaker 2: is bill that that these stadiums, you know, sort of
Speaker 2: come to over different periods of time. You could probably
Speaker 2: sit down uh and with a chart, uh and figure
Speaker 2: out how much money would be needed you know every
Speaker 2: single year. Uh. You know you've got some of the
Speaker 2: new ones won't be needed, that money will not be
Speaker 2: needed for a while. Uh and again and again. Look,
Speaker 2: let me just kind of summarize. I don't think we
Speaker 2: should be taking taxpayers dollars in the state of Ohio
Speaker 2: uh that are paid for buy our taxpayers that would
Speaker 2: normally go to education, that would normally go to other
Speaker 2: other things, and take that away and put it in
Speaker 2: the stadiums. When we have a great opportunity and a
Speaker 2: great alternative, and that alternative is to take it from
Speaker 2: the people who are making the money, and that is
Speaker 2: the sports gaming companies.
Speaker 1: Well, I had one pun. It say that the taxpayer
Speaker 1: who can't afford to go to the Bengal football games
Speaker 1: are going to ATPs to continue to pay a sales
Speaker 1: tax to a billionaires. Does the fact that Jimmy Haslam
Speaker 1: and the Brown family are worth multi billions of dollars,
Speaker 1: There's a sense by some like Adam Bird, that maybe
Speaker 1: they should contribute a lot more money. It looks like
Speaker 1: Jimmy Haslam he's contributing about sixteen percent of the deal,
Speaker 1: which is close to your fifteen percent, but looks like
Speaker 1: the Bengals would be contributing or the state would be
Speaker 1: contributing more like thirty three percent, which might be a
Speaker 1: non starter. But nonetheless, the governor is saying, let's go
Speaker 1: down this route to see what we can do. You're
Speaker 1: kind of saying, let's see what happens.
Speaker 2: To next bill. Bill, I just have to correct you
Speaker 2: that those are numbers are not right. As far as
Speaker 2: the Browns, I mean their proposal, their proposal. You know
Speaker 2: they're asking for six hundred million, a lot of money.
Speaker 2: But their proposal I think is for them to put
Speaker 2: in one point three something like that, So you know,
Speaker 2: that's still a lot of money. I'm on both fronts.
Speaker 1: And now, lastly, there's a provision in the legislature to
Speaker 1: eliminate all the county corners offices. My friend doctor last
Speaker 1: me some Marco and Hamiley county corner elected is not
Speaker 1: happy about that. I would think the other corners are
Speaker 1: not happy. Of course they think it's coming that the
Speaker 1: county auditor, treasure or clerk. Of course, maybe the sheriff.
Speaker 1: That'll drive Richard Richard K. Jones bananas. Uh do you
Speaker 1: support the idea of eliminating the right of the people
Speaker 1: to vote for corners?
Speaker 2: And the No, I don't. I mean, look, this kiss
Speaker 2: came out nowhere. I'm not sure why where it really
Speaker 2: came from. Uh, but look, we elect corners. Now if
Speaker 2: you look at small counties. I don't want to get
Speaker 2: too far off the point. I'll stay with corners. Uh.
Speaker 2: You know, probably what needs to be done in this state,
Speaker 2: UH is we need to help particularly the small counties. Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, pay for the autopsies. You know, these autopsies
Speaker 2: as you know, if it's in Brown County or Adams County,
Speaker 2: you know, Claremont County, none of these are being done.
Speaker 2: I don't think in these local counties they have to
Speaker 2: go to. There's about five or six places in the
Speaker 2: state where these autopsies take place, and they have to
Speaker 2: charge the of course charge these counties. So it is
Speaker 2: a real burden, particularly on the on the smaller on
Speaker 2: the smaller counties. You know our our our, our friend
Speaker 2: the doctor of the corner of of your friend of mine. Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, she does a very very good job. I
Speaker 2: think in regard to Hamilton County. Uh, it's a big operation. Uh.
Speaker 2: It's look, it's important that these autopsies be done timely. Uh,
Speaker 2: and they be done done well. So corners probably another
Speaker 2: discussion another day. But the idea that we take this
Speaker 2: away from the people's right to vote, I'm not in
Speaker 2: favor of.
Speaker 1: It's the beginning of getting rid of a share of vote,
Speaker 1: getting rid of the auditor treasure's clerk at courts, streamlining government,
Speaker 1: reforming government, all that's good. But when you tell to
Speaker 1: a Republican we're going to take away your right to vote,
Speaker 1: that's kind of a serious problem. You're against that. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll see what happens. But we got about ten weeks
Speaker 1: to go until June thirtieth. That's the deadline for the
Speaker 1: Bengals and a deadline for your capital budget. This will
Speaker 1: be your last one. By the time this thing is
Speaker 1: over with in the summer of twenty twenty seven, you'll
Speaker 1: be shall we say, it'll be history, you'll be done. Well.
Speaker 2: We get we have this regular budget, as you say,
Speaker 2: but we also next year will have a capital budget.
Speaker 2: So really in the process of finishing the major budget,
Speaker 2: but we have a ways to go. The Centate, of course,
Speaker 2: Bill is not really taking this up yet. They will
Speaker 2: do that when they come back in two weeks. Ocassee
Speaker 2: where we go.
Speaker 1: Ah, Hi, Governor, thank you very much. But we'll see
Speaker 1: what happens with the Bengals. This is coming to a
Speaker 1: head soon, and stay safe. And Governor Mike DeWine, thank
Speaker 1: you for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show. And the
Speaker 1: next time I have dinner with you in your home,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be looking over my shoulder.
Speaker 2: H Thank you Bill for talking with you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Governor.
Speaker 2: I think I think you should probably always look over
Speaker 2: your shoulder. Bill, But we'll see maybe.
Speaker 1: You're right all right, Governor, thank you very much, Thank you, Bud,
Speaker 1: thank you ye bye bye. Let's continue with more and
Speaker 1: if the line becomes available five one, three, seven, four, nine,
Speaker 1: seven thousand. The Governor has tepid support for the deal,
Speaker 1: but it must be structuring away. The money comes from
Speaker 1: the gaming tax and not from the general fund. Bill
Speaker 1: Cunningham News Radio, seven hundred wu ow