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Speaker 1: Fifty five KRS the talk station. It's seven six at
Speaker 1: five PRCG Talk station. Very happy Monday, Election Day eve.
Speaker 1: Everybody has at least one issue to vote on, although
Speaker 1: you may have a school, lovey to vote on or
Speaker 1: some other local issue. Here to join the fifty five
Speaker 1: KRC Morning Show, and we thank you very much for
Speaker 1: doing so. State Representative Jennifer Gross representing District forty five
Speaker 1: and she's with me. I'm a hard strong no on
Speaker 1: issue too, Jennifer, welcome to the program.
Speaker 3: Thank you. Brian, good morning.
Speaker 2: Now. First off, this is a constitutional amendment my correct.
Speaker 3: Correct, based on the ballot by your legislature.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know what what to deal with that.
Speaker 2: I have read.
Speaker 1: This enjoys bipartisan support and business organizations many organizations say
Speaker 1: the behind this Before we dive into the why we
Speaker 1: should vote no on it? What is it supposed to accomplish?
Speaker 1: Issue too?
Speaker 3: Well, let's go back, if you don't mind, Brian, a
Speaker 3: little bit to the history. In nineteen eighty seven, this
Speaker 3: was started by Democrat Governor Celeste and it was supposedly
Speaker 3: started because our roads were in such disrepair, and back
Speaker 3: then our gas tax was fourteen cents now it's thirty
Speaker 3: eight point five since per gallon. It was to fund
Speaker 3: local projects because our highways were in great disrepair. The
Speaker 3: highway system had been utilized more often for manufacturing, and
Speaker 3: we had lots and lots of projects, largely local, a
Speaker 3: lot of those too. But the transportation budget is also
Speaker 3: another revenue stream that we use. So we already had
Speaker 3: the transportation budget and they said, well, we need a
Speaker 3: bump of money, so Celeste put it on the ballot
Speaker 3: for five hundred million dollars. Now it's they're asking for
Speaker 3: two point five billion. And the projects were supposed to
Speaker 3: be basically, you know, we had a backlog of local
Speaker 3: infrastructure needs back then in nineteen eighty seven, and yet
Speaker 3: every ten years we keep renewing this. So just a
Speaker 3: little bit of the history.
Speaker 1: So this takes away the tenure renewal and ensurance. It
Speaker 1: in the constitution, so it's always funded, Yes.
Speaker 2: It's always been.
Speaker 3: So it was placed in the constitution every ten years, yes, sir, all.
Speaker 1: Right, So question first thought out of the gate here, Jennifer,
Speaker 1: why do we need this separate pool of money you
Speaker 1: mentioned specifically something I was going to ask about. The
Speaker 1: gas tax is supposed to fund road improvements and maintain infrastructure.
Speaker 1: I don't know how much you take in in Ohio
Speaker 1: annually in the gas tax, but is it is that
Speaker 1: an insufficient revenue source? And if so, doesn't that require
Speaker 1: elected officials to allocate additional funds for the roads, maybe
Speaker 1: to the exclusion of some other fun new stuff and
Speaker 1: things the state might take on.
Speaker 3: Very good thinking, Brian, That's exactly my thought process. The
Speaker 3: transportation budget was just passed, and it passed with at
Speaker 3: eleven point five billion dollars, and that is supposed to
Speaker 3: cover you guessed it, roads and bridges. Federal vehicle registration
Speaker 3: helps safe for that as well, you know, the highways,
Speaker 3: local projects. The transportation budget covers all the things, or
Speaker 3: the majority of the things they're asking for in this
Speaker 3: bond issue, which is fascinating. So if the people choose
Speaker 3: not to pass this, it would send it back to us.
Speaker 3: The legislature require us to use your money more fiscally sound.
Speaker 1: So by allowing the bonds to be issued, that just
Speaker 1: means the money's being borrowed and then we've got to
Speaker 1: pay it back.
Speaker 2: With interest.
Speaker 3: Correct, correct, And you're absolutely right. I'm sorry I didn't
Speaker 3: answer your question quite fully before about another funding source.
Speaker 3: We have five budgets already, you know, we have BTWC
Speaker 3: and the General Revenue Fund, and the Transportation budget, and
Speaker 3: the capital budget and another budget called the IC budget.
Speaker 2: This is a sixth.
Speaker 3: Revenue stream, and we're asking the people for more money.
Speaker 3: We're already spending eleven point five on the transportation budget.
Speaker 3: We're asking for another funding stream. And you know, I
Speaker 3: just but it's debt.
Speaker 2: I mean, the funding stream is borrowing that money.
Speaker 1: So you've got to do You got to do financial
Speaker 1: obligation every and every counter of year in the budget,
Speaker 1: which is servicing the debt that you borrowed to fund
Speaker 1: this particular fund.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's.
Speaker 3: Right, and it's that bonds have debt and an interest
Speaker 3: to be paid back.
Speaker 1: All right now, Now, going to this is just layers
Speaker 1: as stupid from my perspective, Jennifer, I apologize to spoil it. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: I just it. Really it bothers me. You would think
Speaker 1: that the Columbus, we've got a bunch of Republicans dominating
Speaker 1: the House and the Senate and the governor, you would
Speaker 1: think there would be more fiscal responsibility and more willingness
Speaker 1: to manage dollars rather than do something like this. So
Speaker 1: I'm frustrated by this happening in Ohio, but I'm used
Speaker 1: to it by now with Columbus the way it operates now. Allegedly,
Speaker 1: the grants that are dealt with in this cover roads, bridges,
Speaker 1: water supply, wastewater treatments, stormwater collection, and solid waste disposal. Now,
Speaker 1: since I live in the Greater Cincinnati area, if city
Speaker 1: council had control over any one of these given projects
Speaker 1: with the money that are coming from these bonds being issued,
Speaker 1: it will be some outrageously outlandish green focused projects. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna deal with wastewater, but we're not going to
Speaker 1: do it in the most energy, for most efficient way,
Speaker 1: mining the taxpayer dollars. We're going to do something really
Speaker 1: crazy and far more expensive in the name of I
Speaker 1: don't know, climate change or something. And on by the way,
Speaker 1: it's going to be mandated. All all this is being
Speaker 1: done by union scale wage and all the extra do
Speaker 1: deads and so I'm just looking at it.
Speaker 3: Yes, Brian, did you see the vote yes on issue too?
Speaker 3: Signs who does that. Does your legislature pay money to
Speaker 3: tell you to vote yet? No, So if someone's spending
Speaker 3: money to get you to vote yes on issue too,
Speaker 3: but your legislature put it on the ballot, which I
Speaker 3: voted against putting it on the ballot. By the way,
Speaker 3: let's be clear, there were four of us who voted
Speaker 3: against putting it on the ballot. But if someone's paying
Speaker 3: money for signs to get you to vote yes on
Speaker 3: issue too, why do you think they'd be doing that.
Speaker 1: They're going to be the recipients of the project money
Speaker 1: because they're going to get the contract.
Speaker 3: I believe you hit that on the nose. And look,
Speaker 3: I have no you know, personal problem with and I
Speaker 3: don't even know actually the people directly behind the signs.
Speaker 3: But here's what I do know. If you're going to
Speaker 3: spend money to try to get us to vote yet,
Speaker 3: there's some benefit to you to spend that money. And
Speaker 3: so you're absolutely right the people that are going to
Speaker 3: get the contracts and all of that. The other thing
Speaker 3: that's a concern to me is this, there's no clear
Speaker 3: direction as to who would get those projects. Is the
Speaker 3: biggest project, because I had someone not in my district
Speaker 3: but I had someone call me and say, you know,
Speaker 3: it's been two decades and we have this bridge that
Speaker 3: we'd have we've had to lower load on because we
Speaker 3: can't get it fixed. So even though we keep approving
Speaker 3: all this money, we're not getting the project. And they're
Speaker 3: in a small rural county in Ohio. So how are
Speaker 3: the projects being spent, how are they divvied out? How
Speaker 3: do we determine? And it is my understanding that once again,
Speaker 3: when we spend this money, we also then draw down
Speaker 3: additional funds from the federal government. I don't know if
Speaker 3: everybody understands what that means. What does draw down from
Speaker 3: the federal government mean? It means that if you're telling
Speaker 3: me that you think the federal government has blowed and
Speaker 3: bloated and overgrown and Ohio has to stop spending money
Speaker 3: locally just to get more money from the federal government. So,
Speaker 3: for instance, for every dollar we spend, four dollars comes
Speaker 3: back from the federal government. In some of these projects,
Speaker 3: we have federal highway funds and things like that that
Speaker 3: we then when we spend the money, the federal government
Speaker 3: matches us a certain amount. So the federal government has
Speaker 3: to spend more money at the federal level when we
Speaker 3: spend money, and that's an agreement that we've made which
Speaker 3: makes Ohio dependent on federal funds.
Speaker 1: And going back to my climate change focused projects, if
Speaker 1: money comes from the Feds, it's going to come with
Speaker 1: strings attached.
Speaker 2: That always does.
Speaker 3: Exactly, exactly, just like our money did to the state,
Speaker 3: requiring us to keep anybody who lost their jobs on
Speaker 3: Medicaid for three years even if they got their job back.
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely well.
Speaker 1: Obviously made some wonderful reasons and explained why we should
Speaker 1: vote know on this now. In final conclusion, I kind
Speaker 1: of alluded to it. Who decides ultimately which projects get funded.
Speaker 1: There's probably a million projects and this money would in
Speaker 1: no way, shape or form cover every project that every
Speaker 1: municipality wants done. So who determines where the money goes?
Speaker 3: I would be mistaken to tell you for sure, But
Speaker 3: obviously with this amount of money there needs to be
Speaker 3: a type of controlling board that would determine it. The
Speaker 3: challenge is what are those What are those determinants?
Speaker 2: How do we know.
Speaker 3: Who gets prioritized? So is the larger city like Cincinnati,
Speaker 3: when they have a project, do they get do they
Speaker 3: get higher priority because somebody in Giaga, Giaga County needs
Speaker 3: something and they can't you know, they're so small that
Speaker 3: they don't have the same voice. Perhaps we need to
Speaker 3: require an audit, you know, from the auditor on this,
Speaker 3: just to be clear.
Speaker 2: I think that's a great idea of money going well.
Speaker 1: And you know, wherever there's more money, higher concentration of people,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, Franklin County or Cuyahoga County or
Speaker 1: here in Hamilton County, that's where the campaign contributions come from,
Speaker 1: which is probably why they'd be more likely to get
Speaker 1: the project done than someone out in Yaga County just
Speaker 1: throwing it out there.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately. Unfortunately, Yes, that can be the case. An influential
Speaker 3: for sure.
Speaker 1: So I've been boiling down as a it's a slush fund,
Speaker 1: which is a bad thing. So that's what I've been
Speaker 1: calling it. So it sounds to me like I can
Speaker 1: continue to label at a slush fund.
Speaker 3: I think so, because Brian, really, if it's not approved,
Speaker 3: then we need to come up with the money. You know,
Speaker 3: I was told then we're going to have to increase taxes.
Speaker 3: Why is that the case? Our revenue is I voted
Speaker 3: against the general operating budget that we just voted on
Speaker 3: at the six hundred million to the stadium. I'm sure
Speaker 3: you don't want to get into that today, but I
Speaker 3: get tired of hearing. I'll give you a You know,
Speaker 3: if you give me a cheeseburger today, I'll give you
Speaker 3: a dollar tomorrow. I'm tired of of us. Our revenue
Speaker 3: stream is very, very strong, and yet we keep spending
Speaker 3: the people's money with no property tax relief. We sow
Speaker 3: have an income tax and so to me, yes, if
Speaker 3: this is not passed, it requires your legislature to make
Speaker 3: some hard choices on how we're spending our dollars.
Speaker 2: Yes, and that's their job.
Speaker 1: Jack Jennifer Gross, proudly representing and wonderfully representing District forty five.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming on the program and
Speaker 1: explaining this to my listeners and me. I will look
Speaker 1: forward to having you on the show again real soon.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Brian, have a great day you too.
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