R.I.P. David Crowley

David Crowley was a good man and a great Cincinnatian.  Back when I was more involved politically, I saw him I believe at three different debates, and met him at one of those debates. He always made sense, always seemed pleasant, and avoided the “fire and brimstone” type campaigning that is often so common.

Also, Mr. Crowley, I apologise for the time I mistakenly called you Patrick Crowley (NKY politics reporter) on an old Cincinnati Dealer parody article.  Your comment set me straight.

Election Wrapup: CPS Levy Passes

The CPS levy finally passed, which is good.

Some people are not pleased. Such as this lady.

I am writing to voice my displeasure with the passage of the Cincinnati school levy. I estimate the levy will raise the property tax on my home by at least $800, which is an amount my middle class family, like many others in the area, simply cannot afford. The primary consequence Cincinnati will see as a result of this will not be better schools, but increased flight to the suburbs by middle class families where the schools are better and crime rates and taxes are lower. I love Cincinnati, and I don't want to move, but my family may be the next family to move to the burbs.

- Deborah Gates, Columbia Tusculum

So many themes spring to mind when I read that letter.

1. First of all, the levy adds an estimated $240 in taxes on a $100,000 home. So Miss Gates of Columbia Tusculum owns a house in the mid $300's. Now, I hesitate to even bring this up, because I'm uncomfortable classifying people based on these things, and I know that $300,000 does not buy as much house as it used to, but it makes me wonder if Miss Gates is truly middle-class (and makes me wonder what truly is middle-class anymore anyway)? And I wonder where she sends her kids for school?
2. Because it's true that the schools, crime, and taxes are all better in the suburbs, obviously. If her kids attend private schools, I understand why, and I understand why still paying property taxes is upsetting. (Which is why I believe that vouchers and charter schools are in the solution somewhere, but they must be held to the same standards as public schools - the government cannot afford to fund public education the same way it cannot afford to fund health care, but I digress.) But if she loves this city so much, then she should know that, as I've said in previous blogs, the future of this city long-term depends on having publicly-funded education that parents will not hesitate using. And the levy helps achieve that goal. If her kids do attend public schools, then Miss Gates should support the levy anyway.
3. Not to mention that in all this CPS is doing a good job and is setting the trend. In the appendix of the book about teachers that I read, there was a list of around a half-dozen school districts around the country with forward-thinking teacher-payment systems. CPS was one of them. Additionally, in the last CityBeat before the election, there is a great article on the importance of CPS and the great progress it has made.
   

   "...one person in particular, Joe Nathan, suggests that CPS could serve as a model for other districts. He represented the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for seven of the years it was involved with local schools and was so impressed he wrote an opinion piece for the The (Minneapolis) Star Tribune praising the district.
   
   'Powerful progress in the Cincinnati Public Schools may help efforts to improve Minneapolis and St. Paul public schools,' Nathan wrote in 2007. 'Despite its problems, CPS grew from a four-year, 51 percent high school graduation rate in 2000 to a four-year, 79 percent graduation rate in 2007. It also eliminated the graduation gap between white and African-American students. Graduation rates for all students increased. Cincinnati appears to be among the first (if not the first) major urban districts to eliminate this gap.'"

   So CPS is improving. How is it improving? Why do you think they spend all that money?

Election Wrapup: Democratic Turnout

So voting closed without too much controversy, IMO, though some counties ran out of Democratic ballots. That's pretty stupid, but to be expected. I mean, it's not like this has happened before, right? Oh wait - I found this gem at the bottom of a post-election article.

"Tuesday's primary was a mirror image of what McCain did in Ohio's 2000 primary.

In what came to be called the "McCain effect," the rolls of registered Republicans swelled across the state as McCain attracted independents and crossover Democrats in his failed bid to slow George W. Bush's march to the GOP nomination and the presidency. In that election, twice as many Republicans cast ballots in Hamilton County as Democrats, and some counties ran out of Republican ballots. Bush won the Ohio primary with 57 percent of the vote."

So it's happened in the past, and I'll bet it'll happen in the future, probably for the Republicans again. What's that they say about the cyclical nature of things?

But it wasn't a big deal for me, because my polling place didn't run out so I didn't have to wait in line. If I did have to wait in line, I might be more upset.

Some of those that waited in line have claimed that the county should have printed up enough ballots based on the assumption that every registered voter would vote for one party or the other. That sounds reasonable to me. The Dealer reports on some precincts finding another solution.

In any case, if we went to all-electronic voting, maybe we wouldn't have these problems.

Electronic Voting

I am not into the voter disenfranchisement thing. If you want to vote in this country, if you really want to vote, then no one can stop you from voting. I don't care if you don't have a car, move every week, work from 6 am to 10 pm every day, no one can stop you from voting. There are absentee ballots. There are provisional ballots. Polls open before most job shifts start and close after most end. Precincts should not be more than a few miles from your home (less if you are in the city). The only way to make voting easier if they brought the ballot to your doorstep and let you vote while they waited outside. If you are unwilling to take the trouble to vote, then sure you may find obstacles. If you are too stupid to figure out how to vote, then maybe you shouldn't be voting anyway.

That said, why can nobody in this country install a reliable, electronic voting system?

Think about every time you use your credit or debit card. You swipe it in the little tiny machine, electronic records across the country are updated, and you get a paper receipt, all within a few seconds, the same way, every time.

Probably because credit card companies are highly motivated to maintain such a network. Probably the same reason we're still driving cars on gasoline in this country.

War On...?

Not much time today. Off to Bowling Green this afternoon, back tomorrow.

From AlterNet (a bleeding heart blog, but I happen to agree on this one):

What would you buy if you had an extra $42 billion to spend every year? What might our government buy if it suddenly had that much money dropped onto its lap every year?

For one thing, it might pay for the entire $7 billion annual increase in the State Children's Health Insurance Program that President Bush is threatening to veto because of its cost -- and there'd still be $35 billion left over.

Or perhaps you'd hire 880,000 schoolteachers at the average U.S. teacher salary of $47,602 per year.

Or give every one of our current teachers a 30 percent raise (at a cost of $15 billion, according to the American Federation of Teachers) and use what's left to take a $27 billion whack out of the federal deficit.

Or use all $42 billion for a massive tax cut that would put an extra $140 in the pockets of every person in the country -- $560 for a family of four.

The mind reels at the ways such a massive sum of money could be put to use.

Why $42 billion? Because that's what our current marijuana laws cost American taxpayers each year.

Read more. This November, avoid voting for City Council members who support last year's ridiculous marijuana ordinance.

Fond Memories Of City Council Election Time

This week's issue of Citybeat covers the upcoming city council election. There are 25 candidates total, including nine incumbents and three former council members. That's a lot of candidates.

But not nearly as many as the 31 who vied for a spot two years ago. At the time, The Cincinnati Dealer was alive and kickin' and I put together this City Council ballot.

It tooks me a while to lay it out, and so it remains one of my most favorite creations. I even got some comments from a few candidates! Though they responded primarily because I got their names wrong. No city council ballot this year - but it's like 75% the same people, so you could probably re-use it for bingo.