Regional Government for the Valley

[ytowner]

Ytown, isn't the city's income tax 2.75?? and you want to double it?? or am I way off here, which is possible...

Miami-dade's regional government is far from being the political utopia you make it out to be. Usually when one hears about a successful regional government, Portland Oregon is the one mentioned. I believe it is the ONLY true regional government operating in the US (and is in a heavily democratic area mind you...).

But nevertheless, a good idea is a good idea, no matter who's mouth it comes from, conservative or liberal. This area NEEDS a regional approach to government. As I've said before on this forum, the nature of government is so fractured here that this area doesn't receive nearly the amount of federal and state funding as it should. Any money we do get isn't used to benefit the region as a whole. Pretty foolish to think that austintown residents only function within austintown, and that youngstown residents never leave the city limits. And the ridiculously competitive economic policies of area communities result in very little if any tax revenue whenever a new business happens to locate here.

I'll echo the sentiment that regionalism is more of a rational argument concerning quality of life rather than a political one.

My apologies and thanks for noting that. All along I have been quoting the state income tax rate.... Well my plan calls for a .25 to .50% drop from the city's income tax rate... Thanks for the clarification!

[rusty river]

Ytown, isn't the city's income tax 2.75?? and you want to double it?? or am I way off here, which is possible...

Miami-dade's regional government is far from being the political utopia you make it out to be. Usually when one hears about a successful regional government, Portland Oregon is the one mentioned. I believe it is the ONLY true regional government operating in the US (and is in a heavily democratic area mind you...).

But nevertheless, a good idea is a good idea, no matter who's mouth it comes from, conservative or liberal. This area NEEDS a regional approach to government. As I've said before on this forum, the nature of government is so fractured here that this area doesn't receive nearly the amount of federal and state funding as it should. Any money we do get isn't used to benefit the region as a whole. Pretty foolish to think that austintown residents only function within austintown, and that youngstown residents never leave the city limits. And the ridiculously competitive economic policies of area communities result in very little if any tax revenue whenever a new business happens to locate here.

I'll echo the sentiment that regionalism is more of a rational argument concerning quality of life rather than a political one.

[ytowner]

Because too many people are satisfied with the pathetic status-quo of this community. Wake up and realize it isn't as great as we make it out to be. I love this community, but we got a bunch of corrupt politicians running our local government.

God forbid we actually tried something new for once to fix our problems.
County Wide Police-Fire-EMS-Transportation-Schools; etc....

Everyone will be equally given their fair share and we can truly make this area a better place. But you guys refusing to do anything need to wake up. We stay the course with the politicians locally; we are going to continue to fall SOUTH!

PS: I live in the suburbs and got high property taxes, and I work in the city which means I pay into their income tax.... Gotta love it!

[jay]

In the last election Mahoning County residents had a chance to regionalize the WRTA.  The issue was voted down.  I may be wrong but not one suburban location had a majority of voters in favor of the tax.   I can't think of a single issue which suburban residents would like to regionalize.

[irishbobcat]

Then let's do the same for state wide health care.......lower deductables, better coverage for all....

If we can socialize police, fire, and EMS protection, why can't we socialize healthcare protection for all?

Because we'd be cutting out some HMO CEO's making billions of dollars......can't do that.....

Give the poor healthcare? can't do that either.......they don't deserve it (plus they'll scam the system...)

Dennis Spisak

[ytowner]

1. A recession is defined as back to back periods of negative GDP. Folks we only had one. The economy grew in the first quarter. We are NOT in a recession.

2. The unemployment rate is right where we all want it to be: 5%. That is full unemployment in any economic book you will find.

3. The Regional Government idea thirdly is done in more than just Miami-Dade counties, but right over to the west in a heavily Republican Collier County. They too realize this is not about being liberal and conservative.

Instead of our tax dollars going to one fire district or police district; let's fund a more economical and more advanced police-fire-ems to keep those in the area safe. We would have better finances and better equipment for the entire county as opposed to one town like Jackson TWP. Let's eliminate the sales tax which is a deterrent to out of town business and put a flat tax rate for the entire county.

Everyone complains about high taxes... Here is a brilliant way to cut them for everyone in the county as a whole.

[Elmo-Ytown]

So if the government is county wide, and the county is divided into districts, what are the districts going to be? Boardman, Youngstown, Struthers, etc? Do the people in Boardman want to be in the same district as the people on the South side of Youngstown? Do the people in Canfield want to be in the same district as people from Boardman? People have pride in their community, in their city, or village, or township. I like Youngstown, I take pride in the good things that happen here, I don't want to live in Boardman, because it's not Youngstown. Do you really think that the people of Mahoning County would go for something like this?

Plus, say that the East side of Youngstown is in one district, and Canfield or Poland is in another. Is the Y-town district going to end up with more money because their income is lower and they need it more? Or are they going to get less because they are contributing less? If I'm living in the Poland district, am I going to be happy with my district getting the same amount of money as the Youngstown district? Why should I if they're contributing so much less?

[irishbobcat]

Bush promised economic growth in this country? and it has occurred? where?  AOL just printed a story yesterday entitled 21 signs the US economy is in a recession.

Now I have seen job growth in China. India, and even Iraq. American dollars going to rebuild Iraq while our soldiers continue to die there.

I have seen job growth for CEO Friends of George Bush grow 411 times more than the people that work for the CEO's....which means 411 people could have jobs instead of what that one CEO is making.

You call my ideas way too far left because I want to help the poor, working , and middle class of America. I believe your GOP ideas are too far right. But it doesn't matter to you because you probably are bunkered down in a gated community somewhere swimming in money and tax sheltered investments in telemarketing  from New Delhi, India.

Dennis Spisak

[ytowner]

Ytown news.....
and your GOP views are not the answer to our problems either.

Oh, and where are all the jobs and promises George Bush made for our valley when he arrived at your airport with
George McKelvey years ago?

the answer my friends, are blowing in the wind........

Dennis Spisak

Find some quotes to back that up. It was the idiot known as Clinton that promised 5000 jobs for a Military Defense Center in the area, and I'd love to know Dennis where it is. O wait it was all Old man Bush's idea to help the area but Clinton didn't follow through. So he gave us $1 million measly dollars to fix up our airport; and that sure has worked now hasn't it.

Bush did not come up that podium and promise government jobs, he promised economic growth which has occurred in this country. I can't help it union labor along with the Democrats have killed this area's chance of any future growth. You say you aren't a Democrat, but your ideas are so far on the left they are no different than the likes of the idiots we have elected locally.

[irishbobcat]

Ytown news.....
and your GOP views are not the answer to our problems either.

Oh, and where are all the jobs and promises George Bush made for our valley when he arrived at your airport with
George McKelvey years ago?

the answer my friends, are blowing in the wind........

Dennis Spisak

[ytowner]

The more you say the further you prove my point that liberals won't do this. This is not about being liberal or conservative. It is about uniting one counties resources for economic development.

Areas like Austintown and Canfield have solid financial outlooks ahead with others struggling. We put all tax revenues into one county to find police-fire-EMS-911; you are saving money.....

No need to argue anymore with you Denniis; you socialist view for America is not the answer to our problems.

[irishbobcat]

Quote from Ytown News:

I don't view it that way. Right now if you look at all the local governments in this county, it's rather substantial to say the least. You eliminate all of the local governments and create 1 large regional government, you save money, have more tax revenue, and have each area of the county better represented in the government.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Y-town.....isn't the GOP stance is that you folks can't stand the Federal Government because it is TOO BIG in your eyes and spends too  much money?

Yet you say when you create 1 LARGE REGIONAL GOVERNMENT, YOU SAVE MONEY? Huh?

If I have a poddle or a German Shepard, which dog is going to eat more dog food?

If I have a Kia Rio or a Hummer, which vehicle is going to use more gas?

As a school board member, when the Ohio School Facilities Commission started asking communties to vote on bond issues to build newer, bigger schools to replace old smaller ones, we were told we would save money. Voters bought it hook line and sinker.

In Struthers we went from 5 small schools to 3 bigger schools. The bigger schools require more energy, have more square footage to clean, and
reduced very few jobs and positions. The only positions we reduced were due to expenses in heating and cleaning outpacing income.

When the Brookfiled Schools recently passed a bond issue to build one K-12 campus building and close down the exisiting 3 schools buildings, again I asked members of the OSFC if it would be more expensive to operate this new school instead of the current 3.  His answer was "yes, because it's a larger building."

So again, where are you going to save money?  Basically then you will employ the George Voinovich theme "Do more with less." You will have employees doing more work for less money, which in turn will lead to less services for the public. And then you will invoke your Darwinism
theme "that's tough luck, only the strong should survive anyway."

Hopefully God will bless your view of running America, because America will need it.

Dennis Spisak

[ytowner]

Mr. Y-town:

Ok, I'll bite and start the discussion even though I haven't had my first cup of coffee this morning. Since you are a Republican conservative, on one hand you want smaller government or less government, yet you want to have a regional government, which in reality, ends ups being a "bigger government."

I don't view it that way. Right now if you look at all the local governments in this county, it's rather substantial to say the least. You eliminate all of the local governments and create 1 large regional government, you save money, have more tax revenue, and have each area of the county better represented in the government.

In Miami-Dade County, instead of having trustees and mayors of the suburbs and smaller cities, the entire county has 13 district commissioners. For Mahoning County, we could split up the county into perhaps 10 districts; by doing this you have far LESS in the form of politicians that control each of the 10 districts, and have a board of commissioners that would fight for each district as a whole for monies, etc.

I knew someone was going to look at this from a liberal/conservative aspect. But it is the LIBERALS of this area that are refusing to do this. It may seem like this is a liberal idea; but I view it as a chance to eliminate wasteful spending across the county, better utilize tax revenues, and making the government SMALLER by cutting all these political positions which are a big waste of our dollars.

Finally I am not calling for a regional health care plan. I don't think any of the cities or towns in Mahoning County have one now, so why on earth would we have one as a regional government. Health Care is something that the Government should NOT be paying for consumers. If they don't have it, they could use some small assistance, but we should not fund 2nd rate health care for this nation. Universal Health Care and Regional Government are far from the same thing Dennis, and you know it!

[irishbobcat]

Mr. Y-town:

Ok, I'll bite and start the discussion even though I haven't had my first cup of coffee this morning. Since you are a Republican conservative, on one hand you want smaller government or less government, yet you want to have a regional government, which in reality, ends ups being a "bigger government."

The educational plan the Chamber is pushing proposes 1 superintendent for all of Mahoning County based on some model in West Virginia. What the Chamber proposal failed to tell people is that the regional educational plan in West Virginia while only having one central superintendent did have more administrative assistants positions working for him than the total number of administrators that are currently working in Mahoning County schools.

You want a regional government, but when I call for a "regional health care plan" or the Single payer health care plan you call it socialism. My healthcare proposes calls for one central state board to handle all money transactions, cut out middle-man insurance people and paperwork, CEO's making millions, and would save the general population money on their health care costs, and you veto that proposal.

So where do you stand? one one hand you don't want large central government control, but then you do want large central regional government?

You can't have your cake and eat it too!

Dennis Spisak-Independent Green Party Candidate for State Representative-60th District

campaign website: Http://votespisak.tripod.com

[ytowner]

From the Mahoning Valley Red Conservative Blog:
http://mvred.com/2008/05/09/time-for-a-regional-government-in-youngstownmahoning-county/

It won't please the likes of Traficanti and Antonini and other Liberals who love power; but it's worth a shot. Larger tax base with a flat income tax rate and no sales tax is what I propose.