In Ohio the monies were originally taken over time, however, Governor Strickland thought he could spend it better. Even though the MSA was being used to fund programs such as the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation (OTPF) and youth programs like stand, Strickland wanted the money, all of the money, for what else... an economic stimulus plan.Ironically, in doing so, Strickland’s greed for the MSA money has now caused the destruction of the OTPF and the layoff of Ohioans whose job it was to promote the programs.
Two trends one should recognize here. The first is that Ted Strickland thinks he can spend hundreds of millions of dollars better than anyone else, original plans and purpose be damned, and secondly, Uncle Ted thinks is ok to cause layoffs to fund a program that will not create jobs... Ugh
In the spirit of full disclosure, for a time I worked for Northlich and worked on the OTPF account but waited until now to comment out of professional courtesy.
UPDATE: More about Strickland's efforts here
4 comments:
I think the money should be used for what it was originally allocated for.
When you count the direct employees of the OTPF, all the suppliers such as Northlich, various printers, media people and their suppliers the total number of jobs wiped out probably numbers hundreds! This does not begin to count the number of actual lives that may not be saved by preventing teens from smoking. The money was awarded to the states in settlement of tobacco law suits, not to be a slush fund for a political purpose.
Strickland and the entire bunch of Dems swept into office on the backlash of a Republican debacle in office. However, as Marc Dann is proving (not to mention Strickland, Jennifer Brunner who is about to cost Ohioans MILLIONS for her own political gain, and the rest of the new regime) be careful what you wish for – you may get it!
One more thought speaking of Dann (following my leap of logic here?) his explanation is he was surprised by winning and did not have the experience and was not prepared to run such a large government agency. Gee…where have we heard that lately? I wouldn’t want him answering the phone at 3 AM either!
In effect, the government has confiscated the profits of a corporation through political legerdemain. Big Brother's goal is to own everything. Maybe by 2084, it will.
Strickland is about to sign a bill that will put 6000 Ohioans out of work and shut down an entire industry. That isn't quite the "economic stimulus" folks in Ohio need.
http://paydaypundit.org/?p=470
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