91st Ohio House Update: Dem Named in Complaint

Release:

COLUMBUS – Representative Dan Dodd (D-Hebron) has today been named in an elections violation complaint charging the incumbent candidate for State Representative for the Ohio’s 91st House District with making inaccurate and false statements about his opponent Bill Hayes.

Specifically, Hayes, who filed the complaint, claims that Dodd’s campaign has violated election law on the Dodd for Ohio website by claiming that “he (Hayes) raised taxes while I lowered them, just like I said I would.” Hayes has never held a position where his vote directly resulted in the raising of any taxes. He has served on two separate school boards where he voted to put a school levy on the public ballot for the district voters to determine whether or not to raise their own taxes. The Ohio Elections Commission has consistently held that a vote to place an issue on the ballot for voter approval is not a vote to raise taxes.
The elections violation complaint also charges that Dodd has published and distributed literature that gives Hayes the misnomer “Tax Raise Hayes” and that reference in support of the “tax raise” label do not point to any vote by Hayes to directly raise taxes.

“It’s fair to point out to the voters where a candidate stands on the issues,” Hayes said. “However, for Mr. Dodd to even imply that I’ve voted to directly raise anyone’s taxes or supported a tax measure without the vote of the people is simply false and is a baseless political attack. The fact is I’ve never held a position where I had the power to cast a vote that would directly increase anyone’s taxes.”
Mr. Hayes says that Mr. Dodd, on the other hand, has had several votes as a member of the state legislature that have increased the taxes and fees on the citizens of the 91st House District. “Dodd has voted to take away an income tax reduction resulting in additional taxes of nearly $900 million on Ohioans. Separately, he helped impose a penalty on driver’s license renewals which cost Ohio drivers over $6 million during the last three months of 2009. Mr. Dodd may claim these provisions are not tax increases and that he hasn’t violated the Taxpayer Protection Pledge he signed . . . but, regardless, Dan Dodd is costing Ohioans plenty.”