Cates Says "NAY!" to Shuttle in Dayton

Speaking of State Senator Gary Cates... 

What's up with the nay vote on S.C.R. No. 28? It urges Pres. to choose Air Force Museum at WPAFB for space shuttle display.

What has the shuttle, WPAFB, or Ohio tourism ever done to you Senator?  Did the shuttle suggest that the legislature ought to reduce its pay during a recession?  What?

UPDATE:  I emailed the senator to ask his about the vote and here is his response:

I’m not against the shuttle being brought to WPAFB. My no vote is to express my frustration of the GA dealing with largely ceremonial issues. With all the problems we have to deal with this to me is a fairly trivial pursuit. If I’m going to go the trouble of asking the President to do something, I would rather spend my chit on something that is more important such as addressing jobs, jobs and jobs. While it may be nice to have the shuttle nearby, it doesn’t do anything to change our lot in life. So I hope you will understand that I’m not against the shuttle, but sometimes you have to stand up and make a statement by voting “no”. Now that the primary elections are over, it’s easy for politicians to get back into their bad habits…one of them having your hand out to the federal gov’t looking for favors. I doubt that my “no” vote will have any impact on the President’s decision.

Fair enough!  And while I treated this somewhat in jest, it is a legit question that I got from a reader.  I want to thank the senator for responding and I have to say that I agree with his reasoning on this one.  And that is coming from a strong supporter of bringing the shuttle to WPAFB.

DDN's Martin Gottlieb on Riverside's Tax Problem: "Blame the Republican"

Seeing that Marty came out swinging at the Republican last week, as usual, without even quoting his side of the story makes me want to re-evaluate my own position on the amendment to the budget that eliminated the city of Riverside's ability to collect taxes from civilian employees of Wright Patterson Air Force Base.

Contrary to the belief of SOME people, I'm all for lowering taxes -- including local taxes. In fact, that was my point when I first heard about this move from State Rep. Kevin DeWine. Where is my protection from local taxes? It isn't as if Riverside was attempting to tax members of the military, these are civilians; why do they get special protections from taxation that the rest of us don't.

Unlike Mr. Gottlieb, I emailed Mr. DeWine and received this response from his Senior Legislative Aide, Maureen Beaver:

When Ohio first implemented an income tax in the 1970s, the legislature made the policy decision to make it extremely difficult for municipalities to levy income taxes on civilians who work on WPAFB. That legislation was successful in for almost 3 decades until Riverside found an imperfection in the law, a legitimate legislative oversight, which allowed it to tax within the gates. As a result, only civilians who work in the approximately 12 buildings on base that fall within the city's boundaries would be subject to the tax. The amendment does not reflect new policy - it merely corrected this oversight and sought to ensure that all civilians who work on base continue to be treated identically.

While Representative DeWine will always stand with the taxpayer, the imposition of this income tax has larger implications. WPAFB and the Miami Valley are working everyday to bring new jobs - high wage, high value jobs - to the base and the region. This new tax, applied to a handful of workers in a handful of building is sending exactly the wrong the message to decision makers in the Air Force, Department of Defense and the contracting community.

It is the Representative's hope that the uniform treatment of workers across the base and the elimination of piecemeal taxation will serve as a small incentive for investment on our base and in our region.

Clearly the city of Riverside ought to find another solution to their problems or strongly consider dissolving itself as a municipality.

Ban on Wright-Patt Tax a Part of State Budget

From the Springfield News Sun:

A provision that would effectively ban the city of Riverside from imposing its 1.5 percent municipal income tax on civilian employees at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base who are not Riverside residents is now part of the proposed state budget.

State Rep. Kevin DeWine, R-Fairborn, sponsor of the provision, said the ban was added Monday to the budget being put together by House-Senate negotiators. A final vote on the two-year spending plan could come as early as Wednesday. Gov. Ted Strickland must sign the budget before Sunday, the start of the state's new fiscal year.

Ohio law does not allow municipalities to tax active-duty military personnel.

Riverside Mayor Ken Curp said he would not comment on the legislative action until he sees the written language of the provision. Riverside will continue to collect the income tax as it has been doing unless its lawyer advises otherwise, Curp said.

Riverside, a Montgomery County community located adjacent to the base, maintains that part of Area B at Wright-Patterson is within the city's taxing jurisdiction and sent letters to contractors this spring asking them to begin withholding the tax from civilian employees.

If an employee at the base is a resident of a city that has a municipal income tax – such as Riverside or Dayton – the employee still would be subject to that city's tax, DeWine said. The prohibition would begin Aug. 1.

DeWine and officials of the Dayton Development Coalition have expressed concern that piecemeal local taxes at Wright-Patterson could make it harder to attract government contractors from other U.S. bases, which are losing jobs to Wright-Patterson through the Base Realignment and Closure process.

"I want to make sure Wright-Patterson is viewed favorably by decision-makers," DeWine said.

I'd like to sign up for getting out of municipal taxes myself... Civilians aren't active military, so I'm not real sure why we're exempting civilians from paying a tax that everyone else has to pay... Maybe I'm missing something...