Representative Bill Batchelder's Official Site

School Funding
School funding is an unresolved problem that is of enormous concern to Ohio voters. Bill Batchelder has a serious plan for resolving the school funding problem, a plan which offers a real mechanism to ensure that adequate school funding is not subject to budgetary games or allowed to sit on the back burner. Batchelder's plan would make school funding a state budget priority without taking away local accountability; it would ensure adequate support of schools while at the same time retaining local control of the school districts. Batchelder wants the legislature to earmark a percentage of the state income tax, corporate taxes and all lottery profits for exclusive distribution to local school districts. If necessary, Batchelder will fight for an amendment to the Ohio Constitution which would guarantee this education earmark.

What this means is that the money earmarked will not go through the state treasury. Instead, much like the gas tax goes directly into a specific fund for road work and maintenance, these earmarked school monies would go directly into a local school fund and from there they would be distributed to local school districts on a per capita student basis. Just as revenue in the highway fund is automatically set aside and must be spent on highways, it would be mandatory that the General Assembly spend the money earmarked in this plan exclusively on schools. The State of Ohio would meet its funding responsibilities because the money earmarked for schools would never be subject to the budgeting process, but would be guaranteed by law to go directly to education. Local control of schools could be maintained, because this money would be given out on a per capita student basis to local school boards - no giant central bureaucracy in Columbus would hijack these earmarked funds.

Batchelder was able to get the legislature to pass a similar earmark for libraries over a decade ago, and the result was that Ohio leaped to first place in the nation in per capita funding for public libraries. Before Batchelder's library earmarking legislation, Ohio ranked 27th in library funding. This approach works, it is an idea whose time has come. Libraries have earmarked funds, highways have earmarked funds, schools must have earmarked funds.

Unvoted Real Estate Taxes and House Bill 920
Batchelder's opponent wants to repeal House Bill 920. What is House Bill 920? A bipartisan bill passed by a Democratic legislature in 1976, House Bill 920 protects homeowners. When homes increase in value, as they certainly have in Medina County, HB 920 provides that homeowners will pay the same amount of money that they voted for in their local levies.

Batchelder's opponent has made getting rid of House Bill 920 the major priority of his campaign. What people who want to do away with House Bill 920 really want is to force you to pay unvoted real estate taxes. The former Democratic deputy director of taxation for the state of Ohio estimates that without the protection of House Bill 920, there would be an unvoted real estate tax increase of an estimated $4,198,753,245. That's right, over four billion dollars in new real estate taxes, instantly. Because of the increased home values here, Medina County would pay a higher share of that staggering tax bill. Getting rid of House Bill 920 will increase dependency on property taxes for school funding and it could raise Medina County property taxes up to 50%

Ohio - Jobs and Business Climate
We all know that education is one of the keys to success in the job market, which is why Bill Batchelder has taken a strong position on earmarking to solve our school funding problems. Without a good business climate however, all the educated workers in the world cannot attract new jobs, establish successful enterprises, or grow existing firms. While Ohio has tremendous strengths, from smoke stack industries to technology, our state government seems to be determined to drive jobs, business, and educated workers out of the state. What needs to be done?

We must have a tax structure which is favorable to retaining and expanding existing businesses, and which can help attract new business and industry. The legislature took one serious step forward when they began tax restructuring in this session, but there is much more tax reform which has got to be done. Obviously, to attract young entrepreneurial citizens we must treat capital gains tax in a different manner to diminish its impact on people who are seeking to locate and grow businesses here. Capital gains can be an incentive killer.

Ohio must do away with the bizarre estate tax we have which has the unintended effect of driving Ohioans to Florida and other non-estate tax states. Why do we want the men and women who own enterprises to leave the state? Why make them choose between their families and tax freedom? How does this help our communities?

We must flatten income tax rates rather than punishing high income people. The legislature has made a start on this. The flattening does not need to be absolute, we can keep our graduated income tax, but right now Ohio encourages the people with the most capital to invest here and the most money to spend here to go elsewhere. These are the sort of people who tend to endow charitable and civic activities. These are the people who expand their business and hire new employees. These are the people who invest in Ohio business and develop new industries, create more jobs, and finance the building of community.

One vital industry that people should think of right away when they think of Northeast Ohio is health care. The Cleveland Clinic is a world class research institution, and it provides world class care. Ohio must do everything to protect this health and science infrastructure and promote it worldwide. The jobs which flow from this vital center of innovation benefit workers from entry level nurse's aids to world famous physicians and research scientists. Ohio can advance this vital growth industry by protecting our physicians, researchers, and industries through tort reform, tax reform, and proactive government programs to encourage and expand further reearch.

We need to strengthen our safety forces in urban centers. This makes our city more attractive to employers and to tourism. Public safety is what the taxpayers are paying for, and it is what all of them should get, no matter where they live. Finally, we need to see to it that people understand what a magnificent place Ohio is. We need to aggressively promote Ohio both to our young people here at home and nationally. Ohio is a wonderful place. Ohio's history is a microcosm of America herself. America is a land of invention and innovation; Ohio is a cradle of that innovation from the Wright Brothers to Thomas Edison. America is the largest representative republic in history; Ohio provided eight of her presidents. America is a melting pot; the major cities of northeast Ohio are melting pots of Africa, Central Europe, Western Europe, and the Indian subcontinent. Our cultural institutions, like the Cleveland Orchestra and Art museum are second to none in the country. Ohio's natural beauty from the Ohio River through the Hocking Hills to Lake Erie is remarkable. Do our young people have a sense of this? Are they proud of Ohio? We must see to it that they, and the rest of the nation, appreciate our state.

Law and Order
From serving as a judge to working on the house judiciary committee, from drafting legislation to sponsoring important bills like Megan's law, Bill Batchelder's experience in law and order issues is unmatched. Building on this experience, Batchelder has some powerful policy ideas for the next legislative session that would ensure a safer Ohio. First, Ohio needs to move forward to provide protection for children. Bill Batchelder believes that a coordinated law enforcement effort against child predators on the internet is essential to the safety of Ohio children. Many of us saw the "Dateline" undercover reporting program on child molesters and were sickened both at how fast these predators can corrupt our children's minds - and even scarier - how easily such predators can appear on our doorsteps.

Bill Batchelder drafted Ohio's tough drunk driving legislation; now he wants to strengthen penalties against repeat drunk driving offenders. Thousands of people die every year all across this country because they are the victims of drunk drivers. Recently here in Ohio we read with horror of a three college students killed in one fatal crash by a drunken driver; the man responsible for their deaths was a repeat offender. Why wasn't he in jail? We need severe mandatory sentences for anyone guilty of multiple offences.

Ohio has suffered a big increase in auto theft. Bill Batchelder sponsored legislation that became a national model in an effort to curb this crime, and will work again to strengthen this legislation to guard Ohioans from auto theft.

Taxes
It is important for Ohio to hold down taxes. The growth in state spending in recent years has been damaging to Ohio's ability to attract new well paying jobs. Tax money must be more carefully guarded so that Ohio may once again have jobs for our young people and be looked on as the best location in Nation.

Eminent Domain
Bill Batchelder is the only candidate in the race for the 69th Ohio House District who has a proven record of opposing eminent domain abuse. We know the incredible power entrusted to state and local government through their right of eminent domain. This is when the government can take land, albeit with compensation, in return for vital public goods like roads. In their appalling Kelo decision, the federal Supreme Court allowed Eminent Domain to be used by state and local governments - not for public projects like damns or roads, but to aid private developers and large corporations.

Eminent Domain is a fearsome government power that must be constrained and only exercised for purely public purposes. It must never be used to benefit private interests. The Kelo decision by the Federal Supreme Court last year is a shocking inversion of the clear intentions of the founding fathers. The assumption of Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence and of Madison and the other framers of the Constitution was that government's first task is to protect the rights of the governed. Private property rights were foremost in their thinking. What the Supreme Court did with the Kelo decision was to say that our private property rights are conditional upon the revenue the government can derive from a particular parcel of land. The federal Supreme Court has effectively said that if a developer or big business can promise greater tax revenue to state or local government than can the homeowner or small businessperson who legally owns that land, then it is acceptable to use the coercive power of the state to force a sale of the home or business. This means big business and big developers can take your property, and use the power of state or local government to do it

In this year's Norwood case, Bill Batchelder filed a successful brief in front of the Ohio Supreme Court opposing the use of eminent domain to benefit private developers. Batchelder was thrilled when our Ohio Supreme Court did the right thing in the Norwood decision and said, effectively, that if the federal Supreme Court would not stop takings by government to benefit private interests, the Ohio Supreme Court would. William G. Batchelder is proud to have had a part in rolling back government abuse of the inalienable right to private property, and he would do still more as our Representative in the Ohio House to preserve a citizen's home and private property from the confiscatory power of the state.

Alternative Fuels
Ethanol provides an opportunity for Ohioans to use green fuels to power their automobiles. Ohio farmers benefit from this clean fuel production. Bill Batchelder's progressive stance on ethanol is so well known that he was invited to participate in the grand opening of an ethanol retail center in Medina County. He will continue to be certain that alternative fuels are available. In fact he will fight to have the amount of time it takes to get a permit for an ethanol plant down from the nine long months the state currently takes to permit the production of this important resource.