Hard Hitting Congressional Campaign Video

This video is hard hitting.  We wish we could insert Mayor Bob Weger into this video to give it a local spin, or Taxn' Trustee Chris Galloway, or Willoughby Eastlake Schools Superintendent Keith Miller, or Lakeland's Morris Berverage.

Calling each of them "the tax man" would fit too!

Hide your wallets, hide your paychecks, hide your _________;  (insert Bob Weger or Keith Miller, or etc.) is coming to tax you! 

ANOTHER REASON TO CANCEL THE NEWS-HERALD: CONSTANT LOBBYING FOR LEVIES.

DISGUSTING.  TWO DAYS, TWO ARTICLES; LOBBYING FOR SCHOOL LEVIES.

ARTICLE ONE: AREA SCHOOL OFFICIALS WHINING ABOUT DECREASED FUNDING FROM THE STATE.  THIS ARTICLE IS REALLY  NAUSEATING--IT TALKS ABOUT THE MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS SCHOOL SYSTEMS WILL NOT GET FROM THE STATE.

ARTICLE TWO: TEACHERS WHINING ABOUT OUT-OF-POCKET EXPENSES FOR CLASSROOMS.

TOO BAD.  INCREASE CLASS SIZES.  LAYOFF.  SLASH PENSION FUN D CONTRIBUTIONS.  QUIT ALLOWING SCHOOL OFFICIALS LIKE KEITH MILLER (WILLOUGHBY-EASTLAKE SUPERINTENDENT) TO DOUBLE DIP (IT'S JUST THE PRINCIPLE ON THIS ONE).  CUT SPORTS.

Tax Watch: Your wallet will be getting lighter!

It just doesn't end, does it?  Remember when you were a kid and you looked forward to getting mail...then at some point opening the mail box became scary?  Now, its just bills...bills...bills...requests for documentation, and GLOSSY MAILERS OF STEVE LATOURETTE AND BOB AUFULDISH TELLING YOU TO VOTE FOR A LEVY WHICH WAS ALSO ENDORSED BY BOB WEGER AND DAVE ANDERSON (I.E. THE DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES LEVY MAILER)?

We have told you about various money grabs around Lake County, like Taxn' Trustee Chris Galloway's and Trustee Chuck Klco's handout to the Lake County Sherrif to what the Sherriff is mandated to do (i.e. police townships).

We have more money grabs to talk about (later), but need to tell you what's coming down the pipe now.

DOUBLE DIPPN' SUPERINTENDENT KEITH "MONEY BAGS" MILLER and the Willoughby-Eastlake School Board are asking for more money.  "Money Bags" Keith Miller and Treasurer Cliff Reinhardt are getting good at asking for more money.

Case in point, "Money Bags" Miller likes to brag about the one year wage freeze he negotiated with WES' bargaining units...then wham! Months later "Money Bags" gets a levy passed will reward the unions.

Side note:  Is a similar trick being played in Willoughby Hills?  Wasn't there a wage freeze negotiated with safety forces?  Pay back should be coming due soon on that one!

Today we learned that the Lake County Commisioners will be placing a levy on the ballot to support Morely Library.

This is getting depressing...let's finish later.

Double Dipping

Last week the News-Herald ran a story about so-called "double dipping. Here is a link to the News-Herald.com story by Dianne Ryder.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer did a story this summer divulging that Commissioners Dimora and Hagan, Sheriff Bob Reid, Cleveland clerk of Courts Earle Turner, and County Treasurer Jim Rokakis are all double dippers.

The definition of "double-dip" is to "obtain income in two different ways, usually in an illicit matter."

Precisely, the double-dipping that we are referring to is the act of of a Public Employee, that is elected official (e.g. Auditor, County Commissioner, etc.); civil servant (e.g. teacher, superintendent, county administrator, other county employee, city worker) retires from public service and is re-hired after a short period. Upon re-hire the retired public employee collects the Ohio Public Employee Retirement System (OPERS) pension AND the salary at the position they were re-hired to fill.

This activity is rampant everywhere. In Lake County Commissioners Dan Troy and Bob Aufuldish served for many years as elected officials and now collections OPERS pensions and salaries as County Commissioners.

Superintendent Keith Miller of the Willoughby-Eastlake Schools is retired and collecting a pension while serving as WEL Superintendent.

With unemployment ballooning...the young not being able to find jobs...do we need elected officials, city, county and state civil servants collecting a pension and a salary? Should they be taking up valuable jobs after decades of service?

Mind you: DOUBLE-DIPPING IS LEGAL IN OHIO. But, is it ethical?

Anyone want to point out more double-dippers?

Teachers union in Fairport Harbor need to take page from the Willoughby-Eastlake Schools Playbook.

Perhaps the Fairport Harbor Education Association should settle down with the heavy handed statements. The News-Herald details how the Fairport Harbor Education Association is doing what unions, a union is what they are, do best: bully, intimidate, whine! See the News-Herald article, here.

"In Fairport Harbor, the steelheads are running, but negotiations between the school employees and the board are at a standstill. Maybe the superintendent is waiting for deer season," began Fairport Harbor Education Association spokeswoman Becca Grunda Oct. 28.

This quote, taken from the News-Herald story, is attributed to union representatives trying to negotiate a new raise and more benefits...I mean a new contract.

The Fairport Harbor Education Association should know better!

Look at the Willoughby-Easlake (WEL) School District's voters: despite a deep recession, decreasing wages and benefits, lost jobs, etc. the voters handed WEL schools and the Willoughby-Eastlake Teacher's Association (WETa) more money!

Don't be fooled by Superintendent Keith Miller's negotiated wage freezes: Keith Miller and the two new School Board Members (both with teaching backgrounds) will give the unions generous raises next year.

Have hope Fairport Harbor! Wait a year on the raises. You will be rewarded handsomely.

I guarantee that the Willoughby-Eastlake School Board and Administration will give HUGE raises out next year!!!! Fairport Harbor should have had a game plan like Superintendent Keith Miller and the Willoughby-Eastlake Teachers Association.

It Aint' Over 'till All the Votes are Counted: Willoughby Eastlake School Levy (Issue 7)

Well, well, well. Sources tell us that the Willoughby Eastlake Teacher's Association (WETa) has been giddy that 427 more voters voted "YES" than "NO" on November 3rd for Issue 7. Giddy you ask? We have been told that WETa president Tom Moscovic approached the podium with W-I-D-E SMILE to "thank" the voters of the seven municipalities included in the Willoughby-Eastlake School (WES) district.

I guess WETa President Tom Moscovic didn't bother to notice that there about 500 uncounted votes. The News-Herald breaks the numbers down in each of the WES municipalities.

ITS HIGHLY UNLIKELY, but if 80% of late vote goes for the Nays we can teach the WES District that it can't stick it hand out when everyone else is hurting. But, wait a minute! Early results showed that more than 60% of the absentees went against the levy! God help us!

The passage of this levy only teaches the beggars to keep their hands out.

Superintendent Keith Miller negotiated a wage freeze with all the unions, but said the levy was needed to buy books and computers. So, we need $5.9 million in books and computers over the next five years?

Don't think so! I bet the WETa President comes back next year and demands bigger raises. Guess what! The teachers will get the raises with two of their own winning board seats. God help us! The inmates will be running the asylum.