3/10/2010
Governor candidate John Kasich visits Van Wert
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| Kirk Dougal/Times Bulletin Republican candidate for Ohio governor John Kasich speaks to a crowd of people at Willow Bend Country Club on Tuesday. |
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BY KIRK DOUGAL
Times Bulletin Editor
kdougal@timesbulletin.com
VAN WERT - Republican candidate for Ohio governor John Kasich was in Van Wert on Tuesday afternoon to address a luncheon hosted by the Van Wert County Republican Party and the Van Wert Rotary Club. Kasich took the time to introduce himself and his political beliefs to the large crowd in attendance at Willow Bend Country Club.
Kasich, an Ohio State University graduate, was elected to the Ohio Senate at the age of 26 and then to the U.S. House of Representatives at the age of 30. He served nine terms in the U.S. House before running for the Republican nomination for president in 2000.
During his time in Van Wert, Kasich stressed the experience he gained in his time in Congress. As the chair of the House Budget Committee, he helped to construct the plan that led to a balanced budget for the U.S. government. A lot of his talk centered on how he wanted to bring a common sense approach not only to state government spending but to tax policy for the state.
During his talk and afterward, Kasich spoke about all the wasteful spending he found when he went to Congress. He carried that idea forward and talked about balancing the Ohio budget and bringing spending under control.
"We have 57 governmental agencies that touch our job training money," he said. "Now if I started $100 on that side of the room and everybody in here was a government bureaucrat, by the time it got back to that guy, how much do you think would be left?"
On the business side of the economy, Kasich said that Ohio has become uncompetitive, both on a national and international level, because of a tax structure that is strangling investment in the business community. He said that many issues will need to be reformed including the gamut from workman's compensation to regulation to corporate taxes.
Kasich has gained notoriety for his campaign by saying in the past that he would like to see the Ohio income tax be phased out. Although he did not offer any specifics on Tuesday, he did allude to how he saw that benefiting the state economy.
"As we shrink (this government) and make it more efficient and more effective, we can then reduce the cost of supporting it. Now if you're a small businessperson and you pay the income tax because you're a Sub-chapter S, it clobbers you. If those taxes were to come down on the death tax and the income tax, that goes straight to the bottom line."
Kasich also talked about the green energy movement and developing alternate energy resources within the state. He called the burgeoning solar energy industry that has started around Toledo as a high-tech success story for the state and he said that wind energy and nuclear power options are all areas where Ohio should consider and move forward. But the answer to him was simple when he was asked what to do while these industries are still developing.
"Burn coal," he said. "I'm for burning coal. We can clean it and that's great. But to take our assets and just throw them away is stupid."
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