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State Representative Jim Buchy
Sound Money
Management of Public Dollars
When I was sworn in as a State Representative the first time around, I
made it clear to my constituents that sound money management would be a
focus of my time in the legislature. Today, I continue to work
for better handling of public moneys because taxpayers worked hard to
earn that money.
In west central Ohio, we have some of the best locally elected
officials and they are good stewards of taxpayer dollars.
Unfortunately, not all elected officials can be trusted to handle
public funds. Even when they are caught mishandling taxpayer money, it
is difficult to remove an elected official from office.
That is why Representative Christina Hagan worked with Auditor Dave
Yost to come up with a way to address these problems. House Bill
10 outlines procedures to remove local fiscal officers from office if
they are found to be mishandling public funds. The bill also
establishes continuing education for local officials to ensure they
don’t mishandle public dollars in the first place.
Proper handling of public dollars has been a focus of my efforts over
the past four years. State leaders have been working to reduce taxes
and bring more jobs to Ohio. In western Ohio we have hard working
people and they deserve better than to see their tax dollars wasted on
failing government growth.
Under the leadership of Governor Kasich we closed an 8 billion dollar
shortfall in the state budget and reduced taxes at the same time.
Tax reductions for all Ohioans are helping to spur economic growth by
allowing Ohioans to choose how they spend the money they earned.
Providing a 10 percent income tax reduction across the board and
providing small business owners with a 50 percent reduction has proven
to help Ohioans.
Since 2010, sound money management has resulted in more Ohioans going
back to work. Poor money management prior to 2010 left just 89
cents in the state’s rainy day fund. But with better approaches to
budgeting the state now has almost $1.5 billion to use in the case of
an emergency.
With more Ohioans back to work, more of their money is being put right
back into the economy and both state revenue and transfers of state
monies to the counties are up. Sound money management has proven
successful.
Using wise financial strategies will help our state continue to budget
as we face any remaining challenges in coming years. Taxpayers
deserve to have elected officials that are good stewards of taxpayers
dollars. I have been impressed by the commitment my colleagues
have made to the taxpayers through budgeting practices and reforms that
will improve the handling of public dollars.
Please give me your opinion on this topic and others in the news this
month by completing an online survey at tinyurl.com/buchyoctober2014.
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