We're Desperate. Get Used To It.

All politics are local, right? Unfortunately, they are also the most complicated and mind numbing. But try to follow. OK, so the local Hamilton County Commissioners created something called a Health Care Review Commission, which is an echo chamber so that Commissioners Heimlich and DeWine can receive a semi-independent recommendation of their choosing.
The local Indigent Care Levy will expire this year. The Health Care Review Commission is recommending cutting the Tax from $52.6 million per year to $40 million per year. Yes, while more and more local residents are struggling with less insurance and higher health care cost, Hiemlich and DeWine want to cut tax-based subsidies for Health Care to the poor. But wait, on the same ballot, they want to increase the sales tax to build a new jail. But it doesn’t end there. As usual, the real Devil is in the details. For example, one service on the chopping block that is currently provided through the Indigent Care Levy is Tuberculosis Control. This service does a lot of testing in places like schools and hospitals to indicate TB and when detected prevent it from spreading. Due to programs like this, we hardly ever hear of the deadly disease in this area. The Commissioners want to cut this service from $1.4 million per year to $850,000. The problem is that this pesky service is mandated by the State of Ohio (Ohio Revised Code Section 339.72.). So, what is a conservative Commissioner to do? Well, you decide to pay for it out of the Children’s Service Levy, also coming up on the ballad this November and with no significant increase proposed. So, although it may appear to voters that services to poor children aren’t being cut (ignoring the obvious effects of inflation), they are effectively being decreased since some money will be diverted to other services such as TB Control.
Bottom line, if you are poor in Hamilton County, you don’t count. We want to shift progressive property based taxes to regressive sales taxes. We want to cut needed services to the poor. And then we want to lock them up.
Because if you are rich, this is how we can cut our property taxes.