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Kasich, FitzGerald Touring State Talking About Budget

Ohio Governor John Kasich plans to stop in Republican friendly Batavia today to discuss the state budget, as part of a summer tour on the spending plan.Kasich will stop at a Batavia business and meet with several southwest Ohio chapters of the Chamber of Commerce to talk about proposals in the 62 billion dollar two-year budget. His Democratic challenger in the gubernatorial election, Cuayhoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, was in Dayton Wednesday to talk about women's issues and the state budget. Emily McCord of member station WYSO in Yellow Springs reports.

Fitzgerald spoke to a small group of Dayton residents to talk about cuts to Medicaid and Planned Parenthood and other restrictions on abortion that were signed by Governor Kasich into the state budget. And he continued his message that there are still ways to challenge those measures-One way he says is through what’s called an initiated statute, that would force Ohio lawmakers to discuss the issue.  Fitzgerald has the provisions in the budget are out of step with mainstream Ohio voters.

It isn’t what just was passed. It was that they did at the eleventh hour and they did in a way that was specifically designed and calculated to not have this public discussion. And what we just said a few days ago was ‘let’s at least have a discussion about this and let’s see if people are interested in challenging this.

If the initiated statute is successful, lawmakers would have four months to respond. If they failed to do so, opponents could put that legislation to voters in November 2014, That’s the same time Fitzgerald would be facing off against Governor Kasich in an election.

Jim has been with WCBE since 1996. Before that he worked as a reporter at another Columbus radio station, and for three newspapers in Southwest Florida.
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