Both Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Cuyahoga County Executive Ed Fitzgerald indicated a willingness to be open-minded during their first meeting with Kasich in early January. Now, the two Northeast Ohio leaders say the worst of their expectations will largely come true with passage of the governor's 2 year budget proposal.
Speaking at a Cleveland forum on the Kasich budget last night, Jackson accused the governor of cloaking an ulterior agenda behind the budget crisis.
"That agenda will relieve the burden from the most wealthy and business, push the burden on the average person in terms of wage reduction and benefit reduction and eliminate basic social services that people need," Jackson says. "That is what's going to happen and underlining all that is the agenda of privatization. This is what's going on here."
County Executive Ed Fitzgerald agreed, adding some historical context.
"The agenda has been there for a hundred years or more, probably since the founding of this country," Fitzgerald says. "It's just manifesting itself now, it's manifesting itself because they are not wasting a crisis."
Numerous others spoke critically of the Kasich budget plan, including Amy Hanauer of the left-leaning group Policy Matters Ohio, who called it both a "slash and sell" and "pass the buck budget." She and others criticized Ohio leaders going back a decade for cutting progressive taxes like the income tax, while increasing regressive taxes they say hit the poor and middle class the hardest.