Governor Kasich maintained his silence on the 5,000 projected lay-offs in Ohio this year at his press conference yesterday. One possible explanation: while in Congress, John Kasich voted against a bill to require employers to give workers 60 days notice of impending lay-offs. The bill, known as the the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), was passed into law in 1988 despite Kasich’s opposition.
Despite Governor Kasich’s insistence that he was uninvolved in the Suarez pay-to-play scandal, federal prosecutors revealed in court today that a February 2011 internal strategy memo proposed that Kasich contact the California Attorney General on Suarez’s behalf. Governor Kasich’s office ultimately followed through on that “to-do-list” and contacted California AG Kamala Harris in April of that year.
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ed FitzGerald, Ohio House of Representatives Democratic Leader Tracy Maxwell Heard, and Ohio Senate Democratic Leader Joe Schiavoni released the following statement on today’s signing of the Mid-Biennium Budget Review:
Governor Kasich remained silent on the possibility of Ohio losing nearly 1,200 jobs at Anchor Hocking over the weekend. While the Governor has repeatedly attended ceremonies to announce new jobs, he has said little about the projected 5,000 lay-offs across 23 counties already announced this year. The full list of 2014 WARN notices can be found HERE.
Governor Kasich was recently asked in a Cincinnati Business Courier interview “What’s your best elevator speech to a CEO on why to move to Ohio?” Rather than note the actual people of Ohio and their tremendous talent and work ethic, the Governor said the following: “First is location. We’re within 600 miles of 60 percent of the country, and that’s a big deal. Secondly, we’re stable. We have very strong finances. We’re running surpluses. We’re cutting taxes. And we also are engaged in workforce development.”
