State senate race profiles

Profiles of candidates running for the Ohio Senate's 12th District seat, as provided by the candidates:

x-KEITH FABER

Residence: Dibble Road, Celina

Party: Republican

Age: 42

Campaign Web site: www.KeithFaber.org

Education: Graduated from The Ohio State University with juris doctor degree; graduated from Oakland University with Bachelor of Science degree in public administration and policy; substantial completion of master's degree in public administration at The Ohio State University.

Relevant experience: State senator from January 2007 to present; state representative for 77th District from January 2001 to December 2006. Prior experience also includes prosecuting criminals, serving as a probation officer as well as serving as a mediator/arbitrator for local courts.

Years living in area: 15

Major issues: Job, jobs and more jobs. We need to continue to improve and promote Ohio's economy to add better jobs right here in West Central Ohio. This includes reversing Ohio's high tax climate, regulatory reform and continuing tort reform. If we hope to keep jobs in Ohio, we must end Ohio's tax-and-spend history. This is why I opposed the Taft tax and spending increases and why I have and will continue to promote common-sense regulatory reforms. I am pleased to be endorsed by many of the organizations working to create Ohio jobs and to be a multiple recipient of the "Watchdog of the Treasury Award."

 Agriculture. As the senator for the leading agricultural District in Ohio, I have a strong record of working to keep and promote our agricultural heritage. I regularly meet with farmers and farm groups to hear firsthand their agricultural views. As in the past, the Ohio Farm Bureau has awarded me their coveted "Friend of Agriculture" designation in this election.

Protecting our families. During my tenure in the legislature, I have sponsored and supported legislation that protects and empowers families in our communities. Moms and dads make much better decisions about the well-being of their families than do government bureaucrats. I have authored legislation to protect our children and families from violent sexual predators by keeping them confined and away from our children. "Mom's for Ohio" has not only endorsed my candidacy but has also presented me their "Public Service" award.

What state services should be protected as the state tries to cut its budget?

Unlike the Federal Government, Ohio must have a balanced budget. Like the federal government, Ohio does not have a tax problem, we have a spending problem. I have been a consistent advocate of line-by-line review of all existing state spending and programs to evaluate each program's effectiveness and ability to assist with key state goals and responsibilities. By focusing on outcomes, not on incremental program spending increases, we will be able to reign in spending that does not work.

Roughly 75 percent of Ohio's budget is spent on two key areas, education and Medicaid. The remaining 25 percent includes everything else the state government does. While I fully support education and don't want to eliminate much-needed healthcare for the poor including senior citizens in nursing homes, I believe we can find savings across the board that would reduce spending while protecting services.

Similarly I would work to protect the recent freezes we placed on higher education tuition, to help keep college education in Ohio affordable. At the same time, we must demand that Ohio colleges and universities operate more efficiently. We can no longer accept higher education inflation at rates several times greater than wages or other prices.

What can Ohio do to attract new businesses and improve the climate for existing businesses?

To attract new business or encourage existing business to expand, Ohio must transform itself from a high tax and high regulatory state. While the legislature recently began reforming Ohio's outdated tax code, we still need to do more. For example, even after Ohio's recent income tax cuts, which I supported, Ohio's top rate is 2 percent higher than Indiana's flat income tax rate. Businesses and business owners save 2 percent just by moving what, in some cases, is across the street.

Ohio's regulatory burden is also very anti-competitive. While we all agree we need clean air, clean water and healthy safe work environments, we don't need more than 21,000 inefficient, duplicative and costly regulations to achieve these goals. This is particularly true with regard to small businesses, which are creating the vast majority of new jobs in Ohio. The U.S. Small Business Administration estimates that small businesses pay more than $7,000 per employee to comply with regulatory burdens. Similar large businesses pay roughly half that much. We can and must do better. That is why I pushed for and I am now chairing the Ohio Legislature's bipartisan regulatory reform task force. We will use the task force's recommendations to promote common sense regulation that will keep Ohio competitive.

What changes would you make to the state's funding system for education?

As we work to increase jobs, we need a world-class education system. That's why I have supported record levels of funding for our schools and voted to raise the bar on student achievement. We are fortunate to have many excellent, world-class schools here in Allen County, and we need to assure that rural schools are fairly funded.

I have consistently fought for funding methods that help our rural schools, including a complete rewriting of the existing complicated, outdated and broken funding formula used today. I believe and have promoted allocating school funding on a per-pupil basis, without all of the extra sweeteners for some districts. We should also look to reward good schools.

In an increasingly high-tech, global economy, our kids must be competitive with kids anywhere in the world. Our kids will be competing not just with Michigan, Pennsylvania and Indiana but with India, China and the rest of the world.

That's why I supported a new scholarship program to encourage students studying the "STEM" fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

Because higher education is becoming increasingly necessary for the good jobs of the future, we need to keep college affordable. That is why I voted to freeze tuition rates at all state colleges and universities.

Ultimately, we need to focus on those things that will improve education, not just spend more of your tax dollars. We must increase parental and community involvement in education and insist on increased personal responsibility for educational results.

JACK KAFFENBERGER SR.

Residence: Brock Cosmos Road, Rossburg

Party: Independent

Age: 53

Education: Graduated from Mississinawa Valley High School.

Relevant experience: Former board member and current vice president of Rossburg Fire Association. Previously involved in domestic relation issues, belonging to organizations in domestic relations and helping other people navigate the complicated system. I've represented myself in court on those issues. Received certificates of achievement from Greenville Technology, Honda of America and Edison Community College. I have over 35 years of making my budget fit my income, unlike the legislators in Columbus taking my income to fit their budget.

Years living in area: 53 years, except for my time served in the Navy.

Major issues: We need to fix the regulatory process and streamline the permitting system, then we can attract more businesses. With more businesses, more jobs and more people paying taxes, we can lower taxes.

More people with good jobs means less who need state subsidies, meaning lowering taxes even more.

With better jobs, more people can afford health care, and we can reduce Medicaid cost.

We should put all options on the table and fix our public schools.

What state services should be protected as the state tries to cut its budget?

We need to protect services that address the needs of low-income workers and people on a fixed budget. 

Over the years, corporations have been trimming cost off their budgets by paying low wages and reducing benefits from their hourly workers. Corporations have also been using more temporary workers to fill what used to be full-time jobs.

This happened because our legislators added more workers to the job market at a time of high unemployment when they moved people off welfare. This reduced the need for corporations to compete for workers by offering better wages and benefits. The result, more people working for less wages, created what we now call the working poor. The state created the working poor; the state should help take care of them.

When I ran against Jim Jordan for the state senate in the past, I opposed moving people off welfare at that time. Jim Jordon called it tough love; I called it tough luck. I was right, we now send more money on subsidies taking care of a large number of people than when we had a few on welfare.

I want able-bodied people off welfare, but you have to do it with common sense. Had the legislators addressed your next question first, this would not be a major issue now. With common sense, you create an environment that attracts good jobs to the state, then you compel people to get off welfare and go to work.

What can Ohio do to attract new businesses and improve the climate for existing businesses?

A major issue facing Ohio is good jobs. We need to attract businesses that want to help Ohioans prosper.  The cost of doing business in Ohio deters businesses from coming here.   We need to rein in costly over-reaching regulations and consolidate overlapping regulations so we can get rid of what does not work and implement what does.

We have to streamline the permitting system to make it time efficient. In this global economy, businesses cannot wait for a year or more to find out if they can build. Time is money and jobs.   

We have also had a problem with too little regulation, with payday loan institutions for example.  We have to ensure businesses cannot take advantage of people who are the most vulnerable.

We need common-sense regulations, not over-regulation or deregulation, and a time-efficient permitting system.

Taxes need to be reduced to take the financial burden off families and businesses. By addressing the regulation and permitting issue, we can attract businesses that can afford to pay better wages.  Better wages enables people to support their families without having to rely on state subsidies, heating vouchers, rent vouchers, school vouchers, food stamps and Medicaid.    

More jobs plus better wages equal a larger tax base, fewer subsidies and less tax money being taken out of your paycheck.

What changes would you make to the state's funding system for education?

One problem we have now is that as property values and taxes go up, the funding for schools goes down.  This is why schools keep coming back asking for more levies, so they can keep up with the increased cost of operating.

I want to go to Columbus and put all the options on the table so we can address two issues, how we get the money to fund our schools and equal funding to each school.

On getting the money, we can do this one of two ways; I am open to any other options. When property taxes go up, the school gets the increase so they can keep up with operating cost.  The other option is to remove school funding from property taxes and put it on a payroll tax.

The schools would also receive less if property taxes or wages go down. They would have to adjust their budget just like the rest of us.

To my understanding, there are several options for equal funding.  We need to put them all on the table; decide which one is the best option and get this problem fixed.

All the issues on this questionnaire are dependent on one question; are we going to change the way our legislators do their jobs?

This financial trainwreck could have been avoided. Election after election our legislators ignored the warning signs.  Partisan politics has run this train off the tracks. Are you going to send them back?

Vote for change. Vote for an independent.

TOM MATTHEW

Residence: East Benton Street, Wapakoneta

Party: Democrat

Age: 61

Campaign Web site: www.tomforohio.com

Education: Free Gospel Bible Institute, Export, PA; Fort Wayne Bible College, Fort Wayne, Ind.; ordained minister in Full Gospel Church; graduated with master's degree from University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind.

Relevant experience: I think my background is one of fairness and actively trying to help people. I am an ordained minister with a graduate degree from Notre Dame. Much like a current candidate who has a much higher profile than I do, I moved to Chicago after my college days and worked with a church group sponsoring a Head Start program. I watched firsthand the struggles of decent people trying to overcome adversity and make something of their lives. Even when I entered the business world of the food service industry, my main emphasis was on helping and serving people. Again, I was close to the daily efforts of those who worked for virtually minimum wages trying to make a better life for themselves and their children and grandchildren. They would often come to me for advice and counsel. A good legislator is in the same position. Constituents need fair laws that serve all the people, not just the ones who have millions of dollars. From a business perspective, I was in management with two of the biggest food services companies in the world. I have the awareness of the day-to-day challenges that they faced as well.

Years living in area: Wapakoneta resident for 10 years.

Major issues: My biggest issue is getting voters to understand that they are unnecessarily throwing away thousands of dollars a year that they could be using for their children's educations and other vital household needs.

Taxpayers from Ohio's 12th Senate district are paying the "Faber Tax." My opponent, Keith Faber, has railed against regulations since first entering the Legislature as a representative in 2001. He keeps telling people the free market is the answer.

A $1.3 billion state budget shortfall, a $700 billion national bailout, $2 trillion disappearing from retirement accounts, education funding in shambles and the evaporation of consumer buying power and mass foreclosures are just the beginning of examples that should dispel the notion that free markets and deregulation work. They don't.

The Faber Tax is what you pay for unregulated, free-market prices. That means that in spite of annual double-digit increases for everything you buy, Keith Faber will not hold those responsible who are charging you these highly unreasonable prices. He gives you an income tax break of a few hundred a year to mask the fact that he's costing your family thousands of extra dollars each year.

States that deregulate electricity, for instance, pay rates that are 36 to 56 percent higher than states that regulate. We live with thousands of workplace, food, medical and safety regulations. They have all made our country better and saved thousands of lives. Without reasonable regulations and oversight, we have anarchy, and that's what we have right now, price anarchy.

What state services should be protected as the state tries to cut its budget?

Gov. Ted Strickland has been forced to cut Ohio's budget by $733 million in January and another $540 million in September. The governor has already announced the areas to be protected. He has pledged not to interfere with the recently passed tax reform package. Other protections include Medicaid, children's health insurance, the homestead exemption for seniors, a continuing tuition freeze, funding for local school districts and assorted other education, Department of Job and Family Services, Board of Regents and GRF line items.

I support these protections reluctantly because the fact is Ohio residents should have never reached this stage in the first place. Here's an example of the lax stewardship from one-party rule in Columbus. The Local Government Fund has been frozen since 2001. It just became ‘unfrozen' in the 2008 budget year. The freeze decimated the budgets of many local jurisdictions. Now the LGF has to rely on revenues from taxes that include the income tax, sales tax and the Corporate Franchise Tax, which will be phased out completely in April 2009.

Republican legislators have paved the way for severe shortfalls in overall tax revenues. With the phase-outs of the Franchise Tax and the Tangible Personal Property Tax, Ohio will have to rely on collections from the Commercial Activity Tax. Collections will fall well short of the other two taxes. Why should virtually every state agency have to cut its budget by 4.75 percent while huge corporations and the wealthy hide taxable profits and send them to tax havens overseas?

What can Ohio do to attract new businesses and improve the climate for existing businesses?

Ohio is already off to a good start. Gov. Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, who heads the Ohio Department of Development, have launched a series of initiatives designed to do exactly this.

There is also a strong educational component that I feel is being adequately addressed by our governor and the Third Frontier Project. We need to keep the best and the brightest within our borders. Now, we educate them here, and they leave. This is an evolving process that probably won't pay any real dividends for a number of years.

I strongly believe we should improve the climate for existing businesses by focusing on the backbone of the state economy, small businesses. We start by taking care of our own first, that is to say businesses that have elected to remain in the state through good times and bad.

I'm also not convinced we need to concede the manufacturing leadership to China (they will be No. 1 next year). I believe we can re-develop small- to mid-sized manufacturing facilities. We have a very large base of Ohio manufacturing workers who have lost their jobs (257,000 since 2000) when the big corporations sent them overseas. We still have to make things. Let's make them in Ohio.

The Bush administration has all but abandoned small businesses. It slashed the Small Business Administration budget by 50 percent since Bush took office and severely curtailed funds available for small business loans while awarding huge tax breaks for the biggest corporations.

What changes would you make to the state's funding system for education?

While the Commercial Activity Tax will bring in an estimated $1.6 billion when fully implemented, about $2.26 billion in taxes have been eliminated. The net result is over $600 million in tax loss for Ohio. With no more Tangible Personal Property Tax, each Ohio school district with major manufacturing facilities will lose many millions over time, especially in Lima. CAT doesn't cover the difference and must be reconfigured.

We must also close state and national corporate loopholes. The feds can increase the 9 percent they currently contribute to state education coffers. We must target an additional portion of Ohio Estate taxes; they're paid only for estates over $338,000, and, even then, they are quite benign. Then there could be a marginal increase in withholding taxes for employees making over $50,000 (or increase the withholding ceiling) that could be applied to school funding.

We can also continue to expand the Ohio School District Income Tax used in a number of school districts and take a very long look at charter schools that will claim at least $1.2 billion of our tax dollars over the next two budget years, with over 40 percent of them in academic emergency.

In many cases one-third of our charter school tax expenditures go directly to profits, including David Brennan's White Hat Management schools that wrangled a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status even though 95 percent of his charter school revenues are passed to the for-profit parent company. Brennan is a major contributor to my opponent.