With all respect, I suggest the discussion about securing the borders of our country is misplaced. By public statements, our political leaders appear to give substantial attention to our border with Mexico and wink at Canada. While there is a critical problem with “illegals immigrants” crossing borders, our focus fails to acknowledge the actual issue of our homeland security. Once again, we miss the point.
The 19 participants in the 9/11 attacks came into our country through a security checkpoint system that they had analyzed and knew how to defeat. “The 9/11 Commission Report” reveals narratives about how the 19 al Qaeda operatives could have been watch listed; presented passports manipulated in a fraudulent manner; presented passports with suspicious indicators of extremism and made detectable false statements on Visa applications. Each of the 19 operatives made false statements to border officials to gain entry into the United States. Each of the 19 operatives violated immigration laws while in the United States. None of these 19 operatives were stopped.
I believe the American people do still remember how we felt on 9/11. It is time to target terrorist travel; invest in intelligence and security strategies that engage the lessons learned from 9/11. There are millions of illegal people who come into this country with passports and visa’s. They are now lost in America with little risk of detection. Let us pay these “illegals” the attention we failed to give before 9/11.
Perhaps sending “illegals immigrants” back to their country of origin provides a sense of comfort and feeling of success in short term political problem solving. Yet, these actions cannot be accepted as a responsible defense of our national security. There is a genuine difference between a person who violates our borders to become an illegal worker and an individual who enters our country illegally for purposes of commiting terrorist acts. We must recognize the difference in the enactment and administration of our border security laws. It is time our political leaders attend to necessary specialization in an integrated national security workforce; meaningful inter-agency cooperation and assurance that we have developed an institutional structure with sufficient expertise in intelligence and real security.
As a people, we cannot solve actual problems by allowing ourselves to be distracted by partial solutions that do not address the lessons left. Perhaps, with great regret, the lesson that should be learned from 9/11 has yet to be acknowledged and it is just easier to look south.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Thanks - The May 2nd Primary
I offer my sincere thanks for all who took the time and effort to write my name in as the Democratic Candidate for the 76th Ohio House District. With each person I have met while visiting neighborhoods, events and organizations, I realize the great desire for change in the course of our state government. I believe there is a great desire in our district to return the purpose and focus of our government to the people.
The focus of my campaign is to address and serve the needs of people who live in the 76th Ohio House District. We have a district diverse in people, communities and pursuits but united in the necessity to find a single future. I see our future in the proud wisdom of our past acknowledgement that "In God, All things are Possible." We are called to begin again to make what is possible a part of our every day lives. We can and must do this -
Once again, my thanks to all who have supported me to this point and a focus on the great opportunity ahead. John F. Kostyo
The focus of my campaign is to address and serve the needs of people who live in the 76th Ohio House District. We have a district diverse in people, communities and pursuits but united in the necessity to find a single future. I see our future in the proud wisdom of our past acknowledgement that "In God, All things are Possible." We are called to begin again to make what is possible a part of our every day lives. We can and must do this -
Once again, my thanks to all who have supported me to this point and a focus on the great opportunity ahead. John F. Kostyo
Statements on the Issues
Agriculture: My first plan to serve agriculture in the 76th District is to take the demands made on our farm families and apply them to our state government. We must take those values that allow stewardship of the land and place them into a stewardship of public trust. In this, I believe we must demand that our state government operate in an ever increasing efficient and cost effective manner.
A first step to accomplish this would be to require firms that seek to conduct business with the state engage in competitive bidding for the work. If we demand competition at every state level from those outside firms that seek to do business with the state we will realize a savings of millions in our state budget.
I strongly favor efforts to expedite the development and production of alternate fuels in our District that pass cost savings to our agri-business. These fuels include soy diesel, ethanol and other bio-fuels.
I favor the investment of state funds into research and engineering that will allow more efficient and effective use of technologies in planting and harvesting our crops. This includes using GPS plotting of fields and calculating the most efficient ways to run equipment to realize fuel savings and greater crop yields. These technologies are here today and need to be expanded to their full potential.
Eminent Domain: I believe that the use of eminent domain must be absolutely limited to a minimal level of government taking when necessary for new roads, schools and infrastructure. I do not believe the state should have any role in seizing private property to assist changes in ownership merely to assist private economic development. Simple common sense reveals a vast difference between a taking of private property for necessary public use and property used in private development.
My family was directly affected by the abusive use of eminent domain in a seizure of property. Elected governmental officials acted in the most crass and reprehensible manner without any reason. This experience allowed me to understand that we must change existing laws and re-direct our courts to focus on the critical importance of preserving private property as a Constitutional Right in the State of Ohio. At this time, the judicial presumptions in our state do not appreciably favor the preservation of private property interests in the context of eminent domain proceedings.
It is my position that a public need must be shown to justify a public taking of property. If a taking is necessary, then the actual economic value of the property must be considered to compensate property owners before the taking can be justified. Far too often, property owners lose valuable property to allow for future governmental expansions rather than address current needs. Once private property is lost, its value is lost for generations.We must make sure that if property is taken, the property lost is dedicated to serve the public for generations or the taking cannot be justified. We must make sure that the taking of property is not done to assist private developers to realize indirectly what they cannot do directly.
Tax Expenditure Limitations: I do not support tax and expenditure limitations in our state. These measures are traps cloaked in political gimmickry. I believe self control is always better than legal control. As a result, I strongly favor self-imposed aggressive tax and expenditure restraints. It is a sad statement when those who have failed to restrain taxes or spending over years in office somehow suggest voters conceal their irresponsibility and failures under an ill advised and badly worded amendment to our state Constitution.
TEL is a thinly veiled excuse offered to compensate for financial mismanagement and a political spree from years of pay-to-play politics in our state. This political gimmick, from evidence of its disastrous effects in other applications, will result in frivolous lawsuits; expensive special elections and take money from local communities, education, public safety, health care and child protections. Ohio needs real answers for real problems, not proffers that cover Republican mistakes and mismanagement. We need real change in our state now.
Education: This state must make the funding of education a priority. We must return professional respect and esteem to teachers and the teaching profession. My parents were teachers, my wife is a teacher, my sisters are teachers and I taught at the University of Findlay for over 15 years. While education and the teaching profession may be good political sport, most professional teachers have far more education than many of our esteemed politicians.In education we find the singular key to open the door to Ohio’s future.
We must seek to educate each child from pre-school to the highest level of education each can achieve. I believe a great fault of our civic and political leaders has been to discuss education without a deep respect for the work of our teachers and the teaching profession.We must remember that there should be as much respect for the professional who builds our schools and those who teach there; as much respect for those who plant our crops as those who process and serve us; we need to return respect to good working people as much those who excel at math and science. With this said, if we make educational funding a budgetary priority, we make every thing else fall in line.
Next, I believe we must relieve our property from the burden of funding public education. It does not make any sense for politicians to say they have reduced our income or personal property taxes only to find even greater burdens in local school levies and increased county sales taxes. We must follow the directions of the Ohio Supreme Court and relieve property from the burden of funding education. The fair way to fund education is a proportionate and balanced income tax. We can reduce property taxes and allow our teachers and educators to return to education rather than levy fund raisers. We all share an interest in the education of our children, each person, business and investor in our state. It is only fair that we share in the investment of our children’s future and the future of our state.
We must fund demands on education, find meaningful ways to measure the effectiveness of our schools and reward students and educators for superior efforts. I would support an end to voucher programs and charter schools that seek public money but are not subject to the same standards or demands as our public schools. These devices are clear evidence of the pay-to-play benefits derived from the corrupt Taft political culture. If a school falls below educational standards, I suggest using teams of experienced educational professionals who can go to the subject school or system, assess and determine reasons and needs then assist the school or system return to the level of education we want our state to achieve.
Health Care Reform: Our economy has hit a firm wall which necessitates responsible and focused reform to the manner and scope of health care. A basic level of health care must be considered a right of every citizen of our state and our country. No person should be left without the medical care, prescription drugs or preventive care necessary to maintain their lives. Small investments in preventive care can save costly visits to emergency rooms and prevent extended hospitalization.
As a society, we must recognize that the cost of extending basic health care to every citizen preserves life, liberty and allows all the pursuit of happiness. No person should be forced to choose between eating, paying rents or mortgages or paying for medical costs and prescription drugs. I suggest that providing a minimum level of health care to all our citizens will result in a far healthier population in our state with children and adults less dependent on emergency care when they do not have health coverage and then forced to file bankruptcy when they could not pay for the costs.
Ohio First - Economics and Jobs: The most important issue facing our state is the growth of business and jobs. We have an incredible range of opportunities in our state and it is time we seek to realize these dreams. My plan is called “Ohio First.” We must ask ourselves why in a state seeking business investment and growth, would we invest money somewhere other than back into the people and business who earned and paid that money? No farmer would plant seeds in another field hoping to realize a crop they could not harvest. We must become good stewards of our own resources and use those resources to realize our future.
If we want to grow business in Ohio, we must invest in ourselves. The very thought that Ohio fund managers would allow the investment of $215 million in an off shore hedge fund is incredible. Our first consideration for investment of Ohio dollars must be in Ohio. Even if that money is lost, the investment would create jobs and growth for the people and business who matter most right here at home. We are all too well aware that the sum of $215 was invested and lost in an off shore hedge fund. I believe that investing in Ohio First is far better than losing the money in Bermuda or the Bahamas.
It is possible to find some entertainment in Bob Taft's approval of his friend’s speculation in collectable coins. Collecting rare coins, stamps and baseball cards may be a lot of fun. My preference is for baseball cards and autographed baseballs. But these hobbies cannot be the place were Ohio Fund dollars are invested. Yet the amount of $50 million dollars of Workers Compensation funds was invested in rare coins. Of the $50 million dollars invested in rare coins, it appears some $13 million dollars got diverted with many thousands paid to Republican politicians. This money would go a long way if loaned to Ohio business entities for growth and repaid at market rate interest. Market rate interest is far better than the 2.5 % rate in which these funds are presently invested. Further, the 1 billion dollars reported lost in the form of potential investment returns during the last decade by relying on sub par investment managers for Ohio funds, as reported by the Oversight Commission, would go a long way to re-vitalizing business in Ohio.From this, comes “Ohio First.”
As the people and businesses invested in Ohio every day, why shouldn't Ohioans get the first preference for the investment of Ohio dollars - Ohio fund dollars - or at least a large part of the $15.7 or so billion dollars just in the Ohio Workers' Compensation fund. We can invest these dollars in new fuel resources like soy-diesel or ethanol or hydrogen fuel cells; new technology for business products, invite new business that promise family wage jobs and invite our children to return to our communities. These are opportunities we owe to the future of our State.My vision is to begin our future today.
It is time again to proclaim “With God, All Things Are Possible” and time to begin again making what is possible a part of our everyday lives - in Ohio.
A first step to accomplish this would be to require firms that seek to conduct business with the state engage in competitive bidding for the work. If we demand competition at every state level from those outside firms that seek to do business with the state we will realize a savings of millions in our state budget.
I strongly favor efforts to expedite the development and production of alternate fuels in our District that pass cost savings to our agri-business. These fuels include soy diesel, ethanol and other bio-fuels.
I favor the investment of state funds into research and engineering that will allow more efficient and effective use of technologies in planting and harvesting our crops. This includes using GPS plotting of fields and calculating the most efficient ways to run equipment to realize fuel savings and greater crop yields. These technologies are here today and need to be expanded to their full potential.
Eminent Domain: I believe that the use of eminent domain must be absolutely limited to a minimal level of government taking when necessary for new roads, schools and infrastructure. I do not believe the state should have any role in seizing private property to assist changes in ownership merely to assist private economic development. Simple common sense reveals a vast difference between a taking of private property for necessary public use and property used in private development.
My family was directly affected by the abusive use of eminent domain in a seizure of property. Elected governmental officials acted in the most crass and reprehensible manner without any reason. This experience allowed me to understand that we must change existing laws and re-direct our courts to focus on the critical importance of preserving private property as a Constitutional Right in the State of Ohio. At this time, the judicial presumptions in our state do not appreciably favor the preservation of private property interests in the context of eminent domain proceedings.
It is my position that a public need must be shown to justify a public taking of property. If a taking is necessary, then the actual economic value of the property must be considered to compensate property owners before the taking can be justified. Far too often, property owners lose valuable property to allow for future governmental expansions rather than address current needs. Once private property is lost, its value is lost for generations.We must make sure that if property is taken, the property lost is dedicated to serve the public for generations or the taking cannot be justified. We must make sure that the taking of property is not done to assist private developers to realize indirectly what they cannot do directly.
Tax Expenditure Limitations: I do not support tax and expenditure limitations in our state. These measures are traps cloaked in political gimmickry. I believe self control is always better than legal control. As a result, I strongly favor self-imposed aggressive tax and expenditure restraints. It is a sad statement when those who have failed to restrain taxes or spending over years in office somehow suggest voters conceal their irresponsibility and failures under an ill advised and badly worded amendment to our state Constitution.
TEL is a thinly veiled excuse offered to compensate for financial mismanagement and a political spree from years of pay-to-play politics in our state. This political gimmick, from evidence of its disastrous effects in other applications, will result in frivolous lawsuits; expensive special elections and take money from local communities, education, public safety, health care and child protections. Ohio needs real answers for real problems, not proffers that cover Republican mistakes and mismanagement. We need real change in our state now.
Education: This state must make the funding of education a priority. We must return professional respect and esteem to teachers and the teaching profession. My parents were teachers, my wife is a teacher, my sisters are teachers and I taught at the University of Findlay for over 15 years. While education and the teaching profession may be good political sport, most professional teachers have far more education than many of our esteemed politicians.In education we find the singular key to open the door to Ohio’s future.
We must seek to educate each child from pre-school to the highest level of education each can achieve. I believe a great fault of our civic and political leaders has been to discuss education without a deep respect for the work of our teachers and the teaching profession.We must remember that there should be as much respect for the professional who builds our schools and those who teach there; as much respect for those who plant our crops as those who process and serve us; we need to return respect to good working people as much those who excel at math and science. With this said, if we make educational funding a budgetary priority, we make every thing else fall in line.
Next, I believe we must relieve our property from the burden of funding public education. It does not make any sense for politicians to say they have reduced our income or personal property taxes only to find even greater burdens in local school levies and increased county sales taxes. We must follow the directions of the Ohio Supreme Court and relieve property from the burden of funding education. The fair way to fund education is a proportionate and balanced income tax. We can reduce property taxes and allow our teachers and educators to return to education rather than levy fund raisers. We all share an interest in the education of our children, each person, business and investor in our state. It is only fair that we share in the investment of our children’s future and the future of our state.
We must fund demands on education, find meaningful ways to measure the effectiveness of our schools and reward students and educators for superior efforts. I would support an end to voucher programs and charter schools that seek public money but are not subject to the same standards or demands as our public schools. These devices are clear evidence of the pay-to-play benefits derived from the corrupt Taft political culture. If a school falls below educational standards, I suggest using teams of experienced educational professionals who can go to the subject school or system, assess and determine reasons and needs then assist the school or system return to the level of education we want our state to achieve.
Health Care Reform: Our economy has hit a firm wall which necessitates responsible and focused reform to the manner and scope of health care. A basic level of health care must be considered a right of every citizen of our state and our country. No person should be left without the medical care, prescription drugs or preventive care necessary to maintain their lives. Small investments in preventive care can save costly visits to emergency rooms and prevent extended hospitalization.
As a society, we must recognize that the cost of extending basic health care to every citizen preserves life, liberty and allows all the pursuit of happiness. No person should be forced to choose between eating, paying rents or mortgages or paying for medical costs and prescription drugs. I suggest that providing a minimum level of health care to all our citizens will result in a far healthier population in our state with children and adults less dependent on emergency care when they do not have health coverage and then forced to file bankruptcy when they could not pay for the costs.
Ohio First - Economics and Jobs: The most important issue facing our state is the growth of business and jobs. We have an incredible range of opportunities in our state and it is time we seek to realize these dreams. My plan is called “Ohio First.” We must ask ourselves why in a state seeking business investment and growth, would we invest money somewhere other than back into the people and business who earned and paid that money? No farmer would plant seeds in another field hoping to realize a crop they could not harvest. We must become good stewards of our own resources and use those resources to realize our future.
If we want to grow business in Ohio, we must invest in ourselves. The very thought that Ohio fund managers would allow the investment of $215 million in an off shore hedge fund is incredible. Our first consideration for investment of Ohio dollars must be in Ohio. Even if that money is lost, the investment would create jobs and growth for the people and business who matter most right here at home. We are all too well aware that the sum of $215 was invested and lost in an off shore hedge fund. I believe that investing in Ohio First is far better than losing the money in Bermuda or the Bahamas.
It is possible to find some entertainment in Bob Taft's approval of his friend’s speculation in collectable coins. Collecting rare coins, stamps and baseball cards may be a lot of fun. My preference is for baseball cards and autographed baseballs. But these hobbies cannot be the place were Ohio Fund dollars are invested. Yet the amount of $50 million dollars of Workers Compensation funds was invested in rare coins. Of the $50 million dollars invested in rare coins, it appears some $13 million dollars got diverted with many thousands paid to Republican politicians. This money would go a long way if loaned to Ohio business entities for growth and repaid at market rate interest. Market rate interest is far better than the 2.5 % rate in which these funds are presently invested. Further, the 1 billion dollars reported lost in the form of potential investment returns during the last decade by relying on sub par investment managers for Ohio funds, as reported by the Oversight Commission, would go a long way to re-vitalizing business in Ohio.From this, comes “Ohio First.”
As the people and businesses invested in Ohio every day, why shouldn't Ohioans get the first preference for the investment of Ohio dollars - Ohio fund dollars - or at least a large part of the $15.7 or so billion dollars just in the Ohio Workers' Compensation fund. We can invest these dollars in new fuel resources like soy-diesel or ethanol or hydrogen fuel cells; new technology for business products, invite new business that promise family wage jobs and invite our children to return to our communities. These are opportunities we owe to the future of our State.My vision is to begin our future today.
It is time again to proclaim “With God, All Things Are Possible” and time to begin again making what is possible a part of our everyday lives - in Ohio.
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