GOP says Cordray’s promises too costly
Without offering any documentation, Ohio’s Republican legislative leaders accuse Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray of living in a “dreamland” of campaign promises that they claim would cost $4 billion a year.
“The outlandish promises being made just aren’t realistic,” House Speaker Ryan Smith, R-Bidwell, said Thursday in denouncing Cordray’s spending proposals.
Senate President Larry Obhof, R-Medina, joined Smith in saying Cordray is promising more than the state can pay for and would require tax increases and budget cuts in unspecified areas.
Yet, the two did not back up their statements, failing to deliver the verification of their numbers that was promised to reporters.
The GOP legislative leaders, of course, support Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine for governor and are expected to maintain the party’s control of both chambers — meaning they have to approve any tax-hike proposals.
The Cordray campaign took note that Smith and Obhof offered no proof.
“Republicans have no backup to support these outlandish claims and numbers. Rich has continually said that anyone who understands Ohio’s budget knows we are running big surpluses,” a spokeswoman said.
Both DeWine and Cordray have said they will not increase taxes if elected Nov. 6.
During their news conference at the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Obhof and Smith admitted they did not conduct a similar examination of the cost of DeWine’s policy proposals.
“Richard Cordray, unlike Santa Claus, doesn’t have a magic bag that he can reach into and grab a billion dollars here or four billion dollars there,” Obhof said.
Without saying how they came up with the numbers, the Republicans placed these annual price tags on various Cordray proposals:
• Implementing universal pre-K: $1.8 billion. The Cordray campaign platform says private contributions and operators, such as churches and nonprofits, will cover some costs.
• Making direct payments to charter schools, instead of deducting the funds from aid to local school districts: $880 million. The number is close to current spending on charters.
• Restoring the local government fund to prior levels: $450 million. This number also is close to reductions in aid since 2010 that was instead kept in state coffers.
• Repaying the borrowing costs of a $1.8 billion bond issue for infrastructure improvements: $50 million.
• Offering aid to community college students, once they have exhausted other aid programs, to essentially make their educations free: $60 million. Cordray has said an analysis shows his proposal blending grants and loans for two-year colleges is not nearly that expensive. However, his campaign could not provide a copy of that study.
The leaders also claimed that Cordray seeks the elimination of caps on school funding that prevent them from receiving full funding under the state aid formula at a cost of $783 million a year.
“We have never proposed eliminating caps on school funding, but we have said that we would provide fair and equitable funding as required by the constitution,” Cordray spokeswoman Christina Freundlich said.
Aides to Obhof and Smith did not respond to a request for documentation of that claim, either.
The Republicans said they would not increase taxes to help pay for Cordray’s proposals if he is elected governor and hope to eliminate more income-tax brackets to reduce Ohioans’ taxes.
Cordray has said he will work with existing tax revenues to help pay for his priorities, spend down state budget surpluses, harvest additional taxes from sources such as increased collection of sales taxes on internet purchases, and would potentially tap the $2.7 billion state rainy day fund.
DeWine campaign spokesman Joshua Eck said, “I would point out that all of our proposals have been reasonable and responsible — things that could actually be passed while maintaining a balanced budget. It just doesn’t compare in any way to the billions in new spending Mr. Cordray is promising.”
DeWine’s proposals include increasing state aid to poorer school districts, spending $200 million more a year on early-childhood education programs and dramatically increasing state aid to children services agencies. He has provided no overall cost estimates on his package of proposals.
Some Republican legislators and candidates have expressed support for expanded pre-K programs, eliminating caps on school funding and directly funding charter schools.
DeWine, who this week began running TV commercials accusing Cordray of being out to raise taxes, said in their last debate that Cordray could not fund his promises without raising taxes. Cordray rejects the contention.