Labor & Employment Law

Kasich Blocks Broadcast of Ohio Budget Briefing

By Mike Hall

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) is a public official accountable to taxpayers. But he is demanding a news blackout tomorrow when he releases the state’s budget plan. Kasich has forbidden reporters to broadcast any videos, photos or audio recordings during or after his afternoon budget briefing for the press.

Instead, Ohio residents will have their first and apparently only chance to see and hear Kasich explain his budget at invitation-only town hall meeting later in the day that will be broadcast on government television. That should be a free-for-all with tough questions and exacting follow-ups.

What does Kasich have to hide? Maybe the fact that taking away the rights of public employees to bargain for good middle-class jobs doesn’t have anything to do with balancing the budget but his bill (Senate Bill 5) includes it anyway?

The last time we checked, the First Amendment still applied to Columbus, Ohio, unless Kasich found another dirty-trick maneuver to weasel his way around that that like Ohio Republicans did to win a committee vote for SB 5 last week.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 14, 2011 (boomark / email).