Interview with State Sen. Capri Cafaro

Yellow Dog Sammy: What I’m interested in is you as legislator and looking forward. The first thing I want to ask you is, having long been interested politics and public policy, and having been a candidate twice, how does it feel to be a legislator now that you’ve actually had a couple of months of doing it?

State Sen. Capri Cafaro: It’s been an exciting time and a great honor. I’ve really always believed that public policy is the best way to improve the lives of people and I’ve said that a lot. To finally have an opportunity to do it is exciting every day. And because I’ve run twice, I will never be complacent. If I ever get complacent, slap me around! [laughs]

You go in every day, you recognize the responsibility that you have, and there is a shift … it is different, obviously, than being a candidate. To do the job is different, because now you have to do what you said you were going to do, and you have to remember why you are there, and I try to do all those things every single day. Remembering not only the people of the 32nd Ohio Senate District, but the fact that we are making decisions that are going to affect the lives of 11 million people. So, it’s not about what’s right or wrong for me or for my party or for my political career, but what’s right of wrong for the people of the state of Ohio. And it’s exciting.

YDS: Are there things about the daily routine that surprise you?

CC: Not so far. I’ve been at a pretty rapid pace the last several years because of the campaign, so [I’m accustomed to] the kind of schedule that you keep, or at least that I have been keeping over the last several months, with several meetings [a day] and reading when I’m not at events or in session or in committee. The one thing that I will say is that I did actually expect things to start faster. I guess in my naïveté I assumed that [the day after I got sworn in] things would begin to happen, and that is certainly not how it worked out. But, it did give me tremendous opportunity to sit down and drill down into the state public policy issues. So I really tried to utilize that six weeks or whatever it was to sit and see what happened in the 126th General Assembly, meet with as many organizations, legislative liaisons, and agency people to see what people’s anticipation was for the 127th, and get myself acclimated. So I tried to utilize that time to the best of my ability.

I try to be home as much as I can, but I’ve been appointed to two committees that meet on Mondays and Thursdays. I’m on [the Joint Committee on Agency Rules and Regulations], and I’m also on the Rail Commission. JCARR is every other Monday, and the Rail Commission is one Thursday a month. So, depending on how it goes, my Mondays and Thursdays at home [are limited]. But, no matter what, I’m typically home by Thursday afternoons or early evenings.

YDS: From whom did you seek advice about being a legislator, and what’s the best advice that you got?

CC: That’s a really good question. There’s been a whole host of folks that I’ve talked to. As a legislator, and sort of getting to know the ropes, there are folks that I’ve known before, like Bob Hagan and Harry Meshel [a former Ohio Senate President] and whatnot, who have offered me advice. I mean, they’ve known me since I was a kid! As far as within the Senate caucus, the Democratic caucus, I seem to, when I have questions, ask Sen. Dale Miller. He’s really presented himself, in the short time that I’ve had the opportunity to get to know him, as one who is very measured, very thoughtful, very deliberative, and [he] spends a lot of time on his public policy methodology. He’s been around for a little while in the House and now in the Senate, so when it comes to procedural issues and other things that occur, plus he’s now the ranking Democrat] on [the] Finance [Committee], so he seems to be the one I go to on something obscure. He’s been very good as far as specific policy advice. Marc Dann has given me a lot of advice, as you probably can imagine.

YDS: He certainly knows the territory, too.

CC: Right. I have a lot of respect for Marc. He is a real visionary, I believe. And I think really took his job very seriously as state senator and has subsequently taken his job very seriously as attorney general, utilizing it in ways to really serve the people of Ohio. So I listen very carefully to the things that he took as legislative priorities. Some of it is a little different obviously because he comes form a legal background. While I might be focusing on Medicaid buy-ins, he was focusing on criminal justice issues and some other things, but I try to listen to him very closely as well. He’s given me some funny things. He tells me I talk too much. So. Which he’s right. He says, “If I have one piece of advice for you, it is shut the “f” up.” [laughs]

YDS: You were an intern for two U.S. Senators, Sen. Kennedy and Sen. D’Amato. What’s your take on Columbus versus the Hill?

I think it is very similar. I guess it’s similar because if you take your legislating job seriously, you’re going to approach it in the same manner, whether you are in the city council or in the United States Senate. So I think that the approach that you have as far as being an individual legislator, and I’m speaking from my own perspective, my actions in Columbus would be no different than my actions in Columbus as far as how I present myself. Now as far as the culture, if you will, it really is a microcosm of DC in that you have these events every single night.

Now I will tell you that I was absolutely amazed by the whirlwind of what had occurred literally just a half hour after I got the word that I had the appointment. And I was still in Columbus and they asked me to come over to the caucus room to cast the vote for our leadership. And I walk into the Statehouse … and meanwhile, I have never spent really any time in Columbus previous to my time there now in the legislature …I walk in and I get stopped by the Turnpike Commissioner. “Hi! I understand you just got appointed. Here is my card.” And subsequently that has happened … that evening I got like 45 cards from people at this one event, and it’s been like that. The way that the lobbying community, for better or worse … I mean, there are all kinds of lobbyists, the corporate lobbyists versus the association lobbyists, but the volume that you have I think is I’m sure a similar kind of training ground of interaction than what you would get in DC. Being down there and knowing the events that go on at the Democratic Club and the Capitol Club, and seeing that kind of interaction between special interests and the legislature, is the same kind of activity as what goes on.

Now, the challenge in Columbus is because of term limits. The institutional knowledge lies in the folks that have been there the longest, which are the lobbying community, the journalists, and those who have followed it through, so they always present themselves, “We’re here for you as a resource.”

YDS: Which brings up the fact that three of the four senators around you are also new. Touching your district, Jason Wilson, Tom Sawyer, John Boccieri … you’re all just starting out.

CC: Yeah! Well, John was in the House, so he knows a little bit more than I do. But, what I’ve also seen though is that in the House and the Senate do operate relatively differently. We coordinate, I think, traditionally, with our own legislative delegation, of our house members. So, if there is a specific issue, I’m always in constant contact with our House members in the region, just to say “You know, we want to try to do something concurrently, can we present it at the same time,” this kind of thing. But, we kind of operate in separate bubbles. And we see each other in the evenings, but there is this kind of … and the procedural rules, evidently, are all a little bit different, as well.

And then, like any legislative body, the upper and lower chamber, I mean when you come from being one of 99 to one of 33, I think there is a differentiating point. And we, in the Democratic Caucus, are a caucus of twelve. So it really is a very organic body, and it’s been interesting to me to translate my work in, interest and knowledge of public policy into practical application. And it’s one thing to know and to understand public policy and it’s another thing to be part of an organic legislative body. Again, speaking to the difference between being a candidate and being a legislator. But, none of that is a surprise to me, obviously.

YDS: I see that you’re on the Veterans Committee with John Boccieri. And Aging, Health and Human Services seems like a natural, since you had an early interest in women’s health, particularly the breast cancer area, and you’ve been doing work with the aging. So, do you see that as your special area of expertise?

CC: By virtue of my interest and experience, health care policy and aging policy will continue to be an area that I will focus on as a legislator. I will tell you, part of my advocacy for older adults probably arose because my grandmother had Alzheimers, so in the continuum of long term care, you start to see the gaps in the public policy, when you realize that Medicare doesn’t cover long-term care, that you don’t qualify for the Passport program due to income and asset limitations, what are your options … you know, adult day care, and the prescription drug coverage costs and everything else. As a result, this is when it really becomes exciting. And I say … it’s so cheesy … it’s like my heart soars when I get to do this kind of thing.

The Alzheimers Association came and they knew that I was someone obviously who had experience with older adults, but they made their little pitch about [a particular] line item, and I was like, “Look, you really don’t need to sell me on this!” I’ve lived it, and I’m so excited. They laughed. I was like almost in tears. I cannot believe that I actually have a chance to actually do this.

I co-sponsored in the Senate S.B. 4 an S.B. 5, which just passed. One is for Medicaid buy-in for the disabled, that would give individuals that were fearful of working too much and of losing their access to Medicaid coverage a opportunity to do so, because it increases the asset threshold and some of the income limitations. So it gives them an opportunity to buy into Medicaid and not lose that benefit. And I also co-sponsored a piece of legislation … and it was my first floor speech, actually, on Tuesday, to speak to S.B. 5 … that was presented through Senator Carey, the Chairman of the Finance Committee. I ended up co-sponsoring it. It pertains to the Passport program, and giving older adults who have been on the waiting list, in nursing homes, the opportunity to get into the Passport program. And it also makes some changes to the assisted living waiver that was implemented in July. So, if you’ve already been in assisted living six months prior to your application, now you have an opportunity to get into the assisted living program, because of various contingent parameters surrounding that waiver program. So, again, to actually have a chance to do something, in the ways that I had hoped, is exciting. Not to say that is always going to be that easy!

YDS: I want you to talk about your district a little bit. How would you characterize the 32nd, as distinguished from other districts? Also, it’s kind of interesting that it is a two part district. Most of the population is in the Mahoning Valley, but you also have that big rural area up in the corner [of the state].

CC: The 32nd District is like a microcosm of Ohio. It’s just a two-county district, Trumbull and Ashtabula counties. It has a larger city, which is where we are now, Warren, and it’s very much an urban city. It has got urban challenges, urban problems. A declining industrial base, for a whole host of reasons. So you have that, and you have some of the sort of traditional suburb areas of Liberty and Cortland and Howland that you might see as a Strongsville or North Royalton kind of place with a lot of retail and suburban sprawl. You have places like Girard that are an outgrowth of Youngstown where a lot of people lived [who were] working in the mills, right over the border from Mahoning County. And then you travel north, into some of the most rural area of northeast Ohio, all the way to the lake. And Ashtabula is very different from Trumbull County. I’ve had an opportunity to spend a lot of time up there, over the last couple of years.

YDS: Have you had George Distel’s pickles?

CC: I have not George Distel’s pickles. I don’t like pickles, though.

YDS: They’re killer.

CC: George Distel is the man, though.

YDS: He is a good guy.

CC: He is. He really believes in what he does. He is really involved in the community. This man is at everything, he is at every community event. And that’s another thing. Not to digress, but talking about the district, it’s great to be home because it gives me an opportunity to go to as many events as I can. That’s why I want to be home more than in Columbus, because I want to be out in the community. In previous campaigns I made that a point, that you have to serve like you run, run like you serve, and all the rest of it. You develop this reputation of being this prolific campaigner, at every single event. Now that I am actually a legislator, that doesn’t change. That’s actually even more important, because you have to give more access to the people you serve, because you really can make a difference. And, so George Distel makes his fish, that’s his fund-raising thing, Fish Fridays, you know. We were actually up there last Friday, we hit maybe three different fish frys, but I’m always in search of good macaroni and cheese. Maybe not pickles, but macaroni and cheese.

YDS: I’m not familiar with Warren, but I do know Youngstown somewhat. I was an adjunct professor at Youngstown State for five years, and something that I picked up on from my students, I mean you can’t miss it, is the bitterness and the cynicism about the economy and to some extent about government. I assume that Warren shares in that to some extent.

CC: It’s the Valley.

YDS: Is it changing? How do we address that? I mean, where do we go from here?

CC: That mentality is very deeply engrained in our culture. It’s got very deep roots. Because of the loss of jobs and the shift in the economy, there’s always been a sentiment that we’re going to be left behind. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

YDS: My students faced the conflict of “Do I escape, do I get out of here?” or “Do I stay here because of family ties?”

CC: It is hard. And a lot of people go and come back. It is part of our charge as legislative leadership to try to engage this problem. I think that we do have an opportunity to re-shift the focus of the Valley mentality, because we do have people in leadership now that don’t have the same sort of institutional knowledge/baggage if you will, because we’re just not old enough. We hear it by folklore than anything else. I’m 29 years old, I’ve only seen the bust and not the boom of the Mahoning Valley. But that’s why I got in to public policy, because I saw what happened and I believed that a lot of our legislative leadership didn’t engage in the way that they should.

That being said, between myself and John Boccieri, who I believe is not 40 yet, and Tim Ryan, who’s in his 30s, and Jay Williams, who’s in his 30s, we have an entirely new generation of leaders that will hopefully … and we all have a very good working relationship … can get together and try to shake up this valley, and embrace our assets, rather than our history of self-fulfilling prophecies, if you will. And we’ve seen it time and time again. We’ve seen it in the Youngstown-Warren Airport, and we’re seeing it a little in the negativity surrounding Forum Health. I’ve said this before, it concerns me. I’m very optimistic given how things are progressing with Forum Health.

Forum Health is one of the major [health care providers]. Trumbull Memorial Hospital here, Hillside Hospital. They’ve had some very significant financial difficulties, and to make an extraordinarily long story short, a very very long story short, they’re going to sell. But, it’s better than closing. And there’s just a lot of concerns because the people who are running Forum are not from the Valley, so there is this automatic assumption that if you’re not from here you must be against us.

And that’s not necessarily the case. I mean I think that both labor and management and the community at large really do have one objective and that’s to save the access to care and to save these jobs. They’re like the third largest employer in this area. And Northside Hospital, for example, that’s right on the border between Mahoning and Trumbull County, is a 65% Medicare-eligible facility. So, it serves an underserved population. It can’t afford to close. So, my concern is, there’s all this negativity surrounding personalities, and “if you’re not from the Valley then you must be against us,” and the last thing I want to see is us make ourselves look so unattractive to a buyer that nobody wants to buy. Because, we can be successful in this process.

And we’ve done this before. The thing is the Valley, there’s this sentiment that we’ve been wronged, at the same time, it sometimes translates into this tremendous unifying bond of hope, that we’re the only ones who can help ourselves, because nobody is going to help us. And, you see it in what they did with the BRAC [Defense Base Closure and Realignment] Commission, saving the airbase here. They put together a group called SOAR, within the community, to show the community support for the airbase, in the process of the BRAC Commission reorganization and restructuring. They did the same thing with GM, we worked with the Kobalt in 2003, and I anticipate we’ll do the same thing going into the 2009 cycle, as the Kobalt finishes its term and we’re looking for a new product line General Motors works on. So, we’ve proved that we can be positive, and be united, and get things done here.

I’d like to see us being more proactive in promoting our assets. Making [Youngstown State University] more of a research-based institution. I’m a big advocate when it comes to alternatives and renewables. I think it’s really one of the best ways that we can engage economic development through an entire continuum. And at some point, I’m going to work with some other folks who are really interested in this, on an omnibus energy package. I know that a lot of other folks in the caucus who are really interested.

YDS: Energy economy. Alternative energy, and also help the economy.

CC: Exactly. I mean, in our district we have such an ag economy, and an industrial base, it’s the perfect marriage. But you can’t just build ethanol, bio-diesel, coal gasification plants in a bubble. You have to spur the demand. I actually had a conference call yesterday with the GM E85 expert in Detroit, talking about some of the things that they have done, because they really are the leader in the production of flex-fuel vehicles, and they actually have forged partnerships with retailers to get the pumps into areas [and] make consumers aware of where the pumps are. So these are the kinds of things that we need to do. I have tried to put something forward to temporarily waive the sales tax on E85 flex engine vehicles in the state sales tax. It is not happening in this budget -- we had to take that off the table.

We also have to be very concerned about our revenue stream because of the Moody’s bond rating. It’s been downgraded to negative and a lot of it has to do with our revenues. If we further reduce our revenues, we further jeopardize our Moody’s bond rating, potentially increasing our debt service, and further reducing our GRF [General Revenue Fund], because we’re really bad this cycle. There’s been a lot of debate around that, particularly with some of the stuff on new construction. I’m the ranking member on the Highways and Transportation Committee, and that’s where all the action is right now. The transportation budget has been four hours of testimony in the last couple of days, and they’re doing some very, very interesting stuff.

I think our single greatest asset in this region is our transportation infrastructure, to be able to attract investment. We have the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, with a 6,000 foot runway, we have an existing rail infrastructure, we have Interstate 80, Interstate 90, deep-water ports in Ashtabula. So, it’s an obvious place for economic growth as long as we leverage it and position it and promote it in an appropriate manner. And that’s why I’m very excited, and really, really, really wanted to be, the ranking on Highways and Transportation, because I thought it was one of the best ways that I could have a seat at the table to serve this community better.

I subsequently was also appointed to the Rail Commission, as I think I mentioned. Rail spur access is going to be very important, and something we’ve talked about for years, and I’m hope we maybe will have a chance to get to at some point, at the Youngstown Warren Regional Airport, to help that be a cargo hub, too. So, the biggest thing going on with the transportation budget is the language that was put into the House version, that we’ve got in the Senate, that would set a challenging precedent on utilization of the CAT [Commercial Activity Tax] tax. Basically what was put into this [is] they want to utilize the CAT tax when the petroleum exemption goes out of effect and they start collecting July 1st, rather than have that go into the GRF, the proposal is to put it into the motor fuel tax fund, for utilization for highway construction. This is problematic on a multitude of levels. One being that the CAT tax is meant to be an activity tax rather than a commodity tax. So, what is the spirit of what the CAT tax does? The CAT tax is there to backfill the loss integral to the personal property tax phase out, which has a direct impact on local government funds, and their budgets dealing with everything from fire and ambulance to schools. But, they are held harmless for five years. So, if the CAT tax doesn’t do what it is supposed to do for the GRF – which is to backfill the PPT loss – leaving the potential 190.6 million dollar hole in the GRF, challenging the Governor’s budgetary projections, and then going back to the Moody’s thing, increasing the probability that Moody’s is going to continue to downgrade us because of our lost revenue, so to speak, and then that’s just going to cost us money with increased debt service. So, it’s a huge problem.

They did to take action in the House to try to strip this language on the floor. I’m going to try to do the same thing in committee. I’ve alerted the chairwoman that … we’ve had some preliminary discussion saying, look, I do intend to submit some amendments, they will be similar to the House. That’s basically all that I’ve said at this point. We a lot of discussion about this CAT tax issue. The Township Association came in, and the County Commissioner Association came in to testify to the challenge to the CAT tax. So, my anticipation is certainly [that] the purpose is more deliberative than the assumption that we are going to be able to actually strike it because the numbers just aren’t there.

YDS: Right.

CC: But, you know, Governor Strickland does have a line item veto power, and we’re veto-proof in the legislature now. While it’s scary, I don’t think it’s necessarily going to be implemented at the end of the day, at least that’s my hope, but we will certainly bring this to fruition in the debate in the committee and on the floor.

YDS: I wanted to ask you about JCARR. It seems to me that that’s a place where the friction between the party that controls the legislature and the party that controls the executive is going to be really apparent, because the agencies are part of the executive branch and this is where the legislature rides herd on their rule changing and so forth. How do you see that working out, or is it too early to say?

CC: It’s too early to say. I’ve only been to one JCARR meeting so far. Very early. I replaced Director Zurz, so after she received that appointment I filled her vacancy on JCARR. But I actually really wanted to be on JCARR. It came highly recommended by Zurz and by Hagan, who sat on it before, because it gives you a chance to interact with the agencies. But it seems too early to tell about the friction. That seems like a logical assumption, for sure, but a lot of it has to do with [the fact that] in JCARR you have four prongs to invalidate a rule or a portion of a rule, and one of them is legislative intent. So at the end of the day it kind of goes back to us.

It goes back to [us] anyway, because we cannot say these rules are bad. All we can say is we’re going to make a motion to invalidate, which brings it back to the General Assembly. The legislative intent gets passed off to these agencies to make their interpretations of the rules and we have to see, are they out of their scope, essentially. So, ultimately, it goes back to the legislative language that we gave the agencies, too. So I think that there is a little bit of a shared burden, if you will, in regards to this process. Now, it will be extraordinarily interesting to see [because] all the action is going to be in the JCARR on the 24th for the smoking ban rules.

YDS: Ah.

CC: Oh, I mean, that is an issue that actually raises eyebrows on both sides of the aisle, in general. The thing is, with the smoking ban rules, there’s a couple of challenges with it. One being the legislative intent, because it’s a ballot initiative. The legislative intent of a ballot initiative is precarious at best. You’re sort of stabbing in the dark with that. Sort of, “What did the voters think they were voting for?” But there are three big debates with this. One being, how far does the horrible “burning organic stuff” or whatever language go. There’s been concerns about wood-burning fires and pizza ovens, there’s been concerns with candles and cotton wicks.

YDS: Oh my gosh.

CC: This kind of expansive language needs to be hemmed back in. Then there’s the issue of the membership clubs, such as the VFWs, who believe that they were exempted. Obviously the language is very proscriptive and it says “paid or unpaid” staff, so it doesn’t matter if you’re volunteers, it doesn’t matter if you’re a membership organization. So, from a rule-making standpoint, you can’t just invalidate a rule because you don’t like it. It’s very proscriptive now because it is statutory.

We can change it, and I have some problems with the private club stuff, and might potentially go forward and try to make some statutory changes to actually help those VFWs and American Legions and whatnot. And the third thing is the issue pertaining to enforcement. Because, I know there’s a lot of us … Grendell is on it, and Niehaus is on it … I’ve raised some concerns that this is really the case, that you see the sign and you can make an anonymous call to report a violation, so you now you basically get fined or penalized with an anonymous tip, with no real evidence. So I think there’s this problematic precedent that’s set. How can you be convicted of a crime when nobody sees it, nobody know who did it, nobody knows when it happened. There’s no process. Now, it’s one thing to trigger an investigation, it’s another thing to say that you’re going to get penalized by this anonymous call. So I think that has raised questions, and I’ve received conflicting statements on whether that’s true. But, that’s a concern.

So, I’ve learned in this process [that] I’m a civil libertarian to a fault, and I don’t know if that makes me really liberal or really conservative!

YDS: Yeah, it’s hard to say on that.

CC: Because I really believe in protecting individual freedoms, and individuals’ abilities to make their own decisions. Whether or not they want to eat trans-fats, or something bad. Eat Ho-Hos, or whatever. And I understand the workplace issue, having a safe and healthy workplace, but at the same time … particularly in membership clubs where you’re an adult and you’re paying for membership and you know what you are getting yourself into, it seems to me that that might be an area that needs a second [look].

YDS: I wanted you to say a word or two about the budget. You probably knew something in advance about it?

CC: We actually didn’t.

YDS: To me it was a big shock. And trying to decide why, I first thought, well, I expected him to try to not swing for the fences because he’s got to deal with a legislature controlled by the other party so he would make modest proposals. Instead, they are very dramatic proposals.

CC: They’re very dramatic!

YDS: And the second thing is, Ken Blackwell ran against him mostly by saying he doesn’t have innovative ideas, where are his specific plans, and suddenly he shows his hand and it is VERY innovative.

CC: We were just shocked. Not shocked because we didn’t think he had it in him, but shocked by the expansiveness of it. I mean, we knew some of the stuff that was potentially coming in, and a lot of it was laid out in framework in the Turnaround Ohio plan. Subsequently though he came forward with very specific ways of implementation. And the thing that I give him the most credit on, is the fact that he has done it in a way that is not [raising] our spending. [It has] I think the smallest amount of spending growth that we’ve seen in years. He said it was 2.2%, which is the least of what we’ve seen in 35 years, if I recall the speech correctly. That is impressive, and the amount of fiscal discipline that that had to take. I think everybody, Democrat or Republican, has to give him credit there.

YDS: Yes. I should think so. We haven’t heard from the Republicans yet, but I should think so.

CC: But there’s … “game on.” There’s no question, “game on.” But I’m trying to develop good relationships with groups on both sides of the aisle, and we all understand that it’s a different world and we have to find some level of consensus and common ground. And I think hopefully the legislative process and subsequently our policy-making will be better because of that level of necessity for engaged discourse.

YDS: Are there parts of the budget that are going to be of particular concern to this district? I’m thinking of the fact that you are on a state border and the sales tax on cars can’t be making the car dealerships happy, and also you’ve got a lot of schools and this tuition freeze thing has got to be …

CC: Right. I talked about that, yeah, in the Vindicator, I think. The tuition freeze thing is I think going to be great. The alternative energy stuff I hope as an impact on our district. The job training stuff I think is going to impact. The Passport stuff. All of these things are going to have a pretty significant impact on this area. Again, being kind of a microcosm of Ohio. I’ll tell you, I think the EdChoice vouchers program …

YDS: What do you think of that?

CC: I’m amazed. The voucher and charter school moratorium thing will be the most challenging to get through the legislature. A lot of the other things ware going to be … I won’t say easy, but will be given … I think everything will be given fair deliberative consideration. I’m hopefully putting some faith in my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to give fair consideration to everything and to give everything its day in hearings in committee and whatnot. I think that the charter school moratorium and the voucher elimination – the elimination of the EdChoice program – will be the most difficult to get through because of the numbers of the legislature and because of the traditional support that the Republicans have given to public schools. That’s going to be the biggest challenge.

That being said, the EdChoice voucher program is going to have a direct impact on school districts all around this area. Liberty schools, for example, are in continuous improvement. What they did at the end of the lame duck was subsequently move the EdChoice program from not just academic emergency/academic watch but expanded it to continuous improvement. And what has happened, at least in our area, is it has become kind of an epidemic recently, parents are enrolling their kids for a week, and then they are taking the money and going to parochial school or another school. And the catch here is you can be enrolled for a week but they don’t have access to that money for the next twelve years, in theory. So we need to put forth something that basically would tighten it up, and so you have to be in for two years before you can be able to take it, and you can only get the money for the life of the building.

I almost fell out of my chair when he said, “We’re eliminating the EdChoice voucher program.” Oh my God! This is going to have a direct impact on our district – a couple of our districts through Trumbull and Ashtabula – because of the whole continuous improvement situation, are being directly impacted by it. And in some of the discussions I was having yesterday with some of folks in Columbus, the charter school issue – I mean, in this county in particular – the numbers are amazing. Out of the foundation formula, if you will, that comes from the state, the state money into the local school districts. In the City of Warren, for example, 11% of that state money goes to the charter schools -- community schools.

YDS: Wow.

CC: That’s huge. So, it’s going to have a significant impact. The homestead tax relief, one out of four homeowners? That’s going to be huge, for so many reasons. First of all, we do have one of the most rapidly aging populations in the state …

YDS: Here in this area? I guessed that. It seemed that way.

CC: Particularly the oldest old.

YDS: In terms of working across the aisle, all three of the [state] rep[resentatives] in your district are now Democrats, thanks to Tom Letson replacing Randy Law. But part of your district is in Steve LaTourette’s Congressional district, and you ran against him. Is it on your to-do list to develop a working relationship with him?

CC: Actually, I did it, previous to this. I actually really wanted to have the opportunity to bury the hatchet, if you will, with Steve, and did so in October.

YDS: What happened?

CC: I had asked somebody I knew that is a Republican to see whether or not I would have an opportunity to have dinner with Steve and did. We have subsequently developed a working relationship. I talked to Dino in his office in Painesville at least once a month. I probably will see Steve on Saturday at something in Ashtabula on alternative energy. And because I sit on Transportation, and he’s on Transportation, they’ve been a great resource. So, we certainly recognize that there’s the necessity to work together for the betterment of our mutual constituencies. I have a lot of respect for Steve. The guy is bright, he understands the system, and is definitely one of the most effective legislators when it comes to securing federal dollars for the purposes of transportation. He did an excellent job on the floods we had last July, particularly as subcommittee chair for FEMA, so you’ve got to give credit where credit is due. And particularly in that area of transportation infrastructure, he has really proven that. And he has also proven to be a leader who is not afraid to buck his party, which I respect. So, yeah, I look forward to continuing to work with Steve.

YDS: What do you gotta do to keep this seat, in two years?

CC: Do a good job! That is my hope. It’s about doing my job.

YDS: Is it about getting acquainted with the people? Is this about visibility and casework? Or are you seeing it more in terms of results on the floor?

CC: I think it’s all of it. To do a good job isn’t to be a legislator in a bubble in Columbus, presenting public policy in a vacuum, nor is it just doing things to get visible. I guess I am not a politician in that regard. I am not the kind of person who just looks for big hits, to get myself in the paper. I’m not the kind of person that just wants to be in the right place at the right time. It’s about doing what’s right, and what’s right is being available to the community, holding the town hall meetings as I always said that I would do, to engage the people in the political process. We just had one with 250 people on the issue of septic system problems, which is huge in this county.

It’s about engaging the public in a participatory legislative process, being accessible at home, hearing their concerns, doing the best to implement them. I don’t think anyone expects, nor do I purport, that we’re going to be able to solve all of this area’s or the State of Ohio’s challenges in the next year and nine months, but it’s about putting forth an innovative effort and doing your best. And I think that exhibiting that leadership, that kind of accessibility, that effort from the legislative standpoint, is part of helping continue to do this job, for 2008 and beyond.

YDS: Thank you.

CC: Absolutely. Thank you!