Pepper and Portune vote to fund Planned Parenthood

"Change in political climate" opens tax floodgates to abortion provider

In a move that is as much tragic as predictable, Commissioners Todd Portune and David Pepper have reversed more than a decade of County policy in allowing county monies and monies flowing through its Family and Children's First Council to flow to Planned Parenthood.
On October 20, the Commission voted to approve a $26,225 contract between the County and Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Ohio. A copy of the resolution is here. Commissioner Pat DeWine was alone in voting against this contract. Indeed, the grant was for services to patients with an "undocumented immigration status," meaning illegal aliens.
Terribly, this decision to fund Planned Parenthood is not intended to be an isolated occurrence. Rather, as the March 13, 2008 minutes of the Family & Children First Council show here, "Since the political climate has changed" (i.e., a new pro-abortion majority on the Commission), the Family and Children First Council voted to include Planned Parenthood as a "full member of the Child and Family Health Services Consortium and a subgrantee of the Council." This means it is now eligible for grants from the agency.

Commissioner DeWine has introduced a resolution that will work to reverse this new policy.

COASTer leads defeat of Fairfield School Levy

Committed COASTer Arnie Engel, a member of the Fairfield Board of Education, led forces opposed to the Fairfield School Levy on the November ballot, a five-year 2-mill permanent improvement levy. Opponents knocked down the levy by 52% of the vote on election day. The tax would have generated an estimated $2.7 million. Engel contends the school district wastes money, primarily on inflated teacher salaries. Engel's efforts were so successful, the Board has also decided not to pursue a tax increase on the February 2009 ballot. Great work, Arnie!

COAST October Newsletter Correction

Bortz did not lead drive to repeal Cincinnati property tax rollback

COAST prides itself on the integrity of its communications, thus we hate to make mistakes. However, we did in our October edition, when addressing the City's decision not to raise property tax rates in 2008, we said: "Council members Chris Bortz and Roxanne Qualls led efforts to hike Cincinnati property taxes." Representatives of Bortz' office have contacted us and assured COAST that Mr. Bortz made no attempts to increase the property taxes this year and did not support such a proposal. COAST sincerely apologizes for the error.