Sucka MC’s and flabby frontal lobes beware! Straight Talk Live is back in the spotlight this morning. Lock our number into your memory banks (513.749.1011),and get ready for for more taboo talk. What’s on the table for discussion this morning,? There are several very serious conversations that we need to have this morning that include: Obama Drops Bombs on Libya, Governor Kasich Drops Bombs on Ohio, Should Cincinnati Police High-Speed Chase?,Thundercats Return!, and 3 Tips to Survive in the 21st Century.
What’s My Governors Name? John Kasich Cut Creator!
This week Governor Kasich, a man who I wouldn’t elect to brush the dust off my Xbox, but whom Ohioans voted to run the state, released his budget. People from all over the state are righteously upset. Check the clip below:
http://widget.newsinc.com/single.htm?WID=2&VID=23365164&freewheel=69016&sitesection=ndnsubss
Interested in the details of the budget? Read below:
Ohio operates on fiscal years ending June 30. Gov. John Kasich’s budget is for the next two fiscal years ending June 30, 2012, and 2013. The budget goes to the legislature for consideration.
Estimated total spending:
Fiscal year 2011: $62.7 billion
Fiscal year 2012: $59.4 billion, (-5 percent)
Fiscal year 2013: $60.2 billion (+1 percent)
Tax income predictions
Income tax
First year $8.1 billion, (+2.5 percent)
Second year $8.6 billion, (+6.5 percent)
Sales and use tax
First year $7.9 billion, (+5.4 percent)
Second year $8.4 billion, (+5.5 percent)
Tax changes: None disclosed.
Fee changes: No compilation of fees was released, although some are likely to occur. For example, indigent drunken drivers would be required to pay a portion of intervention programs.
New revenue sources
• Sell five prisons — $200 million in one-time revenue.
• Privatize the Ohio Turnpike and Ohio Lottery — no estimates on one-time revenue.
• Transfer liquor wholesale distribution to the recently privatized state development agency, JobsOhio. JobsOhio would make an upfront payment to the state of $1.2 billion but revenues from liquor sales that previously went to the general fund will instead go to support business expansion.
Miscellaneous cuts
• Proposed closures: Seven Department of Taxation service centers, including in Akron, Cleveland and Youngstown.
• $2 million annual reduction in aid to public transit systems in Akron, Canton and the six other major cities.
• $93 million or 16 percent cut in the first year for the Ohio EPA, Department of Natural Resources and related agencies; less than 2 percent reinstated in second year.
HIGHER EDUCATION
Summary
Gov. John Kasich would reduce funding to state universities and colleges, place a cap on tuition increases and require faculty to teach more classes.
Funding This year: $2.56 billion, including more than $300 million in federal stimulus funds that is no longer available.
Next year: $2.29 billion
Second year: $2.38 billion
Highlights
* The State Share of Instruction, which is the primary source of state aid for tuition, is reduced 13 percent the first year and 12 percent the second from current levels, to about $1.75 billion each year.
* Continues a formula launched this year that funds the SSI based on course completions and graduations, not the number of students who enroll.
* Holds tuition hikes at institutions to 3.5 percent each year.
* Reduces funding to Ohio State’s Agricultural Research and Development Center in Wooster by 10 percent to $30.6 million each year.
* Eliminates $257,000 in state funding to the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron and to similar public service programs at Ohio University and Ohio State.
* Creates a $20 million Co-op Internship Program, although the details were not immediately available.
* Eliminates $374,000 in hazardous materials training for emergency personnel.
* Reduces funds to support the clinical education of medical students by 10 percent to $3.17 million both years at the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy in Rootstown and at five similar programs statewide.
* Dramatically increases funding in the Higher Education General Obligation Debt Service from $87 million this year to $108 million in the first year and $201.5 mill lion in the second.
* Establishes a charter university program that gives institutions more flexibility from state mandates.
* Requires universities to offer some three-year bachelor’s degrees starting in 2012.
* Requires faculty to increase teaching loads by one class every other year.
* Allows colleges and universities to replace multiple prime contractors with a single prime contractor on some building projects to bring construction costs down.
Source: Beacon Journal
Does anyone remember the Thundercats? It was an animated series that originally aired in 1985. Fans have been thirsty for a feature length film or revival. The folks at Cartoon Network have answered your prayers. Check out the trailer below:
The Sunday Head Lines:
With U.S. Nuclear Plants Under Scrutiny, Too, a Report Raises Safety Concerns
Allies Continue Air Assault on Qaddafi’s Forces in Libya
Black and White, Married in the South
Nate Doggs Controversial Lyrics?
Follow Nathan’s Twitter musings on culture, politics and pleasure here.
