Ohio is a fiscal cesspool. It's what you get when the GOP runs everything. Same thing is happening in Washington. They don't care about public money. In Ohio, the leaders gave $50 million to their top fundraiser, Tom Noe, to invest in a risky rare-coin fund. Now they've pulled out according to the Toledo Blade:
State officials yesterday said they are halting a controversial investment in two rare-coin funds controlled by Tom Noe, a prominent Toledo-area Republican fund-raiser and coin dealer.Ohio's GOP leaders ou only made the investment because of Tom Noe, who is also a Bush Pioneer (and under federal investigation for fundraising irregulaties):
The Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation announced that it will dissolve the $50 million investment "over a reasonable period of time sufficient to protect the state's investment."
The agency did not say how long that would take.
"We had concerns about the ability of the managers to commit the necessary time and resources to make it profitable," said Jeremy Jackson, the bureau's press secretary.
The agency's decision was made a day after The Blade reported that two rare gold coins purchased for the state had probably been stolen. Mr. Noe had said the coins were "lost in the mail." He has told the bureau that an additional 119 coins owned by the state were "misappropriated" by a former employee.
State Sen. Marc Dann, a Democrat from suburban Youngstown, said state leaders didn't act soon enough to protect "what's left of the investment."For the Ohio GOP, money talks. Doesn't matter if it's good for the public, just that it's good for their major donor. Looks like the GOP in Ohio is as corrupt as the national party....In Ohio, they're bankrupting the state, here they're doing it for the whole country.
He said the governor, attorney general, and state auditor "fiddled for a month while Rome is burning."
"These guys were falling over themselves to protect their big donor, Tom Noe," Mr. Dann said.
Mr. Noe has contributed more than $11,000 in campaign funds to Gov. Bob Taft and more than $4,000 to former Gov. George Voinovich, now a U.S. senator, over the past decade.
Since 1990, campaign finance records show that Mr. Noe has contributed more than $110,000 to candidates for state offices and to various state Republican Party committees.
Every voter in Ohio better know about the GOP agenda of Tom Noe, Rare Coins and Risky Investments in next year's Governor's race.
