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The
Toledo Blade
www.toledoblade.com
Environmental group assails Taft over Issue 1
September
6, 2000
BY JAMES
DREW
BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU CHIEF
COLUMBUS
- Ohio's largest environmental group will battle Governor
Taft over the Nov. 7 ballot issue that would let the state
borrow $400 million to clean up polluted sites and preserve
green spaces.
"Governor
Taft wants the taxpayers to pay off a $600 million debt,
but up to now, he has refused to discuss specifics,"
said Sandy Buchanan, executive director of Ohio Citizen
Action, which has about 150,000 dues-paying members. "Now
comes the reckoning: Can he personally defend his proposal?"
Ms.
Buchanan yesterday offered to debate Mr. Taft "anytime,
anywhere," but Mr. Taft's spokesman, Scott Milburn,
said the governor won't do it.
"The
governor is not going to waste his time on an organization
that has too little credibility in this state," Mr.
Milburn said.
Citizen
Action's board of directors decided to join Rivers Unlimited
in parting ways with other environmental and conservation
groups that have endorsed Issue 1.
Those
groups include the Ohio Environmental Council, The Nature
Conservancy, and the Green Environmental Coalition.
On Nov.
7, voters will consider a constitutional amendment to allow
the state to borrow up to $200 million to clean up polluted
sites, and $200 million to "protect valuable farmland,
safeguard watersheds," and set up parks, trails, and
bike paths across Ohio.
Mr.
Taft, who announced the proposal in his State of the State
address in January, has said cleaning up polluted sites
- referred to as brownfields - "will create new jobs
and new tax bases, and better protect the public from existing
environmental hazards."
But
Ms. Buchanan said $175 million of the $200 million would
be reserved for state "Department of Development projects,
with no priority on protecting public health from brownfield
contamination."
Jack
Shaner, a lobbyist with the Ohio Environmental Council,
said it's true many questions remain about Issue 1. If it
passes, those questions will be answered when lawmakers
debate a bill to enact the constitutional amendment, he
said.
"If
Issue 1 is approved, it is like walking into your bank and
your bank approving a $400 million line of credit,"
he said.
"As
you pay it back, you can continue to get more money. It's
a permanent fund for conservation and revitalization, and
we just think it is too good an opportunity to walk away
from and leave on the table."
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