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Akron Beacon Journal
www.ohio.com/bj
Yes
on Issue 1
Develop brownfields and preserve green space? Cities would
benefit from the Clean Ohio Fund
Sunday,
October 8, 2000
Don't
tell Bob Taft the findings of commissions and task forces are routinely
ignored. The governor put together the Urban Revitalization Task Force last
year, and Ohio voters will find one of its recommendations on the Nov. 7
ballot. Issue 1 would amend the state constitution, allowing the state to issue
$400 million in bonds for the preservation of natural areas and the cleanup of
abandoned industrial waste sites in cities.
We
strongly recommend that voters approve Issue 1.
Ohio
has yet to do what is necessary to protect its environment adequately and
effectively. The state Environmental Protection Agency still hasn't the
resources it needs to meet its duties. Issue 1 wouldn't solve those problems.
It would add significantly to the effort.
The
state's larger cities face many challenges. One involves enhancing their
economic base. Too often, companies looking to expand depart for the suburbs
and beyond. Issue 1 provides a tool to counter the trend. It would generate
money to revitalize ``brownfields,'' those sites long abandoned and unfit for
economic development because of past pollution.
Make
those locations attractive to private developers, and their potential begins to
return. They attract business. They deliver jobs. They bolster the tax base and
invite an improved quality of life. Would cityscapes suddenly be transformed?
Hardly. Revitalization, as Akron knows well, can be painstaking. Progress comes
slowly, block by block, or brownfield by brownfield.
Critics
argue that Issue 1 would let polluters off the hook. Those who contaminated
sites wouldn't be held accountable, they insist, because the public would pick
up the tab for the cleanup. Not exactly. The attorney general would still have
authority to make polluters pay. At the same time, the reality is, it is often
difficult to lay precise blame. What's more, the pursuit of accountability
frequently leads to court, where resolution can take years, even decades.
If
communities must make a choice, the higher priority should be a speedier
cleanup, a course more likely to serve the city as a whole.
All
told, $200 million would go to the redevelopment of brownfields over four
years. The other half of the money would be used to preserve farm land and
green space, plus the development of bike and hiking trails and the protection
of streams and watersheds. The aims are many, including the prevention of
sprawl and the reduction of water pollution from runoff, the harm that
accumulates, say, as water crosses fields.
Again,
the purpose isn't to make Ohio pristine. Issue 1 supplies the state with a
handy tool for improvement. The proposal doesn't involve a tax increase. The
state would issue bonds and pay off the debt from general revenues. Voters
won't find a lot of detail about implementation. That task remains for the
legislature, a process that will deserve close attention.
Gov.
Taft calls the concept the Clean Ohio Fund. It offers more than a fresh look.
Cities and suburbs benefit from cooperation. Issue 1 serves both, seeking to
enhance the green space Ohioans enjoy and the urban areas that have been the
state's source of economic strength.
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