Gov. Strickland brings Main St. Tour to Huber Heights

On Friday afternoon, Huber Heights residents Ed and Bridget Lyons had the pleasure of hosting Governor Ted Strickland at their Chambersburg Rd. home. This was part of Strickland's Main Street Tour after earlier stops in the day to Maumee and Lima to highlight the differences between him and his Republican gubernatorial opponent John Kasich as the November election push begins to heat up.

'I'm actually thrilled; we don't do a lot of entertaining and we don't have the governor over to our house," said Ed Lyons prior to the event. "So, it's an incredible privilege for us."

Strickland arrived in Huber Heights around 3 p.m. Friday and greeted the Lyons family and their three children as well as a number of other guests in the Lyons kitchen. Strickland then addressed local residents who had gathered in the family room along with television and print media after receiving words of support from the host family.

"I remember when he (Strickland) first ran and they said that when he was in Congress that he didn't take the health insurance because other people didn't have it and I thought that was really something," said Bridget Lyons. "If you're going to say that you want something, you want to do what you say. That's what I tell my kids--you have to do what you say you're going to do. You have to talk the talk and walk the walk. That's why I like Gov. Strickland,..I think he's still walking the walk and I really like Gov. Strickland for that very reason. He does what he says and he lives it."

"This is the future of Ohio right here," added Bridget Lyons, pointing to her children.

"If this is the future of Ohio, Ohio's in pretty good shape," exclaimed Strickland.

"When Gov. Strickland ran four years ago, he talked about how tough times were and somebody who had to live in a chicken house for a period of time, things get better," said Ed Lyons. "Well, things have gotten better with Gov. Strickland at the helm. He's had a lot of rough waters. What we're looking at in four years is who do we want to have as our governor? Do we want somebody whose been there before, knows the way like the captain of the ship in the stormy waters or do we want somebody who was part of the stormy waters and the cause of it--at Lehman Brothers. The choice is going to be up to Ohioan's. I can't tell you how proud I am to have Gov. Strickland at our house..."

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"I want to tell you a few things that I've tried to do as governor that I think has positioned Ohio and to move forward economically," said Strickland. "We have gone through very difficult economic times. This has been a national recession. It did not have to happen, in my judgment. It happened primarily, because of shenanigans and greed that characterized Wall Street and that has really brought our economy to the brink, not only of a recession, but very close, I believe, to what could have been a long lasting, major depression.

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"We are doing more than any state, I believe, over the four years that I have been governor, to hold down the escalation of college costs," added Strickland. "Consequently, we have about 6500 more Ohioans enrolled in our colleges now, then when I became governor..."

"Ohio has increased funding, using federal and state resources, to our public schools by more than 5.5 percent during this current budget," said Strickland.

Strickland said an energy bill was passed "that gives us a very strong renewable standard."

"By the year 2025, 25 percent of all the electricity sold in Ohio, must come from advanced technology and renewable sources," he said. "That's resulting in investments being made in Ohio right now, in solar power and biofuels, fuel cell research and just recently, it was announced that an electric car company called CODA is coming to Ohio to build their batteries for that car creating a 1000 new jobs in Ohio. We've done that and we've done it in a way that I believe, gives our business and our corporations some predictability so they can understand what their costs are likely to be going forward."

"We've worked to find capital for small business expansion," continued Strickland. "I've been working with the Obama administration in Washington and other friends in Washington that is before the Congress right now, that will make some billions of dollars available to small businesses so that small businesses can get the money they need to grow and expand and create jobs."

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"This hole that we're in is very deep, but let me tell you, it's because of the recession and it's because of what happened on Wall Street," said Strickland.

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"John Kasich would like this to be a contest between Ted Strickland and the economy," said Strickland. "And it's a contest between Ted Strickland and John Kasich."

Strickland said Kasich voted for NAFTA and to give China "most favored trade status."

"We were in Congress together," said Strickland. "He voted for those bills. I voted against them because I felt they take jobs out of Ohio and out of America and my friends, they did--we all know that. Many of our manufacturing jobs went off to Mexico and to China and to other places in the world..."

Strickland said Kasich voted to reduce dramatically student loans and student aid and said Kasich voted against raising the minimum wage when he was a Congressman.

Strickland then talked about Kasich going to work for Lehman Brothers as a managing director after he left Congress. He said Kasich came to Ohio and pitched Lehman Brothers to "our public pensions."

"When Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, Ohio's public pensions lost over $400 million." said Strickland.

"This guy wants to be governor," said Strickland. "I guess he wants to do to Ohio what Lehman Brothers did to our national economy, and we can't let that happen. That's why I'm here today."

Strickland said that Kasich has proposed the elimination of the state income tax.

"It provides 46 percent of the revenues that we have to operate...to support our schools, our colleges, our libraries, our public safety forces, our parks. All the things that Ohio does, 46 percent of the revenue comes from the income tax. The local government fund that we use to try to help this good mayor (referring to Huber Heights Mayor Ron Fisher) and other mayors across the state."

Strickland said Kasich believes in the trickle down economics.

"I believe we've got to build this economy from the ground up and that means investing in our workers, investing in our local small businesses, trying to help companies that are willing to grow and to keep jobs here in America-- jobs that are not being outsourced," said Strickland.

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