PolitiFact Ohio | Tracking politicians' promises
Kasich-O-Meter
Tracking the promises of John Kasich
Fitz-O-Meter
Tracking the promises of Ed FitzGerald
Promises we’ve rated recently
Oppose restrictions on gun rights
The Promise:
"I believe in the 2nd Amendment. Everybody has the right to keep and bear arms to either protect your family, protect yourselves, to be a hunter. The 2nd amendment is part of that Constitution. It's something I believe in. And, we're going to stand firm, very firm, for 2nd Amendment rights here in the state of Ohio."
Offer college scholarships to county residents
The Promise:
"FitzGerald will work with the broad stakeholders in education to design and phase-in a program using all available resources to provide higher education scholarships to county residents."
Dismantle the Department of Development and privatize job-creation efforts
The Promise:
Under his "JobsOhio" plan, he would abolish a state agency devoted to job creation and replace it with a privatized, corporate board that he would appoint and chair.
Post CountyStat dashboards online
The Promise:
"Online-accessible performance measure dashboards will be available on the county's website."
Update March 12th, 2013:
Performance measures for Cuyahoga County departments are now available online through CountyStat
Revamp the state's collective bargaining law for public employees
The Promise:
Said striking public employees should be fired and that binding arbitration provisions from outside negotiators hurt financially-strapped cities.
Create a non-compete policy between communities in the Fourth Frontier Program
The Promise:
"Any local government in Cuyahoga County can participate in the Fourth Frontier program, as long as they agree to not provide tax incentives or other public resources to lure companies away from other cities also participating in the Fourth Frontier program."
Update February 26th, 2013:
All 59 Cuyahoga County communities sign on to anti-poaching plan
Phase out Ohio's personal income tax
The Promise:
"Phase out the income tax. It's punishing on individuals. It's punishing on small business. To phase that out, it cannot be done in a day, but it's absolutely essential that we improve the tax environment in this state so that we no longer are an obstacle for people to locate here and that we can create a reason for people to stay here."
Scrap Gov.Ted Strickland's evidence-based school funding model
The Promise:
"Ted Strickland's evidence-based model was unfunded, filled with unfunded mandates on cash-strapped districts, and has been unsuccessful in the states in which it has been implemented."
Dismantle the Department of Development and privatize job-creation efforts
The Promise:
Under his "JobsOhio" plan, he would abolish a state agency devoted to job creation and replace it with a privatized, corporate board that he would appoint and chair.
Raise education standards
The Promise:
"Raise (education) standards for everybody. We should bring the curriculum in line with international norms. We're not competing with Indiana. We're competing with India."
Promote cooperation among colleges, universities and major institutions
The Promise:
Said he can bring Ohio colleges and universities together to share resources, entice major institutions to collaborate and force Republicans and Democrats in the General Assembly to tackle tough issues.
Update April 24th, 2012:
Joint recommendations for higher education on capital budget a first
Improve job retraining programs
The Promise:
“We have to train ourselves for the jobs that are going to come. Because we’re not just going to be stuck here in manufacturing, and we’ll do manufacturing as best as we can, but we also have to be involved in bio technology and computer information technology. We’ve got to retrain Ohioans and we need a whole new system to do that.”
Update April 23rd, 2012:
Executive order creates office that will streamline job training programs
Review all operations to root out corruption
The Promise:
"My first act as county executive will be to order a complete review of all functions and operations, to root out the corruption once and for all. The parade of scandals and investigations must be brought to an end so we can focus on creating jobs and maintaining services."
Update February 1st, 2012:
Pay slashed for 89 employees after audit of wages in fiscal office
Establish a $100-million economic development fund
The Promise:
Modeled after Ohio's successful Third Frontier fund, FitzGerald's "Fourth Frontier" would use grants and revenues from Cleveland's soon-to-be-built casino to invest in local businesses.
Create voucher program for job training
The Promise:
"How about vouchering out all the job training program and giving it to the businesses, including small businesses, and letting them drive the curriculm at our technical schools and our community colleges so we begin to train people and retrain people for jobs that exist and those we think are going to come."
Update November 10th, 2011:
Framework was part of the state budget, with funding to come from casinos
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