Debbie Phillips under fire for supporting higher taxes

Dispatch story here.

"the Fund for Ohio's Future is firing away at Democrats for approving a version of the two-year budget that contained 150 fee hikes."

I love how when we take more money out of people's pockets, it's called a fee hike. I guess it's a way to campaign that you've never voted to increase "taxes", but you voted to take more money from taxpayers. Sounds like a tax increase to me.

".........Democratic-passed budget also cut charter-school funding."

This, of course, surprised no one. Charter schools are generally non-union and are not run by government employees. They are also successful. So, you can see why the democrats would oppose them.

"The ads equate the fees to tax increases by using a 2007 statement by Gov. Ted Strickland, who shortly after taking office said, "I think higher fees are higher taxes."

"These days, Strickland is no longer equating fee increases to tax hikes, and legislative Democrats say there is a distinction between raising fees for certain licenses and raising, say, the income tax rate.

"I know he rues the day he did that," Garland said of Strickland's fee statement.

"They're not a tax. They are applied to the people who are using that service, or it gives them the right to do whatever it is in the state.""

Ted Strickland was right when he (originally) said that fee increases are tax increases. If you increase money taken from tax payers, it's a tax increase, no matter how specific.

""I do believe the government is here as a safety net, and in these times you need that safety net more than ever before," she said."

Of course you do, more money for government, more money to dole out to your union supporters so they can give you more money to campaign with.

"This is not the time for partisan politics," Carney said. "We are supposed to be trying to resolve problems for the state of Ohio. I don't have time to run negative ad campaigns."

Hilarious! The dems are in constant campaign mode. But when a GOP leaning group campaigns it's, of course, outrageous. What's outrageous is the democrat's pension for raising taxes and punishing successful programs.