SIDNEY — Sidney Mayor Mike Barhorst and New Bremen Mayor Jeff Pape have joined the mayors of the largest cities in each of the counties in the 12th Ohio Senate District to form a legislative advocacy association.
The group, including Bellefontaine Mayor Ben Stahler, Celina Mayor Jeff Hazel, Greenville Mayor Steve Willman, Lima Mayor David Berger, Urbana Mayor Bill Bean, Barhorst and Pape plan to meet on an as-needed basis to advocate for legislation that will benefit their citizens and their communities.
“As a result of the rapid pace of legislative activity in Columbus combined with the complexities of legislation being introduced in the general assembly, we have mutually agreed that we can no longer trust that our elected representatives will make decisions that are beneficial to cities and villages without our input,” Hazel said.
“If we were to simply look at the financial impact that decisions that have been made in Columbus over the course of the past half dozen years,” Stahler added, “each of our communities have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue every year. The cumulative impact has resulted in essential projects that have gone unfunded in each of our communities.”
“The fact is that things wear out. Critical infrastructure — bridges, roads, sewers and water lines need to be upgraded. Our needs are growing, not shrinking,” David Berger stated. “But we have been told repeatedly by Columbus that we have to do more with less. For a number of years, we have managed with less. We are now at the point where we can only do less with less. Our communities need the state of Ohio to restore resources that have been taken away.”
“It’s important to consider the unfunded mandates that have been passed along to our communities,” Bean stated. “From storm water management to prevailing wages to increased training for emergency responders, the list continues to grow. The new budget provides still additional examples.”
“We plan to meet soon with Senator Matt Huffman to discuss our concerns with the governor’s 2018-19 budget,” Willman reported. “Hopefully we can coordinate schedules and meet with him periodically during the legislative term to provide him with consistent input from the perspective of local municipalities.”
“Once we have had the initial meeting, we’ll be reaching out to all the villages within the district to invite their mayors to join future round table discussions,” Pape said. “Concerns of smaller municipalities are sometimes different than their bigger brothers and sisters, but there is a lot of common ground, and it is important that their voices are heard.”
“There is no question that we should have undertaken this initiative long ago,” Barhorst stated. “Each of our communities has attempted to work with our elected officials, but there is no question that there is strength in numbers. We want to work to build a stronger Ohio. The economic forces that have challenged the state have destabilized Ohio’s municipal sector and represent our largest single hurdle. Yet, Ohio’s municipalities are its primary engines of economic growth — more than 85 percent of all Ohio jobs are in Ohio’s municipalities — that is why it is so important to revitalize the state-municipal partnership. We have to work better together.”
The mayors asked Barhorst to lead the group. He will host the first meeting between the mayors and Huffman in Sidney.
