“Human sacrifice. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria!”
— Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) in Ghostbusters, describing a looming supernatural calamity.

In what’s surely a sign of the End Times, I find myself agreeing with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for the first time ever.

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I was researching details on the tax levies on Tuesday's ballot and grabbed the millage and property tax costs from the Hamilton County Auditor's web site when I saw this wisdom from Auditor Dusty Rhodes. It's right at the top of his home page next to his photo:

"It has become a fairly common practice on the part of those seeking to pass tax levies to make a point of saying that passage of the levy in question 'will not raise your taxes.' It may indeed be true that the amount of tax you would pay in future years would be no more than in prior years. However, it is also very true that if the levy were to fail, you would be paying less in those same future years than you had previously.

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The Ohio Democratic Party has filed a lawsuit against Gov. John Kasich — who they claim is improperly using his office to campaign for presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney — to get the governor to release his schedule of public events.

The ODP’s lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, contends that Kasich’s office either ignored or only partially fulfilled the request.

“It’s unfortunate that this Governor is so opposed to transparency and public disclosure that we have to ask the Court to force him to follow the law,” ODP Chairman Chris Redfern said in a statement.

“Serious questions remain regarding whether the Governor has improperly used his office for the benefit of Mitt Romney, and it’s deeply disappointing Kasich is so secretive he won’t even tell the public what he’s done or where he’s gone.”

Kasich press secretary Rob Nichols said the administration doesn’t comment on litigation, but dismissed the Ohio Democratic Party’s allegations.

“We release public records in accordance with the law, and in fact have already publicly released the governor’s schedule six times, including a schedule request to the ODP,” Nichols said.

“This is predictable election year politics from the same people who were just rebuked for using public records demands to interfere with the Auditor of State’s investigation into possible data manipulation in some school districts.”

Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Jerid Kurtz said Kasich’s office did respond to one of the seven requests for the schedule, but some of the information in the records was redacted — including an entire week that was blacked out with no explanation.

“Ohio law is very clear, and it states you have to give a specific excuse when you redact something,” Kurtz said. 

According to the lawsuit and court documents, the ODP requested on July 2 Kasich’s public schedule from that date through Aug. 27. 

According to a letter to the Ohio Democratic Party from Mehek M. Cook — assistant chief counsel to Kasich — the information about the governor's future plans was blacked out because that information could put him at risk.

“The governor and his office receive threats on any given day and the release of his whereabouts increases security issues surrounding the governor’s safety,” Cook wrote.

Cook wrote that any information in the records used by the Executive Protection Unit assigned to guard Kasich constitutes a security record and was redacted.

He also wrote that some information that would reveal confidential business meetings and trade secrets that would harm Ohio efforts to court businesses was blacked out. Additionally, information not relevant to the request was redacted.

Kurtz said it’s important that the public have access those schedules because voters have a right to know what their governor is doing on the public dime.

The schedules include where the governor is and with whom he meets, but they also show scheduled phone calls and media interviews.

The Ohio Democratic Party worries that Kasich is improperly campaigning for Romney while receiving a taxpayer-funded paycheck, or using public money to have his staff do so.

The concerns stem from statements made by Kasich both in public and on his Twitter account either praising the presumed Republican presidential nominee or slamming President Obama. 

For instance, The Plain Dealer in Cleveland reported that when Obama visited Ohio on Aug. 1 the governor tweeted “On the occasion of the President's latest visit to Ohio, we have a question for him,” with a link to a graphic asking “If the President's policies are behind Ohio's success, why is the rest of the country trailing us?”

Democrats claim that Ohio’s success relative to the rest of the country are due to efforts by President Obama, while Republicans say Governor Kasich is behind Ohio’s faster-than-average recovery.

While the Ohio Democratic Party is suing to have Kasich release his public schedule (Kurtz says Attorney General Mike DeWine and Auditor Dave Yost complied with similar requests in a timely manner) the state Republican Party has also submitted similar requests to Democrats throughout Ohio.

Kurtz characterized the GOP requests as being sent by Kasich’s “hand-picked lieutenants in the Ohio Republican Party,” though Nichols told The Plain Dealer that the governor had no involvement.

Ohio GOP executive director Matt Borges told the newspaper that the requests were routine.

Still, Kurtz called Kasich’s refusal to release his own schedule “hypocritical.”

“He’s a bully and the only way you can deal with a bully is fighting back.”

UPDATE: City Councilman Chris Bortz called Thursday morning to say that although Councilman Jeff Berding included Bortz's printed name as a co-sponsor on Berding's motion, Bortz won't sign the pledge. "I think it's premature to sign a pledge at this stage," Bortz said. "I support the thrust of it."

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Just a few weeks after leaving office, ex-Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is trying to raise awareness about a political action committee (PAC) she helped create while campaigning last year for the U.S. Senate nomination.

Courage PAC is designed to increase grassroots advocacy and citizen activism on several issues, and perform a watchdog role on Ohio government now that Republicans fill most statewide offices.

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Immigration reform supporters will hold a rally Wednesday afternoon, on the eve of Tax Day, to publicize recent research that indicates allowing current undocumented immigrants — or “illegal aliens” — to become legal, tax-paying citizens would produce billions of dollars in new tax revenues.

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Cincinnati’s Music Hall will be getting renovations, but the project will be much smaller than anticipated. Instead of the previously estimated $165 million, the project, which involves the city leasing the iconic building to the Music Hall Revitalization Company (MHRC) for 75 years, will only cover approximately $95 million.

At a joint press conference Wednesday, Mayor Mark Mallory and Otto Budig, president of MHRC, officially announced the plan, which City Council will take up early next year.

Not many details or a timeline were announced at the press conference, but some information did come to light. The renovations will include more comfortable seating, extra restroom capacity, heating, air conditioning, improved plumbing and new escalator models. During the renovations, Music Hall, home of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera and Cincinnati Ballet, will be closed for an estimated 17 months.

“We will do this in a manner that carries with it the surety that the project will be complete,” Budig said. “The worst thing we could do is start this project without the natural resources and pledges available.”

On top of the leasing agreement, the city will also help fund the project through tax credits. 

The lease continues the trend of public-private partnerships city government has used to revitalize Over-the-Rhine and downtown Cincinnati in recent years. From the Banks to Washington Park, the city of Cincinnati has pushed to be seen as a more attractive, business-friendly environment.

However, that has come with some push back. The Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC) and city have previously faced criticisms from homeless advocates for allegedly discriminatory rules at Washington Park, which were later voted down by the Cincinnati Park Board.

Some public officials have also raised concerns about the city giving away too many of its public assets. The 2013 budget currently relies on a proposal that will privatize Cincinnati’s parking assets, a plan that has faced heavy criticism from Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld and mayoral candidate John Cranley. City Manager Milton Dohoney argues the privatization plan is necessary to avoid 344 layoffs.

Today is the last day you can register to vote in the Nov. 2 election. You can register in person at any county board of elections, or you can mail in your registration to your county board of elections or to the Secretary of State, but make sure the postmark is no later than today.

If you're an Ohio resident, click here to download the registration form, print it out, fill it out and mail it in (or take it to your county board of elections today). Same here for Kentucky.

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Digging Ohio's primary election today. Everyone's expecting low turn-out, which only makes your vote even more valuable. If you're not sure what's on the ballot, check out CityBeat's roundup of election coverage for background on the U.S. Senate Democratic primary, the Democratic and Republican primaries for Hamilton County Commissioner, Issue 1 and more.

Dogging David Krikorian, running today in the Democratic primary for the 2nd Congressional District against Surya Yalamanchili and Jim Parker for the right to face incumbent Rep. Jean Schmidt in the fall. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann named Krikorian his "Worst Person in the World" a few days ago for suggesting that Indian-American Yalamanchili's name is too foreign-sounding to win an election.

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"Really, he’s not as bad as you think."

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