Exclusive Interview:

An Interview with a Tax Killer

State Representative Tom Brinkman, Jr. (H-34) and Cincinnatus Standard Publisher Steve Fritsch

Steve Fritsch: First of all, congratulations on your November victory. What would you like to get accomplished not only during this next year, but also in your last term as state representative?

Tom Brinkman: Thank you. Well, it is my last term and that causes some soul-searching because you know you only have two years (left) and you have to get it done now. I'm working on two pieces of legislation. One that has to do with reforming nursing education in Ohio; we don't have enough nurses because we don't have enough to be teachers, to teach nurses, and so we have to work on that. And I'm also working on something that will improve the adoption system in Ohio. Part of the whole pro-life agenda, if you're for pro-life you should also be promoting adoption. George Bush and the Republican Congress really helped by putting a huge tax credit, a $10,000 tax credit, which certainly covers any adoption legal fees. We have a $400 (tax credit) in Ohio, in addition to that. But we also just need to reform it so we have people adopting Ohio kids, Kentucky kids, and Indiana kids, as opposed to going overseas, because they find it's easier and there is less red tape. Why do we have so much red tape and others don't? So we're looking into something like that.

I'm hoping to be named a chairman of a committee. I don't know which one that will be. I've talked to the Speaker and he seems amenable and once you're a chairman you certainly have an agenda dictated to you because there is certain things that committees do every year. The transportation committee would obviously do the transportation budget; the education (committee) would do the education (budget). So as chairman you have those things dictated to you. But that's part of the deal.

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Final thing, we have no idea what this governor is going to be like. Is he going to be good? Is he going to be bad? Can't get any worse (than Bob Taft). So we'll see what happens.

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What do you see the GOP's relationship with Governor Ted Strickland being like? Do you think he will work with Republican lawmakers on some issues?

I think he will. I mean he's certainly gone out of his way to reach out. When we would have swearing-in ceremonies we were always invited to go to Taft's house to have tea, cookies and punch. Where as in this case, we had a reception and Strickland showed up. He is putting the office at the State House instead of on the 30th floor of the Wright Center. You know, those could be symbolic things and not result in anything. But I think he knows that he has to deal with the Republican General Assembly to get anything done. It just remains to be seen.

There are certain people who put him in office and they want theirs. Will he give it to them? And by that I mean the unions, particularly the teachers unions, who are all about more money, more money. Or will he be everything toward Appalachia where he comes from. Appalachia always feels they have the short end of the stick, but quite frankly, we give more money to Appalachia than any other part of the state. Will the inner cities get more, because the inner city mayors all feel that they're owed. But I don't know if that's true because people are fleeing the inner cities. They are all going to the suburbs. So I just don't know which way he is going to go. My colleagues in the Democrat minority portion of the House feel that he's going to empower them to be involved. He could. That will certainly make for some longer sessions (laughing). But I don't know what he will do. We really don't know and we're really all learning at the same time. The one thing that he did say was that he was going to come up with a plan to fix education and I'm waiting to hear what that is because that will be very interesting.

What is the general mood among your GOP colleagues after the past election? Is there a desire or pressure to get things turned around and get the GOP base excited again?

Well, there is certainly a lot of soul-searching going on. There's certainly a lot of people who are lost and still in a daze. I attribute this to being like 1994 for the Democrats. It was a tough year for them. They were wiped out. But then two years later they came back. They took some seats back in Congress. They retained the presidency. So certainly they turned it around quick.

And it was funny, I ran into former county chairman Mike Barrett, who is now a federal judge, so he's not supposed be involved with politics, but I ran into him after the election and we were at a football game and he said, "You just can't go any further. You had your bloodletting and now you got to turn it around and turn it around quick." And I think he's right about that and I think that's the general feeling. To the Republicans credit, we've had lots of meetings about what went wrong, what could be better, what do we have to do? I do believe there is a feeling that we need to get rid of some more RINOs. And I think we need to get some people who are really not real Republicans and get rid of them because in many cases the Republican base responded against them. They viewed (Senator) Mike DeWine as a RINO and they felt it was time to get rid of him. They abandoned him. It wasn't that the Democrats (offered someone special), it was how many Republicans stayed home. So I think that there is a lot of cases like that still have to be tended to and there has to be an effort to move that ahead also.

In the last few years, there has been a lot of infighting going on in the local GOP. When do you think it is appropriate to speak out against a fellow Republican, and when is it best to remain quiet, or in the background?

My personal opinion is that the primary is the best time to do that. When you have a primary you have two competing ideas or visions, or three or four, and you let that happen. And I think that's healthy that we do fight in primaries. Now party leaders don't want to have primaries because they know they're expensive, they know if you spend so much in the primary then you're handicapped in the general (election). But I think that's the best time when we can really talk about the issues. Once the primary is over though, I think it's appropriate that you support your party's person. If you don't want to support your party's nominee then they call that an independent. But by and large you should support your party's person... if you don't want to vote for your party's nominee, which I know a lot of people who didn't, then keep it quiet. But I do think it's appropriate in the primary process and selection process that people are able to have the freedom to be against a person (that is running).

Many people, not only in Ohio, but the nation as well, want to see some fundamental reforms. These include reforms on immigration, education, and the economy, whether it be taxes or jobs, or other things. Ohio needs a lot of work. What do you think is most important for Ohio to start on?

Well, we need jobs. We're losing a lot of jobs and we don't have the manufacturing jobs like we had before. Some people feel that education is the key to that. We have done a lot of reforms in the K-12 and higher ed. Some people want to turn that to the higher ed and really force them to be more accountable and that is a tough situation. I think that the more that we can empower students the better we are, so that means more scholarships, vouchers, grants, get them enthused and get them doing it... That's not what higher education wants. They want more money and they want to delve it out. I think we (the state of Ohio) need to be able to empower the students to be consumers and shop and give them the money through loans, vouchers and grants. So that's going to be a big issue.

Now, another thing you hear is energy. Ohio's got two advantages: we have a lot of energy, be it coal... it's not clean, but it is there and there is technology to make it clean, and we have a lot of water. Those resources as time goes on will be key resources. They are going to run out of water, and going to have to be very strict with water in Arizona, Nevada and California. They have energy problems out there as far as lack of energy and high-cost energy. So we do have some opportunities if we play it right in Ohio. It's just, do we wait fifty years when we are the place that people want to come, or can we jumpstart it now. I hope we can jumpstart it now.

When it comes to water and coal technology, are these things that need to be invested in right now, or is that something that has already been invested in somewhat?

Well, that's the problem. I don't think we've invested in the education... like coal. We need to be the leader in clean-coal technology, because our coal is dirty. So if we are the leader, not only will we have energy here that is clean but we can also sell that technology to West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and et cetera. So we become the leader of that because it behooves us to have that. And therefore, instead of a computer manufacture sitting out in California, where they're having brownouts and they're on water rationing and have higher labor costs, and then they'll say, "Well, to the heck with this, let's just move to Ohio." We have a great success story in West Chester going on where a company was based in San Diego that has come to Ohio, a medical company, and there's many like that. Whirlpool left Mexico to open a plant up in Fremont, Ohio. So there are people who realize that energy is here, water is here, those resources are here, but we have to compound them by having an educated workforce. It's long range, but it is something where Ohio could have some of its best days ahead of it. It's not going to be tomorrow, it's not going to be next year. But there is a future.

Since this is going to be your last term as state representative, do you have plans to run for another office again in the future?

Interestingly I just met with some people about this. I think I'm going to run for something, I'm not sure what it is. It's one of those deals where I got to get a real job if I don't (laughing) so, and I'm not opposed to that, I did it for 22 years. But I'm looking real hard at some different things. Again, primaries are good. I think we should have primaries. I'm going to be meeting with (Hamilton County Republican Chairman) George Vincent, and we'll discuss some possibilities. But it will probably involve a primary and I hope to see what's out there and go from there.