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CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) -

The Cincinnati Museum Center is joining forces with the Cincinnati Underground Railroad Freedom Center to create a united corporate structure.

An official announcement is scheduled for Wednesday morning at the Freedom Center.

Sources tell FOX19 that any Museum Center levy funds would not be used in any way to support the Freedom Center. Museum Center officials want a $141 million tax levy on the November ballot to fix water damage and make long term repairs.

The annexation would allow for the consolidation of resources aimed at cost savings for both parties involved.

"We know that joining together will strengthen our respective organizations," said Francie S. Hiltz, chair Cincinnati Museum Center Board of Trustees and Rev. Damon Lynch, Jr. presiding co-chair of National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. "The result will be creative and dynamic organizations, offering greater financial strength and new opportunities."

Officials say the museums will maintain their own brands and distinct missions, but be better positioned to contribute more to the community.

When the transaction is completed, the Freedom Center and Cincinnati Museum Center will be united in operations and planning. For the purpose of charitable gifts and other revenue, each organization will be a separate 501(c)(3) entity. The Board of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center will be responsible for overseeing fundraising, programming and for enhancing the image of the Freedom Center, locally, nationally and globally.

Economic hardships had threatened to close Cincinnati's National Underground Railroad Freedom Center by the end of 2012, if it could not find $1.5 million a year to cover future budgets.

The Freedom Center's leadership said they were doing everything they could to save the museum, from slashing the budget to reaching out to survivors' families in the hopes of getting their support.

Kim Robinson will continue to serve as the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center leader in this new structure and work jointly with the Cincinnati Museum Center's senior leadership team, led by Doug McDonald.

"We are deeply motivated by the future opportunities we see to strengthen our ability to carry out the mission of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center," said Robinson.
"This step of joining with Cincinnati Museum Center will allow us to consider exciting new approaches to engage far more people in the universal struggle for freedom and the celebration of its achievement."

"The Freedom Center and Museum Center are both defining institutions for our community," said P.G. Sittenfeld, Cincinnati City councilman. "The solution that has been brokered is a great example of the power of building partnerships. This is a good thing for Cincinnati."

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Museum Center, Freedom Center to merge

In the wake of an uproar over the Obama administration’s new mandate that all employers offer health insurance covering contraception — including religious organizations — the administration offered an “accommodation” to religious groups whose belief systems conflict with the rule.

According to those initially opposed to the mandate, the adjustment to the rules is not enough.

Louisiana Republican Rep. Steve Scalise, who led a bipartisan letter with 154 co-signers calling on the Obama administration to reverse the mandate, explained that the adjustment is merely a repackaging of the original rule and called upon the White House, again, to reverse course.

“It is extremely disappointing that President Obama continues to attack religious freedom by refusing to reverse the HHS ruling,” Scalise said.

“This latest mandate by President Obama is no compromise at all, and will continue to infringe on the religious freedom of individuals by forcing coverage of abortion-inducing drugs regardless of their own religious beliefs,” he added. “I am calling on the Obama Administration to completely reverse this mandate, not repackage it under a different name, because hard working American taxpayers will not stand by and let President Obama attack our religious freedoms and trample on the Bill of Rights by forcing the costs of abortion-inducing drugs to be passed on to all employers regardless of their faith.”

Under the new rules, religious organizations will not have to directly provide contraceptive services, but instead give the responsibility for free birth control directly to the insurance companies.

Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said that the mandate is still in violation of the Constitution.

“This ObamaCare rule still tramples on Americans’ First Amendment right to freedom of religion. It’s a fig leaf, not a compromise. Whether they are affiliated with a church or not, employers will still be forced to pay an insurance company for coverage that includes abortion-inducing drugs,” said Jordan. “This is not just a problem for church-affiliated hospitals and charities. Under these rules, a small business owner with religious objections to abortion-inducing drugs and contraception must either violate his religious beliefs or violate the law.”

Richard Doerflinger, a top official at the United States Council of Catholic Bishops, told the Weekly Standard prior to the announcement that such a compromise “would be worse”.

“Just a few days ago the White House was saying that this is just about coverage, that no one has to be involved in getting people to the actual services they object to. It would be no improvement to say: ‘Sure, you don’t have to include the coverage, you just have to send all your lay employees and women religious to the local Planned Parenthood clinic,’ he wrote in an email. The Administration’s press release of January 20 hinted at such a requirement. That would not be a compromise. In some ways it would be worse.”

Al Kresta host of a syndicated Catholic radio show explained that Catholics still cannot support the mandate, even with the adjustment.

“Our bishops have made clear that we cannot, we will not, comply. And this so-called accommodation sounds a hollow gesture,” he said. “We call on the Catholic faithful and all who value freedom of conscience to continue the battle for true conscience protection for religious organization and individuals. Make no mistake, we are in a fight for the future of religious freedom in this country.”

Americans United for Life President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest added that the new pronouncement is a step backward.

“Once again, the Obama Administration is taking a step in the wrong direction. This new pronouncement turns Roe v. Wade on its head. In Roe, the courts said that abortion was a privacy right,” she said. “In this health care dictate, the Obama administration announces plans to invade the privacy of women by requiring insurance companies to inquire about their private choices and offer free drugs. And the administration announces that insurance companies will take on this burden at no cost to anyone. And it is incredibly naive to believe that this will not cost either women or their employers. Insurance companies will surely take the projected expenses of these efforts into account when pricing coverage.”

In 2008 Obama won the Catholic vote 54-46%.

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Pro-lifers pan Obama contraceptive adjustment: Still 'attacking religious freedom'

Obama uses insurance companies to impose church-state mandate

Occupy CPAC hippiecam

Who's paying Occupiers to disrupt CPAC, and how much?

Originally posted here:
Pro-lifers pan Obama contraceptive adjustment: Still ‘attacking religious freedom’

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Religious freedom shouldn't surpass our Criminal Code: LETTER OF THE DAY

PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Center for Freedom and Prosperity asserted that the tax and fee hikes proposed by Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee on Jan. 31 would cost the state 1,400 private-sector jobs.

The conservative think tank, which formed from the ashes of the Ocean State Policy Research Institute, said Thursday that it bought a State Tax Analysis Modeling Program customized for Rhode Island in order to do an analysis of the state budget. It was developed by the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University and is a five-year, dynamic, computable, general-equilibrium tax model.

Chafee unveiled a $7.94 billion state budget for fiscal 2013 last month that boosts spending on local schools by extending the reach of the state sales tax and cutting spending on other areas, including health care services.

“Because a sales tax increase would make Rhode Island even less competitive with its regional neighbors, and nationally overall, consumer and entrepreneurial behavior would be significantly altered, resulting in lower economic activity and actually worsening the state’s economic plight,” the Tax Plan Analysis outlined.

The center’s economist, J. Scott Moody, entered revenue targets from the budget. He asserted that since tax increases “depress overall economic activity,” the state’s expected $95 million revenue increase would be just $35 million.

He also contended that the state would lose 1,400 private-sector jobs. To compare, the 2011 R.I. Employment Trends and Workforce Issues brief, published by the state labor department, found that private-sector employment decreased by 819 jobs, or 0.2 percent, between 2009 and 2010, while increasing by 1,900 jobs from 2010 to 2011.

The center also claimed that municipalities would lose $9.75 million in revenue due to lower commercial property taxes, as a consequence of lower overall economic activity. In addition, Rhode Island would lose nearly 1 percent in overall gross state product, and “investment” – or new capital in the state – would drop by $27 million.

“Balancing the budget is the wrong goal; and tax increases are precisely the wrong solution!” the report said.

Center CEO Mike Stenhouse acknowledged that the algorithm was a “broader tool” than the specifications of the governor’s budget and the projections were rough estimates, based on revenue bumps from $69.7 million in sales tax; $13.6 million in motor vehicle registration fees; a $7 million increase in smoking products and $3.8 million in other miscellaneous taxes and fees that were not included in the projection, he said.

University of Rhode Island economist Leonard Lardaro made some preliminary observations on the analysis, noting:

“First, [the Tax Plan Analysis] does what the state of Rhode Island should have been doing all along but seldom does - due diligence,” he said. “Second, this analysis is not merely restricted to the very short-term (static) effects of proposed policy change, but extends the effects to what also occurs at later times in response to these changes. So, I very much like the methodology – perhaps someday in our lifetimes the state of Rhode Island will actually ‘evolve’ to this level of sophistication in its policymaking.”

Lardaro also noted that the model, like any other, makes assumptions on how the economic pieces fit together and that should be kept in mind when using it.

“I do have to say, however, that if we are to rely on numbers from other than our state, this is the type of model we should pay attention to,” adding that he would need more time to evaluate the specifics of the model before giving a definitive judgment.

Excerpt from:
Analysis: Budget tax, fee hikes to cost jobs

HUDSONVILLE – A three-year, 0.6-mill public-transit tax is likely coming to a city voting ballot this year. Hudsonville City Commission on Tuesday will consider whether to ask in May, August or November for a millage that would cost $39 per year for the owner of a $130,000 house.

The tax would pay for a 12-passenger bus from The Rapid to run 39 hours per week from Hudsonville to the Grandville library, where riders could access other Grand Rapids-area routes. Commissioners last month heard from a “Hudsonville Friends of Public Transportation” committee, and some residents who are disabled or have disabled family members, that the tax would give freedom and independence to people who cannot transport themselves.

Reader response was mixed.

Deezer47 writes:

"I'm sorry. I'm taxed enough. I choose NOT to pay $39 a year for a service I would never use. Let those who use it pay."

dab writes:

"Sometimes it is the role of the government (and by consequence the people of a community) to provide services that will benefit individuals or groups within a community. I personally do not need this bus service now but feel it is important enough for those who do need it that I will support it."

The tax would generate an estimated $122,885 per year. If it gets approved in May, the tax could be collected on this summer’s tax bills and the service could start later this year. But the city would have to spend $4,890 on election costs, City Manager Patrick Waterman said.

There is no cost to the city to put the tax request on the August or November ballots. But if the millage gets approved at either of those elections, the tax would not be collected until summer 2013 and transportation service would not start until later that year.

The Friends of Public Transportation group has asked that the millage request be placed on May’s ballot.

handyandy writes:

"Of course they want it in May.... low turnout and easy to manipulate!! That's always their excuse... they "don't want it to get lost in the shuffle in November." What a bunch of cowards! If they want the will of the people expressed, they would put it on the November ballot!"

City Commissioner Kelly Ten Harmsel wrote a letter to the editor pushing for the millage to appear on the ballot in November, when higher voter turnout is expected because of the presidential election.

“Even if 5 to 10 percent of the voters skip ‘the back of the ballot,’ we still have the overall majority of city taxpayers’ opinion on the public transportation issue and raising taxes to support it,” he wrote.

Email Matt Vande Bunte, or follow him on Twitter.

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From the comments: Hudsonville taxpayers should subsidize public transportation for residents who can't drive themselves