Speaker 1: Bee cunning him the Great American.
Speaker 2: A few hours ago there was a note that Governor
Speaker 2: Mike DeWine is going to endorse Viveke Ramaswami. That should
Speaker 2: not be great shocked because both are Republicans, but there's
Speaker 2: also some indication earlier in the year that ended last
Speaker 2: year that he wasn't going to make an endorsement yet,
Speaker 2: John of you and I now is Governor Mike DeWine.
Speaker 2: And Governor DeWine, welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show.
Speaker 2: And Governor, can you announce now why you're endorsing Viveke
Speaker 2: Ramaswami now and didn't do it a few weeks ago?
Speaker 1: Well, I could give you the answer that this is
Speaker 1: a little humor here this afternoon. I could give you
Speaker 1: the answer that Governor Rose gave when he endorsed Reagan.
Speaker 1: And the reporter said, well, governor, Governor, why why today?
Speaker 1: And he said, well, yesterday would have been too soon
Speaker 1: and tomorrow would be too late. I'm not sure that
Speaker 1: was a good answer for him, but the press didn't
Speaker 1: do much. It's going to shift their heads and walked away.
Speaker 1: I guess so, uh, look, I think that you know
Speaker 1: he made the first the first big decision a president makes,
Speaker 1: or presidential nominee makes. UH. The first big decision that
Speaker 1: a governor makes is picking the running mate. And in
Speaker 1: this case, he picked Rob colly, who was the Senate
Speaker 1: president from northwest Ohio, someone very well respected. And so
Speaker 1: I think that, you know, that was a very very
Speaker 1: good decision. I wanted to praise that and congratulate him,
Speaker 1: and it just seemed, you know, I talked to uh
Speaker 1: dbake yesterday. I talked to him today. We've been we
Speaker 1: have been talking, uh, and so I'm you know, happy
Speaker 1: to endorse him. Uh. I think he'll be a good governor.
Speaker 1: This is you know, will be a significant race. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, we're electing the governor and uh it's a big,
Speaker 1: a big job in a big, big position. But I
Speaker 1: think he really hit a home run today with Rob McCully.
Speaker 1: Good good choice, very very very good choice. And you know, Bill,
Speaker 1: we have to continue to grow a hile and we
Speaker 1: have to continue to bring companies in from California and
Speaker 1: New York, and I think the Dake has the ability
Speaker 1: to do that. I think he has the inclination to
Speaker 1: do that. I think he has the instinct to do it.
Speaker 1: Knows how to do it, so continued economic growth for Ohio.
Speaker 1: It's just so very very important.
Speaker 2: You know, Governor, when this came out a few weeks ago,
Speaker 2: that you were equivocating a bit, there was some thought
Speaker 2: among some conservatives that you might lean toward Dtor Amy
Speaker 2: Acton because you two worked together March, April, May June
Speaker 2: July of twenty twenty. In fact, you filled a very
Speaker 2: important one hour time spot between one and two o'clock
Speaker 2: with me, with Dtor Aims the acting at your side.
Speaker 2: Do you think doctor Amy Acton is in a sense
Speaker 2: not qualified to be the governor.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go into that. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: I worked, I worked with her. I think she did
Speaker 1: a good job. I know some people criticized, you know,
Speaker 1: what was done during that period of time, and I
Speaker 1: pointed out that I'm the governor. So if people got
Speaker 1: a complaintation, complaint, you know, they complaints with me. Buck
Speaker 1: always stops with the governor. It's not the governor's members
Speaker 1: of the cabinet. But look, I think she did a
Speaker 1: good job in that position. I enjoyed working with her. Uh.
Speaker 1: But we're not talking about a very different position. We're
Speaker 1: talking about being governor. For the whole state twelve million people.
Speaker 1: You know, Bill, after having done this for seven years,
Speaker 1: I can tell you that every day, uh, there is
Speaker 1: something happening that the governor has to deal with that's
Speaker 1: important and that maybe was unexpected. You know, We've had
Speaker 1: a lot of unexpected things since I've been governor. Every
Speaker 1: governor faces that. You focus on so many different things
Speaker 1: if you think about it. You know, we have seventy
Speaker 1: six state parks. We have you know, forty five thousand
Speaker 1: people who are in prison, so we're running a big
Speaker 1: state prison system. Economic development is so very important. Education
Speaker 1: probably the most important thing of all is something that
Speaker 1: you know, we put a big, big emphasis on frand
Speaker 1: with a Deli Partner Imagination Library library, getting free books
Speaker 1: to kids. We're now over I think four hundred and
Speaker 1: fourteen thousand kids every month get a free book, getting
Speaker 1: kids ready for kindergarten, the science of reading, which we
Speaker 1: are spreading around the state in every one of our
Speaker 1: schools now. It's really the best way to teach kids
Speaker 1: how to read. So all these things, you know, there's
Speaker 1: just a lot going on every every single day, and
Speaker 1: it's just important to have, you know, a leader and
Speaker 1: someone who not just as a leader, but someone who
Speaker 1: can deal with all the different things that the governor
Speaker 1: has to deal with.
Speaker 2: And Governor de One I had on a couple hours
Speaker 2: ago Maya Cook who's doing her own investigation about daycare
Speaker 2: and autism fraud and medicaid fraud in Ohio, and food
Speaker 2: stamp fraud, home health fraud. And there was a report
Speaker 2: that one of your spokesmen said that the cost of
Speaker 2: some fraud is the cost of doing business. Do you
Speaker 2: have a sense that Ohio under your leadership is doing
Speaker 2: a much better job than appears to be in Minnesota?
Speaker 2: Are you on top of the fraud? Some talk about
Speaker 2: enrollment versus attendance. What do you say to the critics
Speaker 2: who say that Ohio may have massive fraud in the
Speaker 2: Somali community, or in the Moreitanian community, or in the
Speaker 2: Haitian community. What would you say about that?
Speaker 1: Well, I had a whole press conference the other day
Speaker 1: about this bill. As you know, I wanted to lay
Speaker 1: out for people to stay Ohio exactly where we were.
Speaker 1: I know some people are saying, look, you have Haitian
Speaker 1: or you have uh some allions. You know in Minnesota,
Speaker 1: you've got the Ohio, particularly the Plumbas area. Therefore, if
Speaker 1: you have fraud in in Minnesota, you must have fraud
Speaker 1: in Ohio. I'm just not sure that's the way we
Speaker 1: are to look at this. I'm not sure if it's
Speaker 1: not factual. Uh, we have I think a very good
Speaker 1: system in place. It doesn't mean there isn't some fraud
Speaker 1: that gets biased, that does happen. No fraud is acceptable.
Speaker 1: We have no tolerance for fraud at all. I don't
Speaker 1: have the statistics in front of me, but I came
Speaker 1: out the other day. But you know, we have pulled
Speaker 1: the plug on a number of daycare centers, some run
Speaker 1: by some audients, some run by not some allions. U.
Speaker 1: You know, if we see that there is fraud there,
Speaker 1: if we see, for example, that they don't have records.
Speaker 1: They're always supposed to keep their records. Uh. We've pulled
Speaker 1: some just because they didn't have their records. UH. So
Speaker 1: we're going to continue continue to do that. We do
Speaker 1: things differently than some states do. For example, we pay
Speaker 1: and maybe they're kind of set the stage if I could.
Speaker 1: We're about one hundred thousand children who are in daycare
Speaker 1: in the state of Ohio where their parents probably couldn't
Speaker 1: afford it. But you know, they want to work. We
Speaker 1: want them to work, want the parents to work, and
Speaker 1: so we subsidize to some extent that daycare for that
Speaker 1: particular child. So there's one hundred thousand kids any one
Speaker 1: time are getting some subsidy, their favors are getting some
Speaker 1: subsidy to help them pay for that child child care.
Speaker 1: We have about fifty two hundred, fifty two hundred daycare
Speaker 1: centers in the state that I have kids in there
Speaker 1: who the state is paying part of the tuition. Basically
Speaker 1: we have a lot more daycare centers now, but fifty
Speaker 1: two hundred, So it's fifty two hundred. You know that
Speaker 1: we are looking at. Last year we did ten thousand,
Speaker 1: ten thousand punt announced inspections. But in addition to that,
Speaker 1: you know, we if we see something wrong or paperwork,
Speaker 1: you know, we go in. We also encourage I would
Speaker 1: say this to any any of your listeners, and I
Speaker 1: know that you've you're clear, you know from Cincinnati clear
Speaker 1: almost the Lego people listening to you. But if anyone
Speaker 1: has a suspicion that daycare center or any other kind
Speaker 1: of fraud that's going on any place involved in the
Speaker 1: Stable High we don't want to hear about it. And
Speaker 1: so when we get these these tips, I'll just call
Speaker 1: them tips. When we get them in, we check them
Speaker 1: all out. Some of them amount to nothing, but some
Speaker 1: of them have amounted to something. And as it's all
Speaker 1: of those tips from citizens in the Stable Hi, we've
Speaker 1: been able to take action and to stop, you know,
Speaker 1: the fraut that was going on, stop money going out
Speaker 1: when it should not have been going out. So we
Speaker 1: encourage that bill.
Speaker 2: Do you say loud and proud there is not massive
Speaker 2: fraud in the state of Ohio when it comes to
Speaker 2: subsidized daycare or medicaid and which transportation companies make up
Speaker 2: trips from the home to a care center or maybe
Speaker 2: home health, and which somebody can claim, you know, I'm
Speaker 2: caring for my mom or dad twenty four hours a day.
Speaker 2: I make seventy eighty thousand dollars a year living with
Speaker 2: my mom, and I get paid for all that. The
Speaker 2: allegations I know you're aware of this out of Minnesota
Speaker 2: are absurd, And there's been seventy eight indictments ninety five
Speaker 2: percent of Somali's there's been seventy four convictions in Ohio.
Speaker 2: That does happen here too. But are you saying, as
Speaker 2: our governor, there is not massive fraud supporting the immigrant
Speaker 2: communities in Ohio similar to what's happening in Minnesota.
Speaker 1: I know exactly what's happening in this so you just
Speaker 1: recounted it, you know, so I can't see exactly what's
Speaker 1: happening there. All I know is the same thing we
Speaker 1: all know is what's been reported. What I can tell
Speaker 1: you is, uh, you know that we're vigil about about fraud. Uh.
Speaker 1: Is there some fraud that occurs? Yeah, You've you've got
Speaker 1: fifty two hundred daycare centers. Uh you know, is there
Speaker 1: some sometimes uh fraud there? Yeah, but it's not it's
Speaker 1: not anything massive. I mean we do things like you know,
Speaker 1: we only count. We only let them count and get
Speaker 1: paid for when that child actually shows up. Uh. The
Speaker 1: BUYD administration wanted us to switch over and we refuse
Speaker 1: to do it. They wanted us to switch over to
Speaker 1: UH paying buy an enrollment, and we said, no, we're
Speaker 1: not gonna pay just because someone's well, what happens and
Speaker 1: they don't, you know, the kid doesn't show up for
Speaker 1: a week, two weeks three, We're not gonna pay we're
Speaker 1: not going to pay for that. Uh. So we you know,
Speaker 1: we do we do that differently as I say you
Speaker 1: do the unannounced uh visitations when we when we go in,
Speaker 1: and we're not only just looking for fraud, we're also looking, frankly,
Speaker 1: to make sure those daycare centers are good and to
Speaker 1: make sure that you know they're taking care of kids properly.
Speaker 1: I mean, we you know, we are concerned about that.
Speaker 1: You know, one of the things that we've seen in
Speaker 1: the Columbus area, we've seen some people who have shown
Speaker 1: up at these daycare centers and filmed themselves and then
Speaker 1: stood out there and said, well, I'm shocked they won't
Speaker 1: let me into the daycare center. And these are just
Speaker 1: people who have no businesses a daycare center. And you know,
Speaker 1: if your child is in the daycare center, you wouldn't
Speaker 1: want that daycare center open to anybody he just just
Speaker 1: to walk in. You can't do that in the school today,
Speaker 1: and you shouldn't be able to do that in the
Speaker 1: daycare center. So, uh, these daycare centers shouldn't be opening
Speaker 1: up uh and and let just someone who wants to
Speaker 1: film it and say they want to want to go in.
Speaker 1: That's not how we run daycare centers in the state
Speaker 1: of Ohio or or probably any place else. We've got
Speaker 1: to protect protect you. We do in casey proceeds.
Speaker 2: Govin Are you more sensitive to this than you otherwise
Speaker 2: might have been because of what's happening in Minnesota? Do
Speaker 2: you notice when one of your representatives said, well, you know,
Speaker 2: fraud's are cost of doing business, it kind of didn't
Speaker 2: sound I don't like that quote.
Speaker 1: Look, look I don't I don't like that quote. That's
Speaker 1: not my quote. Uh, you know, but we want to
Speaker 1: be honest. Just fraud occur. I can tell you it's
Speaker 1: occurred because we've caught it, so I know it's courred,
Speaker 1: you know. And do we catch everything? Well, probably not everything. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's just a lot of a lot of going on,
Speaker 1: but we're vigilant. It's important. Uh. We owe this to
Speaker 1: the taxpayers to be the ever vigilant about this. This
Speaker 1: is taxpairs dollars that we're dealing with.
Speaker 2: Lastly, viveg Ramaswami's floating a trial balloon of maybe getting
Speaker 2: rid of all the real estate taxes in fact, and
Speaker 2: maybe he also said get rid of state income tax.
Speaker 2: So those are the main drivers of funding government. And
Speaker 2: I can't imagine what the sales tax would be if
Speaker 2: you got rid of real estate taxes and got rid
Speaker 2: of income taxes. Are those aspirational goals? Practically could Ohioans
Speaker 2: get rid of the real estate tax and nor the
Speaker 2: state income tax and have government function?
Speaker 1: Well, I'll see how you do both of those. Know,
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't. I mean I think that is,
Speaker 1: you know, bill in every budget I've signed for budgets,
Speaker 1: we have cut the state income tax. So we were
Speaker 1: very very comparative today with other states. We didn't used
Speaker 1: to be, but we we certainly, we certainly are today.
Speaker 1: Real estate taxes, I just signed a series of bills
Speaker 1: that will make some significant reforms and I think bring
Speaker 1: some meaningful relief to the tax payers of the state
Speaker 1: of Ohio. It's a problem, as you and I've discussed,
Speaker 1: when a couple that say they're seventy five years old
Speaker 1: and they've lived in this house for years, they've paid
Speaker 1: off their mortgage, the kids are grown, and they wake
Speaker 1: up one day and in the mail there's a bill
Speaker 1: that shows that their real estate taxes is going up
Speaker 1: thirty five forty percent. That's not right, and that's you know,
Speaker 1: that's what's causing some of the people who want to
Speaker 1: put this on the ballot to completely do the ways
Speaker 1: the real estate tax. I don't think you know, the
Speaker 1: people behind that initiative. I don't think that makes any sense.
Speaker 1: I don't think you can do that. Can you have reform? Yes?
Speaker 1: And I think we, you know, were starting to achieve
Speaker 1: that kind of reform.
Speaker 2: All right, Governor, thanks for setting the records trade in
Speaker 2: those regards, and I have on guests now and then
Speaker 2: to say things like the massive fraud, there's a sense
Speaker 2: because you had which I think was a meritorious event,
Speaker 2: you and your wife had a Haitian orphanage, that somehow
Speaker 2: your bendover backwards to assist those other entities. How would
Speaker 2: you address the fact that the kindness you showed for
Speaker 2: twenty years in Haiti is kind of weaponized against you
Speaker 2: to say, as if he might agree with some of
Speaker 2: this fraud going.
Speaker 1: On, Well, well, look what we have done in Haiti
Speaker 1: is working with father Tom Hagen, who runs the school
Speaker 1: down there. He's got five thousand kids in school. His
Speaker 1: kids wouldn't be going to school any other way but
Speaker 1: for Father Tom, and you know, we were help them
Speaker 1: away with him, and that's just something we do as individuals.
Speaker 1: It's not something I do as governor. It's something we
Speaker 1: do as individuals. So doesn't change my attitude. Don't think
Speaker 1: about anything in the United States. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: we're going to be visuals for any time we see fraud.
Speaker 1: We're going to be focused on Ohio and focused on
Speaker 1: this country.
Speaker 2: All right, Governor, thank you very much. I want to
Speaker 2: get a quick comment by David Pepper, selected by Ammy
Speaker 2: Acton to be the lieutenant governor. He's an all Ohioan.
Speaker 2: I know David Pepper, He's run for many offices unsuccessfully.
Speaker 2: What's your thoughts about him being the lieutenant governor? Or?
Speaker 2: Will he be the lieutenant governor with Amy Acton?
Speaker 1: Well, I saw that announcement today, so you know again, yeah,
Speaker 1: I simply simply go back. I think that what prevented
Speaker 1: today dredge that first first big decision. I think in
Speaker 1: Bob mcpellay, he made a good decision as far as
Speaker 1: what the Democrats are doing, I left the Democrats were
Speaker 1: about that.
Speaker 2: Hi, Governor, thanks for coming on. I called you on
Speaker 2: the sly because I wanted to get to may A
Speaker 2: cook On and make look in Columbus. There's disasters happening
Speaker 2: all over the place, and she was almost physically assaulted
Speaker 2: by a couple of Somalis who went after her, and
Speaker 2: I said, down nine to one, one get the cops there.
Speaker 2: But I just have a sense that between you, the
Speaker 2: attorney general, the auditor, and others, that there may be
Speaker 2: some fraud in the Columbus, which is a blue city.
Speaker 2: But I always said, Ohio is a red Stone eight.
Speaker 2: That we don't function the way California functions and the
Speaker 2: way that Minnesota functions because the governor spent years as
Speaker 2: the prosecutor, spent years as the attorney general, and Mike
Speaker 2: DeWine doesn't have a corrupt bone in his body, and
Speaker 2: so I'd be shocked if had the same level. But
Speaker 2: are there some mistakes. Absolutely, But thanks for coming on
Speaker 2: and setting the record straight.
Speaker 1: We'll do it that way, all right, talking with you,
Speaker 1: We'll do it. We'll talk about the reps next time.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 2: Rets, we only got about five weeks. What advice would
Speaker 2: you give to Mike Brown of the Bengals to tell
Speaker 2: Mike Brown to do what?
Speaker 1: Well, let's uh, I'm yeah, I don't know, it's uh.
Speaker 1: We got a great quarterback, We've got great receivers and
Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of good players on that team.
Speaker 1: But there's some things that have to be done, just
Speaker 1: like yeah, things have to be done to Reds. So
Speaker 1: you know, those Bengals fans and those us A Reds fans,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, let the RESU made the playoffs. At least they
Speaker 2: got to the playoffs. We'll see what happens. But Governor
Speaker 2: Mike Dwine, thank you very much. And I reached out
Speaker 2: to Vivek Ramaswami. He's going to come on Monday to
Speaker 2: talk about the income tax, the property tax and all
Speaker 2: that stuff. We'll see what happens. But Governor Mike Dwine,
Speaker 2: thanks for coming on the Bill Cunning m Show. Once again.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Mike, Thank you, Governor, thank you. You see
Speaker 2: now let's continue with more news next. You're home of
Speaker 2: the Bengals and Reds and the Bearcats. News Radio seven
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