Vote 'NO' to agree with Advertiser-Tribune Editorial

I agree with the Advertiser-Tribune on the principle of protecting the use of our TAX DOLLARS.

In his recent editorial entitled: "Bailout shouldn’t protect profits, salaries" (http://www.advertiser-tribune.com/page/content.detail/id/509337.html?nav=5006) the A-T Editor reminds us that TAX DOLLAR decisions "...must not cross the line to protecting the profits - or the salaries - of companies and executives that will benefit."

Unacceptable behavior is permitted by government officials, and encouraged by big business, whenever the big financially successful institutions are subsidized by our tax dollars. Remember what the A-T Editor wrote:

"Taxpayers who probably will be on the hook for $700 billion to fund the bill are reluctant enough to spend that kind of money to keep financial institutions from sinking. If they learn anyone, either personally or corporately, actually has made additional profits as a result of the measure, they will be furious. They should be."

Thank you, Mr. Editor, and everyone else at the Advertiser-Tribune who supports this line of responsible thinking! It is clearly in every one's best interest that NO single person, business or institution profiteers from TAX SUBSIDIZED decisions that are supposed to benefit ALL of us...but would abuse us, instead. I agree with the A-T that we should all be "furious"!

Do you notice the civic-minded principles the Advertiser-Tribune espouses, and to which nearly all Tiffin Citizens agree?

Did you notice that these principles clearly explain what has gone wrong with the financially powerful Tiffin University and their Miami Street Project? Did you notice TU Officials are trying to get TAX MONEY to pay for their Miami Street Improvement project, even if it would harm every Tiffin Tax Payer in the neighborhood, while it benefits a select group of businesses?

Tiffin University continues its march as the most financially powerful and influential business in Tiffin, Ohio. They don't need the tax subsidy from financially struggling taxpayers, but every private business person in line for a contract is "drooling". The financial drooling of these private businesses is based on the hope that Tiffin University Officials, along with the Chamber of Commerce Board, will be able to confuse Tiffin Taxpayers into abusing each other from the voting booth.

I agree with the Advertiser-Tribune when the Editor said,

"That is human nature. It is understandable. But it is not acceptable."

So, get furious! The right thing to do is to vote 'NO' on the Miami Street Project Referendum from Ordinance 07-70.

I'm glad to hear that the Advertiser-Tribune agrees with good principles of Citizenship! This is only one more principled reason to vote 'NO' on Tiffin University's Miami Street Improvement Project. Please vote 'NO' on the Referendum for Ordinance 07-70. Your 'NO' vote is for responsible use of our TAXES. Please get furious, now!

Thank you,

Joe Monaco
Tiffin, Ohio Voter

Tiffin needs more "Raised Eyebrows"!

When I was a teenager in Tiffin, I had a handful of regular friends with whom I hung-out doing normal teen-age stuff. Visiting the home of one of our friends, her mother would always listen intently and sometimes join in the conversations. She was careful not to judge any of us publicly which I think caused us to trust her with conversation we would not have had with other parents. You would ALWAY know whether she approved of our conversation though. All you had to do was talk while watching her eyes.

If she approved of what you were saying, she would continue to listen intently. At the moment she heard something she disliked, or found suspicious, she would, without as much as a single word, raise her right eyebrow into a sharp arch! If that happened, you knew it was time to leave her home. We did so out of respect. We were "found out". The "raised eyebrow" would thus put an end to any nonsense. It was that simple. My friends and I never discussed the issue again. In the future, we would only occasionally chide her daughter for having the same innate skill of the "Raised Eyebrow".

With the Tiffin University's Miami Street Referendum on the ballot, I think we all need to use a "Raised Eyebrow".

Consider that the Tiffin University Officials and friends have recently hired an expensive political consultant. Large and costly advertisements are placed weekly in the Advertiser-Tribune. (and, NO, Congressman Gilmore would NOT have approved of the abusive aspects of his hard work!) Thousands of letters are being mailed to registered Tiffin Voters. Tiffin University's payroll is being used to send their own highly-paid Officials door-to-door to talk to Tiffin Citizens. Some of our own Tiffin City Council members are so flummoxed by the powerful political and economic influences of Drs, Marion and Grandillo, that (exept for Councilman Lepard) all of them voted to pass the Miami Street Ordinance...even though nearly 60 Tiffin Citizens, from every ward and beyond, showed-up at the cable-televised public Council hearing clearly voicing opposition to it. What happened to our democratic republic?

Isn't Tiffin University going through a lot of effort and expense? Should we put a "raised eyebrow" on it?

Tiffin University wouldn't have to take such drastic and expensive measures to ensure the referendum vote, if they simply stopped the abusive aspects of their plan! Close Jackson Street without property owner permission? Destroy 11 Shade trees? Cut-out parking on Miami and Jackson Streets? Improve a safety problem that they admit in their own Traffic Study "is insignificant"? Create jobs with NO committment as to how many? Spin..Spin...Spin...When will TU Officials Stop trying to Spin us?

Please practice your "raised eyebrow", now. Practice it with your family. Practice it in public places. Especially, practice it the next time you see President of Tiffin University, Dr. Paul Marion.

Tiffin Citizens oppose ordinance 07-70, not because they don't like Tiffin University, but because there are aspects of the Miami Street Project that are unnecessarily abusive to neighborhood residents. Add that to the certainty that TAXES WILL GO UP because the "Miami Street Project"will have to be destroyed and re-built to make way for the sewer separation. On November 4th, please use your own "Raised Eyebrow" and Vote 'NO' on the Miami Street Improvement project from Ordinance 07-70.

Thank you for your consideration,

Joe Monaco
Tiffin Ohio Voter


“Representative government and trial by jury are the heart and lungs of liberty. Without them we have no other fortification against being ridden like horses, fleeced like sheep, worked like cattle, and fed and clothed like swine and hounds.”

—John Adams, 1774

Congressman Latta Votes NO. Please Vote NO, Too!

Congressman Bob Latta Voted 'NO' to the Bail-Out. Bravo! After giving his thoughtful reasons, his 'NO' vote, along with others, soundly defeated the US Taxpayer bail-out that would use our tax dollars to subsidize a few large businesses while indenturing the rest
of us with the TAX BILL for a long-long-time.

The point is that he didn't vote to spend tax dollars on a pig-in-a-poke. He wasn't going to subsidize bad decisions by powerful and irresponsible businessmen.

Whether Democrat, Republican, or Independent, please consider that your 'NO' Vote on the Ordinance 07-70 Miami Street Improvement Project Referendum will help relieve our TAX BILL, too. I'm appreciative of Congressman Latta's fine example of Representative Democracy. Its an example of how all of us can use our own 'NO' Votes to defeat the Referendum on Tiffin University's Ordinance 07-70 Miami Street Improvement Project. Tiffin University doesn't need the TAX SUBSIDY. Tiffin Tax-Payers don't want to subsidize abuses to ourselves!

On November 4th, please vote 'NO', too.


See Article in the Advertiser-Tribune at:
http://www.advertiser-tribune.com/page/content.detail/id/509280.html?nav=5005

Vacate Street, vacate alley, vacate alley, vacate alley, STOP...just take it through eminent domain!

There was a time when Tiffin University Officials played fair and honorably` in Tiffin, Ohio. Remember when they wanted to create that nicely landscaped walkway through what is now the North Campus? That area used to be called "Jackson Street" and was home to about a dozen taxpaying home owners. Tiffin University negotiated the purchase of the last of those properties about 20 years ago. Since they purchased the entire block on both sides of Jackson Street, they petitioned Tiffin City Government and were rightfully awarded that part of the public street through a "vacate" ordinance. No one else had a claim to that end of Jackson Street as it dead-ended at the railroad tracks.

Tiffin University followed the same rules for vacating the alleyways that split Jackson Street about halfway down the block and again for the alley that ran parallel to the railroad tracks. University buildings now sit on those former alleyways of the North Campus.

Again-and-again, Tiffin University Officials negotiated the purchase of more properties and used Tiffin City Government "vacate" rules to capture many of the other neighborhood alleyways that used to abut private property. As Tiffin University has grown and prospered with its enormous additions to student population, buildings and financial clout, its appetite for real-estate has fueled a lucrative neighborhood market for real-estate rentals and growth in property valuations.

As Tiffin University has captured more and more real estate through "vacate" ordinances, their purchases of bordering private properties is getting significantly more expensive with time. If you believe in free enterprise, own property, and have been paying attention to property values in the neighborhood, you can't help to smile with glee on the news of the "deals" Tiffin University has made with some of your neighbors!

The so-called "deals" are only partially reported in the newspaper, because they are too financially complex, and would require the Tiffin Advertiser -Trubune to publish about 100 lines of text instead of the one-liner "Property Transfers" that are traditional. Besides, private owners and Tiffin University Officials do NOT want the public to know that they have agreed on sale compensation packages that have been valued at nearly 200 thousand to 500 thousand or more dollars. These same homes, if located away from the University by only two more blocks, would not be valued at half the "deal" compensation. Needless to say, the real-estate professional practice of valuing property by "comps" (comparing recently sold and similar properties) does NOT apply in the Tiffin University neighborhood. This is the reason that property owners, if they can set any jealousy aside, will smile with such glee! They know that one day, their long term determination, foresight to invest in the neighborhood, or luck will eventually see them likewise rewarded.

Because of its success, Tiffin University Officials, sometimes acting in the dual capacity as Private Property developer, have the opportunity to create good will and share their new-found wealth with Tiffin Citizens in the neighborhood. They can afford to buy homes, even at the extraordinary valuations that they created, because they are bursting with resources and know-how and can recover their investment in only a few short years. This "financial machine" is made possible because of the increased cash flow from various fees they charge the continuously growing population of students. It is no secret that college students are a lucrative business.

So, with Tiffin University's wildly successful wealth-generating machine, civic leadership, political clout, and know-how; why are they jeopardizing their own and other's reputations by flogging the five remaining private property owners out of their rights to use the Jackson/Miami Street intersection?

Why is Tiffin University by-passing the normal procedure on Jackson Street for securing a "vacate" ordinance from Tiffin City Council? Why are they taking preliminary Eminent Domain Action against the Monaco Family?

Why does the Miami Street Project from Ordinance 07-70, if allowed to go through, abuse the many neighbors of their right to use Jackson Street, enjoyment of the mature shade trees, and suffer other indignities?

The answers are simple if you think about them. Tiffin University Officials could choose to do the right thing, but how would they save face? That too, is simple. [Just think about it and it will come to you, Dr. Marion.] Please act before it is too late. Not even the Monaco's want TU to fail. They just want to stop the abuses to their family and the neighbors...and so does most everyone else.

Please Vote 'NO' on the Miami Street Project Ordinance 07-70 Referendum.

Vote 'NO'...or Watch the Tax Man commeth!

No matter what other principles of good citizenship and honorable action they take, make NO mistake about Tiffin University. Their Miami Street Improvement project will INCREASE TAXES to Tiffin Taxpayers! But you have an opportunity to prevent that! Think about it.

Citizen TAXPAYERS have been subsidizing Tiffin University's aggressive expansion with TAX Dollars for the last 25 years. This might have been OK when TU was economically weak and uncertain. Now that they have evolved into a powerful and influential economic Juggernaut, they hardly need TAX SUBSIDIES anymore. Please don't encourage Tiffin University Officials to continue exploiting their powerful economic and political influence to use our TAX DOLLARS for projects that hurt or abuse even one Tiffin Citizen of their rights.

On November 4th, please vote 'NO' on the referendum that will spend $800,000 of your tax dollars that Tiffin University does NOT need! Please vote 'NO' on "Ordinance 07-70 Miami Street Project" Referendum that will Close Jackson Street to neighborhood traffic.