Karma

In an interesting turn of events, Ohio was denied $1.5M in federal funds for a feasibility study regarding privatising state highways. The money had previously been OKd. ODOT's Jerry Wray claims the reversal was politics. He should know. In the spring his department yanked previously OKd funds for a Cincinnati rail project.
Prior to that, Ohio's governor Kasich had refused federal funds for a state wide rail project & referred to proponents as rail cultists. It appears the concrete cultists won't be getting any more money to hand out to their consultant cronies this year.

Frogtown Noose Son story here.

Could The Guy Do Something More Arrogant ?
After campaigning on an austerity / small government platform & lambasting the incumbent governor for his use of a personal aircraft, it appears the new sheriff is in line to quadruple his use of the same plane. His spokesman has said they realized after the election just how handy the plane was. What else did Kasich fail to think through? Could a rail line across the state have actually been a good idea? Running through the state's capitol, perhaps a gubernatorial rail car set up for meetings & press conferences could have been handy too.

WKYC story here.

Ya Wanna Buy a Prison ?

Lately, people in Ohio have thought they had "done deals" with the state only to find it's "new sheriff" has decided to change the rules midstream. Will John Kasich's rewriting the contract with casino operators give pause to any private entity interested in taking over Ohio prisons? I would think so.
There are pitfalls in privatization to be avoided and a recent study indicates savings through privatizing 2 other Ohio prisons might not have actually occurred. If, after a couple years, Kasich decides he wants more, how likely is it he will toss out his contract & just concoct another?
Private prison operators (and I know you guys read this blog), take my advice - have an army of lawyers on hand if you do business with this guy.