New state senator ready for budget work

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

As a former Bryan High School football head coach, Cliff Hite may be forgiven if he has a shudder or two when driving by Eggerss Stadium.

“I kept having all these haunting memories of getting destroyed by the Van Wert Cougars on a regular basis,” Hite said of driving by the local football stadium on his way to Willow Bend Country Club Friday for a speaking engagement with county Republicans. He added that, in 13 years at Bryan, he beat Van Wert just one time.

As Van Wert County’s new state senator looking at ways to erase an $8 billion state budget deficit, Hite may yet look fondly back on those days when only the outcome of a football game was on the line.

Strangely, Hite says he’s looking forward to dealing with the state’s financial problems. Noting that when he taught, he used to have a saying on his wall that noted, “Sometimes our greatest opportunities come from our most difficult problems,” the new state senator added: “I am telling you now this is the greatest opportunity we, as Republicans, have had in a very, very long time.”

Hite appears to be looking forward to the experience.

A two-term state representative before being appointed to fill former state senator Steve Buehrer’s unexpired term, Hite is optimistic that the solutions the Ohio General Assembly comes up with in the next two years for the state’s economic and financial woes, will pay off in the long run – but not without more pain.

“”Everybody’s going to feel the pain,” Hite told his fellow Republicans, “and it’s time for everybody (in the public sector) to feel the same pain that a lot of those in the private sector have felt.”

State Representative Lynn Wachtmann, who also attended the luncheon, agreed that it’s going to get worse for state agencies before it gets better.

“For all of you who get money from the state, there really will be 10-15 percent cuts,” the county’s state representative said. “That’s for real.”

Wachtmann, a small businessman who operates a Culligan water distributorship and other companies, had little sympathy for those who will face budget cuts.

“Suck it up, like we’ve had to do in the private sector,” Wachtmann told those who represent local government and agencies. “Cut your staff, make them work harder. That’s what we’re looking at today in the private sector, and it’s time the public sector had to suck it up, too.”

Hite, who also coached “Big Ben” Roethlisberger at Findlay High School, said Van Wert County would see some positives, especially from the wind energy initiatives Iberdrola Renewables and other companies are doing in the county. He also took a little credit for his involvement as a state representative in crafting legislation in the General Assembly related to wind energy.

Hite cited the fact that wind energy projects are using area workers and companies both local and around Ohio and into Indiana and read off a list of companies doing work for local wind energy initiatives.

“We’re talking about bringing some permanent jobs and construction jobs to the area,” the state senator said, noting that a considerable amount of money would also come to the county in the form of lease contract payments to landowners, as well as more than $2 million a year in local tax revenues.

Hite was also very complimentary of new Governor John Kasich, a fellow Republican, and efforts Kasich is making to deal with the state’s financial problems, as well as the Republican leadership team in the General Assembly.

Hite, who was appointed to chair the Senate’s Agriculture Committee, said he was also looking forward to dealing with problems in that area as well, but also urged local Republicans to provide input to legislators and state officials to help them deal with the tough problems they face over the next couple of years.