Reason # 1 to vote Dansack for District 46 State Rep.

Press Release, October 31, 2006
For immediate release


Mark Dansack Stands for Change in Ohio, Mark Wagoner protects the status quo.

Mark Dansack will be recapping over the next several days the reasons why residents of District 46 will be better served by electing a voice for positive change in Ohio rather than his opponent, who embraces the present "pay to play" dynamics now running rampant in Columbus.

Reason # 1: Mark Dansack will work to restructure state agencies in order to eliminate wasteful spending and wasteful investment practices.

"We need to look no further than the Bureau of Workers Compensation in Ohio to see the obvious graft and misuse/misappropriation of public funds. From the investment deals which have cost Ohioans hundreds of millions of dollars, to the managed care method of treating our injured workers, which has resulted in waste of $1.4 billion to $1.6 billion since its implementation in the late 1990s, it is clear that change is needed in the way we administrate this system and also in the level of oversight which is required to insure elimination of waste and ineffeciency".

The following is a challenge that I made to my opponent on September 14, 2006 which resulted in no response, as Mr. Wagoner (an avowed fiscal conservative) is apparently satisfied with the millions of dollars in investment losses and billions of dollars of wasteful spending in the administration of providing care to the injured workers of Ohio.

PRESS RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 14, 2006

Mark Dansack challenges opponent to stay implementation of the Taft Corruption Bailout Act (Senate Bill 7) until a full investigation into the irregularities at the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation is conducted.

Monclova Township Democrat Mark Dansack, a candidate for the 46th District House of Representatives in Ohio, has issued a challenge to his opponent, Mark Wagoner, to introduce legislation which would stay the implementation of Senate Bill 7 until the full details of all irregularities within the operation of the Bureau are known.“It’s not bad enough that we have seen the Noe “Coingate” fiasco and the MDL investment losses of over $200 million, but now we are finding out that GOP reforms instituted as a cost-cutting measure in the late 1990’s have actually increased the bureau’s total operating costs at more than twice the rate of inflation - since these reforms were instituted”As a result, according to figures quoted by both the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Toledo Blade, the BWC has actually spent roughly $1.6 Billion more under the managed-care initiative than it would have had costs been held in check.

“This gross mismanagement of public funds by these self-described fiscal conservatives speaks volumes about what is wrong in Ohio and has been for the past decade and a half. When the scandal erupted, the only proposal from the General Assembly was to place (through Senate Bill 7) more burden on the injured workers that the system was intended to help.”

Dansack continued, “I call on Representative Wagoner to stand up for working men and women in Ohio and put his full effort into delaying implementation of what should be called the Taft Corruption Bailout Act.”

“It is becoming increasingly more difficult to get these injured workers the care that they need and representatives from the GOP are hanging their hats on their cost-saving measures that they have implemented. I challenge Mr. Wagoner to join with me in agreeing that the measure passed in March, 2006 is no longer valid, as it fails to take into account additional information that has been made available illustrating major problems with the administration of the Bureau”

My view is that we ought to scrap the entire language of Senate Bill 7, as it clearly is deficient in terms of even coming close to solving the colossal problems we’ve seen at the BWC in Ohio. Let’s let the new Governor and new legislature work on an initiative for a fair and equitable solution to reforming the system to a system that adequately protects injured workers, while also ensuring that proper oversight is undertaken to make sure that the waste of public funds is eliminated. The injured workers in Ohio and businesses who pay premiums into the system deserve nothing less.”

Dansack concluded, " To date there has been no response from Mark Wagoner, who apparently endorses the waste of billions of dollars of taxpayer money. The choice is clear, politics as usual as Wagoner proposes, or positive change for NW Ohio which I will bring to the table".