I am afraid that the outrage over this is going to be misdirected:
The director of Ohio’s workers’ compensation bureau resigned under pressure Friday over the disappearance of at least $10 million worth of rare coins that the agency had bought as an investment.
Gov. Bob Taft announced the departure of James Conrad, once hailed as state government’s ”Mr. Fixit” for his ability to overhaul troubled agencies.
”I am outraged, I am angered, I am saddened, and I am sickened,” Taft said of the scandal.
The announcement came a day after it was learned that $10 million to $12 million of the state’s $55 million rare coin investment was believed to be missing — dramatically more than the previous estimate of $400,000.
State officials said they plan to sue the man hired to manage the coin investments, coin dealer Tom Noe, and seek criminal charges. Noe has resigned, and a judge has ordered possession of the remaining coins transferred to the state.
While it is perfectly acceptable to be angry about the state losing $10 million from the coffers due to fraud and incompetence, that would be misdirected. What you should really be pissed off about is the fact that a state government, under Republican leadership, not only considered getting involved in the race coin/collectibles, but went ahead and did, to the tune of $55 million.
Maybe that is why Voinovich was crying in the well of the Senate the other day- this started under him.
Stormy70
Ohio. It’s a whole other country.
43Yankee
John, the problem that Taft has with this bad coin deal is that Coin Dealer Tom Noe is one the top Republican fund raisers in the Toledo area and in Ohio and he and his wife (she just stepped down as chairwoman) chaired the Toledo Area Republican Party. The Toledo Blade (newspaper) started this by running an article a few weeks ago questioning if Noe got the investment deal because of connections he has with State officals; and now we find out that investment wasn’t so great after all.
The problem the Ohio Republican Party is going to have is that they are the Party of moral values, Truth, Justice & the American Way; now the crap has hit the fan, a lot people are going to get stained by it.
Mike
aw
Started under Voinovich ($25 million) and continued under Taft (another $25 mil).
tim
…and that’s how a swing state went Democrat in 2008.
Sucks when your party jumps the shark. Too bad there’s no good replacement.
Kimmitt
Enh, give us another chance; I know we screwed up the ’90s by only having surpluses for two and above-trend growth for five of eight years, but we know we can do better.