You know that you are getting under the opponent's skin when they go after you with negative advertising. The Ohio Republican Party has put out a direct mail piece on Bob Schuler's behalf which says:

Rick Smith: Massive Tax Hikes

Rick Smith's Big Tax Agenda:

• Raise the state income tax
• Raise the state sales tax
• Allow property taxes to increase without a vote of the people
• Raise gas taxes

(source: mrsmithgoestocolumbus.com 10/17/06. Project Vote Smart Survey 2006)

While this is technically accurate, it qualifies for Al Franken's definition of a "weasel": Technically accurate, but said in a way to be misleading.

The first three taxes relate to my school funding plan, which you can read on my site. What BS failed to mention, however, was that I also planned to LOWER PROPERTY TAXES BY 1/3rd as part of the package! Property taxes would be allowed to rise somewhat with the value of the home (unlike today), but these increases would be modest. Today, any municipality can vote in a property tax that will increase with home values - this is a new rule change to help educational funding keep up with the rate of inflation.

Also, I do not suggest we "raise" the state income tax, but instead stop the tax cuts planned over the next three years. Note that if my school funding plan doesn't pass as a whole, then none of these tax changes would go into affect.

I believe my school funding plan is consistent with the Ohio Supreme Court's DeRolph rulings. BS hasn't even bothered to develop a plan!

On gas taxes, I did respond in a Project Vote Smart survey that I would consider raising gas taxes "slightly". It was in this survey that I also said that I would reduce property taxes "greatly"!

Project Vote Smart is providing a great service to the country by publishing candidate's views on a wide variety of issues. While the Vote Smart survey allowed candidates to not answer up to 30% of the questions, I decided to answer them all. I believe an informed public will elect the best people to office.

You can view my Project Vote Smart bio at
http://www.vote-smart.org/bio.php?can_id=MOH36414

You can view my response to the Issue Survey at
http://www.vote-smart.org/npat.php?can_id=MOH36414

You can view BS's response to the Issue Survey at
http://www.vote-smart.org/npat.php?can_id=BS026878

No, I didn't give you the wrong URL, but if you REALLY want to know what BS would do about gas taxes, you need to look no farther than his "YES" vote on HB 87 in 2003, which raised, yes RAISED, gasoline taxes 6 cents a gallon over 3 years! This bill also increased driver's and vehicle license fees!

It's time to get the BS out of politics!

Vote Rick Smith on November 7th!

Oh, by the way, Project Vote Smart does not allow any candidate to use it's name in negative political advertising. Anyone who deals with this organization can not miss a notice about this. Either the Ohio Republican Party decided not to work with Project Vote Smart, or they ignored the organization's wishes.