Pat Beckel, president of The Heart of Centerville, passed out information about The Community Affair, presented by The Heart of Centerville and Washington Twp.,that will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 2 at Cross Pointe Center. It is a chance to bring together Centerville and Washington Twp. businesses and organizations with local residents and the public. The event offers free family fun with bouncy houses in the parking lot, food trucks and displays by the local stores outdoors. There will be outdoor booths for car dealers, lawn care, and other businesses not hurt by inclement weather. It should be a fun family affair, he said.

 

 

 

 

Jim Briggs gave $11 for the 150th anniversary of Lee's surrender to Grant and the fact that "55 years ago this afternoon, I got married."

Dale Berry gave $20 for his birthday, Arnie Biondo gave $5 (the norm) for his, and Lee Hieronymus gave a dollar as a down payment on his upcoming April birthday. 

Dale gave Lee an apple streusel pie for his help in some recent incident, and then Lee offered the heavy good-looking pie up for auction. Pat Beckel and Erich Eggers got into a short bidding war over the pie, with Pat winning the pie at $40.  

 

 

President Vas introduced our speaker. He is currently the youngest serving member of the State House of Representatives, and the second Indian-American elected state official in Ohio history and the first Indian-American Republican.

 Vas said Antani was named to Forbes Magazine's list of the top "30 Under 30" people in the United States for Law and Politics in 2015. Also, he was named to the "Top 30 Conservatives Under Age 30" in the U.S. list by Red Alert Politics, as well as "College Republican of the year" by the Ohio College Republican Federation in 2012. In 2013, the Montgomery County Republican Party named him the "Republican Man of the Year."

 

Antani has a bachelor's degree in political science from The Ohio State University. A graduate of Miamisburg High School, he grew up in Miami Twp. He is a member of the Miamisburg Rotary.He serves on the executive board of the Dayton International Festival, Inc. and chairs the Ohio Republican Party Asian Pacific American Advisory Council. He is a law student at UD and resides in Miamisburg.

 

Antani said he is honored to be Terry Blair's successor in the House of Representives. He was sworn in Dec. 2, 2014, after Mr. Blair's passing. Antani said his father came from India in the 1970s, moving to a house in Miami Twp.

 

The House members in Columbus are working on the state budget, a bi-annual process, he said. They are considering a $70 billion budget, an increase of $2.7 over the last five years.

Two controversial issues are taxes and the school funding plan, he said. He said the governor has proposed $5.7 billion in tax cuts and 4,9 billion in tax increases. Cuts would come in small business taxes and personal income taxes. To raise taxes the governor also wants to raise the sales tax rate a half percent from 7.25 to 7.75 percent. The last quarter it went from 7 to 7.25 percent, Antani said. This hurts low income people more than the rest of the population, he said. 

Antani said the governor also wants to broaden the base of the sales tax to include management and consulting, the definition of which would be left to the tax commissioner to define, he said.

Another tax increase would be 6.8 percent on the oil/shale industry in Eastern Ohio. The governor would also add a dollar tax increase on a pack of cigarettes, he said.

 Those who sell cigarettes in convenience stores and gas stations oppose such an increase, Antani  said. 

 Antani said the budget was proposed in February and the 99-member House is now considering 14 amendments to the proposed budget. Over 1,000 amendments were proposed by the 99 members, he said. 

 By the end of April the House will vote out their version of a substitute tax bill, he said. In mid May the Senate will vote their version of the changes, and "we will reject those changes," he said.

 The second controversial part of the governor's proposed tax budget is school funding, Antani said. The governor wants to include income wealth in a school district rather than just property wealth, and get rid of guarantees on annual personal property tax for the school districts. Wealthier districts like Centerville would be hurt by such changes, he said. 

 Antani said 150 bills are being worked on, one being a tax credit to hire veterans. 

 Centerville Rotary Club member Lee Hieronymus, also a Miami High School graduate, asked about the state's cut of local government funding, which caused a need for new local levies to make up for the shift in funding. 

 

 Antani said the $625 million in local government funding was cut to about $300 million. He said he would use some of the state's rainy day fund of $1.41 billion to restore that funding, but said his idea was unlikely to be accepted as three-fourths of the current members were there when they voted to cut local government funding. 

Antani said he opposes the legalizing of medical marijuana in Ohio, since it creates a monopoly. The ten sites for growing the marijuana are already owned by one company, he said. 

 

.