How I Govern: A Taxpayer Compact

Government should be the referee, not a player. Protect rights, stop cheating, demand a fair return, and show the public the results.

I am not running because I believe government is always the problem. I am running because power needs rules no matter who holds it.

Government can become too powerful, too intrusive, and too distant from the people it serves. So can corporations, monopolies, politically connected developers, utilities, insurers, and other institutions with enough money or influence to write the rules for themselves.

My approach is simple:

Government should be the referee, not a player. It should enforce the rules, stop cheating, protect people from coercion, and then get out of the way.

That means government must be strong enough to protect the public from concentrated power, but constrained enough that government itself cannot become the bully.

Don't tread on us

Libertarians are right to be suspicious of government power. But freedom means more than protection from government alone.

Ordinary people should not be helpless when a powerful institution can socialize its costs, privatize its profits, buy special treatment, or make everyone else play by different rules.

"Don't tread on us" means:

• Government does not tread on constitutional rights.
• Corporations do not stick taxpayers with private costs.
• Monopolies do not get to write rules that protect themselves from competition.
• Political parties do not own the ballot.
• Developers do not leave communities paying for promises they failed to keep.
• Connected insiders do not receive rules or subsidies unavailable to everyone else.

The same standard applies whether the institution is public or private: power must be accountable.

Public money should produce public value

I am less interested in ideological arguments about whether government collected one dollar than in whether Ohioans received a dollar's worth of value for it.

Every major program, subsidy, tax incentive, contract, or new recurring commitment should answer basic questions:

1. What problem are we trying to solve?
2. What will it cost?
3. Who pays?
4. Who benefits?
5. What measurable result should taxpayers expect?
6. What happens if the program or recipient fails to deliver?

Government should publish those answers before the money is committed whenever possible, and publish the actual results afterward.

Good intentions are not a performance measure.

Reciprocity matters

Taxes, fees, public resources, and public infrastructure should be governed by reciprocity.

When a private actor uses a public resource, requires expensive public infrastructure, receives special tax treatment, or creates costs that other people would otherwise absorb, the public should receive a fair return.

That does not mean punishing success.

It means asking:

• What public resource or infrastructure is being used?
• What costs are being created?
• What benefits were promised?
• What return are Ohioans actually receiving?

If a project pays its way, creates durable value, and leaves the community stronger, government should make it easier to build.

If taxpayers absorb the costs while private owners keep all of the upside, the referee is not doing its job.

Intervention requires real harm

The same philosophy limits government power.

Government should act when there is violence, fraud, coercion, corruption, abuse, theft, or another concrete harm. It should be far more reluctant when the issue is mere dislike, difference, private behavior, or political fashion.

Before government restricts liberty, it should have to define the harm and use the least destructive effective response.

That principle applies to criminal justice, firearms, privacy, marijuana, land use, mental-health intervention, and every other area where government can take away someone's freedom or property.

Rights should not depend on which party is in power.

Local control should be real

Decisions should be made as close as practical to the people affected by them.

The state should protect constitutional rights, prevent actual abuse, and set clear baseline rules where statewide consistency is necessary. It should not use money or regulatory power to force every community into the same answer.

Local control also carries responsibility.

A local government should not be able to hide behind the phrase "local control" while maintaining arbitrary rules, endless delays, or processes nobody can understand.

The referee still has to enforce the rules.

Build first, regulate clearly

Ohio should make it easier to build homes, energy, businesses, infrastructure, and useful technology.

That requires:

• Clear rules.
• Complete application requirements.
• Predictable timelines.
• Concurrent reviews when possible.
• Written reasons for denials.
• A reasonable chance to correct technical mistakes.
• Strong enforcement when someone actually cheats, harms a neighbor, or breaks a meaningful rule.

Government should not demand replay review every time someone tries to move. It should also not look the other way when a powerful player commits a foul.

Recurring promises need recurring support

Ohio should not build permanent obligations on temporary money.

Before creating or expanding a recurring program, the General Assembly should identify a sustainable funding source, publish realistic cost assumptions, and explain how the program will be adjusted if those assumptions are wrong.

One-time revenue can support one-time investments. Volatile revenue should not quietly become the foundation of permanent promises.

That does not mean government can never invest. It means government should understand the difference between an investment and an IOU.

Show the work

Public trust is earned through visibility.

I will support rules requiring government to make major decisions understandable to ordinary people, including:

• Searchable public contracts and incentives.
• Plain-language bill summaries.
• Public amendment histories.
• Fiscal and local-impact analysis.
• Clear performance measures.
• Automatic clawbacks when recipients fail to deliver.
• Regular review of tax expenditures and special exemptions.
• Publication of actual outcomes, not only press releases.

If government cannot explain what it is doing, who is paying, and what result the public received, it should not expect trust.

The compact

My governing philosophy is not "government good" or "government bad."

It is that power must have boundaries, rules must apply equally, public money must produce public value, and nobody should be allowed to make everyone else pay for their private advantage.

Government should protect the field, enforce the rules, stop cheating, and then let people build.

That is what I mean by accountable government.

That is what I mean by "Don't tread on us."