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| Lex grad running for House seat: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 By Norm Narvaja Mansfield News Journal  MANSFIELD -- A 1999 Lexington High School graduate is the first Democrat to declare his candidacy for the Ohio House of Representatives seat that Bill Hartnett is vacating at the end of 2006.
Jay Goyal, 24, returned to the area to manage his family's business, Goyal Industries Incorporated, after completing an undergraduate degree in industrial engineering at Northwestern University. "I've lived here all of my life," Goyal said. "When I returned to work here, I found that many of the people I grew up with had left and went to larger cities. "As someone who lives and works here, I want to address the issues of encouraging young people to remain here." Phil Holloway has announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination for the seat. "In a sense, it is important for me to run as a Democrat, since the gentlemen before me -- Bill Hartnett, Frank Sawyer and Sherrod Brown -- were all Democrats who were effective legislators," Goyal said. Goyal addressed the issues of funding for public education, regional issues and the increasing burdens imposed on local governments from the state and federal levels. "The first thing about public education funding is that it's a complicated issue," he said. "There is no easy answer to the situation. We need to look at creating a funding system which doesn't rely on property owners." Goyal suggested looking for creative ways to resolve the problem. "One idea I heard involved the one-percent sales tax (which was rolled back)," he said. "If you directed the one percent to education, you could easily provide funding and reduce the burden on property owners who are at their limits." Goyal said a good education is an important component of creating a solid regional economy. "The jobs of the future are going to be technology-based and require higher skills and knowledge," he said. "A good public education system goes hand-in-hand with job creation and economic development." He then addressed the increasing financial burdens on local government. "No one likes to see budgets get cut," he said. "My criticism is at federally-mandated programs which do not provide funding, such as the No Child Left Behind Act. "It creates an issue where local governments are struggling to meet federal requirements without the funding to do so." nnarvaja@nncogannett.com |
