I am a taxpayer and a regular voter in our great state of Ohio. I am proud to have these rights and how they came to be.

The newly elected governor of Ohio has me at a change of attitude toward our faith in state government.

We listen to the continuous statements of the candidates running for office: promises, promises and “I wills.”

We the people listen and vote with our hearts and minds to best prove valuable to ourselves, family and state. Through this respectful process we live with our final tally on these matters before us.

The concern that I have is I feel as if we were misled again after our new governor has taken office. The promises of budget-balancing, working to better Ohio and to save, save and save has gone out the window.

We the people of Ohio pay for a residence for our governor, called the mansion.

The facility is paid for by taxpayer funds. This mansion is fully secured for any political attendance. There are no shortcomings or renovations that are keeping our governor-elect from moving to the facility.

The decision to stay in his home and have taxpayer funds retrofit his residence to be the new mansion is two-faced, with a lack of concern to political promises to save, a total lack of respect to the taxpayer or their efforts to put an honest or best-available person in office to fulfill our state’s needs.

I guess I am still hopeful in our dreams of fair taxation, solid reasoning, brainstorming of ideas and an honest and just form of government. I still believe.

Does our governor? Are we going to leave the mansion vacant? The homeless could do many things with this kind of square footage! Who really would appreciate the facility and benefits more?

Michael Merritt

Ironton