"I have thoroughly enjoyed working with you and all of my other colleagues in the various elected and appointed county offices and am thankful for that honor and privilege afforded to me by the citizens of Montgomery County" Davis wrote in his resignation letter.

"Doc will be greatly missed as a leader in the Montgomery County region and in our party.  We wish him all the best", said Greg Gantt, Chairman of the Montgomery County Republican Party.

Dr. Davis has been a resident of the Dayton area since doing his postgraduate medical training at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in 1970. He has worked as a Family Physician for over thirty one years in this community and has worked at the Montgomery County Coroner's Office since 1975.

With his resignation 16 months before the end of his term, Dr. Davis is recommending that the Montgomery County Republican Party appoint as his sucessor Deputy Coroner Dr. Kent E. Harshbarger, who is director of operations and a forensic pathologist in the coroner's office.

It is anticipated that the party will appoint Dr. Harshbarger on Tuesday, September 6th.  Dr. Harshbarger said he plans to run for the seat next year.

In 1995, the House of Representatives passed a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution with bipartisan support. The total national debt at the time was $4.95 trillion - an amount alarming enough to warrant an attempt to change the Constitution in order to prevent the debt from further increasing. Today, our national debt stands at $14.6 trillion dollars and we are on a path toward $26 trillion in ten years time.

A Balanced Budget Amendment added to our Constitution would require that the President submit a budget to Congress which doesn't spend more than we take in each year - except in time of war or national emergency. It's a basic approach which the majority of American families adhere to. If you don't have the money - you shouldn't be spending it.

With an ever growing mountain of debt, it's clear why our country needs a Balanced Budget Amendment. We cannot afford to continue spending at this rate. Every man, woman, and child in America is responsible for $46,000 of the national debt. With the Federal Government spending over $10 billion a day, we must change the course we're on. A Constitutional requirement to balance the budget placed in the framework of our government is part of the solution to the stop the endless spending in Washington.

It's an idea which has resonated with American public and economic experts alike. Economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth recently made the case for a Balanced Budget Amendment in an op-ed for RealClearMarkets.com. In it she wrote that "additional certainty about fiscal policy would make investment and consumption decisions easier, and would facilitate economic growth and job creation."  While the unemployment rate in Ohio stands at 8.8 percent, businesses and investors need to be reassured about the nation's financial health. Congress should be taking every step available to help spur much needed job creation - including reigning in spending.

Furthermore, the Constitutional amendment can only be removed by revisiting the amendment process.  David Primo, an Associate Professor of Political Science and Business Administration of the University of Rochester and George Mason University told the House Judiciary Committee in May that a constitutional amendment would help ensure meaningful budget reforms "will not be undone by future Congresses." This Amendment amounts to a padlock on the national piggy bank. No longer can IOU's be stuffed inside for future generations to pay.

Because of our government's addiction to spending, we have not only seen our economic recovery threatened, but the prospect of our AAA credit rating being downgraded. This rating, the highest there is, results in the lowest possible interest rates for borrowing for both the government and consumers. If our credit rating were to be downgraded for the first time in history, home buyers, businesses, and anyone else who has to finance a transaction would see increased borrowing costs and would be less likely to make purchases. Already, major credit rating agencies such as Moody's and Standard & Poor's have threatened to reevaluate our rating if we do not begin to take steps to control our debt.

The Founding Fathers even recognized the danger of leaving a legacy of government debt. Thomas Jefferson acknowledged this as "among the fundamental principles of government," and that "we should consider ourselves unauthorized to saddle posterity with our debts, and morally bound to pay them ourselves." Already we have failed to heed his warning that we must pay our debts. The Balanced Budget Amendment is a commonsense solution which would help make sure we do not find ourselves in this position again. I do not wish to see future generations working to pay off the debt of past generations. No longer can we afford to kick the can down the road when it comes to realistically dealing with the problem of our national debt. The time has come to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment.

"Ohio Means Business" is taking on a new meaning these days.

CNBC ranked Ohio 5th in the nation for its lower cost of doing business. That's up from a ranking of 29th in 2010. The reason cited was the comprehensive tax reforms we adopted in 2005 when I was serving as Speaker of the Ohio House that were designed to make Ohio's business climate more competitive.

The Governor and Legislature only enhanced this success with the passage of a balanced budget without raising taxes like other states did to solve their budget deficits.

So far in 2011, the Ohio Secretary of State's office has processed more than 44,400 new business filings. As the place where business begins in Ohio and the first point of contact a company will have with state government, we work hard to make sure the incorporation and business filing process is straightforward and hassle free.

Through our new Ohio Business Profile program, we are also working to put a face on the numbers and to demonstrate the good things going on in business in every corner of the state. Each month we profile a handful of Ohio businesses based around a common theme and ask them to tell us why they like doing business in Ohio. I encourage you to read more about them, or take a moment to suggest an Ohio company you think we should profile in the future at www.OhioBusinessProfile.com .

While more can and must be done, we have a great story to tell in Ohio. As Secretary of State, I will continue to do my part to encourage economic development and job creation in Ohio

It has been just over 180 days since I was sworn in as your Auditor of State, and I am working everyday to bring a skinnier, more accountable government to the state of Ohio.  

As I campaigned across Ohio last year, I listened to the voters who were fed up with government waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars.    That's why one of my top priorities is to help skinny down our government from the statehouse to the schoolhouse.  The great team I have assembled at the Auditor's office shares my vision, and we have been tirelessly working to serve you.

We went to the mat this past month and saved you a cool million dollars on the rent for the Auditor's Office over the next two years.  It seems there's a surplus of vacant office space in downtown Columbus, and we were able to negotiate a new lease that dropped our rent by more than $5 a square foot.

Now the landlords we negotiated with are pretty mad at me.  But it's your money - and the people of Ohio are my primary concern.  As they say, it's not personal, it's just business.

 Recently, we also opened a special audit of the federally funded tutoring program at a large city school.  It looks as though some of the tutoring that we, the people, paid for never happened.  The Superintendent, to her credit, asked us to come in to investigate.  We'll see where the numbers and the evidence take us.

One of the things we look at in our financial audits is a sample of expenditures to make sure money is being spent for a proper public purpose.  For instance, in the township of Catawba Island, we found taxpayers had been charged for a bar stool.  There were also other items like hangers and bowls from WalMart, as well as a pair of men's boxer shorts.   We cited the township fiscal officer so the taxpayers may get this money back.

These are just some examples.  I'll keep fighting for you.

When I ran for State Treasurer I committed to continue the principled, fiscally conservative record I built as a City Councilman and State Representative.

I promised to conduct an immediate top-bottom review of the Treasurer's office in order to cut the budget, reduce personnel, consolidate regional offices, and apply private sector business principles to running the Ohio Treasury.

My vision for the Treasurer's office was based on a simple principle:

If families and businesses are tightening their belts, then government should do the same.

I'm proud to report to you that my office has released a report detailing many of the aggressive cost-savings, creative security improvements, and wise investment strategies that have taken our operation to a level of efficiency never before seen in the Ohio Treasurer's office.

This Treasurer's office report, titled the 2011 Fiscal Year Top-Bottom Review, outlines many of the significant improvements we've made to the Treasurer's office during the past six months.

Below are some of our accomplishments, followed by a story that appeared in today's Columbus Dispatch, titled "Mandel tightens money belt: Departmental review leads to $1.2 million in savings."

• Increased the investment liquidity portfolio by $1.3 billion
• Reduced our general revenue fund budget by $1.2 million over the next biennium
• Voluntarily cut and sent back nearly $400,000 that we inherited from the previous Treasurer's budget 
• Saved approximately $850,000 in salaries and benefits by eliminating 13 bureaucratic positions 
• Saved approximately $80,000 by stopping the practice of using taxpayer money to purchase promotional items such as pencils, tote bags, piggy banks, golf shirts, fans, water bottles and jar openers 
• Saved over $47,000 by consolidating and closing regional offices
• Saved over $30,000 by shutting off unused or under-utilized phone, fax and mobile lines 
• Saved approximately $10,000 by eliminating unused cellular minutes 
• Saved approximately $16,000 by shifting the burden of paying for Cigarette Tax Stamps from taxpayers to vendors 
• Saved $15,000 annually by upgrading the website programming language 
• Saved approximately $8,500 per year by switching to an Ohio-based printing vendor 
• Saved $2,000 by ending plant watering contracts 
• Helped state agencies save money by providing them with a comparison matrix of credit card fees 
• Increased the security of the tax dollars we invest by upgrading the financial software for the first time in almost 10 year 
• Took 180 pieces of unused electronic equipment and made them available to state agencies and schools in order to help other government entities save money 
• And finally, please take the time to read this last and truly eye-opening cost-savings made possible by modernizing the office's banking practices:

When I arrived at the Treasurer's office there was a guy who drove checks everyday from Columbus to deposit them at KeyBank in Cleveland - and not even in a Brinks truck!  He was literally driving approximately $234 million per month right up I-71!  So I asked my staff, "If individual citizens can do banking on an iPhone or computer, why can't state government?"  I am proud to report that through aggressive leveraging of technology and application of private sector business principles, we have made this process electronic, thereby increasing security for the taxpayers', making money more readily available for investment, and ultimately saving the taxpayers over $100,000 per year.

I remain focused on my job as Treasurer, would appreciate any feedback you might have, and hope that I'm making you proud.