Government Comparisons Matrix
POL/215
Government Comparisons Matrix
| State | Local | Federal | How these entities cooperate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Responsibilities | There is not much difference between the Ohio State Government and the Federal Government except for the size of their territory being handled. Still, the State government of Ohio is expected to practice and respect the Federal Government. It is expected from the State Government that it can provide the necessary governance that Ohio needs like helping out small communities and counties when it comes to protecting them and giving general services in health and education. The State government is also allowed to make new policies and law for its betterment. | Every voted and appointed officials of the State government is expected to do their best in the interest of the citizens of Ohio. This includes the money being spent on projects of the government that is coming from the tax that the working citizen is paying. The county auditors, treasurers, and engineers are expected to help the state government in ensuring that all communities within the state of Ohio are accounted for with their expenses. It is also important that the county auditors, treasurers, and engineers will give necessary excuse to people with inability to pay their taxes as well as to give the services provided by the government in a balance manner with no exception. | Despite having a state government, the federal government still has control and rights over to the state government including allotting taxes to collect as well as indicating how the tax should be taken from the working citizens. The federal government also ensures that citizens with disability should get what is due to them like disability pensions and welfare help from the government. If the poverty limit is getting higher, the federal government should act and make ways to lessen poverty in the state and make policies to allocate resources better. If there will be policies that are changing, the federal government should make it known to all. | The local, state and federal government should devise plan together to combat poverty and calamities that regularly and normally affects the state and the people. If there is a need for change like tax charges, this should be talked about by the representatives’ from each government to help the citizens of the state. There are things that can be done like having the False Claims Act but make sure that everyone is aware of it and that majority at least agrees to use it. The communication between each representative of the government should be present at all times as well. |
| Policies or Laws | The house of representative and the senate determines whether a new law should be passed or not. A draft will be sent to them for review. There will be a committee assigned to the law to do reviews and hearings and try to check if the law I really necessary or not and if needed should be changed and corrected. This is done separately to ensure there is no biases in passing certain laws that might affect other people while it benefits the other. There is also the need to ensure that the right people are doing the right job hence the job as designated to those who can and is not given to a single person. Even the committee that reviews new laws consists of different people to ensure they are validated properly and with no bias. This is the exact opposite of monarchy where in the power to decide lies on a single man alone hence they are above the law. | When we say bill, it is a collection of thoughts and principles that they thought can be useful in our everyday lives. Bills are about everything under the sun like the amount of a project, amount of program to be allotted to a particular school or law about crimes and punishments. It can be suggested to any Representative or Senator and they can make it into a written bill to be passed for review until it gets accepted and enacted. . | Despite seeming simple, passing a bill has never been easy for the Representatives and the Senate people. There are bills that can be thrown away immediately if they don’t possess any good thing at all as perceived by those who review it. It starts at the House of Representatives being heard then the Representatives would decide if it deserves to be heard on the house of Senate. Once decided, the Senate will have a hearing and listen to the bill then decides to vote against or in favor of it. If the Senate votes for it, the final phase is to send it to the President’s office for the President to check it and approved. A president’s decision can either make it a law or not. . | The process of submitting a bill and making it into a bill takes the three branches of the government to work on it. It starts with the appointed delegates who do the checking of the officials’ integrity with their job. The check and balance system makes sure the power is distributed to all and not only held by one. Hence the three branches are equally powerful with each other but none is more powerful than the other two. It is interesting to actually understand how they work because they can control the power of each other. For example, the congress and the senate pass the bill but the president rejects it, the congress will get back to the bill and vote again and can have the bill passed if 2/3 of the floor votes for it overriding the rejection of the president. The judicial branch on the other hand will check if the bill was passed constitutionally or not and thy have to act accordingly despite the fact that Supreme Court judges are president’s appointees. Yet even if they were appointed, they were also approved by the congress in the first place for them to be member of the Court of Justice |
| Elections and Voting | General election is being held in Ohio to determine who will govern them. The electing of officer in the state is different from communities to communities though because of different reasons like different issues and different candidate personalities. It is the duties of the Secretary of State to make sure every candidate is on the list and are qualified. The President of the country, state senators and representatives of the state are being held in a state wide state election. | There are 88 counties in the state of Ohio and each state has a Board of Elections (BOE). They oversee election process in each county. There are always 4 members of the BOE and that is two from each political party in the area. Before election, candidate needs to apply for a candidacy at the BOE office as well as the proof of their campaign capability and finances. | When it comes to the bigger picture of election, federal election always gets exciting because of the Presidential election. It starts with primary election where in the two major parties select who will be their candidate. It is a state to state process and the winner will be the general election candidate. It has been a privilege for Ohio to be able to vote during presidential semi open primary election something that determines whether a political party will win the election or not. | Despite a lot of representations during Election Day, the state of Ohio ensures that their local and state representation is something that represents that sentiment of their citizens. The representatives of Ohio makes sure they are dealing for the people of Ohio hence it is always a personal level for them. Representatives always ask assistance on behalf of Ohio residents and works with what is better for the local of the state. This is true even in state level. |
| Term Limits | The state of Ohio is headed by a Governor followed by the Lieutenant Governor. Then there comes the Secretary of State, Auditor of State, and the Attorney General. There are also the voted and appointed officials like the Treasurer of Sate, State Board of Education and the Governors cabinet. The head of the state is voted and stays at the office for 4 years and they can get reelected as long as they want to. The Lieutenant Governor on the other hand has one shot for a 4 year term as well as the Secretary of State. The other officials are also welcomes to serve for a four year term like the Attorney General, the Treasurer and the Auditor. | For the town’s mayor, they are elected for a 4 year term as well and they can appoint their own cabinet members like the chief of staff who stays with the mayor for 4 years as well. Another mayor appointee is the Director of Communication and Community Relations for 4 year term too as well as the Executive Secretary. | In the federal government, there is much limit to serving terms and on how many times they can have the office. For example, the president can only have the office on a two consecutive term with 4 years each term. If the first term is just to finish an already started term (say the president died and the vice president got it), the vice president turned president can run for the office twice plus the years he served for the late president. For the Federal Senate though, there is unlimited term as long as you get elected and it’s for six years every term. The House of Representatives got 2 years each term and they can have their seat as well on an unlimited basis. That is if they will win the election. The real unlimited term actually happens only to the Supreme Courts justices who gets appointed by the President and serves their job until they decided to go off the grid. This was made possible in 1995 when Thornton decides of it. | Despite having their own state government and local governments through Ohio town mayors, the federal government still has obligation to the state to ensure that the welfare of the people are being taken care of. The Federal government understands the need for an open communication to ensure that every line is open in addressing any problem that the state might have. The Federal government also ensures that all help is accessible for the state officials when needed to give it to the Ohio citizens. |
| Administration | The services provided to the citizens of Ohio are being administered by the Department of Administration Services (DAS) as well as the Benefits Administration Services Office. These are the departments who ensure that the services that are supposed to given to the people of Ohio are being received by the people like medical and educational assistance as well as livelihood programs for the poorer citizens in the different part of the state. The service is provided in the whole area because it is centralized through the two departments handling it for the administration. | The state of Ohio composed of different counties and each county has different heads or leaders through local commissioners with a power determined by the mayor or from the higher government. Counties have their own government with their leaders in the person of auditors or engineers assigned to them as well as trustees and clerks. These officials are either elected or appointed in their positions and they oversee maintenance and creations of parks and other services that can help the people of every county have a better life and recreational life. They even make sure that everything living in the county is protected from natural disasters like typhoon and fire. | The main organization that handles issues and maintenance of roads and transportation issues is the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) Division Office and this is the department who provides help to the Departments of the Transportation of every state and every county in every state. Aside from road issues, safety and restoration, these departments are also responsible in making sure there are good housing projects for everyone in the state and in the communities of Ohio. | Officials whether from the federal department, from the local city or state government and even the small parts like counties always communicate with each other to ensure that needs of the Ohio citizens are being met especially in special services like medical, education and transportation. These officials are acting under the federal government and follow the law as stated by the state and the federal government. |
| Correctional Facilities | The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction center fall under the power of the governor of the state of Ohio and the Governor is the one who appoints a director to handle and manage the facility. Everything that the director will do will be in approval of the governor of the state on yet there is also need for the director to respect and follow the rules and policies as set by the governor however the director also have the full power inside the facility and to the facility’s officers and employees (Ohio.gov, 2011). | Correctional facilities in Ohio is different in more ways that you can imagine like the facility they have that is not inside walled buildings but is more like a community or a place where people lives freely. This is offered to prisoners who have good records or those cases are not that serious and are considered harmless to the people who lives around them to avoid having them getting mixed with more dangerous prisoners in the state (Cuyahoga County, Ohio, 2011). The people who decides who can stay in this community prisoners are those who facilitates on the community like members of the judges and commissioners of the county. | There are at least 116 facilities that cater to the prisoners in the entire country and one main prison is in Ohio which is called Elkton Federal Prison. The facility is located in Elkton, Ohio and is facilitated and manages by the Federal Bureau of Prisons Board. The Federal Bureau of Prisons Board is an adjacent agency controlled by the Department of Justice. | We can say that living and working with people who are charged with different cases can be very difficult and unsafe hence it is important for everyone in the correction facilities to work hard and continue to protect each other. Aside from the safety of those who stays within the correctional, the safety of the prisoners is also important and should be ensured by the BOP. |
| Education | There is Northwest Ohio, Southwest Ohio, Southeast Ohio, and Northeast Ohio which composes the Ohio regions. From these regions, education report is being consolidated to provide accurate report of the education status in the state and as of the school year of 2010 – 2011, there is an astounding 90% graduation rate in the state with 75% proficiency rate that is from a state test that is standardized. | There are at least 130,000 professional teachers in Ohio and are member of the Ohio Education Association. The 130,000 teacher works as school children teachers, college professors, high school teachers and university teachers from both public and private educational institutions. OEA is the main pool of teaches that helps Ohio provides the education needed by the students and OEA is also the one to give assessments to students to make sure they are qualified to move on to the next level of education if they wanted to. | In Ohio, the No Child Left behind Act or NCLB is main basis of the state to ensure that every child in Ohio will have a taste of what education is even the most basic education. Hence the state aims to educate all of its students and it is the state’s responsibility to do so. The state should provide equal opportunity to everyone in the state and should not let any of the children grow without education. | The state of Ohio corresponds and communicates with the federal government and its people who handle the education program of the country. The state of Ohio government works with the other departments and programs that the federal government is initiating to ensure that the No Child Left behind Act will be followed all throughout the state and even in the small counties and communities in the area. It is also important that the students of Ohio be able to get good and high scores in order to obtain good total scores to show that the educators of the state are indeed doing great. |
| Welfare | Cash assistance is the system used by the government of the State of Ohio to provide welfare to its citizens. There are two kinds of cash assistance provided in Ohio and the first one is the Ohio Works First cash assistance. The second one is the Disability Financial Assistance cash assistance. There are other small cash assistance and welfare programs initiated in the communities and counties as initiated by the Department of Job and Family Services and they are initiated by the local government (Ohio.gov: Department of Job and Family Services, 2011). | The welfare program of the state of Ohio is a mixture of national and local programs as initiated by the federal and state government. If there will be citizen who need personal assistance and has no chance to go directly to the federal government office for welfare assistance, then there is a state welfare department that can assist them as well. The managers of local welfare assistance offices are hired to do the job and not appointed or voted by the people. | The Department of Health and Human Services is a federal office that oversees all welfare programs that is given to the poorer citizens of the country regardless of their state. The assistance is given base on some criteria like the number of household compared to the number of income the household is receiving. The Department of Health and Human Services also creates programs that can provide welfare assistance to those who need base on what they need like livelihood programs, educational assistance or cash help. Since the program is coming from the federal government, it is the job of the state to ensure that the only residents who can get it in each state are those who deserve and really needs it (Welfare Information.org, 2011). | The different departments that provide welfare assistance from the federal to state government works closely together to ensure that all necessary assistance can be given to those who need and deserve it. In choosing the best benefactors of these programs though, there are more and more levels of poverty being assessed to ensure that everyone gets their fair equally. Due to economic problems that the country is experiencing, rending welfare services to reach out to more in need families become harder at the moment. |
| Health Care | Healthcare is one of the most important services in any government office as much as in Ohio hence the State of Ohio makes sure that the citizens of Ohio are getting the best of everything including affordable medical assistance when needed. The state government of Ohio creates department that can work and check for possible agencies that can research possible bills and policies that can help the state in regulating bills that can alleviate poverty in the state. For example, the United States Department of Health and Human Services make sure that the poorest citizens of the country gets the service they need while the Department of Job and Family Services makes sure that the medical needs of the center is being meet and that the hospitals in the area provides the necessary services to everyone regardless if they can pay or not. | It is the responsibility of employers to ensure that their employees get the necessary benefits related to health. The department of health and the hospitals in the area coordinates with companies to make sure they are offering the best possible medical package foe their employees while most care professionals like doctors and nurses are encouraged to be a part of Ohio Health Care Association to ensure they are all following the ethical and medical rules as applied in real life and to their patients. | As the state government of Ohio continues to work on providing the best health service to its people, it also worked on ensuring that each employee of the health sector are well trained while the government from both federal and state government ensures that each state and federal program has the budget necessary to continue the service. For one, employers are now asked to give their employees a health benefit if a certain number of employees are met as a qualification. The bigger the company is, it means that the company is more prosperous and more capable of providing medical service to their employees. In a bigger picture like from the federal government, they ensure that some medical services like Medicaid and Medicare is being given to all citizens regardless of their capability but mostly to poorer and incapable citizens. | It is clear that health is one of the major services provided by both federal and state government. This is to make sure that everyone in the country and in the state is healthy and if they need medical assistance, then they can just go to the nearest medical hospital. Policies and regulations when it comes to health service is always changing but one thing is for sure, it is always for the best of the constituents of each state and it is the state official’s role to ensure that their people are getting the best from what the federal government is offering. |
| Environmental Policy | When it comes to environmental policy, the state always set higher standards that what the federal government is giving and creating. The state specifically creates and regulates laws that will ensure that the environment is being protected at all cost hence no air pollution or water pollution should happen. Every state is expected to provide policies and do their best to ensure the cleanliness of the environment. | The federal government is the one creating general laws when it comes to having environmental acts and it is the duty of the state government to ensure that all laws are in effect and being pushed through in all levels of community. | Standards on how to keep the environment safe and clean will be coming from the federal government and it is the state’s government and state environmental department’s job to ensure that all of these environmental regulations get followed and implemented across states. It is the federal government who mandates regulations to maintain clean air for everyone, clean and safe drinking water and even safe foods for the country’s population. | The government ensures that the environment is safe from all kind of harm and it is the federal, state and local government’s job to keep everyone safe and aware of the positive and negative effect of having a clean water and air among others. The State of Ohio has its own department that ensures the federal laws are being followed all the time and that environmental awareness are not being taken for granted for the welfare of the citizens of Ohio today and for the future. |
Education
The money allocated for educational services comes from the state government as well as from the city or local government. The federal government has a duty to give too and the money given to services like education is basically coming from citizens’ tax specifically from the property taxes “(tax.ohio.gov 2011). For every election, every term and every official who gets their hand with the federal government, educational policies and assistance are always changing especially the amount of money that is supposed to be given to it. Property tax is one of the main sources of income for the government of Ohio and the 88 counties in the state collects from all of its citizens depending on the people’s agreed or voted on. Once the voted tax amount has been passed, the collector for the county collects the due the following month hence tax in richer counties are higher compared to an average county when it comes to citizens cost of living. All the collected money is being brought together and get distributed to school districts (tax.ohio.gov 2011).
All of the expenses are coming from the state funds collected from taxes and there are very few times where in the federal government provides assistance depending on the needs of the school or of the state. There are programs though handled by the federal government like lunch programs for students and even meal programs. There are schools who also gets money from the federal government but the money being provided has some consequences are in exchange for something depending on what the federal government and the school could agree upon.
Of course the first step in providing the best education for the citizens of the country comes from the federal government but it would be a good idea to have the state government comes into terms with the central government in order to get more support. The federal government set standards for each state to meet and this can be seen in assessments like general assessment for high school and elementary students before getting vocational or college courses. The U.S. Department of Education (2011) aims to have the most competitive program that can create the most competitive students in the whole world. The U.S. Department of Education wants to have each American student the capability to compete and live on their own as they grow old through policies and enough funding for each school, through researches that is useful for more competitive school activities, to know challenges and how to meet them and to be fair to all students across all states regardless of the students religion, race or color (para.1).
Regardless of the programs of each department and government when it comes to providing education to American students, the main purpose remain the same- to have a high quality of education where everyone can compete globally and this is the main purpose why they have the Department of Education in the country.
References
Constitution-21. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.constitution-21.com/Authority_and_Responsibility.htm
Cuyahoga County, Ohio. (2011). Community Based Correctional Facility: About Us. Retrieved September 11, 2011, from Cuyahoga County, Ohio: http://cbcf.cuyahogacounty.us/en-US/about-us.aspx
Health Care Reform Initiatives. (2011). Retrieved from http://healthcarereform.ohio.gov/Pages/default.aspx
Ohio department of education. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ode.state.oh.us/GD/Templates/Pages/ODE/ODEDefaultPage.aspx?page=1
Ohio.gov. (2011). Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Department Organization: The Structure. Retrieved, from Ohio.gov: http://www.drc.ohio.gov/web%5Cwhoweare.htm
Ohio.gov: Department of Job and Family Services. (2011). Job & Family Services: Our Services: Cash Assistance. Retrieved, from Ohio.gov: Department of Job and Family Services: http://jfs.ohio.gov/ocomm_root/1000OurServices.stm
Ohio House and State. (n.d.). Retrieved , from http://house.state.oh.us
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Steps in Making a Bill a Law: The Federal Legislative Process (n.d) Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/policy/federal/bill_law
Prperty tax and school funding retrieved from http://www.tax.ohio.gov/channels/research/documents/Property_Taxation_School_Funding_2010.pdf
Secretary of State of Ohio. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/
Welfare Information.org. (2011). Welfare Department-The Dept. of Health and Human Services. Retrieved, from Welfare Information.org: http://www.welfareinfo.org/welfare-department/
U.S. Department of Education. (2011). What We Do. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/about/what-we-do.html
US Legal. (2001 – 2011). Retrieved from http://definitions.uslegal.com/n/no-child-left-behind-act/