COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The fall campaign season traditionally kicks off with Labor Day weekend, and both sides in the Issue 3 casino debate have come out swinging. Pro-casino ads began popping up on television over the weekend, while opponents launched their own ad campaign Monday.
NBC4's Patrick Preston checks the facts on both sides.
Whether it's a visual of money fleeing Ohio or cards flipping to reveal several menacing-looking jokers, both sides in the Issue 3 campaign are using vivid imagery in their first television ads.
The Ohio Jobs and Growth Committee, behind the Issue 3 campaign, begins with an ad touting new jobs.
"Issue 3's four casinos will create 34,000 jobs," the ad states.
The claim is based on a June 2009 study by the University of Cincinnati. Ohio Jobs and Growth paid for the study, which concluded that adding four new casinos in Ohio would create an estimated 34,000 jobs.
Opponents of Issue 3 say casino backers are treating the jobs estimate as fact, instead of properly labeling it as a projection. They contend Issue 3 supporters are exaggerating the economic impact in their own television ad.
"At no time will 34,000 Ohioans be put to work," the ad from Issue 3 opponent TruthPAC states.
TruthPAC has received significant contributions from Mountaineer Gaming CEO and President Robert Griffin.
Issue 3 proponents agree that the 34,000 jobs would not be created simultaneously, as Ohio Jobs and Growth explains in another ad, "Issue 3 will create 19,000 construction jobs and 15,000 permanent jobs."
Ohio Jobs and Growth spokesperson Bob Tennenbaum said Monday that argument misses the point.
"I think anybody with any common sense at all will realize immediately that you have to have the construction jobs first to build the casinos. Then the construction jobs add to the permanent jobs when the casino starts. Frankly, I'm not sure why anyone would even make a claim like that. It's silly on its face," Tennenbaum said.
Sandy Theis, spokesperson for TruthPAC, argues there is a difference between a permanent job, and a construction job.
"More than half of the jobs that they're touting are temporary jobs," Theis said.
Tennenbaum counters that while the casino construction jobs may only last two years, they are no less valuable to the families whose finances depend on available construction work.
"We're talking about about 19,000 construction jobs in an economy where a lot of people, including a lot of construction workers, are out of work and desperately looking for jobs," Tennenbaum said.
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