said on the Senate floor "The majority party is playing musical chairs with statewide offices in this state. We have to have some type of process." The Beacon-Journal was also skeptical of "the latest round of musical chairs among Republican officeholders in Columbus." Nevertheless, the General Assembly passed House Joint Resolution 1, which confirmed Johnson, on January 4, 2005, by 97–0 in the House and 22-11 in the Senate. Taft told the crowd at the swearing on January 5, "Bruce has been actively engaged in designing our program for jobs creation, tax reform and economic development. It is primarily because of his leadership on the economy that I have chosen Bruce." Work as lieutenant governor Johnson actively campaigned for the tax reform plans of Governor Taft, which ultimately became law. Johnson told The News Journal in Mansfield that "Ohio's outdated tax system hinders our ability to attract new business and employment opportunities in our communities" and "What we're doing now doesn't make sense. We take the things that business people utilize and give it the highest tax rate in the nation." Michael Douglas, a writer for the Akron Beacon-Journal quoted Johnson's claim that the new business activity tax was "one of the most fair and innovative in the nation," but was highly skeptical. Douglas said "Ohio [is] fashioning its own version of a tax applied by a mere handful of states. Might Ohioans be concerned that all of this has been championed by a governor and team that botched the mandated reporting of his golf dates?" Johnson was head of the committee promoting Taft's $2 billion state bond issue for industrial research and development and road construction on the November 2005 ballot, similar to the failed Third Frontier. Critics of the proposal called the plans "pork" and "corporate welfare" but Johnson told The Plain Dealer "World-class research creates jobs" and "We believe this issue will be victorious, mostly because it makes sense to Ohioans to have Ohio spending money to ensure that all the infrastructure in the state is preparing for the jobs of the century." The multibillion-dollar bond issue was passed by voters 1,512,669 (54.12%) to 1,282,571 (45.88%). Scandal surrounds Taft In 2005, Governor Bob Taft was convicted of four counts of failing to file accurate financial disclosure statements but said he would not resign his office despite the conviction, which grew out of the Coingate scandal exposed by