For Immediate Release
April 7, 2011

Contact:  Dale Butland
614- 783-5833

KASICH BUDGET COULD DESTROY OVER 51,000 JOBS
Think Tank says losses could derail Ohio’s economic recovery

Columbus—Innovation Ohio, a progressive think tank headquartered in Columbus, released an analysis today which finds that passing the Kasich Administration’s proposed two-year budget could mean a direct loss of 51,052 existing Ohio jobs. The study, including the methodology used to calculate the losses, is posted at www.innovationohio.org and can be accessed directly by following this link.

Job losses of that magnitude—which are more than double the 22,000 jobs that have been created since Gov. Kasich took office—could easily stall the state’s still-fragile economic recovery.

IO’s study is believed to be the first to project the total number of direct job losses that would result from the Administration’s proposed cuts to K-12 education, higher education, state personnel, and local governments. Indirect job losses—which would occur as the decreased spending of newly unemployed workers rippled throughout the state economy—would have an added impact, as will the job losses from cuts to nursing homes and hospitals.

Innovation Ohio communications director Dale Butland had this to say:

“When Ohioans hear Gov. Kasich boast about his ‘jobs budget’, they mistakenly think he means a budget that creates jobs—not destroys them. But if the legislature enacts all the cuts contained in the Governor’s proposed budget, the 51,000 jobs we stand to lose is more than double the 22,000 jobs Ohio has gained since Gov. Kasich took office. The effect could be catastrophic to Ohio’s still-fragile economic recovery.

“School districts and local governments will, of course, do everything possible to avoid laying people off. But they’ve already made the easy cuts and pared their budgets dramatically. So when the Governor proposes to cut school funding by $3 billion and local government funding by 50%, firing workers or raising local taxes are the only realistic choices they have left. By stubbornly insisting that an $8 billion deficit must be closed through cuts and one-time money alone, Gov. Kasich is intentionally pursuing a policy that will cost tens of thousands of Ohioans their jobs. But attacking workers—whether through a job-killing budget or the unfair Senate Bill 5—will not fix Ohio. It will only destroy the middle class. And that’s not what Gov. Kasich was elected to do.”

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