Innovation Station

ALEC boosts Ohio’s ranking on its anti-government/anti-tax policy wish list

May 24, 2013 By Ben Peyton Leave a Comment

This week, the conservative-leaning American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) released its 6^th annual Rich States, Poor States: ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitive Index. According to the report, Ohio’s “competitiveness” ranking went up last year from 37^th to 26^th. Don’t be surprised to see politicians point to this as evidence that their radical economic policies are working here in Ohio.

The ALEC report is just one of a host of “studies” released each year that attempt to measure which state economies are the most business-friendly. These reports are nothing more than a platform for these groups’ anti-tax/anti-government ideologies and use flimsy analysis that would fail any college 101 statistics class. For instance, the report evaluates Ohio against other states in terms of factors such as its minimum hourly wage, average tax rates and how union-unfriendly its laws are. In reality, these reports — and these factors — have proven to be very poor predictors of how states’ economies will perform in the future. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economic Development and Jobs, Innovation Station Tagged With: ALEC, Economic Growth, Economy, Ohio Economy

What happens next with measure to limit student voting?

May 21, 2013 By Terra Goodnight Leave a Comment

State Senator Randy Gardner is telling anyone who will listen that the measure added to the 2-year state budget to crack down on universities that help students vote will be going away. In a committee hearing last week, Gardner, Chair of the Senate Finance Education subcommittee claimed that all seven members — Republican and Democrat — on the panel were opposed to the measure and that he personally had authored an amendment to remove it.

“There seems to be a lot of intensity behind that issue,” he said in an interview. “Most senators I’ve spoken with are strongly against that provision and I think there’s significant support on both sides of the aisle to take it out.” [source: Gongwer]

It’s a welcome development, but it’s too early to celebrate a victory for voting rights. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Fair and Open Elections, FY 2014-15 Budget, Innovation Station

New shale report questions fracking’s short term benefit

May 17, 2013 By Ben Peyton Leave a Comment

On Thursday, State officials released the much anticipated 2012 Utica shale production report. Administration officials were quick to celebrate the findings of the report and heralded it as the beginning of a “new boom” in Ohio. Realistically though, this report includes information that should cause officials to temper their expectations – at least in the short term.

As we have written in the past, the Kasich administration and the oil and gas lobby both promised that shale exploration would bring a wave of new jobs to Ohio. While recent reports have noted that not only were these claims dubious to start with, in reality the job growth is not nearly as strong as they originally estimated. The report provides some clues on why that is. Only 87 horizontal wells were producing oil and gas last year at some point – most of them were only active for three months or less. And while officials expect that number to increase to 362 by the end of this year it is still unlikely that the increase will lead to the giant job expansion promised.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Fracking, Innovation Station Tagged With: Fracking, Oil and Gas, Severance Tax

Senate seeks savings by cutting healthcare for pregnant women

May 17, 2013 By Jenny Brodie 1 Comment

Currently the Senate is discussing alternatives to Governor Kasich’s proposed expansion of Medicaid. When discussing the alternatives, Senate President Faber suggested the following as a potential alternative:

Current federal rules ban any changes in eligibility for children until 2019. However, the state could reduce eligibility for roughly 8,600 pregnant women and 5,700 disabled workers without seeking federal approval.

“That gives us additional savings we can put in other things,” Faber said.

Yet studies have shown that infant mortality is linked to maternal health. Ohio currently has the 11th highest infant mortality rate in the country. You’d think a pro-life Senator, like Senator Faber, would be supportive of programs that reduce infant mortality.

Filed Under: Innovation Station, Women's Watch

Five Year Anniversary of Senate Bill 221 – Ohio’s Groundbreaking Renewable Energy Standards

May 9, 2013 By Ben Peyton Leave a Comment

This month marks the five year anniversary of Governor Strickland signing Senate Bill 221 into law. Republican leaders in both the House and Senate, large and small businesses, consumer groups, labor unions, faith leaders, hospitals, farmers, and the environmental community all fought for its passage. After more than a year of public hearings this bipartisan piece of legislation passed both chambers of the Ohio General Assembly with only one ‘No’ vote.

Five years later there is a lot to show for the hard work that went into the process of creating one of the most aggressive renewable and energy efficiency standards in the country. A recent report commissioned by the Ohio Manufacturer’s Association shows that the energy efficiency standard—requiring utilities to use less electricity—will save Ohio residents and businesses $5.6 billion dollars.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Innovation Station Tagged With: Energy, SB 221

Most Public Safety Levies Pass, Many Replacing Kasich Budget Cuts

May 8, 2013 By Terra Goodnight Leave a Comment

62 of 74 safety levies on the May, 2013 ballot passed

Ohio voters in 74 communities went to the polls yesterday and overwhelmingly endorsed an array of tax levies to support fire, EMS and police services.

Of 74 issues on the ballot, 62 passed representing a success rate of 82% (see complete list of levy results).

100% of the 26 levy renewals were supported by voters. And even levies seeking additional or “new” money did nearly as well with 75%, or 36 of 48 issues succeeding. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured Items, FY 2014-15 Budget, Innovation Station, Taxation

Kasich Cuts put Public Safety on Ohio Ballots Today

May 7, 2013 By Terra Goodnight 1 Comment

In special elections today, 74 Ohio communities in 40 counties are considering levies to maintain public safety operations.

In all, 23 communities will consider requests for police services, 42 for fire and 40 for EMS/911 (some of issues address more than one safety services).

(Spreadsheet of public safety levies on May 7 ballot).

If passed, over 60% of today’s safety levies — 47 of 74 — would represent a tax increase, either by introducing a new levy or by increasing the amount of an existing one. Only 27 issues would renew and existing levy at current levels.

This statistic is unsurprising after two years in which communities have been coping with the loss of more than a billion dollars of revenue as the result of Kasich budget cuts. Yesterday, the Columbus Dispatch looked at the impact of state budget cuts on communities around Central Ohio and found that indeed many are responding by cutting firefighters (20 in Lancaster), police (16 in Marion) or raising taxes (by 1% on income in Gahanna). Cincinnati recently announced it will eliminate 80 fire and 189 police positions in the wake of an annual $22 million loss of state funding.

The current state budget proposes to eliminate another $1.4 billion in funding for Ohio communities, which will almost certainly lead to additional service cuts and levy requests in the months and years to come.

Links:

Spreadsheet of public safety levies on May 7 ballot.

Previous coverage:

May 7 school levies bring total to $1.3 billion on ballot since Kasich budget cuts introduced

Filed Under: Featured Items, FY 2014-15 Budget, Innovation Station, Taxation

Republicans Unleash New Attack on Workers Rights in Ohio

May 1, 2013 By Terra Goodnight 1 Comment

Public and private-sector unions are targeted by new Ohio legislation.

State Representatives Kristina Roegner (R-Hudson) and Ron Maag (R-Lebanon) today announced their intention to introduce legislation that would make Ohio a so-called “Right to Work” state.

Three bills will be introduced. Two would make it illegal to require an employee to join or pay dues to a union as a condition of employment – one each for the public and private sectors. The third would put the issue on the ballot for voters to decide.

Unions would maintain collective bargaining rights, but membership would be expected to decline sharply as non-union workers would be allowed to benefit from union negotiations without paying dues. As a result, unions would lose strength to negotiate working conditions, wages and benefits.

At an afternoon press conference, Maag and Roegner said the bills had 16 cosponsors.

Roegner suggested offering three separate bills would allow a conversation in which Ohioans would “choose” the best path forward. If all three measures were adopted, however, it would mean labor organizations would have to mount three separate campaigns for their defeat: attempting to defeat the two new laws through a referendum while simultaneously working to defeat a constitutional amendment. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economic Development and Jobs, Innovation Station Tagged With: Labor, Right to Work

Universities ask Senate to Kill Student Voting Amendment

April 30, 2013 By Terra Goodnight Leave a Comment

The Joke Was on Ohio's Women: Ohio House Speaker Bill Batchelder (R) in 2011.

Speaker Batchelder says he’s concerned students might not be “up to speed” enough to vote.

Yesterday we estimated that a new amendment to the state budget (HB 59) aimed at limiting access to the ballot for college students could cost Ohio’s public colleges and universities $272 million. Today, those universities produced their own estimate — $370 million per year in potential lost revenue — and asked legislators in a Senate committee hearing to kill the amendment.

The amendment would require universities to charge in-state tuition rates to any student to whom a letter or utility bill is issued for the purposes of voting. But, as we explained, residency requirements for tuition and voting are very different. The effect would be hundreds of millions in lost tuition for Ohio colleges. Today, Ohio University said they stand to lose $12 million if the budget passes.

Cynically, the spokesman for the Ohio House Republicans — the authors of the amendment — tried to suggest that the measure’s aim was unrelated to voting, but rather an attempt to make college more affordable. But if his caucus was interested in making college more affordable, why have they cut funding for higher education in budget after budget? The House-passed version of HB 59 actually provides 9% less funding to higher education than the state spent a decade ago.

Even worse, the Speaker of Ohio’s House of Representatives directly undercut his spokesman’s claims, effectively admitting that the measure is indeed aimed at reducing turnout by college students, telling the Columbus Dispatch:

some out-of-state students may not be up to speed on local tax levies and other issues [Read more...]

Filed Under: Fair and Open Elections, FY 2014-15 Budget, Innovation Station

PolitiFact finds Oil and Gas Industry Jobs Claims to be Dubious

April 30, 2013 By Ben Peyton Leave a Comment

On Monday, the Cleveland Plain Dealer released a PolitiFact that examined recent ads by the oil and gas industry claiming to have created 40,000 jobs last year in Ohio. PolitiFact gave the ad its lowest rating — “Pants on Fire” — and strongly questioned the industry’s job creation claims.

PolitiFact found that the ads overstate the number and type of jobs created and failed to disclose that many of these jobs may have gone to out-of-state workers. In addition, they found the fact that the numbers were based on economic modeling rather than actual surveys of employers undermined the veracity of the claim.

PolitiFact also noted the high rate of turnover in industry hiring data, showing that even if Ohioans are being hired, the work is often temporary in nature. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Economic Development and Jobs, Energy, Fracking, Innovation Station Tagged With: Fracking, Jobs, Oil and Gas