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. 

In 2012, researchers looked at the predictive value of the ALEC index. In Selling Snake Oil to the States: The American Legislative Exchange Council’s Flawed Prescriptions for Prosperity, researchers examined whether states that had higher rankings on the ALEC measures out-performed lower-ranking states in four key measures of economic activity.

The results were telling. In three of the four measures (non-farm employment growth, percent change in per capita income, and percent change in state and local government revenue) the report found a negative correlation between a state’s ALEC ranking and its economic performance from 2007 through 2011. In other words, the more “uncompetitive” the ALEC report found a state’s economy,  the greater the growth the state saw in employment, income and state and local government revenue. The only positive correlation that the report found was between a state’s ALEC rating and the percent change in its GDP. The correlation was insignificant though at 0.2 percent, meaning that there is virtually no relationship between GDP growth and a state’s economic competitiveness ranking.

Policy makers, the media and the public need to understand that the ALEC index is simply a tool to further the anti-tax/anti-government agenda of ALEC and its political allies. Policymakers who insist that Ohio simply needs to implement policies that mirror the high ranking states in the ALEC report are simply misleading the public. It is much less likely that these policies will lead to economic growth and more likely that they will have a negative effect on Ohio’s middle class and poor.

“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.

It’s not surprising lawmakers are backing away from the ill-conceived voter suppression scheme, given how dearly it would cost Ohio’s public colleges and universities — $272 million according to our estimate. But there are indications that party leaders in both the House and the Senate are intent on finding another way to approach the issue of student voting.

Particularly disturbing were comments by Ohio House Speaker, William Batchelder in the Toledo Blade:

“The real issue for local areas in particular [is], what happens when somebody from New York City registers to vote,” he said. “How do they vote on a school levy? How do they vote on a sheriff’s race …? To me, there is a significant question, particularly the levies, as to what having people who don’t have to pay for them would do in terms of voting on those things.”

Does Batchelder also intend to cut off voting rights to people transferred to Ohio on business? What about military families who live here for a year or two? Those voters, too, will not necessarily be up to speed on the key issues in the next race for sheriff.

But if a solid grasp on issues were really a prerequisite Ohio lawmakers want to impose on voters, we’d probably have to reconsider extending voting rights to the 15% of Ohio Republicans who think Mitt Romney killed Osama bin Laden.

Clearly, lack of information on the part of student voters is a distraction. The fact is, young people reliably lean toward progressive candidates and issues. And they are the only category of less-informed and/or newly-minted Ohioans whose voting rights GOP leadership have so far questioned.

A substitute version of HB59 is expected to be adopted by the Senate on Tuesday, before the measure heads to a conference committee where final tweaks are made behind closed doors. We won’t know until the end of June whether the bill Governor Kasich contains these or other limits on voting rights in Ohio.

Title: Sexual Battery

Sponsors: Senator Turner and Senator Cafaro

Co-Sponsors: Senators Hughes, Kearney, Tavares

Bill Analysis: This bill would eliminate the period of limitation for the prosecution of rape or sexual battery. These changes would apply to crimes committed on or after the bills effective date.

Status: Introduced in the Senate on March 14, 2013, received a hearing in the Senate.

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.

In addition, the report shows that the shale play in Ohio is rich in natural gas but that crude oil production will play a much smaller role. Not that long ago the oil and gas industry and state officials were touting the wealth of crude oil here in Ohio. Recently though industry experts have said that this is not the case and the numbers in yesterday’s report back it up. While natural gas will still draw many companies to the region, the fact that crude oil production is expected to be well below original estimates could negatively affect the job and economic growth prospects of the region and the state.

Finally, there is the issue of expected state revenue. While Republican lawmakers refuse to institute a reasonable severance tax rate, lawmakers will have to make do with the current abysmally low severance tax. The findings in yesterday’s report show that without raising the state’s severance tax lawmakers should not expect a revenue windfall anytime in the near future from oil and gas exploration. At its peak, state officials are still only estimating state severance revenue to equal $69 million in one year – this being an enormous give away to big oil.

Yesterday’s report is another piece of information to help us understand the role shale exploration will have in Ohio for years to come. While some of the information released was encouraging, policymakers should be realistic in what opportunities can be leveraged in the years to come.

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.

In Texas, in an attempt to defund Planned Parenthood, legislation was passed which prevented Planned Parenthood clinics from participating in Texas’ Women’s Health Program.  This was despite the fact that the 51 the clinics served nearly half of the women who participated in the program.

That same year, 2011, the Texas legislature cut family planning funds by two-thirds and the federal government, noting that the state couldn’t exclude clinics without an adequate reason, withdrew $30 million a year in federal funds from Texas.

This loss of funds had major consequences.  According to a recent article by the Houston Chronicle:

Public health officials estimate 140,000 women in Texas lost access to preventive care after the budget cuts, including more than 7,000 in Bexar County.

More than 50 clinics have shut down across the state, two-thirds of them not affiliated with Planned Parenthood or any abortion provider, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Others have reduced hours and services or increased prices.

But not only did women lose access to important health services, the consequence of these actions are showing up in health statistics. San Antonio is located in Bexar county.

They estimate there were an additional 1,350 unplanned pregnancies in Bexar County last year, compared to two years ago…Last year, the county saw record increases in syphilis cases, something Dr. Thomas Schlenker, director of Metro Health ties directly to the loss of clinic funding. In 2012, there were 565 new cases of syphilis, about 100 more than in previous years, and 18 cases of congenital syphilis, more than double that of 2011, he said.

Does the Ohio legislature really want to put women at this kind of risk?

When originally proposed in Ohio, only 20,000 of the necessary 350,000 signatures for the 2012 ballot were collected.  However, Patrick Johnson and Personhood Ohio have not given up.  This weekend Personhood organizers held a press conference announcing their renewed efforts to place a Personhood amendment on the ballot. Supporters of this ballot amendment said they were aiming for the 2014 ballot.

Previous attempts to collect signatures have been poorly organized and poorly funded. Personhood USA, a national group promoting the Personhood concept, has been actively involved in other states with groups seeking similar ballot initiatives. So far they have not been involved in Ohio, which may be telling of the potential for success.

You can watch the full press conference here.

Title: Biennial Budget

Sponsors: Representative Amstutz

Co-Sponsors: Representatives Anielski, Baker, Beck, Blair, Boose, Brown, Burkley, Conditt, Dovilla, Grossman, Hackett, Hagan, C., Hayes, Lynch, McClain, McGregor, Pelanda, Rosenberger, Ruhl, Sears, Sprague, Stebelton, Thompson

Bill Analysis:  The biennial budget spans the executive branch of Ohio government and thus has policy changes in every agency, many of which directly impact women and children in Ohio.  Policy changes that specifically relate to women’s issues and women’s health include a change the distribution of family planning funds and a change to the transfer language for ambulatory surgical centers.

Changes to the distribution of family planning funds prioritizes the distribution of federal funds such as the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant, Social Services Block Grant, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Title X Family planning. This re-prioritization would leave organizations such as Planned Parenthood at the bottom of the priority list.

Changes to the transfer language for ambulatory surgical centers places current rules into law. These rules require that an ambulatory surgical center, the typical designation for a facility providing abortions, have a written transfer agreement with for “the safe and immediate transfer” of patients to the hospital when necessary. The director of the Ohio Department of Health may grant a waiver. By placing this language in revised code it removes the agency’s discretion to change the rules without legislative approval. Without a transfer agreement facilities that have this designation may no longer be able to operate.

Status: Introduced in the House,  Passed the House on 4/18/2013.  Introduced in the Senate, currently receiving hearings in the Sentae.

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The Ohio Legislative Service Commission has measured Ohio’s historic commitment to K-12 education using a spreadsheet located here. What they find is telling. The current budget bill (House Bill 153) represents the smallest commitment to K-12 education (as a percentage of the total state budget) since the 1996-1997 budget, which happens to be the last budget before the Ohio Supreme Court first ruled that Ohio’s school funding system was unconstitutional — the first of four times they were to rule that way.

And if one looks to 1991, when the DeRolph case was first filed, the amount spent then would represent about $5.2 billion in today’s money, or about $3.5 billion less than today’s appropriation levels.

Title: HPV Vaccine

Sponsors: SenatorBrown and Senator  Schiavoni

Co-Sponsors: Senators Turner, Sawyer, Gentile, Smith, Tavares

Bill Analysis: This bill requires health insurers to cover the HPV vaccination and expenses related to screenings for HPV.

Status: Introduced in the Senate February 12, 2013,  received a hearing in the Senate and was continued.