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· January 30, 2012

Governor’s Office refuses to disclose its staff, but Innovation Ohio has the list

In today’s Columbus Dispatch there is a story (“Did Kasich really cut cost of governor’s staff? It’s tough to say”) about one reporter’s difficulty in obtaining apples-to-apples comparisons of how many staff Governor Kasich has at the Governor’s Office, and how their pay compares to his predecessor. From the article:
As the debate over salaries began to heat up early last year, Kasich released multiple projected payroll lists containing up to 75 positions, including employees considered under the “governor’s office” and others who are paid out of other departments’ budgets but reported to Kasich. His administration also released a list from Strickland’s last year in office for what team Kasich said was an apples-to-apples comparison, and argued that Kasich would spend less than Strickland did based on that list. Kasich officials now won’t produce an updated list, saying that they would have to create it, and state law doesn’t require public officials to create documents that don’t exist.
Apparently, the Governor is digging in his heels and refuses to be transparent. All the Dispatch is asking is for a list of how many people work for the Governor, regardless of which agency is paying them. And the Governor’s office refuses to say. Innovation Ohio’s been down this road before and we figured it out. As of April 28, 2011, salaries for the Kasich team, including all staff reporting to the Governor but paid by another agency, were 12% bigger than they were saying publicly in budget testimony, and 8% bigger than their predecessor’s payroll. Here’s a tip: all a reporter needs to do is ask the Department of Administrative Services for a list of all state employees with a Governor’s Office email address.

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