· November 28, 2011

Speed of Business?

Remember all the talk from Governor Kasich about how he would get state government moving at the “speed of business?” We’ve started to notice a pattern that suggests otherwise. Take the following examples:

• In submitting its two year budget, the Kasich administration was fourteen days late in producing a budget bill containing a line-item-level accounting spending levels — required by law on March 15, but unavailable to legislators until March 29. As a result, advocates were forced to give testimony about funding levels no one has seen.
• In September, one of Kasich’s top education advisers told the State Board of Education that they would roll out a new school funding model in October. It’s now approaching December, and nothing has emerged.
• Also in September, ODOT Director, Jerry Wray, pushed back a self-imposed deadline to select a Turnpike consultant from September 2 to September 23 to give it more time to review proposals. September 23 came and went, and a final selection was not announced until November 22, a full two months behind an already-delayed schedule.
• And, most recently, Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor asked the federal government for more time to move forward with the implementation of a state-based health insurance exchange, putting the state’s control of the program at risk.

For an administration that touts itself as bringing a corporate-like rapidity to government, they seem to have difficulty sticking to a schedule, even when the deadlines are self-imposed.