Chester Finn on Ohio's economic decline:
Once known as the Mother of Presidents, Ohio is now getting poorer, older and dumber – and making all the wrong moves to reverse the situation. . . .
Ohio already has the fifth-heaviest state and local tax burden in the country (up from 30th in 1990) and finds itself stagnating. Its unemployment rate, 6.3%, is above the national rate of 5.5%, even as the state's work force shrinks as people emigrate. Ohio's median household income is also falling – in 2006 it was $44,500, down 0.5% from the previous year – while the national figure ($48,500) was up 1.6%. During the closing decades of the 20th century, incomes rose twice as fast across the country as in Ohio. . . .
Any sane strategy for turning this around would start by strengthening the state's human capital for a globalized, knowledge-based economy while making Ohio more hospitable to high-tech and brain-powered firms. . . .
In both the public and private sectors, what one witnesses in Ohio are the most senior employees clinging to what's left of the economy, fending off change, demanding ever more burdensome contracts and costlier benefits. The ship is slowly sinking, but as the more agile passengers and crew take to the lifeboats and sail off, those who remain on board climb to the upper decks, determined to grab whatever plunder they can, confident that the rising waters won't reach them.
The result of this confusing system is that they reap lots of additional fees for people who don't get the counterintuitiveness of it all: it's hard to figure out exactly what you owe, when, and anyone waiting until tax day figure out their remaining tax liability gets hit with an extra fee, which of course goes to fund the very same agency that now has an incentive to make it all as confusing as possible (and hence get more fees).
In general, any system of government that has an incentive to be confusing and overly complex because they get extra money when this causes problems is probably a bad idea.
I read elsewhere that state taxes have been going down, along with revenues. The state government got rid of its inventory tax, and replaced it with a tax that pulls is a lot less revenue. Maybe enough local government have increased taxes to more than make up for it, but he should show his math.
Has anyone told the economists about this?
There is nothing irrational about that strategy.
From a public policy perspective, what is the proper solution? Ohio has a balanced budget requirement. Increasing taxes in a competitive environment amongst states has obvious problems. Then again, its difficult to attract qualified teachers, put police on the streets to address the ever increasing crime, and provide the tax breaks necessary to spur new economic development. Basically, Ohio is in a bad cycle because for a century they invested in manufacturing infrastructure. Now that investment (which was successful in the short run) has gone belly-up. Their aging labor force has no retirement nest-egg and no marketable skills outside of industrial labor. No young person in their right mind would move from a more prosperous state to Ohio. Ohio has a problem.
Ohio was not "once known," it is still known as the Mother of Presidents. That's not going to change because of the current economic situation. This is called a "non sequitur."
But another, greater state also has the designation "Mother of Presidents": Virginia.
Presidents born in Ohio:
- Ulysses Grant
- Rutherford Hayes
- James Garfield
- Benjamin Harrison
- William McKinley
- William Taft
- Warren Harding
Presidents born in Virginia:
- George Washington
- Thomas Jefferson
- James Madison
- James Monroe
- William Henry Harrison
- John Tyler
- Zachary Taylor
- Woodrow Wilson
The point being, Ohio has always been a dumb state.
A plug for spending more on education. Before you buy into this assumption read this.
Shorter version of this research: You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Before we throw more money down the educational sink hole, let's gather some objective facts.
What you'll also find is that Ohio produces a shocking quantity of comedians:
Jonathan Winters
Paul Lynde
Katt Williams
Drew Carey
Dave Chappelle
Andy Borowitz
David Wain
Molly Shannon
Phyllis Diller
Rachael Harris
Steve Harvey
Martin Mull
And let's not forget Ron Jeremy, who may not call himself a comedian, but certainly sends me into plenty of giggling fits.
At least in the Dayton area, that's less been a feature of funding, and more been a feature of poor management. The previous Republican-in-name-only government was fundamentally corrupt and inefficient, and the DINO one either hasn't had enough time, or is not going, to change things much. It's not a left- or right-wing thing, it's just a corruption and stupidity one at the most basic level.
Why do I say that?
Because I can read Dayton Development Coalition paperwork or look at the one-a-county airports. I can see the hordes or roaming police and the very little done to deal with drug crime or break-ins compared to ID checks at festivals. There's a lot of stupid crap going on here, and even fixing the tax issues isn't going to take care of grandstanding politicians and money that literally produces nothing.
William Taft was hardly an idiot.
"Well, I must say this is a shocker. Make a state unattractive to business and you wind up with less business in the state, or slowing growth of business in the state."
Taxes are not the be all and end all of business friendliness. If that were the case, the lowest taxed states in the U.S. would be the richest, but they're not. Instead, the richest states also tend to be relatively high tax states (California, New York etc.). I'm not saying high taxes generate affluence in a state (obviously not). I'm just saying that lowering taxes isn't going to solve Ohio's problems.
Ohio would prosper if it merely canceled public education. Then it would attract folks who like to work instead of breed.
Of course, the baby makers would have to move to states that prefer babies to industry.
You're right, of course. Taft wasn't an idiot. Grant certainly wasn't one either.
But compared to Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe...
I'll take that "Mother" any day.
Hail Virginia, Mother of Presidents, pray for us Ohioans.
Cornellian, I don't think that is so self evident. California has Silicon Valley and Hollywood while New York has Wall Street. These represent are world-renowned hubs of innovation, creation, and commerce that are magnets talented people and capital from around the world. One could argue that these hubs allow these states to get away with high taxes.
What does Ohio have that is equivalent to Wall Street or Silicon Valley?
Compared to the job market in Michigan, I make more money here, have a comparable cost of living, and do more interesting work.
Of course, that's in the legal market. For the majority of people in Ohio and Michigan, the manufacturing migration has done severe and long-lasting damage.
If you have worthwhile activities in your state, raising or lowering taxes may hurt or help. If you have nothing worth spitting on, higher taxes won't help the situation so you might as well attract what you can with low taxes. The result is that places that suck have low taxes because that's all they can offer, places that really suck have high taxes because they're too stupid to lower them, and places that are cool have a variety of tax levels based on other factors.
Garfield was no fool either. He was pretty good at geometry (among other things). How many presidents have their own proof for the Pythagorean Theorem?
Ohio's presidents were largely post-Civil War--not an era that lent itself to presidential greatness. That's probably a good thing too. It's best to live in an era that doesn't have a crying need for political leadership.
I grew up in the town he lived in.
Almost as inspiring as breathing in the air at Monticello, the University of Virginia, Mount Vernon, Montpelier, Ash Lawn...
"Born in" may be accurate, but as a proud graduate of William Henry Harrison High School, I can tell you that William Henry Harrison was a man of Ohio, not of Virginia.
Hard to believe anyone could rattle off a list of Ohio comedians (especially including some of the undistinguished flashes in the pan on that list) and leave off Tim Conway of Chagrin Falls, Ohio.
I forgot to mention in my first post that state income taxes are going down, not up. Finn really should have backed up his assertion with figures. He backed up other assertions, but not this one.
As to local governments, at least in the Columbus area, people want to move to high-tax/high-service suburbs rather than the low-tax/low-service city. A high-property-tax house in one of the near suburbs will more expensive than a similar low-property-tax one in the city. Parents with school-age kids routinely move out of the city into a suburb with higher school taxes because, duh, they want better schools.
Finally, like most Republican tax cutters, Finn doesn't explain what services should be cut. That's cowardly. You can fairly argue that Democrats tax too much, but at least Democrats are honest about the need for revenue to pay for the programs they support.
It isn't so much due to the tax level, it is due to the regulations and general disfunction of the government. CA get you by a thousand cuts.
OH is the model for the future of CA. Killing the goose that lays the golden egg. In OH it was the colossal manufacturing industires; in CA it is the Silicon Valley type industries. I think it is in the DNA of government.
Exactly right re CA's and NY's economies. Portions of them flourish in spite of burdensome taxes, not because of any wonderful business conditions. Similarly burdensome tax regimes are destroying other state economies, as in Ohio, Michigan, etc.
McKinley was a pretty good president too, and no dummy.
The Democratic AG was an idiot, and the Democratic governor forced him out. Until the Fall, the Democrats have replaced him with a person even Republicans admit is a class act (Nancy Rogers). The Democratic candidate in November (Richard Cordray) is so good and so squeaky clean that no Republican wants to waste their time running against him.
Yeah, real decline. It's funny how something that should have been an embarrassment for Ohio Democrats has turned into an embarrassment for Ohio Republicans.
And no one has presented any evidence that taxes in Ohio have been going up. State income taxes are going down. The inventory tax was replaced by a CAT that brings in less revenues.
The Cleveland Clinics?
Now what happened after THAT, and the "Steel Belt" became the "Rust Belt", is a different story. Was it driven by tax and regulation? Some; but some of it was also driven by trade and monetary policy...
A: The Cleveland Clinics?
That's very funny, if you know the Cleveland area. While the Cleveland Clinic deserves its world-class reputation, it is an island unto itself in a very bad area of the city, not far from where riots took place in the 60's. It is close to the University and cultural area, but that isn't Silicon Valley or Wall Street. After dark it is a very dangerous place to be, unless you are inside the hospital where security is tight.
Cleveland is both a dead and constantly dying city. Other than Columbus, Ohio is a depressing state to live in.