With a looming gap between revenues and expenditures in the upcoming budget, there has been significant attention to likely spending cuts. It is easy to forget that Ohio’s state budget already has been squeezed, with major reductions to basic services that Ohioans expect from government. This paper reviews some state
Wendy PattonFebruary 12, 2011Columbus, Ohio A wave of new interest in cities and towns, accompanied by analysis and reports and events, was launched well before Wall Street melted down and well before the economic whiplash hit state and local governments. New ideas about approaching redevelopment and encouraging new kinds and
House Bill 1 would create a nonprofit corporation called JobsOhio that would take over control of the Ohio Department of Development. Ohio’s economic development efforts need more transparency and accountability, not less, as this bill proposes. And a history of states that have privatized their development efforts by the national
Historically and through today, Ohio has had trade unions to protect workers from management excesses and provide a way to collectively bargain for wages and rights. In Ohio, unions represent 14.2 percent of workers and represent the largest collective and institutional voice for working people in the state. Press Release
Misclassification of employees as independent contractors strips employees of their legal protections, deprives government on all levels of billions of tax dollars and undercuts employers who do the right thing. House Bill 523 would provide tools needed in Ohio to combat misclassification. It would clarify and give uniformity to the
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 made available more than $100 billion dollars for awards in the area of clean energy and the environment. Initially it was thought Ohio would see about $1.031 billion of that sum, but about half-way through the stimulus, almost a billion has already
Expansion of investment in public transit could drive demand for heavy transportation equipment and component parts produced in Ohio, retaining jobs and growing new ones. Ohio would be in the top five states benefitting from investment in passenger rail, according to research commissioned by the Apollo Alliance and conducted at
Cities, counties and school districts in Ohio have seen sharp revenue declines over the past two years, according to this report. Small cities in northeast Ohio that pool collections through the Regional Income Tax Agency have averaged a 7.5 percent drop in income tax collections between 2008 and 2009, while
Proposal to Make Bush Tax Cuts Permanent Would Result in $35,722 Break for Richest 1% in Ohio, Higher Taxes for Ohio’s Middle Class As Capital Hill debates making the Bush tax cuts permanent, Citizens for Tax Justice analyzes the impact of the President’s approach and that of the Republicans. The
Output-based rebates, border adjustments and domestic content:Provisions to ensure advanced energy jobs grow at home National policy to cap carbon emissions is needed to create domestic advanced energy markets and to stabilize a return on investments in those markets. Midwestern legislators have called for a set of policies to ensure
Policy Matters Knows Taxes April 15, 2010 — In the past year or so, Policy Matters Ohio has completed a dozen analyses and one magazine article reviewing Ohio’s tax, revenue and budget situation. In summary, these find that Ohio has substantially cut taxes over the past five years, adding to
Energy Bill means good jobs for Ohio
Effective climate legislation would give America a safer, more secure, and more balanced portfolio of energy sources while fostering new markets for new products. Northwest Ohio could be a big beneficiary. A measure sponsored by Sens. John Kerry (D., Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I., Conn.) would set a market-based cap