Stuck: State of Working Ohio 2013
Labor force participation was at a 33-year low at the end of 2012, Ohio job growth is fourth worst among states since 2005, and wages in Ohio inched up just a penny last year from already-low levels. The State of Working Ohio 2013 finds a tough labor market in Ohio. We are stuck in the […]
Budget shifting tax burden to low incomes
Ohio’s new budget bill makes our tax code less fair, raises less money than it should and misses opportunities for Ohioans. The budget shifts taxes from top earners to middle- and lower-income workers, increases the opportunity for tax avoidance and drains $2.7 billion from mental health, addiction treatment, senior centers, and local government. If history […]
Communities struggling due to state cuts
Slashing taxes is not an effective way to promote job growth Columbus is taking half of the funds historically shared with local governments, schools and libraries, and using it to pay for state programs and cut taxes for the wealthiest. This means layoffs in Butler and Warren counties, slashed services in Montgomery and Clark counties, […]
Firetrucks, productive workers and strong communities
Contrary to what the “drown the government” crowd claims, economies are complicated. It takes good infrastructure, great schools, excellent universities and diverse industries to get highly productive workers and a good quality of life. Often, those things require taxes. On April 13, 2001, my son’s preschool was closed for Good Friday, and I was very […]
A Labor Leader and a Banker Walk Into a Boardroom
At a board meeting early in my career, I proudly presented a carefully crafted plan to leverage public funds, employ inner city workers, clean up polluted urban land, and integrate the building trades at the same time. I was crushed when an African American community organizer on the board gruffly demanded, “Why do you always […]
Kasich’s tax plan rewards rich, starves public services
GOV. John Kasich proposes a major revamp of Ohio’s tax system, cutting income taxes and broadening the sales tax. His plan would transfer wealth from our state’s poor and middle class to those who are well off. It would tilt the state and local tax systems in favor of Ohio’s wealthiest residents. And it would […]
US could learn from Ohioans
In this weak recovery, here’s some rare good news: approximately 215,000 of the state’s lowest-paid workers got a small raise on Jan 1, as the state’s minimum wage increased by 15 cents to $7.85. Thanks to a ballot initiative passed by Ohio voters in 2006, the state’s minimum wage automatically adjusts every year to keep […]
Remembering Seth Rosen
On July 20th, Seth Rosen, 55, finished five months of negotiating a contract for some of the 70,000 workers and retirees he represented as vice president of the Communication Workers of America District 4. He then went on vacation in North Carolina and while swimming at the beach with his wife, Kathi, was swept away […]
‘Stay the course’ is bad for the rest of us
Ohio has been on a self-imposed austerity plan for years. The state’s tax overhaul in 2005 cut taxes in a big way for business and top earners, but in a small way for the rest of us. As a result, the state has $5 billion less than it otherwise would have had during the current […]
Patton, Hanauer, Ward and Boettner: Gas states unite!
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Hydraulic fracturing of oil and natural gas has generated heated debate in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, three of the states that sit above the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations. Like the workers who constitute the bulk of the drilling workforce, hydrofracking has migrated, from sparsely populated places in Wyoming, New Mexico, […]
For real Cleveland school reform, slow down, plan well, fix school funding
Recent opinion pieces published in The Plain Dealer have urged Clevelanders and state policymakers to support Mayor Frank Jackson’s school plan. U.S. cities struggle with education, and Cleveland is no exception — change is needed. But what kind of change? Quick change seems to be a top priority for many. As Brent Larkin wrote last […]
Using the EITC to build a secure financial future
Kalitha Williams op-ed on EITC in the Columbus African American Journal