Saturday stats: Build a better budget
Budget Bites by the numbers: As the Senate gets ready to pass its version of the state budget, catch up with what Ohio needs and what we got in the House budget proposal. $675 million: In a welcome move, the House allocated $675 million to wraparound services for K-12 students struggling with trauma from poverty, […]
Saturday stats: Closing the loop
6/10: Six of Ohio’s 10 most common jobs pay less than $27,000 a year – a wage so low, a family of three wouldn’t be able to afford food without help. Hannah Halbert compiled the latest data which shows that people are barely making ends meet in communities across Ohio. See how your area stacks […]
Saturday stats: scrap the cap, fund the refund
$12.7 billion: An arbitrary (and probably unenforceable) spending limit could keep Ohio lawmakers from investing what we need to build a stronger state. Passed in 2006, the State Appropriation Limit (SAL) allows investment to increase only so much over previous state budgets. Altogether, the SAL for the 2020-2021 budget period is $12.7 billion below what […]
Saturday stats: News by the numbers from Policy Matters
$70 million: That’s how much money for public transit the General Assembly added to the proposed General Revenue Fund (GRF). It’s a huge increase over transit funding and a victory for transit advocates and riders. But in the GRF, transit will be competing with other public services for funding. Historically, that competition hasn’t gone transit’s […]
Saturday stats: Jobs and budgets. Budgets and jobs.
8,200: That’s how many jobs Ohio lost last month. This news comes on the heels of a major data revision that shows 2018 was one of the worst years since the Great Recession, according to Hannah Halbert. It’s just more proof that tax cuts and loopholes haven’t made Ohio’s economy stronger. Instead, Hannah says, we […]
Saturday Stats: True Blue for Lordstown
Sadly, the Mahoning Valley is no stranger to the trauma of losing good manufacturing jobs. Historian and Legal Aid attorney Staughton Lynd reflected on the community response to past plant closures in a blog that features beautiful historic photos by Steve Cagan. Tomorrow, members of the Drive it Home coalition will show their support for […]
Saturday stats: You get what you pay for
39,601: Using economic modeling software, Victoria Jackson found that if state policy makers reform our tax code to make it more effective and fair, Ohio could raise $2.6 billion in revenue. If lawmakers invest that money in public services like transit and education, we could add another 36,601 jobs and build a stronger economy. This […]
Saturday Stats: Budget in a bind, Art Modell on Zach’s mind
$6 billion: Because they’ve been slashing taxes since 2005, Ohio lawmakers have about $6 billion a year less to work with. That is one of the big reasons our state budget is in a bind, according to Wendy Patton. Even though more Ohioans lived in poverty in 2017 than before the Great Recession of 2008, […]
Saturday stats: The shutdown lumbers on
2,000: More than 2,000 women state legislators were swept into power as a result of the 2018 midterm elections. And at every level of government there are now more black, Muslim, Latinx, Native American, LGBTQ officials than ever before. As Amy Hanauer wrote in this winter’s edition of The American Prospect, in many states power […]
Saturday stats: Minimum wage, forgiven debt and health for all
$.25: The Ohio minimum wage went up by a quarter, from $8.30 to $8.55 on January 1. That’s thanks to a successful 2006 citizens’ ballot initiative that raised our minimum wage with annual increases pegged to inflation. This is a lot better than falling behind each year. But Ohio needs to go even further to […]
Saturday stats: Happy new year!
1.3 million jobs are completely or partially off limits to people with a criminal conviction in their past. A new paper by our Michael Shields in collaboration with the Ohio Justice and Policy Center and the Fund for Our Economic Future details the many ways a prior conviction can lock someone out of the workforce. […]
Saturday Stats: Health, jobs and taxes
10 percent: The number of Ohio neighborhoods in areas where 40 percent or more of residents lived below the federal poverty line in 2016. That’s double the number in 2000. This is part of the reason too many Ohioans suffer from poor health, according to new analysis from Amanda Woodrum. People who live in poverty […]