Share This!

Ohio Budget Director Tim Keen has been in the news this week after telling state agencies to give scenarios based on no cuts – based on the current budget – in the coming budget or 10% cuts.  Let’s just start right off and say that 10% cuts are huge, particularly given the substantial cuts, especially to education and local government, in the current budget.  So is the Governor trying to set low expectations so that people feel good about their arm being cut off because they got to keep their head?  That’s, sadly, a pretty good approximation of what happened in the last round.

With today’s ACA ruling, and the expansion of Medicaid still in question, what happens around the state budget will be very interesting in the coming months.  Especially after such big hits – $1.8 billion to K-12 education and $1 billion to local governments – a lot of people are hoping for some relief in the year to come.  Unfortunately, if the Mid-Biennium Review is any indication, it doesn’t appear the Governor or current legislature have any intention of closing the major gaps that have led to teachers and firefighters being laid off and potholes and swimming pools around the state going unfilled.

The Plain Dealer’s Aaron Mashall called this the “first brick in the wall for the next operating budget.”  We should all be speaking up to ensure that there aren’t more cuts coming, and instead we have a full conversation about what resources we need in the state and how we pay for them.

Share This!

Ohio State University tuition rates are going up, room and board is going up, and the university is leasing its parking facilities for 50 years to a company from Australia.  After $500 million dollars in cuts to higher ed instruction in Ohio’s current biennial budget, isn’t it time to take a hard look at what we’re valuing in Ohio and who is benefiting?

The parking deal was pitched as a way to raise cash to invest to continue to provide high quality programs and opportunities for students – at least the ones who can still afford it.  But with corporations making record profits and the wealthy getting ever wealthier, our priorities are out of whack.  If anything, as the economy creeps back for average folks, we should be doing everything we can to lower tuition and other costs.

Share This!

When I first saw this You Tube video, it had a few thousand hits.  Over the past couple days it has gotten to 249,000 hits.  It’s definitely worth a watch.

Public services like the library in Troy, Michigan that the video is about are in trouble across Ohio and across the country.  In general, coalitions like One Ohio Now, and all of our partners, have been making a case for the value of public services and the revenue to pay for those services.  We talk about the need for corporations and rich Ohioans to pay their fair share, so that we can there can be shared prosperity that everyone benefits from.  But this video is one of the many innovative, fun strategies that groups are starting to look at to try to break through the noise and create an alternative frame to the dominant idea that smaller government and lower taxes are the way forward.

What do you think?  Do you have creative concepts that we should be thinking about trying here in Ohio?  Oh, and how’d you like the video?