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SOS From Strickland, Send Money
Desolate, cold and inhospitable conditions were the backdrop for the day the Governor was to explain how Ohio is going to dig out of it's long winter of discontent.
Ted Strickland laid out his administration's plans for the next year and beyond at today's State of the State address. The speech started by tempering the policy agenda that followed with a reality check of the current economic conditions in Ohio. Lots of bad news on that front, increasing unemployment, foreclosures and the overall infirmity of the financial markets, but that was no surprise.
The State of our State, Strickland announced (after all that bad mojo) is "steadfast". Now that word steadfast really means, not subject to change or immovable. Maybe the State itself won't move away from Lake Erie but the conditions here better change or we're in trouble. Sometimes it's better to stick with the staples like "strong" or "resolute". What followed was a sometimes detailed set of proposals for improving Ohio's future through increased investment in infrastructure, technology and of course education whilst preserving the fiscal order of the State's shaky finances.
Balanced Budget In Three Easy Steps.
Stickland's budget office has estimated that a staggering $7.4 billion dollar budget deficit will have to be erased in the next biennial budget process. Achieving that level of savings (or revenue) will be a challenge. Something tells me this next biennial budget process won't end upor being passed by unanimous votes in the General Assembly like the last one did.
The Governor quickly let loose a three pronged assualt that will address the looming $7 billion plus problem. The next budget will achieve expenditure reductions of $3.2 billion, add new Federal Stimulus revenue of $3.4 billion dollars and additional revenue from fees ($800 million) filling the rest of the gap.
Ted of course steered clear of the third rail of Ohio politics, tax reform. He emphasized his intent to leave the misguided tax reforms of 2005 alone citing the savings realized by Ohioans, natch. Those changes to the tax structure have attributed to the cratering of State tax revenue and complicated the budget picture. Not including reforms as part of his agenda is a testament to the perceived political cost outweighing any good that would come from some practical changes to State taxes.
Investment Here and There
The plan to create film industry tax credit is still alive. Strickland vetoed the first attempt to create a transferable tax credit for the film industry. Now that he has some breathing room some of the details could be altered to make the credits more revenue neutral. I think Tom Patton is already working on a reworked version of the film industry tax credit bill. Shouldn't be too long before the production crew of the thriller Torso starts setting up in Cleveland.
Some of the other investment proposals were off the shelf recycled ideas that actually have merit. The proposal to run light rail between the three major C's in Ohio is way overdue. That is something I for one would love to see happen. There will be resistance from the local governments that don't want passenger trains running through their slice of heaven, but the greater good should prevail here. There is of course that small detail of paying for the whole thing. Did someone say gasoline tax? I did.
No policy speech would be complete without the obligatory show of support for the Third Frontier project. The plan has had bipartisan support in the Assembly and from the voting public. It is an attempt to channel $1.6 billion of funding to a wide array economic development research and technology related projects to the benefit of Ohio's citizenry and business community. The Buckeye Institute has labeled the programs of this type as pork laden waste but, if individual States can't funnel money to local projects of this sort who will?
Education Reform - The Meat of the Speech
The remainder of the address was dedicated to reforming education in Ohio. The Governor unveiled a multi-part plan called Evidence Based Education. Ted has journeyed all over Ohio like Carradine in Kung Fu and gotten ideas about what the education system needs. His answer is this evidenced based approach that was unveiled today.
The plan calls for a five part approach to reforming and preparing Ohio's schools for global competitiveness in the 21st century. The five parts include; teaching for the 21st century, expanding learning approaches, improving educator quality, a focus on measuring success and new standards for school districts themselves.
To be honest the proposals were expansive and I think covered a lot of ground for a State of the State speech. I watched this portion of the speech with my wife and the proposals elicited a number of comments from both of us. Pausing live television is a very useful tool.
I'll attempt to flesh out some of the details in a subsequent post because I'm still ruminating on the plan. I'd have to say that Pho was right on target with his predictions on what Strickland would propose today.
The Governor's GOP adversaries of course see things differently. There were criticisms about the details and of course questions about how the education plan will be funded. On that note I concur. The de facto sixth part of the Governor's plan was the funding changes he is seeking to make evidence based education a reality. The proposed changes are going to be significant in terms of cost. What was billed as Strickland's big speech to reform school funding was light on details. I'm not trying to take away from the innovations he is proposing but there was no paradigm shifting change introduced in Strickland's plan.
Aside from letting levy millage adjust with inflation (H.B. 920) and increasing the State's share of funding to districts (up to 59%) the reforms I and Dennis Willard expected to hear didn't materialize. No talk of consolidating districts or even creating district per County. No mention of trying to introduce an additional sales tax as a way of funding schools either. The proposals for reforming education were there but the means to pay for for these changes were meager in their current form.
Full text available here.
Ted Strickland laid out his administration's plans for the next year and beyond at today's State of the State address. The speech started by tempering the policy agenda that followed with a reality check of the current economic conditions in Ohio. Lots of bad news on that front, increasing unemployment, foreclosures and the overall infirmity of the financial markets, but that was no surprise.
The State of our State, Strickland announced (after all that bad mojo) is "steadfast". Now that word steadfast really means, not subject to change or immovable. Maybe the State itself won't move away from Lake Erie but the conditions here better change or we're in trouble. Sometimes it's better to stick with the staples like "strong" or "resolute". What followed was a sometimes detailed set of proposals for improving Ohio's future through increased investment in infrastructure, technology and of course education whilst preserving the fiscal order of the State's shaky finances.
Balanced Budget In Three Easy Steps.
Stickland's budget office has estimated that a staggering $7.4 billion dollar budget deficit will have to be erased in the next biennial budget process. Achieving that level of savings (or revenue) will be a challenge. Something tells me this next biennial budget process won't end upor being passed by unanimous votes in the General Assembly like the last one did.
The Governor quickly let loose a three pronged assualt that will address the looming $7 billion plus problem. The next budget will achieve expenditure reductions of $3.2 billion, add new Federal Stimulus revenue of $3.4 billion dollars and additional revenue from fees ($800 million) filling the rest of the gap.
Ted of course steered clear of the third rail of Ohio politics, tax reform. He emphasized his intent to leave the misguided tax reforms of 2005 alone citing the savings realized by Ohioans, natch. Those changes to the tax structure have attributed to the cratering of State tax revenue and complicated the budget picture. Not including reforms as part of his agenda is a testament to the perceived political cost outweighing any good that would come from some practical changes to State taxes.
Investment Here and There
The plan to create film industry tax credit is still alive. Strickland vetoed the first attempt to create a transferable tax credit for the film industry. Now that he has some breathing room some of the details could be altered to make the credits more revenue neutral. I think Tom Patton is already working on a reworked version of the film industry tax credit bill. Shouldn't be too long before the production crew of the thriller Torso starts setting up in Cleveland.
Some of the other investment proposals were off the shelf recycled ideas that actually have merit. The proposal to run light rail between the three major C's in Ohio is way overdue. That is something I for one would love to see happen. There will be resistance from the local governments that don't want passenger trains running through their slice of heaven, but the greater good should prevail here. There is of course that small detail of paying for the whole thing. Did someone say gasoline tax? I did.
No policy speech would be complete without the obligatory show of support for the Third Frontier project. The plan has had bipartisan support in the Assembly and from the voting public. It is an attempt to channel $1.6 billion of funding to a wide array economic development research and technology related projects to the benefit of Ohio's citizenry and business community. The Buckeye Institute has labeled the programs of this type as pork laden waste but, if individual States can't funnel money to local projects of this sort who will?
Education Reform - The Meat of the Speech
The remainder of the address was dedicated to reforming education in Ohio. The Governor unveiled a multi-part plan called Evidence Based Education. Ted has journeyed all over Ohio like Carradine in Kung Fu and gotten ideas about what the education system needs. His answer is this evidenced based approach that was unveiled today.
The plan calls for a five part approach to reforming and preparing Ohio's schools for global competitiveness in the 21st century. The five parts include; teaching for the 21st century, expanding learning approaches, improving educator quality, a focus on measuring success and new standards for school districts themselves.
To be honest the proposals were expansive and I think covered a lot of ground for a State of the State speech. I watched this portion of the speech with my wife and the proposals elicited a number of comments from both of us. Pausing live television is a very useful tool.
I'll attempt to flesh out some of the details in a subsequent post because I'm still ruminating on the plan. I'd have to say that Pho was right on target with his predictions on what Strickland would propose today.
The Governor's GOP adversaries of course see things differently. There were criticisms about the details and of course questions about how the education plan will be funded. On that note I concur. The de facto sixth part of the Governor's plan was the funding changes he is seeking to make evidence based education a reality. The proposed changes are going to be significant in terms of cost. What was billed as Strickland's big speech to reform school funding was light on details. I'm not trying to take away from the innovations he is proposing but there was no paradigm shifting change introduced in Strickland's plan.
Aside from letting levy millage adjust with inflation (H.B. 920) and increasing the State's share of funding to districts (up to 59%) the reforms I and Dennis Willard expected to hear didn't materialize. No talk of consolidating districts or even creating district per County. No mention of trying to introduce an additional sales tax as a way of funding schools either. The proposals for reforming education were there but the means to pay for for these changes were meager in their current form.
Full text available here.
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