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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > September > 15 > Entry
Editorial: Buckeye Institute and Policy Matters think tanks do good work
If you follow politics much, you’ve heard this term “think tank.” You know it’s not a military vehicle with special intellectual abilities.
It’s a nonprofit organization that researches public policy questions and, often, promotes specific policies.
The word “tank” is meant to conjure up images of scholars confined in an enclosed place, as in a fish tank. Sometimes, though, the other use of tank — the military use — is more appropriate. Some of these outfits are warriors.
Ohio has one liberal and one conservative think tank focused on state issues. This fact is now largely taken for granted. But it wasn’t always true. Today’s situation has its origins in Dayton in the 1980s.
Sam Staley is now an adjunct professor of economics and finance at the University of Dayton. He has been a local official in Bellbrook, in the realms of planning, zoning and parks. Mainly these days he researches and writes for Reason magazine, put out by a libertarian think tank in Washington.
Libertarians, like conservatives, want to keep government out of economic issues. Like liberals, though, they also want to keep it out of the bedroom. They also tend to be skeptical of government bans on drugs and gambling.
In the late 1980s, Mr. Staley and others founded the Urban Policy Research Institute in Dayton. It evolved into the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions. It eventually moved to Columbus, which only made sense.
Today it is conservative, rather than libertarian. It puts out studies and opinion pieces on a wide range of subjects: taxes, schools, transportation.
The Buckeye has a fairly pronounced tendency to be wrong, as in its current opposition to high-speed rail.
Nevertheless, providing like-minded politicians with some data is better than leaving them informationless.
Meanwhile, the Buckeye does very useful work with a project on making government data available to the public. (See www.ohiosunshine.org)
Still, something seemed wrong about the state having a conservative think tank and not a liberal one. Around the turn of the century, along came Policy Matters Ohio, in Cleveland. It has strong ties to organized labor and to liberal foundations.
Its creation might be considered one of the accomplishments of the Buckeye. Many people on the left saw a need for a counterbalance.
An example of Policy Matters’ contributions came on Labor Day, with the release of a study called The State of Working Ohio 2009. It isn’t just about the recession, but the longer term.
You already know things are bad, but did you know that Ohioans with up to three years of post-high school education “now earn less than those who didn’t finish high school earned in 1979 in Ohio”?
Or that the gap between black and white workers is now bigger than ever since 1979 (at $3.40 an hour)?
Or that the Ohio median wage is “now 70 cents below the federal median wage, a gap seen only once before”?
The study’s timelines (at www.policymattersohio.org/) make clear that the big drops in Ohio incomes — relative to the rest of the country — came during the last major recession (1981-1982) and the current one. Again, that’s not something that everybody knows.
The study doesn’t have much to contribute as to the causes of the state’s decline or possible solutions, just some liberal lines briefly stated, but not documented:
“The dire situation … stems directly from deregulation and deindustrialization…. A second stimulus and more public action is needed.”
But just getting the data out is a good thing. Everybody needs to understand how dramatically things have changed — and not just for those who have lost jobs — even as power in Columbus has gone back and forth between the parties.
Having two think tanks hasn’t prevented the decline of the state. But that might be asking a bit much.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Local History, Martin Gottlieb, Ohio government
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By bobby
September 15, 2009 9:39 AM | Link to this
Policy Matters agenda might be put into better perspective by your reporting that four of it’s board members are officers of various unions. Their view of a “fair economy” is higher taxes on business and citizens,and more government spending. Most of the information in their press releases is available, but it makes for easier story writing when it is spoon fed by these groups. I would prefer that the fourth estate do their own research rather than depend on the selective information provided by advocacy groups.
By Buckeye
September 15, 2009 11:17 PM | Link to this
I love how the Conservative Buckeye Institute is “wrong” on so many issues but the Union ran Policy Matters really has it going on. Is it any wonder that no one takes the Dayton Daily Worker serious anymore?? Was it Boortz a few years ago that said it wasn’t worth wrapping fish in?
By gruzoperevozki
May 7, 2011 9:23 PM | Link to this
Интересная статейка, но как по мне, можно было бы и глубже капнуть..)