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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 > November > 22 > Entry
Editorial: Grass isn’t greener across Ohio’s borders
Headline shocker of the year: “Other states in much worse budget shape than Ohio.”
And it’s not a joke. The nothing-if-not-sober Pew Center on the States set out to compare the states systematically on several different measures relevant to the economic crisis.
Most striking about the report is that it doesn’t amount to a lot of hair-splitting. At hand here are some serious differences.
Set aside California, which everybody has heard about. Illinois faces a budget gap — a shortfall of revenues — of 47 percent. Arizona, 41 percent. Nevada, 39 percent. Compared to these, Ohio’s single-digit problem looks sweet.
On the overall drop in state revenues in the last year, Ohio is at 9 percent. Several states are almost twice as high.
Ten states were singled out by Pew as heading toward economic disaster. Far from being in that group, Ohio is just about average on Pew’s total score, at 22nd best.
Several Midwestern states are in the 10-worst category: Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois.
The other big cluster is California and its neighbors: Oregon, Nevada and Arizona. One might add Florida, a Sunbelt state hit particularly hard by the collapse in real estate values.
Pew says the affected states are “from different geographic regions with different types of economies, tax structures and political leanings.”
Some of the measures can be said to reflect Pew’s political inclinations. It gives better marks, for instance, to states that do not require super majorities to raise taxes. That figures into the overall marks.
But the revenue numbers speak for themselves.
To some degree, luck is at work. Michigan has the misfortune to be the center of the auto industry. It was destined to make the bottom-10 list. But, on that score alone, one might expect Ohio to be there, too.
Inevitably, Gov. Ted Strickland and the Democrats claimed vindication in response to the report.
But the larger and better point to be made is simply that Ohio’s lawmakers do not face the enormous financial problems that other states face, at least for the short term.
Judging from current numbers, they have the luxury of being able to make the numbers come together by simply delaying the last increment of a 21-percent income tax cut. That 4.2 percent reduction took effect this year.
By comparison, Florida has had to raise taxes, including adding a dollar-a-pack to cigarette taxes.
(It’s worth remembering that in 2006, Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell pointed to Florida as proof of how low taxes help a state. He and others said that the fact that Florida doesn’t have an income tax is drawing Ohioans to that state. But now Florida is actually losing population.)
The Ohio Senate needs to approve the income tax cut delay, which has already been approved by the House. The state needs to move on to, among other things, worrying about the next budget, when federal stimulus money will not likely be available.
Some $7 billion in federal money has helped fill gaps created by Ohio’s declining economy.
As Pew points out, “States historically have their worst years shortly after a national recession ends, as they cope with higher Medicaid and other safety-net expenses at the same time revenues lag because of stubborn unemployment.”
At any rate, with an eye on economic competition with other states, it’s good to see some important statistics in which Ohio is holding its own, relatively speaking.
Ohioans are not the only ones who will find something notable in the fact that Ohio is not listed among the worst basket cases, given all it has been through.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Economy, Editorials, Martin Gottlieb, Ohio government, Ohio politics
Comments
By Bill
November 22, 2009 9:13 AM | Link to this
Since you’re bringing up Florida as example of how low taxes don’t help, what about Texas? Huge economic growth and low taxes. Guess that doesn’t fit your viewpoint.
By Dave
November 22, 2009 11:12 AM | Link to this
Bill, I moved here from Texas about 5 years ago. The property taxes are doggone high and the business tax and sales tax structure is incredibly complex. Make sure you look at the WHOLE picture on taxes. I don’t see higher taxes here, myself.
By bill
November 22, 2009 10:34 PM | Link to this
Dave: Read the article. The columnist thinks higher taxes are the answer and uses Florida (no personal income tax to prove his point). Texas (also w/o a personal income tax) and one of the best economies in the nation tends to disprove his point.
By Raoul
November 23, 2009 7:22 AM | Link to this
Can’t help but notice that most of the states doing the worst are states where the Democrats are in power. In Ohio, the GOP still controls the legislature….thank goodness.
By joe mamma
November 24, 2009 8:15 AM | Link to this
Nice try. Fact check…one of the main reasons people are leaving FL is because of high taxes. www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/fl-florida-unemployment-tax-111809,0,1556925.story and www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1907198,00.html