Thanks, but No Thanks John
Our Governor loves to tout HIS job creation in Ohio, but some, no a lot, of HIS jobs can be traced back to central Ohio and the policies our local government put in place well before he became Governor. Make no mistake our state unemployment has fallen during his tenure but so has the nation and two of our border states, Indiana and Michigan, have done even better.
Our current state unemployment stands at 4.9%, not too shabby and it mirrors the national rate, but at the county level the numbers seem a bit skewed. There are 88 counties in Ohio but only 19 are below that 4.9% threshold. Some basic math would say there's no way you can have 69 counties out of 88 over the average to arrive at that number. To make it even more interesting there are 5 counties with over 10% unemployment and 35 of our 88 counties have an unemployment rate over 7%. It sure helps even the numbers when the county with the largest work force stands at 4.4% with job creation so strong that it bleeds over into it surrounding counties giving them record employment.
Looking at those 19 counties below the average 11 of them are farming and/or Amish counties with work forces below 30,000 people, their unemployment doesn't fluctuate too much and the numbers almost always fall below the state average. That leaves eight counties who seem to be driving those unemployment numbers down and 6 of those are here in central Ohio. Franklin, Delaware, Union, Madison, Licking and Fairfield. Even Fayette, Pickaway and Knox have good numbers in the 5.5% range. If you go away from central Ohio the unemployment skyrockets, especially to the east. While Licking (4.9) and Fairfield (4.8) have good numbers their neighboring counties are not feeling the effects. Muskingham stands at 7.7 and Perry's at 7.8.
Some of Kasichs policies have even hurt employment.. The two major fracking counties (Tuscarawas and Coshocton) actually rebounded pretty well after the recession, holding unemployment numbers at around 5% when he took office in 2011, but Kasich wanted too much of the drillers profits and that combined with the low price of natural gas, sent them elsewhere. They now have 6.9 and 7.6% unemployment respectively. In the primary this year Trump took 27 eastern and southern counties, the average rate for those counties is 7.9%.
JobsOhio, Kasichs pet project is a racket run amok. They tout the 23,000 jobs they attracted to Ohio but won't, and aren't required to say what they mean by "attracting". They don't even have to say how they spend their (our) money. What we do know about them is they just got big raises. CEO John Minor just got an extra $122,000, putting him of just shy of a half a billion dollars a year.. We also know that three JobsOhio board members (and their wives) each gave Kasichs campaign the $2,700 max.
Kasich also did no favors when he did away with the state inheritance tax. That money went entirely to local communities for upkeep and improvements and you don't have to travel far to see the effects. I notice the difference all the time. It's really kind of depressing going to places like Zanesville or Springfield. Unemployment is high, the roads are crappy, storefronts are closed and it's probably only going to worse for them.
Why all the growth in central Ohio? Many factors go into it, location, a strong base by being the capital, OSU and the OSU medical facilities, etc. But a lot of our growth can be traced back to the decisions our local government put in place and our vote to back those decisions in 2009. It's not easy to vote for raising taxes, especially during a recession, but Mayor Coleman and our local officials saw the recession as a time to be proactive. While others cities were laying people off Columbus was sending new police and fire recruits to the academy, while others were cutting services we were adding them. When we had projects in mind to beautify the city monied people backed them because we had those two magic words every investor wants to hear, matching funds. There may have been a time in this country when a business would go into a depressed area in the hopes of turning it around but those days are long gone. A business today wants good roads, good schools, good services and a vibrant community. Luckily we have the willingness, the room, the funds and the attitude to meet those needs.
Does it bother me that Kasich is riding our coattails in his bid for the Presidency? A little bit, but prosperity comes a very forgiving nature. Keep campaigning John, in fact, after the convention I suggest you gear up and stay on the trail, 2020 isn't that far away and as far as Columbus goes we really don't need your (ahem) assistance.
http://ohiolmi.com/laus/ColorRateMap.pdf
http://www.dispatch.com/content/pages/data/business-consumer/unemployment/unemp_county.html?county=&cbResetParam=1
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/06/06/jobsohio-adds-payroll-in-its-office.html
http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2016/apr/12/ted-cruz/ted-cruz-ad-revisits-controversy-kasichs-governors/
Our current state unemployment stands at 4.9%, not too shabby and it mirrors the national rate, but at the county level the numbers seem a bit skewed. There are 88 counties in Ohio but only 19 are below that 4.9% threshold. Some basic math would say there's no way you can have 69 counties out of 88 over the average to arrive at that number. To make it even more interesting there are 5 counties with over 10% unemployment and 35 of our 88 counties have an unemployment rate over 7%. It sure helps even the numbers when the county with the largest work force stands at 4.4% with job creation so strong that it bleeds over into it surrounding counties giving them record employment.
Looking at those 19 counties below the average 11 of them are farming and/or Amish counties with work forces below 30,000 people, their unemployment doesn't fluctuate too much and the numbers almost always fall below the state average. That leaves eight counties who seem to be driving those unemployment numbers down and 6 of those are here in central Ohio. Franklin, Delaware, Union, Madison, Licking and Fairfield. Even Fayette, Pickaway and Knox have good numbers in the 5.5% range. If you go away from central Ohio the unemployment skyrockets, especially to the east. While Licking (4.9) and Fairfield (4.8) have good numbers their neighboring counties are not feeling the effects. Muskingham stands at 7.7 and Perry's at 7.8.
Some of Kasichs policies have even hurt employment.. The two major fracking counties (Tuscarawas and Coshocton) actually rebounded pretty well after the recession, holding unemployment numbers at around 5% when he took office in 2011, but Kasich wanted too much of the drillers profits and that combined with the low price of natural gas, sent them elsewhere. They now have 6.9 and 7.6% unemployment respectively. In the primary this year Trump took 27 eastern and southern counties, the average rate for those counties is 7.9%.
JobsOhio, Kasichs pet project is a racket run amok. They tout the 23,000 jobs they attracted to Ohio but won't, and aren't required to say what they mean by "attracting". They don't even have to say how they spend their (our) money. What we do know about them is they just got big raises. CEO John Minor just got an extra $122,000, putting him of just shy of a half a billion dollars a year.. We also know that three JobsOhio board members (and their wives) each gave Kasichs campaign the $2,700 max.
Kasich also did no favors when he did away with the state inheritance tax. That money went entirely to local communities for upkeep and improvements and you don't have to travel far to see the effects. I notice the difference all the time. It's really kind of depressing going to places like Zanesville or Springfield. Unemployment is high, the roads are crappy, storefronts are closed and it's probably only going to worse for them.
Why all the growth in central Ohio? Many factors go into it, location, a strong base by being the capital, OSU and the OSU medical facilities, etc. But a lot of our growth can be traced back to the decisions our local government put in place and our vote to back those decisions in 2009. It's not easy to vote for raising taxes, especially during a recession, but Mayor Coleman and our local officials saw the recession as a time to be proactive. While others cities were laying people off Columbus was sending new police and fire recruits to the academy, while others were cutting services we were adding them. When we had projects in mind to beautify the city monied people backed them because we had those two magic words every investor wants to hear, matching funds. There may have been a time in this country when a business would go into a depressed area in the hopes of turning it around but those days are long gone. A business today wants good roads, good schools, good services and a vibrant community. Luckily we have the willingness, the room, the funds and the attitude to meet those needs.
Does it bother me that Kasich is riding our coattails in his bid for the Presidency? A little bit, but prosperity comes a very forgiving nature. Keep campaigning John, in fact, after the convention I suggest you gear up and stay on the trail, 2020 isn't that far away and as far as Columbus goes we really don't need your (ahem) assistance.
http://ohiolmi.com/laus/ColorRateMap.pdf
http://www.dispatch.com/content/pages/data/business-consumer/unemployment/unemp_county.html?county=&cbResetParam=1
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/06/06/jobsohio-adds-payroll-in-its-office.html
http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2016/apr/12/ted-cruz/ted-cruz-ad-revisits-controversy-kasichs-governors/
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