Thomas Suddes: Columbus shouldn't be Ohio's only growing region. Success must be statewide
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com
In 1969, per capita personal income in Ohio was 101.68% of the national per capita.
In 2021, per capita personal income in Ohio was 89.03% of the national per capita
That’s the issue in Ohio this election year. Or should be.
But it’s not, because (a) it’s complicated and (b) it doesn’t include the words “abortion” or “gender” or “Trump.” And the issue is bipartisan.
Matter of fact, 1969 was the very last year Ohioans received 100% or more of the national per capita personal income measure.
James Rhodes was governor and Richard Nixon was president.
Republican Rhodes then served a third — and fourth — term.
Democrats John J. Gilligan, Richard F. Celeste, and Ted Strickland were also governor, as were Republicans George V. Voinovich, Nancy Hollister, Bob Taft, John R. Kasich — and now Mike DeWine.
No matter who’s been running the show, things haven’t gotten better for working Ohioans.
The cup-half-full school will counter-argue that in 1969, we didn’t have the internet, or Viagra, or Amazon, or all the other cultural advances that garnish America today.
But what helps finance those advances is debt shouldered by consumers.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, consumer debt at the end of March totaled $15.8 trillion — “$1.7 trillion higher than at the end of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.” That is, while incomes are at best flat, debt spins the merry-go-round.
What’s holding back Ohio?
And what has the General Assembly done about these trends?
Every two years, when Republicans write Ohio’s budget, they produce a sound-and-light show about tax cuts that supposedly will revive Ohio economy. The GOP patented the idea after it won control of the state Senate in November 1984 by vowing to roll back a 1983 income-tax increase approved by Statehouse Democrats at Celeste’s behest.
The tax cuts began in 1985.
That year, Ohio’s per capita personal income was 95.60% of national per capita. As noted, Ohio’s per capita now is 89.03% of national per capita. Go figure. On second thought, if you’re a state legislator, don’t — agitate instead about transgender athletes, or contraception or same-sex marriage. Yeah, that’s what’s holding back Ohio, not a 19th century legislature trying to seem pertinent in the 21st.
More: Columbus Partnership's new CEO Kenny McDonald challenges community to dream bigger
There’s another problem, too, the uneven pattern of Ohio’s economic development. Part of that’s human nature — how many rings an out of state investor must kiss before she or he gets a clear shot at building a new business in Ohio: More rings in Northeast Ohio, fewer in Columbus.
A focus on meat and potatoes
Republican DeWine deserves enormous credit for helping lure Intel Corp. to the Columbus region, where the chipmaker’s building a huge manufacturing operation.
True, Ford is expanding its Avon Lake plant to produce electric commercial vehicles. Still, the pivot of development in Ohio has been trending steadily south, toward Columbus.
More: Ford investing $1.5 billion in Avon Lake to create 1,800 jobs for electric vehicle production
Youngstown, Canton and Akron need major, state-fostered development too.
As Democratic gubernatorial nominee Nan Whaley said in April, “We cannot say to young people across the state that if you want to stay in Ohio and not move to the coast, [you’ve got to] move to Columbus. We have to have investment across the entire state.”
We also have to have a General Assembly that will focus on meat and potatoes, not headline-grabs.
More: Opinion: Republican lawmakers might have earned bragging rights for state budget
The Idea Man
Former state Rep. Michael A. Fox, 73, a Hamilton native, who died June 23, was a veteran Ohio House Republican, later a Butler County official — then for 48 months a guest of the Bureau of Prisons after admitting conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and filing a false tax return. (Those offenses were unconnected to the legislature.)
From the mid ’70s to the late ’90s, a Fox House speech might call for things everyone knew wouldn’t pass — workfare; school vouchers — till, via Fox’s pocketful of amendments, they did, as did all the bacon he brought home for Butler County.
He was a big man with big appetites and big ideas. Life was never dull — not even in Ohio’s House — when Mike Fox was around.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio economy: Success in Columbus not mirrored elsewhere in state
