CLEVELAND — Warning of a shortfall in tax revenue, Gov. John Kasich recently told a group of educators, “I’d like to give you money, but all I can give you are plaques.”
It was Kasich at his insufferable best, proving yet again he not only has the world’s worst sense of humor, but that he often keeps his word.
Because days later, the governor rolled out a two-year budget that rewards high income-earners and penalizes children.
Read more on priorities in Gov. Kasich’s budget request
Kasich’s spending plan would cut state income taxes 17 percent, while increasing funding for kindergarten-through-12th-grade education less than 2 percent.
The governor calls his budget “Building Ohio’s Next Generation.”
One plaque – and 1 percent – at a time.
Campaigning for president in central Pennsylvania last April, Kasich told voters “teachers are the most underpaid profession in the nation.”
But The Columbus Dispatch reported school system groups noting that while inflation has totaled 10.7 percent the past six years, Ohio’s increased education funding has totaled a woeful 5.8 percent.
“For some, we will never spend enough money,” Budget Director Tim Keen said a day before the budget rollout.
But all this obfuscation ignores the reality of why Ohio doesn’t have enough money to invest in its future, and why its phony promise of “Building Ohio’s Next Generation” insults our intelligence.
The stated reason why Kasich’s budget does a disservice to all Ohioans is a $300 million shortfall in projected tax revenue for the last half of 2016.
But the real reason is the $5 billion in tax cuts enacted under Kasich’s previous budgets.
No one likes paying taxes. But when a tax is cut during good times, elected officials rarely have the courage to ask for some of it back in tough times.
And because Kasich seems to value tax cuts over education funding, school systems will again pay the price.
Kasich has consistently argued that cutting income taxes spurs economic growth and job creation.
In Ohio’s case, reality doesn’t match the rhetoric. In fact, government data compiled by Policy Matters Ohio and others show that the “Ohio miracle” remains a figment of the governor’s imagination.
Since 2005, when the first big tax cuts championed by former Gov. Bob Taft took effect, job growth in Ohio has totaled 1.9 percent.
Nationally, jobs have grown by 8.5 percent.
Since the first big Kasich tax cuts of 2013, job growth in Ohio has been 4.7 percent — compared to 6.6 percent nationally.
Last year, job growth in Ohio was 0.8 percent. Nationally, it was 1.5 percent.
Only once in the past 11 years has Ohio’s job growth bested the national average. That was in 2010 – before Kasich was governor.
In the first paragraph of his Jan. 30 budget message, Kasich boasts that since 2011, “Ohioans’ wages have grown faster than the national average.”
That’s selective messaging, because in prepared testimony for the House Finance Committee on Feb. 3, Keen acknowledged Ohio wage growth trailed the national average in fiscal 2015 and 2016, and is expected to be well below it in fiscal 2017.
By any definition, that’s not building for the next generation.
Kasich’s latest budget continues the administration’s six-year history of punishing local governments, which have seen state aid drop nearly 40 percent in 10 years.
Ohio communities, counties have nearly $1.2B less in aid for 2017 because of state cuts
The budget request provides no increase for early childhood education funding.
And it inexcusably reduces the state’s share of spending on libraries. In fiscal 2008, Ohio invested $418.2 million in its local libraries. By 2016, investment had shrunk to $377.6 million.
“Libraries in Ohio today provide essential services in many ways,” argued Michelle Francis, the Ohio Library Council’s director of government and legal services. “We help people find jobs and we serve as feeding sites and food centers. These are services delivered to Ohioans every day – and very efficiently.”
Ohio has precious few strengths. One of them its local library systems, widely regarded as perhaps the nation’s best.
Cutting state investment in those libraries is a textbook example of punishing the next generation.
Kasich’s record as governor includes taking some positions that qualify as bold and politically courageous.
He wants to be remembered as a problem solver. This budget would create more problems than it solves.
Brent Larkin was The Plain Dealer’s editorial director from 1991 until his retirement in 2009.
To reach Brent Larkin: blarkin@cleveland.com
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