Ohio to privatize development- our tax dollars as handouts.

I’m still not sure why government is in the “economic development” business- instead of working on perfecting the “business of government.” But our new governor, John Kasich, apparently thinks that turning our tax dollars over to a private entity to “invest” is a good idea.

I think it’s illegal. Tax dollars are for public welfare and provision of infrastructure. Handing out tax dollars to private business creates an unequal playing field. Of course, to a former director from Lehman Brothers- this is to be expected:

Gov. John Kasich’s plan to privatize Ohio’s economic development effort by creating a nonprofit corporation run by a nine-member board easily passed the Ohio House on Tuesday….

The bill now goes to the Senate, also controlled by Republicans.

JobsOhio would not be a state agency and the state’s open meetings law and public records law would not apply to it, although supporters said there would be sufficient public disclosure.

Kasich has made it a key ingredient in his plan to make Ohio “open for business.”

It’s what the state needs at a time of unemployment hovering around 10 percent and thousands of jobs continuing to leave the state, he and his allies have said. “We need a different direction,” said Rep. Danny Bubp, R-West Union. “This bill does that…. Ohio is at war with other states and countries for jobs.”

via State House OKs economic privatizing plan.

You have to love idiots who think we are “at war with other states and countries for jobs.” War is an activity that has no winners and everyone loses. Ohio is in a competition with other states and countries- and if we want to be more competitive the answers are to make this a more desirable place to do business.

While GM, Ford and Chrysler seemed to have failed to make cars in Ohio- Honda hasn’t seemed to have a problem. That’s an indication that well-run companies can be successful in Ohio.

However- our population is shrinking. Our schools aren’t performing- yet you don’t hear the governor working on fixing our unconstitutional school funding as a first priority. Nope- funding private businesses comes first in his book.

We’ve got archaic rules on the books- with way too many governmental districts and jurisdictions. Cities, townships, counties- we elect coroners and auditors and clerks of courts- we could cut governmental overhead by eliminating so many of these bureaucracies and save money and cut the overhead for business- but, nope- handing out money to friends and family comes first.

Even though the rest of the industrialized world is building energy-efficient rail transportation- that goes 300 m.p.h.- our governor is convinced that his Wall Street style solution is the answer- instead of building infrastructure that would give us a competitive advantage.

And while the rise in health care costs to business in Ohio have become unbearable- he’s got us trying to undo the only hope many small businesses have for gaining access to health insurance plans that can put them on a level playing field with large corporations that can bully for better rates.

Of all the broken things in Ohio- with our overlapping layers of bureaucracy- the first thing Governor Kasich does is create a new bureaucracy that runs without public oversight.

Ohio is about to take a huge step backwards- thanks to Governor Kasich and his Wall Street Wizard’s-eye view.

Sure we need to get rid of the Ohio Department of Economic Development- but, what we don’t need is a replacement.

If you enjoyed reading true breaking news, instead of broken news from the major media in Dayton, make sure you subscribe to this site for an email every time I post. If you wish to support this blog and independent journalism in Dayton, consider donating. All of the effort that goes into writing posts and creating videos comes directly out of my pocket, so any amount helps! Please also subscribe to the Youtube channel for notifications of every video we launch – including the livestreams.