Congrats, Ted. Only 291,000 more jobs to go.

As we've repeated on this blog over and over again, since Ted Strickland became Governor, unemployment has increased by 90%.

That's 293,000 jobs.

Today, Ted Strickland is in the Columbus Dispatch trumpeting 1000 new jobs from JP Morgan Chase and the announcement of a foreign HQ coming to Ohio, with for argument's sake, 1000 more jobs. He accomplished this by using individualized tax incentives for each individual company.

From the 'Spatch:

Jim Newton [Chief Economic Adviser for Commerce National Bank], said big announcements such as the Chase jobs are welcome news, but the real growth in the state's economy will come from medium- to small-size businesses -- and he's not seeing much expansion there so far.

In fact, Newton doesn't expect Ohio will begin to come out of the recession until perhaps the end of next year.

Exactly. Once again, Strickland is foregoing principle for politics. By using tax abatements to encourage "foreign HQs" to come to Ohio, he is able to get press about bringing jobs to Ohio. But true economic recovery can't be done one press release at a time.

The entire tax environment in Ohio needs to change.

But that didn't stop Ted Strickland from uttering one of the dumbest things I've heard come from his mouth.

Strickland asserted yesterday that Ohio's tax structure is the "most attractive" to businesses of any Midwest state.

You really wanted to go there, Gov?

I quote myself, circa 7th grade after my friend Mike put nacho cheese on my pizza hut pizza, "big mistake."

The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan educational foundation founded back in 1937, takes it upon themselves to analyze a number of tax issues, including ranking business tax climates nationwide.

If we wanted to determine just how good of a tax climate Ohio maintains relative to other states, this is the barometer to use.

So without any further ado, let's take a look at the national rankings of every midwestern state, shall we?

Dead. Frickin'. Last.

LAST! IN THE MIDWEST! WORST BUSINESS TAX CLIMATE IN THE ENTIRE REGION!

NOT THE "MOST ATTRACTIVE", TED! LAST!

Yeesh. Sorry for screaming. But damn, that's frustrating.

Ironically, two days ago the Tax Foundation posted on their blog about Ohio's tax situation. They closed with this:

We have no reason to boost one state over another; it just goes to show that it's easier to shoot the messenger than to fix real problems. Who knows - if they just repeat "Ohio is a low-tax paradise" enough times, maybe people will come to believe it. But it's still not true.

It doesn't get anymore clear than this, Ohio.

Your Governor is lying to you.