And not too long ago, Governor Strickland's own Council of Economic Advisors predicted that Ohio won't recover from the economic downturn as quickly as the rest of the nation.
Today, John Kasich put forth "the first substantive proposal of the governor's race" to turn that around when he announced his plan to replace the Ohio Department of Development with a private, nonprofit corporation.
Kasich would create JobsOhio and appoint a 12-member board of directors to oversee economic development efforts by the state. The board would be comprised of current and former chief executive officers, including some from small companies. Members would come from different areas of the state and industry groups.
Two things are very clear.
- Whatever the current Ohio Department of Development is doing is not working.
- We need to do something different.
And since Lee Fisher and Ted Strickland failed to do anything to improve the ODOD, Kasich is showing some leadership with JobsOhio.
Kasich's JobsOhio plan is vastly different. It completely replaces the current bureaucratic nightmare that is the Ohio Department of Development with an incentive-based organization with far greater accountability than anything ever seen in government. If the JobsOhio staff aren't getting the job done, they get fired. If they do something wrong, they lose their job. Something that doesn't happen in the Strickland/Fisher Department of Development.
Results are required. Fancy seeing that, eh?
You can read the details here.
UPDATE: The Strickland campaign is up with their response to Kasich's plan. It focuses on more attacks of Kasich and defending the status quo. If the status quo is what Strickland wants to run on, fine. But it's not what Ohioans want. It won't turn Ohio around. And it won't win him the election in 2010.
Different isn't always better, and as for accountability this plan makes it HARDER, not easier.
ReplyDeleteKasich's plan would only make it possible for the Governor to replace the BOARD members, not the actual staff who, now would work for a semi-autonomous private non-profit corporation, not the State of Ohio.
The oversight over this organization is as much as ANY OTHER private entity the state has nothing more than a contracual relationship with.
Different is not always better, and all Kasich is proposing is giving the cake slicer to the corporate welfare queens. What could possibly go wrong?
What's next food stamp receipients determining how much welfare everyone should get?
Modern,
ReplyDeleteIf the Governor appoints the board, which appts the CEO, who hires the people, you don't think the state could make any changes to the entire place, including any and all personnel changes, that were required to maximize performance?
Spoken like yet another D who has no clue how business works.
But Modern is a small business owner, Jon.
ReplyDeleteHe owns a law practice that has no office location, just a PO box. Has a phone, just Brian Hester's personal cell phone.
Yeah never mind, he knows nothing about business.
Um, it's hard for the Governor to fire employee who doesn't work for him or her.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't take a business degree to figure that one out.
Second, you're glossing over the other inherent conflict of interest in having businesses decide for themselves how to carve up the corporate welfare pie.
Third, I love the stalking from your anonymous commenters here. Too bad they've got their facts wrong.
Modern Esquire is the idiot who said this: Kasich will raise alot of money. And he'll lose by at least twenty points.
ReplyDeleteMoron.
OMGZ! "What's next food stamp receipients determining how much welfare everyone should get?" RLYZ? What is this liberal utopia of which you speak Modern?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: I wrote that back over a year ago when the polling was vastly different.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, the complete inability to defend this proposal speaks volumes.
John Kasich is promising to let corporations cut themselves as big of a slice as they want from the corporate welfare pie, and he's promising them undiscloseable bonuses for doing it.
Florida did the same thing. It now has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. This plan won't improve Ohio's economy. It is a ticking time bomb for a special interest scandal.
Please, Keeling, defend paying folks bonuses with taxpayer dollars and not disclosing that to the taxpayers. Because that's what John Kasich promised today.
"This plan won't improve Ohio's economy. It is a ticking time bomb for a special interest scandal." Fair enough, even if you in no way back it up, we'll just assume that since Modern says it, it is. That being said, please point me in the direction of whatever Ted is proposing, I know you have contact with the Strickland campaign Hester, what is their plan? Can't wait for the crickets.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteModern Esquire said...
ReplyDeleteUm, it's hard for the Governor to fire employee who doesn't work for him or her
If you look at the Richard Murray/OSFC drama it appears it is hard for a Governor to fire an employee that does work for him or her.
First, I pointed out the problems the program ran into Florida where the executives used the funds for lavish travel and funding their own businesses. It was so bad that an audit suggested that it was impossible to tell if the "private sector" donations to the corporation didn't originate with funds given to those companies by the non-profit.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I'd point out that while Kasich was promising legalized corporate corruption, Governor Strickland was at a summit about how Ohio can continue to bring back manufacturing jobs as it has done during this recovery this year and build upon it.
Third, I'd note that Kasich has co-opted as his own Strickland's idea of encourage regional economic development strategies that emphasizes a region's market strength like biotechnologies in Cleveland, solar in Toledo, consumer products in Cincinnati under the Centers of Excellience Initiative.
Then there's the job tax credit program and the venture capital small business lending that Strickland created with Huntington Bank.
If you believe that the best thing a Governor can do to encourage economic growth is to cut spending and taxes, then we already have a Governor that has done that. His name is Ted Strickand.