Plunderbund explains why Ohio job creation has improved under John Kasich

The guys over at Plunderbund are excellent spokesmen for the Ohio Democratic Party and Chairman Chris Redfern. Well, Justin Barasky is actually Redfern's spokesman, but the Plunderpals actually seem to be the ones parroting more of the silly and petty partisan attacks that we have come to expect from him.

Their favorite past-time is filing FOI requests and breathlessly reporting them to their readers. They did so last year, and claimed that Governor Kasich was going to pay his staff way more than former governor Ted Strickland did. Another liberal blog even called it "a coup of biblical proportions". Unfortunately for them, it wasn't even true.

After they were done congratulating each other and slapping one another on the back, the Dispatch did an analysis, and found that, no, Kasich's overall staff doesn't make more than Strickland's did.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich is living up to his promise to spend less money on employees than did former Gov. Ted Strickland - but by only 0.5 percent, or about $38,500.

So, today we have another one from the same mold. They obtained another document of administration expenses.

Are you ready for this bombshell?


The Kasich administration office staff is spending money on...cell phones and office equipment!!

Based on records obtained by Plunderbund, it looks like Kasich and his staff are getting other perks as well, including new cell phones and some nice new office equipment.

Based on a review of a phone records for 2011, the Governor’s office staff spends about $1743.85 each month, while the Faith-Based office spends $205.35. Kasich staff also bill about $75 a month to ODJFS for two phones and an iPad. Records show the total cost per year for phone service will likely excede $23,000.00.

$1744 a month for smartphone service for 30 people. That's $58 a month per phone. I wish I was getting a price like that from Verizon. If you go to any size company, the professional office staff is provided with mobile devices in almost every case. And the governor's staff is getting a good price. But apparently, the Plunderpals found this shocking. (It's kind of cute that they used the annual cost in their title to make it sound more outrageous.)

The post continues on to the subject of equipment:

Other equipment purchased for the Governor’s office included everything from flat screen TVs ($657.96) to a full installation of wireless network equipment costing nearly $9,000.

Shane Ellet, in the office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, filed a request for iPads for his team. It’s worth noting that he was surprisingly frugal, choosing to request refurbished iPad 1s at only $350.00 each instead of the newer and much more expensive iPad 2s. Unfortunately, whoever chose the new $7,500 Color Printer for the Governor’s office didn’t seem to have the same concerns.

Um...guys? Maybe you should check into that "new" Xerox printer before criticizing. If you buy one brand new, it costs almost $35,000.

In a delicious twist of irony, their attempt to attack Kasich over office spending actually revealed that they were being frugal by apparently buying a used one, and saving a crapload of money on it. Nice.

What else does their post reveal? They spent money to install a wireless network. Er...the governor's offices did not previously have wi-fi?! Wow. And to top it all off, they reveal THIS other nugget about what century Ted Strickland had his office staff working in:

Governor’s office staff under Strickland did not have state-paid mobile devices.

REALLY!?

People in Ted Strickland's administration...didn't have cell phones?

This actually explains a lot. No wonder Ohio was 49th in the nation in job creation under Ted! The entire office staff was working with 20th century technology in a 21st century world. If you are going to retain and attract business to your state, you've got to think and act like a business. Your people need the technology to be more efficient and responsive.

From what our pals have just revealed to us about Strickland's office environment, his folks were chained to their desks because they had to be parked there to use the phone or the internet. What kind of company would want to move to or expand in Ohio after seeing that? Holy cow, was "Jobs Czar" Lee Fisher typing up incentive offers on an IBM Selectric and having them delivered by the Pony Express?

And they are bragging about it, while criticizing Kasich for spending the money necessary to bring Ohio into the modern world. That's what makes this even more hysterical.

No wonder Ohio has risen up to 9th in job creation so quickly under Governor Kasich. He obviously understands you can't move at the "speed of business" if your office operates like it's 1985. I'd like to thank Plunderbund for revealing another reason why Ted was inept when it came to growing Ohio jobs. We appreciate it, guys!

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