Ohio Spends Billions on Economic Development
While Florida Spends Only $11 million
In what USA Today calls “the biggest intervention in the private economy by a state government since at least the Great Depression,” the state of Ohio will spend $1.4 Billion on economic development this year, compared with $37 Million by Indiana and only $11 Million by Florida.
Governor John Kasich, who campaigned to bring smaller government, has a staff of over 400 working full-time in his controversial JobsOhio program for economic development in Ohio (pop. 11.6 million), while California (pop. 37.3 million) employs 25.
The USA Today article points out that similar government efforts rarely work as planned, and even well-intentioned programs often hurt rather than help, causing states to raise taxes on others, cut services and give subsidies to already successful companies.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2011-04-26-job-creation-shovel-ready.htm
One Response to “Ohio Spends Billions on Economic Development”
tonyf
This article from USA Today is incredibly inaccurate. First, the state is NOT spending $1.4 billion /year on economic development. That’s the value of the liquor enterprise which is being leveraged to generate about $100 Million per year. Second, JobsOhio isn’t even organized yet. And Third, JobsOhio does not employ 400. That’s the employment at the Ohio development department, which does a lot more than just econ dev. They do housing, homelessnes, weatherization. The number of department employees who do econ dev is probably about 40 or 50, and no one is saying that JobsOhio will have that many employees. I am NOT a supporter of the Governor. He has been a divisive influence on Ohio. However, this reporting should be at least factually accurate.