Just more proof Austerity doesn't work.
5
How about the corrupt weasel local government elected officials try running their cities and counties like a business. Or, maybe like one manages a family budget; don't spend what you don't bring in in revenue. There are more jobs open than people to fill them today. Get the able bodied people sitting on their butts collecting handouts from the government to work. Guess what would happen? They will start generating more local tax revenue. In Ohio, many cities were among the first in the nation to start assessing city income taxes over 50 years ago and they squandered it. Give 'em the handouts and they'll keep taking it and none of the things they say the NEED will get fixed with it.
I have an idea. Let's all go to Genoa and see what failure to fund infrastructure looks like! People there now can't get from one side of the city to the other and 40 or so people are dead because of a badly built and maintained bridge.
11
If these were municipalities of the 1% like Cleveland Heights that were calling for a share of the surplus, one can only imagine the surreptitious alacrity with which their requests would be dealt. Under the current administration there has been a solidification of the immoral practice of everything being given to those who already have too much and taken from those who have little to nothing. No surprise that this would play out in the next-door state where astonishing economic growth is alleged to be taking place at this moment.
7
Politicians at the higher levels (e.g., state and federal) like to boast about cutting taxes and government jobs. However, in reality, they are just passing problems to the local level (county and municipal), where the rubber meets the road and raising revenues may be more difficult.
5
So Gov Kasich is all talks and no action
2
I live in Cincinnati. It's not a great city, but it has some potential. We could probably use the surplus to do some important things around here. Things like:
- Fix our bridges, which are literally falling down
- Tackle the massive childhood poverty problem. Nearly half of children in this city are living in poverty. HALF the CHILDREN.
- Modernize our city for modes of transportation besides driving. Our public transportation (bus) system is in shambles and it's truly unsafe to bike and walk in many parts of Cincinnati. Our mayor is especially regressive with this so this may have to wait until the next city administration regardless of money.
- Start funding and promoting medication-assisted treatment for people addicted to heroin. It saves lives! Too many around here still see addicts as morale failures rather than people with diseases.
13
Texas has a Rainy Day Fund of 9.7 billion dollars. Not an educational funding crisis, the neglect and closing of state parks, an oil bust, a severe recession, or even Hurricane Harvey were deemed "rainy days". The Rainy Day Fund doesn't exist to help the people of Texas; it exists to help Republican governors brag about their budget surpluses, and further their political ambitions.
Hooray for the Great State of Texas!
12
For a good example of an Ohio city in distress, read Glass House - The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town by Brian Alexander. Named The All-American town by Forbes Magazine in 1947, Lancaster, Ohio is now the All-American example of a town that you would not want to move to.
6
This country is at the brink of no longer being able to call itself a "Developed Nation". When the cities have impassible roads, crumbling sewers with raw sewage running, rampant crime and little education, with the few 1% hiding in mansions behind gates, and the state government crying poor mouth with a half billion surplus? What do you have? Venezuela. Brazil. Yup, in a few short years the GOP has managed to turn this country into Brazil with snow.
17
@MarkKA, Mark you must put blame on Democrats too. Here in California they are building a multi-billion $ high speed train that most of us do not want, and the LA Unified School District tried to borrow a billion or so dollars over 30 years to pay for Ipads that might last 5 years (we screamed bloody murder), and our $9 billion "surplus" is peanuts compared to the $$ owed for public pensions for teachers and state workers. "Surplus" is an abstract term in California.
2
“...John Kasich, said state officials like himself were simply being prudent...”
They certainly aren’t being the small government conservatives that they claim to be. Isn’t hypocrisy awesome?
4
Firstly, how is receiving your own tax revenue a “hand out”? Secondly, these surpluses will inevitably fund tax cuts to the wealthy. Just wait for it.
32
Ak--Thirdly, there are promises to be kept. What about the one concerning infrastructure?
6
“You are not successful if you are balancing that bank account on the backs of people.”
Did an elected representative actually SAY that? Does she expect to balance the budget on the backs of trees?
One of the consequences of drawing lines on a map is that, when that's done, local services have to be paid for by the people within those lines, not sent to the people in the town next door.
3
Here in El Paso, Texas we are bound to a the taxing entity of a city and county unable to either balance their budgets or to constrain their voracious taxes. Unable to live within their means they ARE a ruse which will enslave our children and grandchildren of its citizens for GENERATIONS to come. Undiverted, government (like water) seeks its own level and WILL seep anywhere it desires. It IS a self-perpetuating / self-referential Leviathan which at its core too often exists to provide a built-in constituency for the government and politicians who extends its bloat. Until voters fight local governments on EVERY front, they will take OUR inaction for support of this crippling status quo of their citizens' as unfettered ATM's.
4
This is so absurd. There are cities (East Cleveland for example) in Ohio that have major infrastructure failures. Crumbling roads. Traffic signals that don't work. Street lights out. States have not figured out how to manage areas in decline where the tax revenues are not sufficient to sustain. It's not about "revitalizing" it's about a responsibility to the citizenry for basic safety. Having building ready to collapse and roads that are nearly impassible is the State not fulfilling it's constitutional obligations.
11
Kasich has really done nothing for Ohioans. Yes he's heaped major tax cuts for business and the wealthiest. but the average Ohioan is not doing well financially. Fees and sales taxes have dramatically risen under his reign. His disregard and incompetency about the opioid crisis also speaks volumes about how ineffective he would be on a national scale. Kasich is horrible for Ohio and would be for America.
12
Well, we found the money for the military parade! Or do some stock buybacks. Or hire Manafort and Gates to stash it overseas so the Democrats can't find it.
7
That John Kasich is such a reasonable Republican! He sounds so good on TV. He will run for president again. You voters should probably take stock and get rid of your tight wad Republicans, who don't want to spend a nickle of YOUR money on YOUR needs. Time to get rich peiple paying their fair share. Time for a revolt in red states!
7
When Gov. Kasich in 2011 proposed the Local Government Fund’s reduction, it was intended as an austerity measure to help balance the state's budget, not as a permanent reduction. My City of now 40,000 was were willing to share in the sacrifice; will we also share in the recovery? This was the intention of this longstanding state-local funding partnership when it was created by Republicans and Democrats in the 1930s at the height of the Great Depression and reinforced when the state income tax was put into place in the early 1970s.
In my city, the Local Government Fund has been cut by 50 percent since 2011. Loss of funding in this amount is impacting our ability to deliver core services. With an improving Ohio economy, state leaders are in a better position to do more to renew Ohio’s commitment to local communities. Better support to those communities ensures stable, high-quality local public services, boosting family property values, opportunity and wealth. This is an important way to keep the economy of Ohio in good shape now and for the future.
15
@Lee, it sounds like you have some first-hand experience with this. Please share some specifics to illustrate what has happened.
1
First of all, it is the taxpayers money and if there is a rainy Day fund and the cities and towns are crumbling in Ohio, it is the Legislators and Governor Kasich's job to send money to handle these obvious huge problems.
Keeping a percentage of the surplus makes sense.
But the very least that should be done is to at least go bak to the money that was reduced by the State to cities and towns to the same levels before the surplus.
If I were Kasich I would do everything I could to help the towns and cities of Ohio, before he announces his next run for Presidency
Any Politicians who do not do their job properly in the State should not be depended upon to take care of the Country's problems
23
What should we conclude about politicians who do not do
their job properly in the casino?
2
The argument for spending money on critical repairs is fairly straightforward - much of the "state's" money came from all of these towns that want more for repairs. If the state provided funding in the past, towns would have lower tax rates with the expectation that the state funding would continue.
At the same time, someone is paying for a lot of mostly empty buses to run around many areas of Columbus (even on weekends) while others are hoping to build a soccer stadium downtown because the four mile trip to see the Columbus Crew is apparently an onerous burden. The money squandered on such things might be put to good use elsewhere. I would not be against some of these funds being reallocated to subsidize intrastate relocation.
The other side of this issue seems to be that many of these towns are losing population and aging, and some public services likely need to scale back to reflect this. States have to signal this by reducing funding. Subleasing part of a municipal building to raccoons does not seem efficient, but subleasing part of it to humans might become a common tactic as both population decreases and automation reduce staffing needs.
Together, these opposing forces suggest the best policy is for state funding to population-losing areas to decrease over time, but to do so very gradually and predictably. Technology and economics create enough disruption in people's lives, and no one needs government spending to amplify these shocks.
6
@Alan
The demand for a new soccer stadium is being made by the owner of the team, who threatening to move the team to another city if a stadium is not build downtown. The fans are not making the demand; the owner of the team is. This has been all over the news in Columbus for nearly a year.
10
Any local or state government that has enough cash to sock away in the bank is a government that is over-taxing its constituents. Give the extra money back to the citizens you took it from.
17
First, Thank you Mr Trump for creating the prosperity that has give the States their surplus. " for the first time in six years. California, with a $9 billion surplus, sent about $6 billion to its rainy-day fund. "
Second, it not very persuasive evidence for a crisis that Lorraine Ohio has to keep its traffic street lights for parts. That just seems like sensible cost-conscious budget management. I would have assumed that they had always been doing that.
11
I don’t seem to share your views on Trump’s role in the economy, but I did think the same thing. Most Democrats would say they follow “reduce, reuse, recycle” - and this from the way the article presents it is exactly what is happening. Of course, it requires a lot more labor to do that, and I can see that being a huge issue at the local level in a small town. But reusing parts - recycling these components- frankly it sounds like a good idea to me as well.
1
@Amy What makes you think that Trump had anything to do with California's surplus? BTW, this is not the first year we have had a surplus, last year, pre-Trump also produced a surplus. And this under a Democrat government.
@Amy You lost me at "thank you Trump for creating". What Trump has done is not killed the booming economy Obama handed over to him. I will give credit to Trump for that. But, at it is a big but, unlike Trump has also massively increased the deficit to do so. When Obama left office the economy was booming AND the deficit was shrinking. With the deficit growing as it is we can be practically guaranteed the economy will see hard times again before too long.
8
I'm unsure whether this applies to Ohio, but many states have under-funded pension liabilities to state workers, emergency service personnel, etc. What this essentially shows is the way we fund government (at all levels) is inefficient at best.
7
Unfortunately, demographics are against many Ohio cities and towns as the population ages and most younger people move to either Columbus or Cincinnati or leave the state as I did. The unemployment rate in many small cities and towns is higher than the national average. I'm sure the same can be said for West Virginia too. Ohio is not an economic wonderland for workers.
8
Kasich complains that Ohio’s cities and towns “whine” and want “handouts.” We don’t want hand-outs; our cities simply want the state legislature, controlled by Republicans from the rural areas, to stop picking the cities’ pockets and to recognize that the economic engines of the state need to be able to afford basics, like infrastructure, in order to remain competitive. The roads in many Ohio municipalities now look like something from the third world. In Cincinnati, nearly half of all children live below the federal poverty level, and child mortality is higher than in some developing nations. Locally, we pay very high property tax, income tax and sales tax, on top of state income and sales taxes. Every Kasich budget has robbed Peter to pay Paul. See: https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2017/07/ohios_new_budget_sig...
So, when Kasich, who clearly is eyeing a Presidential run, touts himself as a fiscal genius, watch out.
49
Another recession will come. States have to balance their budgets. Rainy Day funds are essential. All of these cities have their own means for raising revenue. If their voters and their representatives will not support the taxes to provide the current level of services, then the services need to be reduced. Don't blame it on the state. Cities that rely on state transfers for repeating expenses (unlike new infrastructure) are playing roulette with their finances. They always eventually lose.
10
@Tom The state has a responsibility to be fiscal prudent HOWEVER, when you have this level of decay the question is obvious; how can you manage a city when the revenue needed isn't coming in from your tax base? And where is the state in this?
We have the same problem in NJ's larger cities that has mostly renters & not enough business/homeowners.
Money absolutely should be saved but when you have municipalities w/bldgs. this deceipt you have to question why they send any money to the state & get very little in return.
If unemployment is high & folks can't afford to pay the taxes, the state has to step in. That is the point of having a centralized gov't in the 1st place.
Their governor wants to challenge the POTUS for the Presidency. I'm not fan of the latter at all but the former has a rep of being rather abrupt & dismissive. This may be to his detriment along w/ this article.
Because yes, you have managed to save money but your squeezing the hell out of your citizens to do it. Not necessarily a reflection of concern for the working class, which is most of his voting base.
The bottom line is we have way too many areas in this country that resemble 3rd world villages than the presumed idea of America's abundance.
We need to stop haggling about the money, stop giving subsidies to big biz and fix what is wrong here. We have squandered all of our achievements as a superpower for the pursuit of enriching a few. Yet we wonder why regular folks are seething mad.
18
@Tom - the state has increased its surplus by massively cutting state income taxes while at the same time cutting the local government fund, which had been the lifeline for local governments (usually the second largest portion of their budgets) for decades.
10
@Skip
I moved from Ohio to NJ a month ago, so I am very familiar with Ohio politics. Kasich and the state government were very up-front with the citizenry and the cities as they carried out this re-alignment to keep state taxes low. Cities who want to have services will have to raise more taxes locally. They knew this 5 years ago. Many have tried to raise revenues; some have succeeded, some not. It's up to the voters, as it should be. Why should state money be funding municipal budgets, anyway? This change was one that Ohio voters have backed, repeatedly, by choosing a Republican state house.