Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor published an op-ed with some bizarre arguments about local budgets, and an interesting new campaign line. The op-ed makes a number of disingenuous arguments that the Kasich budgets have not, in fact, ripped off local governments and you have not, in fact, voted on increased levies.
Economic growth is the best way to help communities. This is Governor Kasich's plan, and it's working.
GDP growth isn't a plan, it's a goal. A goal that Kasich is currently missing. Let's get something straight: Ohio's GDP growth since the 1994 GOP takeover has been abysmal.
This is from Chase's Ohio Economic Outlook from earlier this year (with my notes about Ohio's government). Note how Ohio's economy tracks the national economy until 1996. Then, throughout the Taft administration (with unbroken GOP control of Ohio's legislature) Ohio's growth runs about 3% less than the national economy.
During this time, Ohio's population grew by 2% (compared to 5% in the decade prior). With basically every state growing more rapidly than Ohio under Republican leadership, people moved where the jobs were.
From 2008 until the 3rd quarter of 2011, Ohio's GDP growth was the same as the nation's. Then in Q3 of 2011, as soon as Kasich's first budget was enacted, Ohio's GDP growth again began to lag the nation.
I'm not going to speculate about the causes, because this shouldn't be a matter of contention. It's a matter of fact that Ohio's GDP growth under Republican legislatures has consistently been slower than the rest of the country.
They love talking about economic growth, because they see Texas Republicans do it and they think it makes them look cool. But the economic record of Ohio's Republican legislatures has cost the state a decade of growth.