Restoring Prosperity to Lima

By Gene Krebs. Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking to a combined group of nearly to 200 Lima Rotarians and members of the Chamber of Commerce about the Restoring Prosperity to Ohio initiative.

Lima can compete in the next economy, but it needs to reduce its core costs.  This can be done through governance reform as well as increased emphasis on innovation and infrastructure.  This approach is necessary to give citizens better services and a greater return on their tax dollars.  These changes will also foster a more positive environment for long term job growth.

Restoring Prosperity Recommendations Influencing Public Discourse

Shifting Spending to Classrooms Through Consolidation and Shared Services. In recent days, research from Greater Ohio Policy Center and the Brookings Institution has been cited in media reports and the gubernatorial race, and sparked debate about how to use resources more effectively in Ohio schools.

Receiving exposure are statistics in the report that highlight inefficiencies in the way schools have long operated in Ohio. According to the Restoring Prosperity report, Ohio ranks 47th in the nation in the share of elementary and secondary education spending that goes to instruction and ninth in the share that goes to administration. In addition, Ohio’s share of spending on school district administration is 49 percent higher than that national average.  While these particular statistics do not take into account Governor Strickland's recently passed Evidence-Based Model approach to education, they do point to the ongoing need to pay attention to high administrative costs and the looking to school consolidation and sharing services as a solution.

More attention given to data from the two organizations’ report – Restoring Prosperity: Transforming Ohio’s Communities for the Next Economy – is expected as the races of the 2010 campaign season intensify. The references point to the relevance of the data to the current economic environment in Ohio. We are at a crossroads.

In response to these statistics and other analysis, recommendations from the Restoring Prosperity report target government reform, specifically among the state’s school districts. Recommendations encourage Ohio leaders to:

• Makes the cost of school district administration costs transparent to Ohio.
• Push school districts to enter into aggressive shared-services agreements.
• Create a BRAC-like commission to mandate best practices in administration and cut the number of Ohio’s school districts by at least one-third.

Indeed a few school districts in Ohio are already rising to the occasion to achieve greater efficiencies. In northeastern Ohio, two districts – Orrville and Rittman Exempted Village Schools – share a superintendent and treasurer and are searching for additional ways to collaborate.

In Greene County, officials are in the process of identifying and developing models for sharing services and funds between school districts.  And in Northwest Ohio, voters will go to the polls next month to decide whether they want to further explore consolidation in two small districts in Hancock County.

Such initiatives are promising and point Ohio in the right direction. They are part of a broader call for local governance reform, and their success facilitates solving other more pressing issues facing the state, such as land use and assisting in the physical transformation of Ohio’s cities. Both school reform and building stronger communities are integral in positioning Ohio for achievement in the next economy.

Hamilton County Land Bank Efforts

Check out this blog post from UrbanCincy detailing efforts in Hamilton County to form a county land bank.  This process of bringing together government leaders, nonprofits and other interested parties is being repeated across  the state as counties attempt to answer the questions of if they should form a county land bank and then determine how to best fund and operate one.  As communities have these conversations, we welcome them to use Greater Ohio Policy Center as a resource.

Columbus Neighborhood Targeted to Become Urban Food Campus

The Columbus Dispatch reported today that the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission was awarded an $864,989 federal grant from HUD to revitalize Columbus' Weinland Park community with a year-round farmers market, dozens of community gardens and a restaurant selling locally produced food.  The area could also be home to a food-processing center and business incubator.  This would be a unique approach to urban redevelopment for its food-production system based approach.

It’s great to see increased investments in our core cities and neighboring communities, especially an innovative project like this one.  The vision to create a “neighborhood food campus” is a creative solution to repurposing the vacant land in the neighborhood.  This is also a much needed improvement because Weinland Park is a food desert with limited access to fresh produce.  The plans should be completed by 2012, and we look forward to seeing this project progress.

The Dispatch on Governance Reform

By Gene Krebs. It is really fantastic that the Columbus Dispatch is following the story Greater Ohio has been advocating for the past several years; that of governance reform.  The state’s budget problem is huge and local governance reform is an important piece of the solution.  The frame we often use for local government reform is that if Ohio were a house, we have built the house so that every bedroom has its own fully equipped and stocked private kitchen.  In addition, we do not even shop for food at Costco or Sam’s; we instead shop at the local convenience store and buy our milk in half pints, twenty at a time.  This grand expenditure of taxpayer money is perhaps one of the reasons why Ohio is struggling to compete.

“Plugging the hole” – four of Ohio’s best budget brains discuss the state’s next two-year budget

“Candidates agree: too much government” – 20^th House District candidates consider local government changes

“Ohioans need to hear the truth about cost of their government” – Joe Hallett’s editorial about consolidating local government

The Dispatch has been taking a lead on this policy story, and we hope that other papers around Ohio start covering this topic.  Please contact your paper and urge them to explore how their tax dollars are being wasted.  Flushed.  Gone down the tubes.  Up in smoke.  You pick a cliché.  Heavens knows there are more.

Shaping the State

Overview of Key Demographic Trends Facing Ohio and Implications for Policy-making and Ohio's Future Competitiveness

Greater Ohio Policy Center conducted this comparative analysis of demographic trends in Ohio, its metros and the nation from 2000 to 2008.  The analysis builds on the national trends articulated in the Brookings Institution’s State of Metropolitan America report : State of Metropolitan America: On the Front Lines of Demographic Transformation.

These trends have critical implications for the future of our state and it is our contention that they should guide future policy-making aimed at positioning Ohio to compete successfully in the next economy, which will be low-carbon, export-oriented, metropolitan-lead, and innovation-driven and is discussed in more detail in our recent report Restoring Prosperity: Transforming Ohio Communities for the Next Economy.

To see detailed data analysis on a specific demographic trend either click on the relevant anaylsis listed below or use the hyperlinks in the table above.

• Population
• Household Makeup
• Age Profile
• Race and Ethnicity
• Immigration
• Income
• Poverty
• Higher Education

Central Ohio Car Free Day

Today is Central Ohio Car Free Day.  Visit the website to take the pledge and learn more about transportation alternatives.  This is a great reminder that there are other forms of transportation that we should consider and support in Ohio.  The main message is that just for one day we should consider our alternatives. This also coincides with PARK(ing) Day which is a global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public places.  The mission of PARK(ing) Day is to call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat.

We hope you will be able to participate in both events.  If so, please share your stories about your commute or your PARK(ing) spots.

Third Round of NSP Funding

By Zach Crafton. Last week, I attended an announcement for the third round of funding for HUD's Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The event was held at a home, in Cleveland’s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood, that was rehabbed with the aid of stabilization money from the program’s previous round of funding.

The Neighborhood Stabilization Program provides emergency assistance to state and local governments to purchase, redevelop, and/or demolish foreclosed homes. With this latest round of funding, Ohio and its municipalities are set to receive nearly $52 million to help reverse the negative impacts the foreclosure crisis has had on the state and its communities.

The event brought together officials from federal, state and local governments – including Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, representatives of Senator Sherrod Brown, Ohio Department of Development Director, Lisa Patt-McDaniel, and the City of Cleveland Mayor, Frank Jackson – to announce Cleveland’s award. Officials spoke about the city’s strategic use of program funds to rehab and demolish foreclosed homes in order to protect and enhance the vitality of Cleveland neighborhoods, and how this latest round of funding is intended to further support these efforts in Ohio.

For more information about the program and Ohio awardees see here.

Dayton Urban Nights: Sept 10, 2010!

Walk on downtown Dayton's creative side! Tomorrow night is Dayton's fall Urban Nights. It takes place Friday, September 10 from 5 to 10 p.m. More than 30,000 people are expected to pack the streets, so come join the fun and experience the downtown!  If you're in Dayton tomorrow, check it out!

What is Urban Nights?

Urban Nights is a free event that showcases downtown's dining, nightlife, art, music, retail, urban living options and more twice a year - once in the spring and once in the fall. The event has been described as a huge, all-inclusive street party and open house for downtown, with something for everyone to enjoy.

Businesses and restaurants offer special discounts, artists and galleries open their doors to the public, musicians and entertainers of all kinds perform throughout the center city, and downtown's most impressive urban living options are open for tours. More than 100 creative places and spaces are part of the event, including locations throughout downtown, the Oregon Arts District and the Wright-Dunbar Business Village.

Visit Dayton Urban Night's website for more information.

Greater Ohio Calls Commission on Local Government Reform Report a Modest First Step

More reform, action still needed to prepare Ohio for the competitive Next Economy Greater Ohio Policy Center called a draft report, which was unanimously approved at a meeting of the Ohio Commission on Local Government Reform and Collaboration Friday, a modest first step toward increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of local government and fostering economic development in Ohio, but called for government leaders to quickly build upon the commission’s efforts.  Today is the statutory deadline for the commission to issue its final report, the culmination of 19 months of work to develop recommendations to increase the efficiency of local government, achieve cost savings for taxpayers and promote economic development.

“The report and its recommendations are a step in the right direction, but the pending state budgetary crisis makes real local government reform all the more urgent, as the gap between costs and revenues on the local level continues to widen with reduced ability for the state to make up these differences,” said Greater Ohio’s Executive Director Lavea Brachman. “To avoid crippling budget cuts in the next state budget and make Ohio economically competitive, local government must become more attentive to reducing costs through collaboration and consolidation. The commission’s recommendations are not the bold action steps required under the current dire fiscal and economic conditions.”

These issues require long-term attention, and, as a logical next step, Greater Ohio calls for the creation of a permanent, intergovernmental, collaborative body responsible for continuing the work of the current commission.  To read more, see Greater Ohio's press release posted on our website.