By Gene Krebs. Last week I was asked to speak at the County Commissioner Association of Ohio annual conference on governance reform. I was told that I should expect only 40 chairs to be filled, it was closer to 100. Commissioner Dan Troy led off and gave the background for the Local Government Reform Commission he co-chaired. I then presented a slide show that illustrated the long term fiscal problems in Ohio and at the county level. The CCAO board took several positions at the conference that were very strong on governance reform. I expect them to work with us to make Ohio a better place.
Leasing the Turnpike
By Gene Krebs. Recently the Columbus Dispatch reported on the possibility of Ohio leasing the turnpike. I had a conversation about three years ago with a transportation consultant from Chicago on this topic. He indicated that he knew the folks in that industry and thought Ohio could get $14 billion or so from a lease. This was before the collapse of the capital markets, and I have no way of knowing the validity of his statement, other than that he is nationally regarded on transportation issues.
I do know that Indiana used the proceeds from their lease to create a fund for the other highways in Indiana resulting in much needed upgrades. My farm is located only 4 miles from the state line, and I have noticed for most of my life how poor the roads are in Indiana. No more. Now they are rapidly matching or exceeding our quality of roads. This is why INDOT will not be facing fiscal collapse for another 20 years, according to folks inside the Daniels administration, unlike ODOT, which is facing severe fiscal troubles.
Neighborhood Stabilization Strategies and Best Practices
By Dawn Larzelere. As a follow up to the Ohio Housing Conference, NeighborWorks and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland co-sponsored a one-day workshop on strategies and best practices around neighborhood stabilization. I was asked to lead a discussion group on how community development organizations can navigate the new political landscape that we will be working in next year. Several suggestions were discussed that I thought you might find of interest as well:
- Consider reframing the need for strong community development programs in light of the new political realities. We need to show how community development directly impacts economic development. We need to showcase and openly discuss why business should care about strong neighborhoods and healthy communities. Also, whenever possible, we should bring business on board to help push for the policy changes we are advocating.
- Remain open to engaging new partners regardless of past stances on issues or partisan politics. Winning political battles requires diverse and sometimes unexpected partnerships and when you look past old issues you will often find alignment in overall goals.
- Show how your work impacts individual legislative districts. In fact consider pulling together an annual report customized to individual state and federal legislators showing the amount of government funding received, the return on that investment as showcased by the amount of private development it leveraged and finally the number of constituents you impacted.
- Invite legislators to groundbreakings, ribbon cuttings and open houses regardless of their political stances. These events allow legislators to feel good about the investments that have been made in the community.
- Continually cultivate relationships with your major neighborhood, city and state players and keep abreast of political issues affecting your organization and the constituency base you serve. Understanding the motivations and being able to capitalize on relationships at the appropriate time is key to success in an political issue.
The Ohio Housing Conference
By Dawn Larzelere. This week I participated in the Ohio Housing Conference and moderated a session on Wednesday that dealt with how land banks can help reshape urban landscapes. Special thanks to a great panel that included Peter Ujvagi (Lucas County Administrator and bill sponsor of the legislation that expanded county land bank authority to 41 additional counties), Gus Frangos (President of the Cuyahoga County Land Bank), Donna Hunter (Columbus Land Bank), and Russell Berusch (Case Western Reserve University and President of Berusch Development Partners).
For ninety minutes we were able to not only educate the audience but ourselves as well on the importance of this tool as we deal with issues in our urban cores, including declining population, surplus housing, and environmental issues. Thanks to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency and the Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing for putting on such a great conference and including sessions such as this one to showcase the good work that is going on in Ohio and how it could be replicated not only in other counties in Ohio but across the country as well.
Thanksgiving Reflections
By Gene Krebs. At this time of Thanksgiving, many may not see what of immediate value these past several months of political frenzy have been.
Simple; we live in a self correcting system.
No one conquered us and told us to change our leaders. We have problems, sure, like any country. But our difference is that our system, like any good functioning democracy, has a method in place for the voice of the people to be heard. Not heard evenly, or all with the same decibel level of voice, but a voice.
America has always struggled with the contradiction of being founded both as an economic construct, and a moral construct. Jamestown was settled by people on the hustle, looking for gold, adventure and fortunes. The Mayflower Colony was settled by people looking for religious freedom, and religious homogeneity. Thanksgiving, although begun by the Puritans of Plymouth, now symbolizes to Americans both the moral (we are thankful and humble before God) and economic greed (the closest many will come to Roman standard of gluttony) on one groaning table, surrounded by friends and family. After all, we never want anyone to eat alone on Thanksgiving, and there is a reason why. It co-joins both halves of our American experience.
Visiting Springfield, Ohio
By Dawn Larzelere. I recently visited Springfield and made presentations to the Community Leadership Academy and representatives of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce. During my research leading up to the presentations, I was pleased to see how Springfield and Clark County have capitalized on so many of their prosperity driving assets that we define in our Restoring Prosperity report.
I was also fortunate enough to be invited to attend the Chamber’s groundbreaking for a new downtown park called National Road Commons. The park, which has been in the works for several years, will eventually span down to Buck Creek and showcases how a community can seize on natural amenities and quality of life attractions to make its urban core stronger. It is hoped the park will spark additional development including additional restaurants and office and retail space. Work is expected to be completed by the next summer, in hopes of a formal dedication on July 4.
My presentation from the day can be found on slideshare if you are interested.
Why are our cities shrinking?
The Urbanophile posted an interesting blog this week asking "Are People Really Fleeing Shrinking Cities?". By looking at data of both out-migration and in-migration, the finding is that out-migration rates in rust belt cities are actually lower than average out-migration rates for cities across the United States. This means that people are not leaving Shrinking Cities in droves, which is often the vision conjured by the concept of “Shrinking Cities”. The reason that these cities are shrinking is that they have an even lower in-migration rate (extremely low compared to other cities across the country). Therefore, while the populations are undoubtedly shrinking, it’s not a result of a mass exodus from rust belt cities, but rather a result of very low numbers of new people moving in. See the original blog post for more data and graphs.
This finding is very important for thinking about the needs and policy implications for these cities. Clearly much still needs to be investigated and tested to figure out the right steps forward, but having an accurate understanding of the situation is a crucial starting point.
Fiscal Sustainability
By Gene Krebs. Greater Ohio has always had a concern about fiscal sustainability, targeting of resources and fix it first infrastructure reforms. We feel like this is a natural tie to our smart growth mission. Last week Michael Peterson of the Peterson Foundation came to Columbus for a press conference to unveil their new effort to get Americans to focus on the nation debt problem.
I was invited to attend and speak and the following is from the data released a the press event. The total federal debt is now at about 90% of GDP. Official government statistics from the CBO show that growing to more than 200% by 2040 and 400% in the 2050s. For reference, Greece hit the wall at 115%. We will get there in less than 10 years.
Annual interest today is a staggering $200 billion, which is more than the federal government spends on education and infrastructure combined. By 2027, interest payments becomes the single largest line item in the budget. By 2055, it literally takes up all federal revenues, leaving nothing for all federal programs. This powerful data is proof that governance reform is needed immediately.
Columbus on the Record
By Gene Krebs. Over the weekend I was featured on the show Columbus on the Record. Go to their website and look for the episode broadcast on 11-12-10. The topics included the 3 C rail and the coming budget problems in Ohio.
Nationally the thought is that states who talk frankly about the upcoming fiscal collapse of their Department of Transportation (DOT) tend to have more success in pushing alternative transportation and addressing the subsidy issue head on, which is that roughly half of the US DOT money comes from sources other than user fees and taxes. Current ODOT staff never talks about their approaching fiscal collapse.
As far as the budget goes, 85% of state general revenue is sent to locals for everything from schools to welfare. We could fire all state employees and get only $2 billion savings in the state budget, which is about half what we need to cut each year from a 4 billion dollar shortfall.
We have 41.3 local governments per county compared to the national average of 27.9 , which is perhaps one reason our costs are so much higher in Ohio than the rest of the country, as we rank 9th in local taxes of the fifty states.
We also talked about the oweNO effort to reign in the federal deficit. Check out the video for more information.
Trumbull County Forms Land Bank
Congratulations to leaders in Trumbull County who this week voted to approve the formation of a county land bank. This announcement marks the third county land bank formed in Ohio, following both Cuyahoga County and Lucas County. Trumbull county plans to initially use the land bank to assist in the county's vacant side lot program, which allows residents to purchase vacant land next to their property. They also hope to work with contractors to help rehabilitate homes in the land bank and place them back up for sale to get them back on the tax rolls. To read more please check out an article from the Warren Tribune Chronicle.