Greater Ohio Releases State Budget Response & Local Government Restructuring Toolkit

Greater Ohio applauds the proposed 2012-13 budget for taking a bold first step in challenging local governments to modernize, but cautions that Ohio needs more tools to realize the vision of more efficient local government and to ensure a return to prosperity for Ohio. Recently the 2012-13 State Operating Budget was released in which bold proposals set into motion the streamlining and cost reduction of government operations, especially among local governments.   In a response released by Greater Ohio– The 2012-13 State Budget Response and Local Government Restructuring Toolkit– we agreed that the status quo is not a winning strategy and to move Ohio’s economy into the 21st century, increased efficiency and savings among local governments are needed.

However, to return Ohio to prosperity, budget cuts MUST be combined with strategic and targeted investments; cuts alone will not bring about a climate of prosperity.  Our response recommends legislative adjustments, new pieces of legislation, and the creation of some new state programs and policies to smooth the transition from the existing, antiquated structure of local governance to a modernized one.

We strongly recommend that the 2012-13 budget bill and subsequent legislation incorporate the following tools:

  1. Create a Governance Reform Commission to oversee the modernization of Ohio’s local governments by providing innovative leadership on governance reform, collecting data on local governments to help set efficiency standards, and offering technical assistance for local governments that are merging or initiating other new governance structures
  2. Create a framework for pooling resources regionally to pave the way for robust regional economic development by creating a regional revolving loan fund for needed infrastructure funding and economic development projects.
  3. Make permissive mergers, consolidation, shared services, and alternative governance structures and eliminate any legal and constitutional barriers. This could provide for a merger of city and county jurisdictions that results in consolidated service districts and governance, increased value for the taxpayer and a better business climate.
  4. Develop a protocol for collecting data on local governments’ costs and level of services, like the Cupp report for education, so that the Governance Reform Commission can create efficiency standards, evaluate the performance of local governments, and develop other indicators of performance.

In research conducted by GO and the Brookings Institution, we found:

  • 86 percent of states have fewer governments per square mile than Ohio
  • Ohio has 41.3 local governments per county and the national average is 27.9 local governments per county
  • Ohio has moved from 9th highest in local tax burden to 6th highest among the fifty states, while the state burden has stayed stable at 33rd
  • Ohio ranks 22nd nationally in instructional payroll spending, but its non-instructional payroll is 8th highest nationally (as a percentage of personal income)

It is clear that dramatic measures are needed to make Ohio average.  Reducing and eliminating duplication in services will save money and free up resources Ohio can use to make strategic investments in assets to grow our economy.  Fixing congested freeway interchanges, seeding venture capital investments or supporting anchor institutions have significant multiplier effects that will allow Ohio to realize the Governor’s vision of competing anywhere in the world.  The underlying structure of local government in Ohio must change, and the State should drive this change.

To see our full analysis and a longer menu of policy tools that can be used to foster the necessary restructuring of local government, please see our 2012-13 State Budget Analysis and Local Government Restructuring Toolkit.

 

Greater Ohio Testifies on SB 90

Greater Ohio Policy Center's Senior Director of Government Affairs and Policy, Gene Krebs, recently presented testimony as an interested party on SB 90, the repeal of the estate tax.   Greater Ohio's goal is to illustrate some facts and perspectives that have not been brought out, and also to suggest a formula, that if adopted, could allow for the bill to proceed with a minimum of negative impact for the local governments, and perhaps even be better for them and the citizens in the long run. "Do no harm" is one of the first instructions given to freshman entering the General Assembly. Keeping the estate tax does harm, and abolishing it too quickly also does harm. Greater Ohio is seeking political common sense by giving you two options to pursue, either separately or in common.

Our advice is to reduce the estate tax take by half for local governments, put one fourth into a revolving loan fund for economic development projects that are locally determined and the terms of the loan set locally in a regional frame, and have the remaining fourth placed into a mutual fund pool where the locals determine the formula for aiding communities who are lower wealth, and once again in a regional frame.  Then phase it out over eight years.

To read more of the details from Gene Krebs' testimony, see the full text here.

Sustainable Planning for the Dayton Region

Check out this amazing video from the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission.

This video explains what sustainable growth is and the importance of sustainable planning in determining the future economic competitiveness for Dayton and its surrounding villages and townships.  MVRPC makes the case that the cost of building new infrastructure on the urban fringe often exceeds the economic contributions new commercial and residential developments bring to the region, and instead Miami Valley’s future health depends on compact, walkable neighborhoods, and reused pre-existing commercial and manufacturing sites.

MVRPC is implementing a new initiative, “Going Places,”  that takes into account better land use, varied housing choices, and a range of transportation options—all which will help the Dayton metro and Miami Valley region successfully compete in the global marketplace.

Columbus on the Record

Gene Krebs of Greater Ohio Policy Center will be a featured panelist tomorrow for Columbus on the Record, a public broadcasting show that features various commentators from the Ohio media and statehouse observers.  This will be Gene’s fifth opportunity to sit for this show. Topics this week will undoubtedly include collective bargaining (Senate Bill 5), the new state budget, and governance reform.  For those of you not in the Columbus media market, the show will be rebroadcast on your public television stations throughout the week so check your local listings.  In addition, you can watch episodes online at Columbus on the Record's website .

NEXT SHOWS: Friday, 4/01, 8:30 pm WOSU TV Friday, 4/01, 10:30 pm WOSU PLUS Sunday, 4/03, 11:30 am WOSU TV

New Interactive Tools

Check out these new interactive tools.  Transportation for America has just released a map which shows which bridges in your area are structurally deficient.  See what it shows about the bridges your neighborhood (if you're brave enough to know).

Forbes has produced an interactive feature which graphically represents inward and outward migration across the country, broken down to the county level.  It shows from where and to where people (with exact numbers) are moving.  Check it out!

Making long-term investments in our Cities and Metro Regions, While Balancing the Budget

By Lavea Brachman. The 2010 census data for Ohio showing many of Ohio's cities shrinking further over the last decade, leaving additional vacant properties in their wake, as well as declining revenues and increasing legacy costs, was disheartening, although not surprising.  Juxtapose these trends with the Kasich Administration’s budget proposal, as local governments grapple with the impact of the proposed cuts on their day-to-day operations, and there is reason to be concerned about how these cities and their metropolitan areas – which are the state’s economic drivers -- will retain a toehold in the next economy.

Looking at European cities – resulting from Greater Ohio’s on-going partnership with the German Marshall Fund – to see what they have done to fortify their cities as economic engines, we are reminded of the need for policymakers to take a longer view. Ohio WILL emerge from this fiscal crisis, and when we do, we want to make sure we have preserved our assets and made critical long-term investments.  Against tremendous odds, the cities of Manchester, England and Leipzig, Germany have begun to prosper, due to many innovative local practices and to strong leadership (to be discussed in a future blog). But one lesson stands out from both cities which is the importance of treating public money as investments and not as subsidies.

Taking this approach, these cities – in partnership with their state and federal government equivalents -- systematically identified areas (both geographic and business sectors) where increased investment could produce the greatest quantitative and qualitative returns over the long-term.  For instance, Leipzig targeted select neighborhoods, using federal-state funding programs to support demolition and rehabilitation in distressed neighborhoods, coupled with other rebuilding programs.  Manchester used innovative public-private partnership vehicles to target and invested in regeneration areas (such as an area called New East Manchester).  Also Manchester aspires to be Britain’s center for digital and related created industries, so it is promoting cluster development with an incubator of entrepreneurial media firms.  Certainly, there are promising stateside examples of making strategic investments for the long-term, even in the most dire of circumstances.

Here in Ohio, we have tremendous institutional assets that we must leverage with smart investments, at the same time that we undertake the necessary cost-cutting measures, such as shared services and consolidation.  Even in this state of fiscal and economic crisis, we need to take a step back and encourage targeted, strategic investments -- in market-ready neighborhoods and leveraging our many and vaunted “anchor” institutions (e.g. universities, medical centers).  Without these investments, our metropolitan regions will be less and less capable of creating the climate that leads to business growth, innovation or produce the exports needed to be part of the next economy.

Planning the Next Life for Brownfields : Greater Ohio attends Brownfield Workshop

On Monday March 21st Greater Ohio attended a Brownfields Area-Wide Planning Workshop hosted by Ohio Department of Development and Smart Growth America.  The workshop brought together urban planners from Ohio and Michigan to discuss strategies for writing a successful application to a US EPA pilot program that supports the planning phase of brownfield and underground storage tank (i.e. former gas stations, etc.) remediation. Area-wide planning works at “area” scale—everything from one city block to a neighborhood to a multi-municipal corridor.  Area-wide planning acknowledges that even just one contaminated, post-industrial lot can impact an entire neighborhood, and it also enables communities to comprehensively plan for neighborhoods where multiple, non-contiguous, brownfield sites exist.  The US EPA pilot program was established to assist communities with the planning phase of brownfield redevelopment—the funds are being used to support brownfield inventories, build community buy-in through education and outreach, develop market analyses and other early-stage activities.

Presenters from the US EPA program and three successful applicants, including one from Cleveland, shared strategies for writing successful proposals.  All pointed to the need for a strong, comprehensive plan for the entire ”area”—essentially the brownfields planning program is just one of many strategies that will assist municipalities and nonprofits in the comprehensive revitalization of an neighborhood or corridor.  To this point, all three applicants had received additional monies from Department of Transportation or HUD for the same larger project, and many of the other successful applicants were using the area-wide planning monies for a full scale, long term, redevelopment program.

As a legacy of our manufacturing past, so many cities in Ohio now struggle with the assessment, cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields.  Luckily Ohio has a strong brownfields program through the Department of Development, which Greater Ohio has long supported.  Greater Ohio is heartened to see programs like the area-wide planning pilot coming from the federal level and supported by state programs because these kinds of programs incentivize and reward long term and comprehensive planning.  As Ohio continues to grow its metros, redeveloping brownfields and making them available for infill development will be a key activity in leveraging the competitive assets already located in Ohio’s cities.

Columbus 2050

In 39 years, will you love to live in Columbus? The Columbus chapter of the Urban Land Institute along with many central Ohio partners has launched a visioning and long-term planning initiative called Columbus 2050.  Throughout the process, ULI will ask central Ohio residents what they would like to see happen in the community over the next 39 years.  Several events with local experts are also scheduled for the coming year to inform the broader conversation.  In the end, this long-term effort will create plans for Columbus that reflect the needs and desires of the community and are sensitive to global and regional economic and demographic trends.  We applaud the effort to proactively plan for the Columbus region's future.  See the video below where local stakeholders, including Greater Ohio's Executive Director, Lavea Brachman, discuss the initiative.

Building Talent Through Internships

Last week, an editorial on the local news radio station caught the ear of several Greater Ohio staffers.  The commentator, Gail Martineau, highlighted several programs which are aimed at retaining college graduates in Ohio.  In particular, Martineau attributed internships programs as being one of the most important tools in the state’s arsenal. Research by Collegia, a higher education economic development consulting firm, confirms Martineau’s hunch: out-of-region students who interned in Philadelphia were twice as likely to stay in the city after graduation and undoubtedly, the number is higher for in-region students.  Although there are differences between Ohio’s shrinking cities and Philadelphia, similar retention rates likely occur.

Many of the internships listed on clearinghouses like EasyColumbus, NEOIntern in Cleveland, and SOCHE in southwest Ohio are located in cities.  This isn’t surprising actually because the state’s cities turn Ohio’s economic motor; the seven largest metros concentrate talent and innovation and contribute to 80% of the state’s GDP.

Cities like Akron and Springfield have recognized that to increase the number of local jobs and the city’s prosperity, education and workforce development will carry the metro into the next economy.  Internships will be one critical strategy as Akron and other Ohio cities continue to leverage their assets and prosperity drivers.  The state can play an important role in this process by supporting internships programs, as it does now with the Third Frontier Internship Program and the proposed funding for the Ohio Co-op and Internship Program.

Ohio has one of the largest collections of colleges and universities in the country— using internships to capitalize on the presence of so many young, eager, educated people not only brings fresh talent to businesses and gives students real-life work experience, but internships can also help retain the creative, highly-trained workers needed for the state’s long term competitive success.

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