Governor Kasich made a personal appearance at Monday’s meeting of the Ohio Tax Credit Authority to tout a record-breaking achievement: 30 deals approved at a single meeting. We wondered: how does the current pace of tax credit-based deal-making compare to the efforts of the Ohio Department of Development prior to the creation of JobsOhio?
What we found was that, aside from the increased number of deals approved this month, the Kasich administration’s other primary claim to fame is that they have greatly increased the amount that was spent on tax incentives — issuing over $301 million in corporate tax breaks for first eleven months of calendar year 2011, compared to $155 to 213 million for the three previous calendar years, according to the state’s Tax Incentives Reporting database.
What did the administration get for that additional spending? It turns out, JobsOhio delivers a lot less bang for the buck than the Department of Development acting alone. Looking at the first 11 months of 2011 for which data is available (and eliminating the double-counting of jobs for which multiple types of tax credits were awarded to a single employer), the awards approved by the Tax Credit Authority so far in 2011 have valued each job created or retained at $6,112 each. This compares to an average tax credit of $4,721 per job over the three previous calendar years. In other words, thanks to JobsOhio, taxpayers are now subsidizing employers to the tune of an additional $1,400 per job......
Isn't it amazing how quickly Kasich is throwing away our money? Just as he did at Lehman Brothers, Kasich seems to be having fun with other people's money.
**** More companies are involved in layoffs in Ohio. ODJFS has the details:
12/2/2011- Agilysys, Inc- Solon (Cuyahoga)- Number Affected 70
12/1/2011- ESAB Welding & Cutting Products-Ashtabula (Ashtabula)- Number Affected 30
It just keeps going.
>>>> Oh, my. The soap opera surrounding the battling in the Ohio GOP is getting more interesting. Earlier it was just Kasich and Kevin DeWine. With Kasich, Kevin DeWine, Speaker of the Ohio House Batchelder, a new person has added to the dysfunctional Ohio Republican family........Kay Ayres, Vice Chair of the party.
Dispatch:
Kay Ayres, vice chairwoman of the Ohio Republican Party, today beseeched Gov. John Kasich to instruct his political allies to “stand down” in their efforts to oust state GOP Chairman Kevin DeWine, saying the bid is splitting the party when it needs to be unified going into the 2012 elections.
In a strongly worded letter to Kasich and the other 65 members of the Ohio GOP’s central committee, Ayres said she was heartbroken that the governor and his allies are trying to depose DeWine little more than a year after he led the party to a massive victory in statewide elections.
“The tumult in the Republican ranks has me very concerned,” Ayres wrote to Kasich. “Quite frankly, I fear for the long-term stability of the Ohio Republican Party and the divide which could well result in the re-election of Barack Obama in 2012 and your defeat in 2014....
This was bound to happen. There are so many pompous, large egos in the Ohio Republican Party, I find it incredible that they can all fit within this state.
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*** If you'd like to sign a petition to stop the Republican gerrymandering in the state, check out locations through the OhioDems website.
>>> How many trip has Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel made to Washington, DC to meet with lobbyists. You Tube has a video of another one of Mandel's DC trips: