State government employment is shrinking under Kasich
by Nick • December 29, 2012 • Uncategorized • 5 Comments
Governor Kasich promised to make Ohio state government more efficient, which would be part of turning around Ohio and bringing more businesses and private-sector jobs to the state. One way in which Ohio is getting leaner can be seen by the change in state payroll since Kasich took office. It has dropped 8%.
The Kasich administration says Ohio government staff levels have been cut nearly 8 percent since the governor took office in January 2011. Those reductions have been made in a number of state agencies. That is a drop of more than 4,000 positions, with state employment standing at 53,888 at the end of November, according to the Ohio Department of Administrative Services.
Some of the job cuts have provided major savings and were highlighted by Kasich during a recent year-in-review session with Statehouse reporters. For example, the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has saved $27 million through reductions of administrative positions at its operations support center and within prisons and the parole division.
In addition, the Department of Taxation cut payroll by $15 million over the past two years by closing seven regional taxpayer services centers. The Rehabilitation Services Commission also saved $6.5 million by making staff cuts during that period. Four other agencies – Ohio EPA and the departments of Health, Agriculture, and Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services – trimmed their staffs and cut payrolls by a combined $6.7 million.
Kasich’s approach is working. His predecessor, Ted Strickland, left office with the state looking at an $8 billion shortfall. But Kasich’s budget is running a surplus, adding money to the state’s rainy day fund (which Strickland drained), and he did it without raising taxes.
Some conservatives have cited BLS data and claimed that Kasich is growing state government. However, BLS data is based on surveys and only takes a sampling of the entire state. BLS data can be slightly inaccurate. These numbers from the state are actual figures.
His new business friendly approach has delivered results. Ohio businesses have created 127,000 jobs and the state unemployment rate has fallen to 6.8%, still well below the national average.
Democrat Armond Budish still finds room to complain, though. Yes, Budish, the man who led the Ohio House and worked with Ted Strickland to drain the rainy day fund to patch together a band-aid riddled budget that left an $8 billion hole, claims that Kasich’s budget is balanced on the backs of Ohio school children. He isn’t being honest.
State GRF spending on education has actually increased. Look at the bottom lines for GRF education spending and compare state funding compared to federal stimulus.
The biggest hit that education spending in Ohio has taken has been the end of Obama stimulus dollars flowing through state spending. It is disingenuous for Budish to point to higher state education funding provided by one-time federal funds to make his case. But he’s a liberal Democrat, so he does it anyway.
State government in Ohio is providing an example to local government on how to be more efficient stewards of the citizens’ tax dollars, and since nobody wants to see taxes increase, that’s a good thing for all of us.
Thanks for the stats Nick.
Yet again, Nick, you toe the Kasich line by blatanty misrepresenting the facts. There was NEVER an $8 billion deficit. What occurred was that Mary Taylor and TIm Keene claimed during the campaign that the State was facing an $8 billion deficit, which even some Republicans disputed at the time. The State’s general revenue spending under Kasich’s only budget INCREASED $5.5 billion, while all funds spending (which includes federal “pass thru spending” that goes through the State to local government) decreased by only $2.2 billion, all of which was the result of the end of the federal stimulus program, not Kasich. Ohio has a balanced budget constitutional amendment, and Strickland never violated it. For Kasich and you to claim there was a defict is just a lie, Nick.
Furthermore, Strickland’s last budget which ended on June 30, 2011, left the State with a nearly billion dollar SURPLUS. A majority of the money that has been placed back into the state’s rainy day fund came from that Strickland surplus.
And you’ve repeatedly used BLS data in making your job claims about Kasich and Strickland. You can’t just pick and choose when that data is reliable when it suits your partisan purposes. Regardless, the data shows State Government hiring has gone up, consistently. And who do they survey for state government hiring if not, well, the State government? The BLS survey of CES data is derived from a survey of employers, not employees.
And finally, Strickland reduced state government employment more than what Kasich is claiming.
http://thirdbasepolitics.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-ted-strickland-and-ohio-democrats.html
GotFreedom stole my thunder.
Ted’s last budget was a disaster. Was it balanced? Sure. Was it a blueprint that subsequent budgets could be based on going forward?
No way.
Strickland didn’t have the guts to make the tough choices and address the real issue. That state expenditures exceeded revenues by almost $8 BILLION.
So, they took one-time monies from everywhere they could, and kicked the can down the road.
My previous post that GotFreedom linked to shows how they did it. They patched up an $8 billion hole and left the mess to the next term.
You can keep screaming that “Strickland balanced the budget, there was no deficit!!” until you’re blue in the face.
But the fact is that he still left an $8 billion gap between expenditures and revenues. Because he was a coward. And everybody knows it.
Well, that shut Modern up.