Seven Year Review of the DeWine-Husted-Tressel Reign Shows Dismal Results

You can celebrate the small ball “wins” Republicans throw at you and buy the bunk the sell you about how great Ohio is doing. As for me, I’ll stick to the data and the facts.

With one year left before Mike DeWine thankfully rides off into the frozen tundra of Ohio, it is a good time to look back at his first seven years to see where Ohio stands after he has had plenty of time to implement his agenda with the help of Republican supermajorities in the Ohio House and Ohio Senate. Below you find nearly a dozen charts and tables detailing population growth, private sector job growth, state spending, and Medicaid data. I will cover each one so you have a full understanding of just how bad the DeWine-Husted-Tressel era has been. Though they weren’t as bad as the eight years of Robert Taft when total job growth totaled a loss of 124,900 jobs, there is little to brag about if you are or were a member of the DeWine Administration and the Ohio General Assembly since January 1, 2019.

To set the scene, let me state my bias so it is clear. I think the job of state policymakers is to create the most prosperous environment for citizens possible. Prosperity comes from a vibrant private sector that provides a plethora of opportunities and rising pay packages for workers. It also comes from keeping government spending down so state and local taxes can be set as low as you can set them, thereby allowing citizens to keep as much of their earnings in their own pockets as possible. A strong private sector married to a low-taxing government keeps citizens here and happy, as well as attracts citizens from other states with weaker private sectors and higher taxes. Thus, population growth is the ultimate gauge upon which we can judge the success or failure of policymakers. I don’t give a rats patootie about the small ball stuff like we see coming out of the Ohio General Assembly year-after-year, including incremental cuts on the state income tax versus its elimination. All I care about is what actions they take related to creating a strong private sector and keeping spending (and, therefore, taxes) low.

To that end, let’s start with a look at Ohio’s population growth.