Something Is Deeply Wrong With Ohio

A pictorial follow-up to my Federalist column asking what's wrong with Ohio.

I know some of you find the length of my columns to be challenging, so you will be delighted that today’s post will let the pictures below consume the 1,000 words I would have written:-) The punchline of these pictures: something is deeply wrong with Ohio and that something goes back decades. Its population barely grows, if at all, and its private sector is among America’s weakest. Politicians can throw an occasional bit of lipstick like Intel on that pig, but it remains a pig.

As someone who has dug into the data over the years and analyzed what is going right in other states, I can state with a reasonable degree of certainty that only three key policy changes can move Ohio from a dead state walking to a vibrant beacon of prosperity and opportunity. Those policies are:

• Enact a private sector right-to-work law so Ohio can compete for ALL of the job opportunities across the country that mostly go to right-to-work states;

• Eliminate the state income tax to make Ohio the tenth income tax free state. To do that, you first have to repeal John Kasich’s Medicaid expansion under Obamacare that drives 50% of state spending due to the addition of 800,000 people to the Medicaid rolls; and

• Build a world-class airport in the Columbus area that pulls an airline hub from Chicago, New York, and/or Boston so that getting to and from Ohio for business and pleasure is far easier than it is today when you typically have to fly somewhere to get somewhere—this infrastructure project would partially be funded by eliminating the grossly ineffective JobsOhio entity and using its funding for this new airport.

Politicians can hem and haw about why one or all of these policies aren’t doable or won’t help, but their protests are more due to their political cowardice than doing what is best for Ohio. If these policies aren’t done, you can fight amongst yourselves about which of you or your kids or your grandkids will be the ones who turn the lights off, as Ohio falls father behind states like Florida.