Steve Stivers and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce Need to Stop the Political Spin and Push Real, Bold Color Reforms
Ohio can be great again, but it will require real leadership, heavy lifts, big fights with entrenched interests, and short-term sacrifices.
I want to start this column by giving you two headlines and two pictures from the last two days. Here they are:
Ohio's Manufacturing Renaissance: A Blueprint for American Prosperity by Ohio Chamber of Commerce President Steve Stivers
In his op-ed, Stivers states:
Ohio is experiencing a manufacturing renaissance that's transforming our economic landscape. Our state ranks third in the nation for manufacturing jobs, with more than 687,000 Ohioans employed in the sector, producing over $134 billion in manufactured goods annually. Ohio leaders have successfully attracted transformative industries and propelled the state as a national leader for innovation, economic growth, and high-tech infrastructure.
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Illuminate USA in Pataskala is just one example. This solar manufacturing facility, majority owned by U.S.-based company Invenergy, created over 1,500 jobs in less than a year and is on track to produce enough solar panels annually to power 1 million homes. In Fayette County, a joint venture between LG Energy Solution and Honda is investing $3.5 billion to build a lithium-ion battery plant that will create 2,200 jobs. These are just two examples among many in Ohio's resurgent manufacturing sector.
Stivers only cites two examples because there really aren’t too many other ones to cite, as we know from Mike DeWine’s dishonest State of the State address. Stivers was oddly silent about the much-heralded Intel facility in Licking County. In terms of Illuminate USA, its website reads: "Illuminate USA is seeking highly motivated team members to help the company grow from startup to a full scale, industry leading manufacturer with $1B - $2B expected annual revenue and over 1,200 employees in less than two years.” The company website also only has twenty-eight (28) job openings. Where Stivers came up with "created over 1,500 jobs in less than a year” will remain a mystery.
With the Trump Administration’s hostility to green energy boondoggles and the growing evidence on the environmental harm from the end-to-end lifecycle of making and disposing of solar panels, I suspect Illuminate USA's better days are behind it. In fact, the "big beautiful bill" just passed by the U.S. House spells enormous trouble for Illuminate USA. As detailed in “Rooftop Solar Takes Gut Punch in House Tax Bill”:
The struggling rooftop solar industry faces a potentially fatal blow after the House of Representatives passed a tougher version of President Trump’s expansive tax-and-spending package.
The bill sunsets rich renewable energy credits, as expected—but includes more stringent provisions and rollback dates that were seen as especially bleak for rooftop solar. Credits for rooftop solar and battery storage would end this year, while those for larger solar, storage and wind energy projects would end by 2028, instead of a slower phaseout through 2031.
“I think this is basically shutting down the industry,” said Gregg Felton, chief executive of Altus Power, which develops solar projects on rooftops, in parking lots and other spots of high power consumption.
Without subsidies from the federal government, solar panel companies likely will face headwinds far too strong to survive.
In terms of the LG Energy Solutions-Honda electric battery plant in Fayette County, they haven’t posted ANY news since last November. It currently employs 400 Ohioans and plans to employ seventeen more Ohioans. Specifically, the LG Energy Solutions-Honda website currently lists just seventeen job openings. Seventeen. For those counting, 400+17=417 ≠ 2,200, or anywhere close to 2,200. And that target is BEFORE the news from Honda this week re its commitment to electric vehicles. The article above stated:
Japanese carmaker Honda Motor Co. said on May 20 that it will scale back investment in electric vehicles as demand slows and will focus instead on meeting a growing demand for hybrids.
Honda said in a statement that “due to the recent market slowdown,” it will scrap its previous goal for electric vehicles (EVs) to be 30 percent of its global vehicle sales by 2030.
“The environment surrounding the automobile industry is changing day by day. Uncertainty in the business environment is increasing, due particularly to the slowdown in the expansion of EV the market due to several factors, including changes in environmental regulations,” Honda said.
I cannot fathom how this news won't negatively impact the viability of the Fayette County project.
More important than Stivers’ claims re those companies is Stivers’ claims that “Ohio is experiencing a manufacturing renaissance that’s transforming the economic landscape.” Here are some facts about Ohio’s manufacturing sector Stivers failed to mention based on the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:
Ohio’s manufacturing sector hit a peak of employment in June of 1990 when it hit 1,069,400 jobs
It then shed jobs over the next nineteen years when it hit a low of 610,500 jobs in July 2009
When John Kasich became governor and the Ohio General Assembly became totally controlled by Republicans in 2011, it had 631,000 jobs
Just before the pandemic hit, it reached a new peak of 704,200 jobs in July 2019
It hit a new low due to the DeWine-Jon Husted-Amy Acton pandemic shutdown in April 2020 when it possessed 583,200 jobs
Today, it employs 688,100 Ohioans, which is 16,100 fewer jobs than in July 2019
From the start of Kasich’s tenure to today, it has added a mere 57,100 jobs
Over the last thirty-one months, Ohio’s manufacturing sector has hovered in the mid-680s
In the twenty months from hitting a low in 2009 to Kasich’s tenure beginning in January 2011, it added an average of 13,667 jobs per month
In the 171 months since Kasich’s tenure/supermajority Republican rule began, it has added an average of 4,007 jobs per month, or 3.41 times FEWER than before Republicans took control
The table above details the monthly job totals in manufacturing in Ohio since January 1990. The numbers don’t lie. How these data points support Stivers’ Ohio manufacturing renaissance claim is beyond my capacity to understand. The monthly average of jobs added over the last fourteen years is anemic. As points of reference, in the same January 2011 to today span, Georgia’s, Tennessee’s, and Indiana's much smaller manufacturing sectors added 81,200, 62,200, and 62,400 jobs, respectively. Perhaps Stivers meant every state is having a manufacturing renaissance.
The unfortunate reality for Ohio and Ohioans is that Ohio simply isn’t a smart location for new manufacturing. I read a lot of news and analyses on economic competitiveness across the fifty states. Literally no one, and I mean no one, talks about Ohio positively. There is a reason the label of “being Ohio” on social media is intended as a slam.
Instead of making the tough choices to broadly reshape Ohio’s economy for the 21st century and for the steep competition from the other states, Ohio’s elected officials, with the backing of Stivers and the Ohio Chamber of Commerce he runs, have nibbled on the margins of Ohio’s problems via an incrementalist approach and continued to support the defective JobsOhio scheme. Ohio’s overall tax burden is too high. Ohio is too pro-union. Ohio’s government dependency is too heavy. Ohio’s regulatory environment is too dense. Ohio’s aviation infrastructure is too dependent on other airport hubs. Ohio’s financial support of post-K-12 opportunities is too skewed towards higher education versus tech, coding, trade, and other professions. As a result, Ohio’s best and brightest are fleeing to other states resulting in Ohio aging more rapidly than other states, with fewer working age Ohioans left to spur a true renaissance. As I’ve detailed, Ohio is hollowing out and increasingly becoming a dead state walking.
Look, I hate that I am constantly forced to be the bearer of bad news/Cassandra/Negative Nellie/Debbie Downer/pessimist when it comes to Ohio. My greatest wish is that Ohio’s elected officials had heeded my bold colors Reaganesque advice over the last fifteen years, but they ignored it again and again because men like Stivers and groups like the Ohio Chamber of Commerce pushed a pale pastel incrementalist agenda.
Ohio can be great again, but it will require real leadership, heavy lifts, big fights with entrenched interests, and short-term sacrifices. Hopefully, Ohio’s next governor will have the vision and guts to launch a real renaissance, not just push political spin.