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Speaker's Ohio plan recycles same old ideas
By Dennis Willard
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 10:34 p.m. EST, Jan 05, 2009
COLUMBUS: Ohio's new House Speaker is Armond Budish, who was nominated and sworn in today before members of his family, friends, lobbyists and legislative colleagues.
Budish, from Beachwood, is the first Democrat since Vern Riffe, 14 years, ago, to wield the gavel in the lower chamber.
In his remarks, Budish talked about his vision for Ohio.
He wants to make the state a leader in ''entrepreneurial capitalism,'' tap into the power of cities to spur economic development, develop alternative energy industries and address inequities in primary and secondary schools by offering students more options for online course work.
''Entrepreneur'' is a mellifluous word politicians love to use. It conjures up images of larger-than-life businessmen like Bill Gates or inventors like Thomas Edison.
It would be wonderful for Ohio to be a magnet for the next generation of innovators, but Budish's initial outline for creating this mecca of Mensa members is a staid offering of tax credits and other incentives.
Ohio has been in an economic Cold War for almost two decades with every other state in the nation in catering to start-up and standing businesses with tax credits, job-training grants and other breaks. It isn't working.
It is time for our leaders to concentrate on a different approach.
At the same time, Budish unveiled the tried and untrue as a new idea; he reached out to Ohio's large- and medium-sized cities to join a ''compact.''
His compact idea is a trade-off of sorts. In exchange for state help, what Budish calls ''benefits to core communities,'' the new speaker wants cities to cooperate by offering the same income-tax waivers given to companies by the state.
This is a perplexing approach. The early tax credit and incentive programs were created and designed to address the loss of jobs and businesses in rotting urban areas as companies fled to suburbia and elsewhere.
The whole idea was to rebuild the core communities, but that didn't happen because the programs soon evolved into rewarding companies for maintaining or creating jobs anywhere in the state, particularly suburbs.
To his credit, Budish is the first public official to understand that the key to resolving the school-funding problem is no longer money, but to develop a new system of curricula using technology to ensure each student has the opportunity for a high-quality education.
Ohio leaders long have lacked the political will to address the unconstitutional nature of the funding formula.
A more pragmatic approach will be for the state to embrace education as a fundamental right, and then assume responsibility for ensuring that each student — regardless of the building they attend — can take any Advanced Placement, foreign language or other courses he or she chooses.
In nominating Budish today, state Rep. Matt Lundy, D-Elyria, described the new speaker as bold.
Budish is obviously a bright and talented public official. He has a strong resume, graduating from Swarthmore College and holding a law degree from New York University.
He has focused on consumer law, estate planning and senior citizens' rights as an attorney in the Cleveland area. He has written three books, penned a column for two metropolitan Ohio newspapers and hosted a Sunday morning program for consumers on WKYC-TV (Channel 3).
Budish sponsored one bill during his freshman year in the Ohio House that dealt with rental property and utility bill rights. It never moved out of committee.
He became speaker in his second term in large part by raising money — more than $1 million for the Ohio House Democratic Caucus. These funds were used to help Democratic candidates beat Republicans to win a 53-46 majority.
Budish also cleared his way to the speaker's podium by lining up support among African-American and female lawmakers in the Ohio House.
Before the election, Budish was showcasing state Rep. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, as the next chairman of the powerful House Finance Committee.
In addition, Budish extended floor leadership positions to state representatives Tracy Heard, D-Columbus, and Jennifer Garrison, D-Marietta.
These were bold moves to secure the top job in the Ohio House for the next two years.
Now, Budish has to take those same energies and ideas that propelled him to the speaker's chair and develop innovative solutions, short and long term, to Ohio's growing list of problems.
Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com.
COLUMBUS: Ohio's new House Speaker is Armond Budish, who was nominated and sworn in today before members of his family, friends, lobbyists and legislative colleagues.
Budish, from Beachwood, is the first Democrat since Vern Riffe, 14 years, ago, to wield the gavel in the lower chamber.
In his remarks, Budish talked about his vision for Ohio.
He wants to make the state a leader in ''entrepreneurial capitalism,'' tap into the power of cities to spur economic development, develop alternative energy industries and address inequities in primary and secondary schools by offering students more options for online course work.
''Entrepreneur'' is a mellifluous word politicians love to use. It conjures up images of larger-than-life businessmen like Bill Gates or inventors like Thomas Edison.
It would be wonderful for Ohio to be a magnet for the next generation of innovators, but Budish's initial outline for creating this mecca of Mensa members is a staid offering of tax credits and other incentives.
Ohio has been in an economic Cold War for almost two decades with every other state in the nation in catering to start-up and standing businesses with tax credits, job-training grants and other breaks. It isn't working.
It is time for our leaders to concentrate on a different approach.
At the same time, Budish unveiled the tried and untrue as a new idea; he reached out to Ohio's large- and medium-sized cities to join a ''compact.''
His compact idea is a trade-off of sorts. In exchange for state help, what Budish calls ''benefits to core communities,'' the new speaker wants cities to cooperate by offering the same income-tax waivers given to companies by the state.
This is a perplexing approach. The early tax credit and incentive programs were created and designed to address the loss of jobs and businesses in rotting urban areas as companies fled to suburbia and elsewhere.
The whole idea was to rebuild the core communities, but that didn't happen because the programs soon evolved into rewarding companies for maintaining or creating jobs anywhere in the state, particularly suburbs.
To his credit, Budish is the first public official to understand that the key to resolving the school-funding problem is no longer money, but to develop a new system of curricula using technology to ensure each student has the opportunity for a high-quality education.
Ohio leaders long have lacked the political will to address the unconstitutional nature of the funding formula.
A more pragmatic approach will be for the state to embrace education as a fundamental right, and then assume responsibility for ensuring that each student — regardless of the building they attend — can take any Advanced Placement, foreign language or other courses he or she chooses.
In nominating Budish today, state Rep. Matt Lundy, D-Elyria, described the new speaker as bold.
Budish is obviously a bright and talented public official. He has a strong resume, graduating from Swarthmore College and holding a law degree from New York University.
He has focused on consumer law, estate planning and senior citizens' rights as an attorney in the Cleveland area. He has written three books, penned a column for two metropolitan Ohio newspapers and hosted a Sunday morning program for consumers on WKYC-TV (Channel 3).
Budish sponsored one bill during his freshman year in the Ohio House that dealt with rental property and utility bill rights. It never moved out of committee.
He became speaker in his second term in large part by raising money — more than $1 million for the Ohio House Democratic Caucus. These funds were used to help Democratic candidates beat Republicans to win a 53-46 majority.
Budish also cleared his way to the speaker's podium by lining up support among African-American and female lawmakers in the Ohio House.
Before the election, Budish was showcasing state Rep. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, as the next chairman of the powerful House Finance Committee.
In addition, Budish extended floor leadership positions to state representatives Tracy Heard, D-Columbus, and Jennifer Garrison, D-Marietta.
These were bold moves to secure the top job in the Ohio House for the next two years.
Now, Budish has to take those same energies and ideas that propelled him to the speaker's chair and develop innovative solutions, short and long term, to Ohio's growing list of problems.
Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com.
Comments
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Posted 01:50 PM, 01/06/2009
If tax credits and incentives designed to create jobs were a new idea for Ohio, what Budish is proposing might be worth a nickel. But they're not. After decades of such programs being touted by one administration after another as the key to prosperity, if such programs actually worked, beyond a couple examples that are the exception not the rule, Ohio wouldn't be in the deep economic morass it is.
Maybe lawmakers should redirect all the bricks and mortar funding Republicans, and Democrats, smiled at as proof they are addressing the feat of producing a well-funded school system and direct it to putting a broadband computer in every home so kids of all grades can take courses, taught by the best teachers [which poor school districts can't afford], in their own time and at their own pace. Instead of feeding the architect-engineer-school-building-complex, let's put the power of the Internet to work for the sake of our children, which Gov. Strickland and every other elected official pins Ohio's future on.
And forcing cooperation among public jurisdictions makes absolute sense from a business perspective, there will no doubt be resistance from local officials whose egos would see it as encroaching on their authority and criticism of it as creeping socialism from mostly Republicans, who can't see the forest of disaster we're in for the trees of situational partisanship they use to win elective office.
Good luck to Mr. Budish and his agenda. Even if a program makes sense and is passed and signed by the governor, we won't know of its outcome for years to come, at which point some new leader will have his own ideas about what works and doesn't and will throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Rio Linda, CA
Posted 01:25 PM, 01/07/2009
There is one solution to the economic morass the state is in. What sets us apart from the South and the West.....Eliminate public sector collective bargaining.
Cuyahoga Falls, Oh
Posted 10:32 PM, 01/08/2009
Um...big don?
Is California a part of the "West" you're referring to? fyi, the union movement is still growing there. Ditto New Mexico, and other states with a conceince!
The South, well, it's had it's arse whipped before, eh?
