The Buckeye Institute releases a fascinating survey:

COLUMBUS – The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions today released a statewide poll of 1,800 registered voters that shows Ohioans are at odds with their government leaders on the major issues of the day, especially on government compensation, regulations, and Ohio’s pro-union policies. Magellan Data and Mapping Strategies of Broomfield, Colorado, conducted the poll on July 19, 2010, via an autodial survey of registered voters from across Ohio. Because of the large sample, the survey has a margin of error of 2.31%.

Here are some top-line numbers:

· 50% think government leaders should first reduce government worker compensation to eliminate the $8 billion
budget state deficit;
· Only 16% think taxes should be increased to eliminate the Ohio deficit;
· 52% think Ohio’s state and local taxes are too high;
· 56% think Ohio’s regulatory environment makes it harder for businesses to create jobs and grow;
· 85% think workers should be free to choose whether to join a labor union to get a job; and
· 67% think we should stick with coal or add nuclear and natural gas energy.

Other than for government workers who think cutting compensation and cutting services are equally appealing, every other demographic group chose cutting government compensation as the top choice to cut the deficit. Except for one group, every demographic group thinks Ohio’s taxes are too high by a majority or plurality.

On Ohio’s regulatory environment, every demographic group by a majority or plurality feels our regulations make it harder for businesses to create jobs and grow. The most stunning result is that all demographic groups support a worker’s freedom to choose whether or not to join a union to get a job with all but five groups polling at over 80 percent. A whopping 93% of Republicans, 87.7% of Independents, and 77.2% of Democrats want workers to have the freedom to choose.

Buckeye Institute President Matt A. Mayer noted, “It is clear Ohioans believe that business as usual is not sustainable. As always, common sense Ohioans are ahead of the politicians. I hope our elected officials follow the people and don’t just say, but do the right thing to get Ohio growing and prosperous again.”

It is absolute insanity that Ohio’s public employees have defined benefit plans, where the payments are based on the last few years of work, when their salary is the highest. In the Lancaster Gazette, the President of the Buckeye Institute has some important advice that will certainly be ignored:

Pooled pension plans used to be common in the private sector, but they were abandoned in favor of defined contribution plans, such as a 401(k).

Some conservatives are saying public employee retirement should mirror the private sector.

“The private sector has long said ‘no’ to defined benefit plans,” said Matt Mayer, head of the Buckeye Institute, a conservative think tank.

The Buckeye Institute recently released a report calling for deep cuts to public employee pensions to save the state money. The institute calls for elimination of longevity pay, cost-of-living increases, a lower employer contribution, and a move to a 401(k)-like plan. The moves would save $2 billion in the next two-year state budget alone, the report concludes.

In Mayer’s opinion, the proposed changes by the retirement system don’t nearly go far enough, and he doesn’t see the political will to do more in the Legislature.

“Politicians always do this nibbling on the margins to not address the real problem,” Mayer said.

[State Rep. Lynn] Wachtmann [R-Napoleon] agrees with some of Mayer’s sentiments. He said final average salary should be based on a 30-year average, and that the state should move to a defined contribution plan.

From NBC 4… check out Matt’s very fashionable soccer uniform!:

It is absolutely incredible that someone would argue that the point of COTA projects is the jobs involved in those specific, temporary projects. If the goal was simply increased employment numbers, why not give workers a pile of tablespoons and tell them all to dig ditches?

COTA is slow, most buses are quite empty throughout the day, can be dangerous, and is not a service that most busy professionals would consider as a replacement to their car. And for the disabled, the amount of money spent on the technology to make busses handicapped accessible is absurd when considering how few actually ride COTA.

I fail to see how increasing the capacity to bus indigents from one side of the city to another spurs real economic growth and prosperity.

From The Toledo Blade:

COLUMBUS – Despite spending more than $4 billion annually on state and local government pensions, Ohio taxpayers have little access to retirement records.

They cannot find out how much individual public retirees receive.

Or how much workers and taxpayers paid toward those pensions pensions.

Or how many years the employees worked.

Or even, in some cases, who’s getting the benefits.

State law prevents Ohio’s five public pension systems from disclosing many details about individual retirees.

With state leaders talking reform of the pension systems and the possibility that taxpayers may be asked to kick in at least $325 million more annually, that lack of openness raises several questions.

How can taxpayers be assured they aren’t being taken advantage of? How well do the pension systems track and catch potential abuse? And how can state lawmakers consider changes without examining the specific details?

”It’s outrageous. That is not the kind of transparency that we need in government,” said Matt Mayer, president of the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions in Columbus. ”These gold-plated pensions are one of the greatest drivers of public government, and if we can’t determine how we are compensating these folks with taxpayer money, we can’t fix the ever-increasing cost of government.”

It is outrageous… There is serious pressure from political interests to keep exact details of double- and triple- dipping secret, where public employees retire and return back to work- thus collecting multiple sources of income from the state. And being a public employee is fantastic, as not only are multiple pensions possible, but they are inoculated from market forces- IE, the State Teacher’s Retirement System can loose roughly $2 billion during the recent market downturn, but benefits remain the same, as taxpayers are apparently loving and generous people.

And I’ve seen first hand how secret the information is- I attempted working with various state public pension systems in hopes of crunching numbers to show how wildly exaggerated Ted Strickland’s campaigns claims about Lehman Brother’s are. Without needing specific, personal pension information, I was repeatedly rejected. Apparently, newspapers have also had the same problem.

There needs to be more transparency in state government. And considering the next shoe to drop in our country’s economic collapse are unsustainable public pension systems, that MIGHT be a good place to start.

From Matt Mayer:

THE Ohio job market is in tatters. It has been weak for two decades. New unemployment data suggest an even more troubling outlook.

If Ohioans want a vibrant job market, we must start making tough choices to defang entrenched interests, notably labor unions and big government. The failure to act will only ensure that more Ohio businesses move to states where they can create jobs free of artificially expensive labor costs and inflexibility, and an overly burdensome government.

The Buckeye Institute’s new report, “State of the State: Two Decades of Weak Job Growth and Skyrocketing Government Costs Pose Daunting Challenges to Ohioans” states that when the U.S. economy boomed in the 1990s, Ohio’s job growth was just the 37th best in America. And when the economy went bust after the dotcom/technology crashes in 2000, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and the housing/financial crash in 2008, Ohio lost more jobs than every other state except Michigan.

Between 1990 and last year, Ohio had the third-worst job market in the United States. Over two decades, the number of nonfarm, nongovernment jobs in our state increased by a mere 79,900 – fewer than 4,000 jobs a year in a state of more than 11.4 million people.

One reason for Ohio’s weak job market is its pro-union policies. The 28 states that force workers to join a union had average increases in jobs from 1990 until now of 16 percent, or less than 1 percent per year. The 22 states that protect a worker’s economic freedom had average increases in jobs of 36 percent, more than twice the rate of pro-union states.

Read the rest here.

From the same group that just today announced it booted Ohio ACORN out of Ohio,  Buckeye Institute’s Mayer finds the latest government data troubling:

With the March 2010 employment data, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) revised its state employment data back to 1990 (www.bls.gov/eag/eag.oh.htm).  As you may recall, our report, “State of the State: Two Decades of Weak Job Growth and Skyrocketing Government Costs Pose Daunting Challenges for Ohioans,” highlighted several sobering pieces of BLS employment data (original data from the report in parens below).  The new BLS data paints an even more troubling outlook for Ohio.

Specifically, from January 1990 to January 2000, Ohio’s job market added 714,900 jobs (720,200), which was the 37th best in America.  From January 2000 to January 2010, Ohio’s job market lost 635,000 jobs (544,100), which was the 2nd worst in America.  From January 1990 to January 2010, Ohio had the 3rd (6th) worst job market in America — Ohio added a net of 79,900 jobs (176,100) over 20 years, or less than 4,000 per year (9,000) for Ohio’s 11.4 million people.  This growth amounted to an increase in jobs of 1.9% (4%) from 20 years earlier.  Only Rhode Island (-1.7%), Michigan (-2.2%), and Connecticut (-4.9%) had worse job markets.

Yikes! Read the rest of the details here.

The Buckeye Institute is under new leadership, and today President Matt Mayer dropped a bomb on policy debates in Ohio. Here is their fantastic new report, “State of the State: Two Decades of Weak Job Growth and Skyrocketing Government Costs Pose Daunting Challenges for Ohioans.”

This isn’t fluffy talk about farmers and trains. This is hard data. Make sure to look up your county:

A great interview from Bob Connors with Buckeye Institute President Matt Mayer on 610 AM WTVN in Columbus:

If we didn’t have leaders like Gov. Strickland who would rather focus on gimmicks and Federal pork than improving the state’s business and tax climate, perhaps Bob Connors wouldn’t have been scared out of the state. (Most listeners don’t know, but he frequently does his show from his home in Florida, a state with no income tax.)

Considering how cutting-edge a 39 mph train is, perhaps Strickland’s next innovative plan will involve telegraph lines, river boats, or perhaps a horse-drawn carriage taxi service?