Setting priorities key for new governor
By Holly Pupino
WEST AKRON — With only 15 days on the job, Gov. Ted Strickland said setting priorities and finding efficiencies are even more important now that it looks as if the state will have “between $1 billion and $1.5 billion fewer resources” at its disposal. Strickland said those priorities are creating jobs, improving education at all levels and making health care accessible for all Ohioans.
Speaking to the Akron Roundtable Jan. 18, Strickland told a crowd of business leaders at Tangier restaurant that former Gov. Bob Taft had projected 3 percent growth in revenues for the 2007 fiscal year, beginning July 1, but his team estimates that number to be 1.4 percent. Both administrations have projected zero growth in the 2008 fiscal year. The difference in the numbers comes after taking into account various tax provisions, such as military income exemptions and changes in how snowbirds, or Ohio residents who live a portion of the year outside of the state, are taxed.
“As I said during my campaign, we are going to have to live within our means and invest in things that truly matter,” said Strickland.
Strickland told advocates for mental health care, child care, education and other special interests that they will have to live with “trade-offs” in funding.
Strickland said that some of his advisers have told him it is traditionally early in the budget process to release such projections. But the new governor said, “I have promised the people of this state transparency.”
The governor must present his
first two-year budget to
the legislature by March 15.
During his talk and at a press
conference just before the luncheon, Strickland discussed
meetings he had in recent days with business leaders,
foundation directors and Republican Sen. George Voinovich
concerning his top-priority issues. He said he would
meet soon with the presidents of colleges and universities
to discuss “systemic” ways of saving money,
such as contracting for supplies, services and energy
as a group rather than as individual institutions.
“We will need to streamline
government, be accountable and invest in accountability
measures,” Strickland said.
Strickland said he would like
to see the governor have more accountability for Ohio’s
colleges and universities, which are collectively ranked
amongst the worst nationwide in affordability. Strickland
said he would like to see the chancellor of the Ohio
Board of Regents appointed by the governor.
“That higher education
has become so unaffordable to many, or that students
have to put themselves in such severe debt, in my judgment,
is intolerable and unacceptable,” he said.
Regarding the proposed constitutional
amendment on school funding unveiled just a day before
his Akron visit, Strickland said he applauds the efforts
of the organizations behind it but would not support
it, saying the proposal has flaws and moves power from
the state legislature and executive branch to the State
Board of Education.
“As Harry S. Truman said,
‘The buck stops here’ in my office and the
legislature,” he said. “I will not turn
this issue [school funding] over to a blue ribbon commission
or some other group to get the monkey off my back. I
know the success or failure of my administration will
rest on this issue.”
Gov. Ted Strickland spoke at the Akron Roundtable Jan. 18. Photo: Holly Pupino
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