Featured Article
Ohio's High Court Back on Right Track
By David Owsiany
What
a difference just a few years make. Since 2002, three justices who
played an important and controversial role in defining the Ohio Supreme
Court's direction for a number of years have retired. Their
replacements quietly have helped move the court in a direction that
significantly benefits Ohio and its residents.
Buckeye Voices
Wall Street Journal editorial board member and senior economic writer Steve Moore joins David Hansen for a discussion on Ohio's unfriendly business climate. Moore was the author of a March 3 Wall Street Journal editorial comparing Ohio's economic failure to Texas's economic boom. The article is available here
Ed Funding Should Put Kids First
The Canton Repository editorializes "The root of the school funding problem in Ohio is neither spendthrift school districts nor skinflint voters. The problem is an unconstitutional funding system that the majority of state legislators have tinkered with but haven't had the desire or courage to fix."
In
Shortchanging
Students in High-Poverty School Districts, Matthew Carr, Marc
Holley, and Nathan Gray write,"Ohio's school funding system
has been the source of heated debate, legislative amendment, litigation
and general concern for so long that it is difficult to accurately
determine just when it all became such a consuming issue. At the heart
of all this controversy has been, and continues to be, the question of
how the state distributes education resources. At present,
disadvantaged students are being shortchanged by the state's
school funding formula, and policies that put the preferences of
teachers ahead of the needs of students are to blame."
Bad Debt for Ohio's Future
According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, "Unveiled in his second State of the State address last month, Strickland's $1.7 billion borrowing plan has received an icy reception from Republican lawmakers who aren't buying the Democrats' borrow-and-spend approach to stimulating Ohio's slumping economy. In particular, House Speaker Jon Husted - as canny as they come on his side of the street - had sharp words for the borrow-fest, comparing it to maxing out the state's credit card."
In
Governor's New Deal is a
Raw Deal,
Buckeye Institute Senior Research Fellow Sam Staley
writes, "Ohioans already spend nearly four months working off the cost
of local, state, and federal government services. With the
new debt the governor wants to heap on, taxpayers are destined to add
another month working for the government. This leaves fewer and fewer
dollars to fuel economic growth in the private economy.
That's a recipe for driving away entrepreneurship and private
investment, not keeping or nurturing it."
Business Flexibility Benefits Consumers
The Dayton Daily News reports, "The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld decisions by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to allow telephone companies to raise rates at will for basic phone service and basic Caller ID. The PUCO created the 'alternative regulation' program in 2006 at the direction of the Ohio General Assembly. Telephone companies said they need pricing flexibility -- rather than having to request PUCO approval for each price increase -- to respond to market competition from cable companies, wireless phone providers and Internet-based phone service."
In
Ohio
Consumers' Counsel Wants to Put Consumers on Hold
Marc Kilmer writes "The history of telephone service shows that when
regulations
are decreased and flexibility increased, consumers benefit. It
wasn't so long ago that long distance was heavily regulated.
The result was poor service at a high price. Now that regulations on
long distance have been reduced consumers are benefiting from better
service at much lower rates. As recently as 1984 a long distance call
cost fifty-two cents a minute. Under certain plans now, however, you
can make the same call for one cent a minute. Businesses did not
develop these consumer-friendly prices because of government mandates.
On the contrary, we enjoy them because government removed its
mandates."
Buckeye Institute in the News
The Weekly Standard mentioned Buckeye Institute President David Hansen's research on Ohio's economy in a report on the Ohio primary.
The Columbus Dispatch published David Owsiany's article on the Ohio Supreme Court.
In his weekly New York Sun column, Buckeye Institute Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow Ken Blackwell discusses gun rights and the Supreme Court.
The Hillsoboro Times-Gazette published Marc Kilmer's article on Ohio's Medicaid problems.
