Featured Articles
Demand Accountability
By Ken BlackwellThe Dow dropped 504 points as major American corporations nosedived, some of which are being saved with your tax money. It is way past the time to give corporate executives additional incentives to avoid asking for a congressional bailout. Instead they must run their companies responsibly.
Letting the Bedbugs Bite
By Marc KilmerAs a kid my grandfather would often say as I headed to bed, "don't let the bedbugs bite." I was always confused by that, never having experienced a bedbug. I always assumed that, much like my grandfather's reference to "iceboxes," bedbugs were a thing that belonged to the past. But people throughout Ohio - and the nation - are finding that bedbugs are a real problem in some areas. Their resurgence is a good lesson in just how well-intentioned government regulations can have very negative consequences.
Buckeye Voices
How can Ohio State University afford to create a new $300k job and hand it over to term limited State Rep. Joyce Beatty? BuckeyeVoices' David Hansen and Mike Maurer discuss the controversial hiring and what it means to a state facing budget shortfalls and lost private sector jobs.
Save the Date
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Join us for the Buckeye Institute's Second Annual Founder's Lecture and Breakfast in Cleveland or for a Brown Bag Luncheon in Columbus with Matthew Spalding, Ph.D., the Heritage Foundation's director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies.
7:30
A.M.
The Union Club Ballroom
Cleveland
Noon
Ohio Chamber of Commerce
Columbus
Registration information will be sent to all friends and donors of the Buckeye Institute. Online event details will be available at http://buckeyeinstitute.org/events.php or contact Heidi Smith at hsmith@buckeyeinstitute.org.
Killing Ohio Jobs
The
Columbus Dispatch
reports,
"Asked if he was working on any issues this fall that could see action
when lawmakers return in November, Senate President Bill Harris pointed
to Gov. Ted Strickland's recent changes to prevailing wage
rules, which Harris called a job killer."
In
Hamilton County Jail
Needs to Escape Prevailing Wage,
Buckeye
Institute President David Hansen
writes, "Ohio's prevailing wage law requires state and local government
to pay above-market wages on all major construction projects.
These wages are not really 'prevailing' in the sense that markets
freely determine the wage rate based on supply and demand. Instead,
bureaucrats determine the prevailing wage using local union wage and
benefit rates. Prevailing wage is a price-setting scheme a
Soviet apparatchik would be proud of."
Time for Bold Economic Ideas
"Ohio's unemployment rate increased to 7.4 percent in August, the highest jobless rate since October 1992, according to data released Friday, Sept. 19, by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services," according to the Dayton Daily News.
In Eliminate Income Tax and See Ohio Thrive, Buckeye Institute analyst Marc Kilmer writes, "Ohio needs strong political leadership to address its economic decline. The failed programs of Governors Taft and Strickland have only resulted in a continuing slide into stagnation. Eliminating the state income tax will revive Ohio's economy and give more freedom to its citizens. If political leaders are serious about helping turn the state around, they should embrace this bold idea instead of relying on the failed policies of the past."
Eliminating the Secret Ballot
The Zanesville Times Recorder reports that Barack Obama "supports strengthening the ability of workers to organize unions, and will fight for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. This would allow employees to form unions without an election, based solely on signing of authorization cards. Obama also supports banning the permanent replacement of striking workers."
In
Eliminating Union Vote
Unfair to Workers and Employers,
Buckeye Institute fellow David Owsiany writes,
"Under the current system, businesses have the ability to educate their
employees on their vision for the future and the potential impact of
unionization. And, of course, the union has the ability to present its
side. This is the type of free speech that should be preserved to
ensure employees are making informed decisions on unionization. The
[Employee Free Choice] Act is even more threatening for employees, who
under the current system are protected from coercion by either side.
The private ballot allows employees to vote their conscience, free from
having a union boss looking over their shoulders."
Buckeye
Institute in the News
Buckeye Institute Senior Fellow David Kirkpatrick's article on the difficulty of school reform was published by the Hillsboro Times Gazette.
