For the fourth consecutive year, Ohio has won the Governor’s Cup for the largest number of new or expanded private-sector project announcements, outdistancing Texas, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
A Tax Foundation summary of significant state tax changes identifies these Ohio developments in 2009: “Ohio reduced its income tax across the board slightly as part of a package to phase out the corporate income tax, phase in a gross receipts tax, cut the sales tax slightly, phase out the inventory tax, and reduce the income tax by 21 percent over five years.The income tax reduction scheduled for 2010 has been postponed.”
“We have reduced the size of government by 5,000 employees since I became governor three years ago, and we have continued even in this recession to invest in education and job creation,” Strickland says. “We have increased funding for elementary and secondary education by an average of 5.5 percent over the biennial budget we are currently living through. I believe we have done more than any other state in America to constrain the costs of college tuition at our public institutions.”
“The single biggest factor in inhibiting a robust economic recovery in my judgment is lack of access to capital, especially on the part of smaller manufacturers. I am convinced that if capital were readily available, investments would be made and jobs would be created. I hear that every day.”
The president has suggested a $30-billion fund to encourage banks to make capital more readily available, notes Strickland.
“I fear that the manufacturing sectors, especially the smaller manufacturers with 50 to 500 employees, will perhaps not benefit from this measure as I think they need to benefit,” he says. “If we can get greater access to capital, we will see this economy start to grow rapidly.”
