Blog — Greater Ohio Policy Center

Catalyzing Local Government Collaboration

Pundits and media reports, including several articles in the Columbus Dispatch this past weekend, calling for significant changes to Ohio's governance structure indicate increasing attention being paid to governance reform recommendations outlined in Greater Ohio's Restoring Prosperity to Ohio agenda.  Governance reform – including recommendations such as rewarding localities that adopt innovative service delivery and shared services -- is a major thrust in the Greater Ohio agenda, and is an area that needs to be addressed urgently and boldly, particularly in light of the current budget problems the state is facing. To capture this growing recognition of the need for local governance reform, we further recommend re-establishment of the former State and Local Government Commission as a logical next step to the Local Government Reform and Collaboration recently released report.

This newly established Commission would research and outline ways to implement key state and local government reforms, such as encouraging shared service delivery collaboration and making regional tax sharing permissive, intended to lead to great cost savings for Ohio taxpayers.

After reviewing the Local Government Reform and Collaboration's underwhelming final report, we looked around the state and country, where we found numerous places taking local government reform seriously. New York recently provided 20 highly specific recommendations focused on seven different areas of governance reform. In neighboring Indiana, a commission issued 27 bold recommendations that included townships and school districts.

In Ohio, we too, have examples of innovative governance reform, albeit smaller in scale:

  • Montgomery County takes a portion of each year’s sales tax revenue to provide grants for economic development projects through it ED/GE program. Any increased property and income tax revenues collected are shared with program members.
  • A 16-county group in northeastern Ohio is developing a structure for coordinated regional land use planning and tax sharing.

With a biennial budget gap of approximately $8 billion looming and data from our recent Restoring Prosperity report showing that local government payroll in Ohio is 17.5 percent above the average of peer states, the time for change is now. We encourage the next administration to make local government reform a high priority starting with the re-establishment of the former State and Local Government Commission, support the nascent efforts under way in our state and follow the lead of other states.  As we have met with stakeholders and local interest groups throughout Ohio, we have found great interest in the re-establishment of this Commission and appreciate all the feedback and advice we have collected.

Our work has just begun – and there is much more work to do. The gap between costs and revenues at the local level continues to widen. We must act now to pave the way for Ohio’s entry into the competitive next economy. If we hold back now, we will pay later.

Restoring Prosperity to Lima

By Gene Krebs. Yesterday I had the pleasure of speaking to a combined group of nearly to 200 Lima Rotarians and members of the Chamber of Commerce about the Restoring Prosperity to Ohio initiative.

Lima can compete in the next economy, but it needs to reduce its core costs.  This can be done through governance reform as well as increased emphasis on innovation and infrastructure.  This approach is necessary to give citizens better services and a greater return on their tax dollars.  These changes will also foster a more positive environment for long term job growth.

Restoring Prosperity Recommendations Influencing Public Discourse

Shifting Spending to Classrooms Through Consolidation and Shared Services. In recent days, research from Greater Ohio Policy Center and the Brookings Institution has been cited in media reports and the gubernatorial race, and sparked debate about how to use resources more effectively in Ohio schools.

Receiving exposure are statistics in the report that highlight inefficiencies in the way schools have long operated in Ohio. According to the Restoring Prosperity report, Ohio ranks 47th in the nation in the share of elementary and secondary education spending that goes to instruction and ninth in the share that goes to administration. In addition, Ohio’s share of spending on school district administration is 49 percent higher than that national average.  While these particular statistics do not take into account Governor Strickland's recently passed Evidence-Based Model approach to education, they do point to the ongoing need to pay attention to high administrative costs and the looking to school consolidation and sharing services as a solution.

More attention given to data from the two organizations’ report – Restoring Prosperity: Transforming Ohio’s Communities for the Next Economy – is expected as the races of the 2010 campaign season intensify. The references point to the relevance of the data to the current economic environment in Ohio. We are at a crossroads.

In response to these statistics and other analysis, recommendations from the Restoring Prosperity report target government reform, specifically among the state’s school districts. Recommendations encourage Ohio leaders to:

  • Makes the cost of school district administration costs transparent to Ohio.
  • Push school districts to enter into aggressive shared-services agreements.
  • Create a BRAC-like commission to mandate best practices in administration and cut the number of Ohio’s school districts by at least one-third.

Indeed a few school districts in Ohio are already rising to the occasion to achieve greater efficiencies. In northeastern Ohio, two districts – Orrville and Rittman Exempted Village Schools – share a superintendent and treasurer and are searching for additional ways to collaborate.

In Greene County, officials are in the process of identifying and developing models for sharing services and funds between school districts.  And in Northwest Ohio, voters will go to the polls next month to decide whether they want to further explore consolidation in two small districts in Hancock County.

Such initiatives are promising and point Ohio in the right direction. They are part of a broader call for local governance reform, and their success facilitates solving other more pressing issues facing the state, such as land use and assisting in the physical transformation of Ohio’s cities. Both school reform and building stronger communities are integral in positioning Ohio for achievement in the next economy.

Hamilton County Land Bank Efforts

Check out this blog post from UrbanCincy detailing efforts in Hamilton County to form a county land bank.  This process of bringing together government leaders, nonprofits and other interested parties is being repeated across  the state as counties attempt to answer the questions of if they should form a county land bank and then determine how to best fund and operate one.  As communities have these conversations, we welcome them to use Greater Ohio Policy Center as a resource.

Columbus Neighborhood Targeted to Become Urban Food Campus

The Columbus Dispatch reported today that the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission was awarded an $864,989 federal grant from HUD to revitalize Columbus' Weinland Park community with a year-round farmers market, dozens of community gardens and a restaurant selling locally produced food.  The area could also be home to a food-processing center and business incubator.  This would be a unique approach to urban redevelopment for its food-production system based approach.

It’s great to see increased investments in our core cities and neighboring communities, especially an innovative project like this one.  The vision to create a “neighborhood food campus” is a creative solution to repurposing the vacant land in the neighborhood.  This is also a much needed improvement because Weinland Park is a food desert with limited access to fresh produce.  The plans should be completed by 2012, and we look forward to seeing this project progress.

The Dispatch on Governance Reform

By Gene Krebs. It is really fantastic that the Columbus Dispatch is following the story Greater Ohio has been advocating for the past several years; that of governance reform.  The state’s budget problem is huge and local governance reform is an important piece of the solution.  The frame we often use for local government reform is that if Ohio were a house, we have built the house so that every bedroom has its own fully equipped and stocked private kitchen.  In addition, we do not even shop for food at Costco or Sam’s; we instead shop at the local convenience store and buy our milk in half pints, twenty at a time.  This grand expenditure of taxpayer money is perhaps one of the reasons why Ohio is struggling to compete.

“Plugging the hole” – four of Ohio’s best budget brains discuss the state’s next two-year budget

“Candidates agree: too much government” – 20th House District candidates consider local government changes

“Ohioans need to hear the truth about cost of their government” – Joe Hallett’s editorial about consolidating local government

The Dispatch has been taking a lead on this policy story, and we hope that other papers around Ohio start covering this topic.  Please contact your paper and urge them to explore how their tax dollars are being wasted.  Flushed.  Gone down the tubes.  Up in smoke.  You pick a cliché.  Heavens knows there are more.

Shaping the State

Overview of Key Demographic Trends Facing Ohio and Implications for Policy-making and Ohio's Future Competitiveness

Greater Ohio Policy Center conducted this comparative analysis of demographic trends in Ohio, its metros and the nation from 2000 to 2008.  The analysis builds on the national trends articulated in the Brookings Institution’s State of Metropolitan America report : State of Metropolitan America: On the Front Lines of Demographic Transformation.

These trends have critical implications for the future of our state and it is our contention that they should guide future policy-making aimed at positioning Ohio to compete successfully in the next economy, which will be low-carbon, export-oriented, metropolitan-lead, and innovation-driven and is discussed in more detail in our recent report Restoring Prosperity: Transforming Ohio Communities for the Next Economy.

To see detailed data analysis on a specific demographic trend either click on the relevant anaylsis listed below or use the hyperlinks in the table above.

Interested in learning more?