Economics for the 21st Century Marketplace

By Connie Pillich

In order to attract businesses of the 21st Century, we must scrutinize our budget and divert our spending priorities to things to attract those businesses.

Every organization, regardless of its effectiveness, needs to periodically step back and examine itself. In the Air Force, we called this a self-inspection. Every year, we reviewed our operations and administrative procedures; and every 12-24 months, the Air Force Inspector General visited our base to see how we were doing our jobs. This evaluation process confirmed our successes, showed where there was room for improvement, and ensured our accountability to the citizens who depended upon us.

Ohio can do the same. Our state auditor can conduct performance audits. Unfortunately, the state auditor's office has not conducted a performance audit of any state agency in a very long time, and the legislature refuses to require performance audits as a part of the budgeting process. These audits are needed.

A timely audit would have revealed problems in Hamilton County's Jobs & Family Services that surfaced recently and will cost taxpayers over $200 million dollars.

Performance audits will show us where we can trim fat in expenditures. This will free up revenue to be diverted to other uses. But where to spend it?

I believe that the key to the state's future lies in advancing our economy to keep up with the changes in the national and emerging global markets. It's no secret that Ohio is trailing the national economy. Ohio is last in the nation in job growth and nearly last in new companies. We need to attract 21st century businesses in order to compete.

How do we this? I've been meeting with economic development directors from municipalities throughout northern Hamilton County. What I learned is that 21st century businesses don't make location decisions on tax gimmicks. Instead they look for a stable, educated work force and access to reliable infrastructure. Both are key elements to business success.

A stable workforce is the product of good schools + K-12 schools and higher education such as technical and trade schools, colleges, and universities. Without an educated population to work at 21st century jobs, 21st century industries cannot survive.

Unfortunately, Ohio's colleges and universities are becoming less accessible to many young people each year due to escalating tuition costs. Tuition at Ohio public colleges and universities went up 6% this year, making it 46% above the national average. And state funding went down. Parents seeking to send their children to college are finding that other states invest more in their universities and lower the tuition rates + even for non-resident students. Correspondingly, all of those other states have better job growth than Ohio.

In addition to a stable work force, 21st century industries rely on dependable infrastructure: good roads, highways, rail, communications, water, and energy. We must improve and update our interstate highways and other transportation systems to handle the growing traffic volume. And, we must ensure that all types of infrastructure are well-built and reliable.

Ohio collects plenty of tax revenue. We're just not spending it wisely. Performance audits will let us know where we've been and let us start working for our future.