A study by Policy Matters Ohio for the Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners has concluded that a county living wage requirement would benefit a significant number of employees at county contractors. At the same time, Policy Matters found, a large majority of such employees already are paid $10 an hour or more, and such a requirement is not likely to impose major additional costs.

About 120 cities and counties have living wage laws, which require service contractors and sometimes also economic development aid recipients to pay a wage above the state minimum to covered employees. The cities of Cleveland, Lakewood, Cincinnati, Dayton and Toledo have living wage requirements, as do major counties such as Cook County, IL., and Wayne County, MI., and the state of Maryland.

The Policy Matters report, completed in June 2007, describes current living wage ordinances around the country; reviews existing literature on these laws, and considers the impact on for-profit and nonprofit employers, employees and government. It examines living-wage requirements in large U.S. counties and Ohio cities, with a special focus on the Cleveland and Lakewood experiences. In considering the potential effect of such a requirement on Cuyahoga County, the report reviews recent county contracts and summarizes a survey Policy Matters conducted of county contractors. It also considers the possible effects on the Small Business Enterprise program, economic development grants the county receives from the state and federal governments and county financial aid to employers. Finally, the report provides recommendations for a county living wage requirement.

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Despite slight improvement, state is No. 6 in delinquent loans, report shows
By Denise Trowbridge

Columbus Dispatch

Troubles caused by subprime mortgage loans are still a sore spot in Ohio.

The state had 19.9 percent of its subprime adjustable-rate loans, the type typically made to borrowers with poor or no credit, go 90 days past due or into foreclosure during the first quarter of this year. That compared with 10.1 percent nationwide. About 2 percent of prime, fixed-rate mortgages were delinquent, almost triple the national average.

And even though late payments on many types of mortgage loans have declined slightly this year, Ohio ranked No. 1 in the nation in percentage of houses in foreclosure and No. 6 for delinquent loans, according to a recent survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Job losses and slow economic growth, coupled with only modest gains in home prices, are part of the reason Ohio is experiencing more foreclosures and late payments than other states, said Richard DeKaser, chief economist with National City.

“The state hasn’t recovered even a quarter of the jobs lost in the first four years of this decade,” he said.

Those lost jobs have translated into low population growth, which has held down house prices.

“It’s relevant because when house prices rise, people accumulate equity by just standing there, and if they get into trouble, they can avoid foreclosure by selling or refinancing,” DeKaser said.

Predatory lending is another factor, he said. About half of the sheriff’s offices in Ohio, which regulate pre-foreclosure sheriff’s sales, cited predatory lending as the leading reason for foreclosure in their counties, according to Policy Matters Ohio, a nonprofit research group in Cleveland.

Other personal events also are pushing some homeowners over the edge.

“The No. 1 reason people miss their house payments is loss of a job, but sometimes it can be something as simple as a medical emergency that’s created a series of medical bills, a family situation like a divorce, or just too much debt,” said Kathy Virgallito of Consumer Credit Counseling Services in Columbus.

Rising interest rates on adjustable-rate mortgage loans, known as ARMs, also are crimping budgets.

“We’re seeing a lot of people whose ARMs are adjusting up. If they’re not prepared, it certainly takes a huge toll on their budget,” Virgallito said.

“The typical solution is to downsize, sell your house and get into something less expensive, but people are stuck,” she said. “They’re not able to sell the home (quickly) and so they’re becoming more and more delinquent.”

Ohio isn’t the only state having mortgage pains. Indiana and Michigan are in a similar situation. The three states account for 8.7 percent of mortgage loans in the country but 19.9 percent of loans in foreclosure and 15 percent of all loans that entered foreclosure during the first quarter of this year.

Late payments on all mortgages in Ohio fell to 5.87 percent in the first quarter, a 1.38 percentage point drop from the fourth quarter last year. The national average was 4.84 percent, down from 4.95 percent.

Port Clinton News Herald

Associated Press

COLUMBUS — A looming revenue shortfall that could top $240 million threatened today to cloud state budget negotiations thus far so genial that one lawmaker suggested a chorus of “Kumbaya.”

The $53.4 billion spending blueprint cleared the Senate Finance Committee unanimously after garnering support from both parties for its priority items. Among its highlights are: a two-year tuition freeze at state colleges and universities, property tax breaks for disabled Ohioans and those over 65, expanded health coverage for children and more money for pre-school and after-school care.

Though the lag between tax revenue projections and collections has not yet been finalized, lawmakers and Gov. Ted Strickland agreed that figuring out what spending to cut to fill the gap will be a key challenge heading into talks on the final budget compromise.

The Senate’s version of the budget, a bill that will fund state operations for the two years beginning July 1, calls for spending $1.3 billion more than the House version.

“I almost feel like we should hold hands, sing ‘Kumbaya,’ and kiss one another,” said Sen. Ray Miller, a Columbus Democrat, during today’s hearing on final budget changes in the Senate.

After a vote by the full Senate on Wednesday — expected to be unanimous, as it was in the House — Republican lawmakers who control the House and Senate have until the end of the month to mesh their spending plans and conform the final product to the adjusted bottom line.

Senate Minority Leader Teresa Fedor, a Toledo Democrat, had an early suggestion for making ends meet, though: Rein in state-funded charter schools and send the money spent on them back to public schools. A former public school teacher, Fedor vowed that her caucus would make the issue a focal point of the final talks.

Another money-generating option that was being discussed heading into the last 18 days of budget negotiations was to limit Strickland’s proposed across-the-board property tax exemption for senior citizens and the disabled to only low- and middle-income people.

Such a change would save the state at least $118 million a year, according to a recent Policy Matters Ohio study put together by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C.

Targeting homestead exemption would save Ohio $118 million a year

Targeting the expansion of the property tax exemption proposed by Gov. Ted Strickland
would save the state at least $118 million a year, while directing the same or greater tax
reductions to low- and moderate-income Ohioans who most need property-tax cuts.
Those were among the conclusions of an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and
Economic Policy that was released today by Policy Matters Ohio.

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Ohio job market: No sign of improvement

Ohio’s job market continues to bump along without signs of improvement. Job levels have
moved up and down in a relatively narrow band and are now about where they were two years ago, according to seasonally adjusted payroll numbers for nonfarm wage and salary jobs released June 15 by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS). Overall, the number of jobs in the state remains below where it was when the recession officially ended in November 2001. Month-to-month data can be volatile and are later revised, so it is unwise to put too much weight in a single month.

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