You are invited to a town hall on consumer finance at the Cleveland Public Library Louis Stokes Wing Auditorium.

525 Superior Avenue N.E.

Cleveland, Ohio

Wednesday, December 7, 2011 at 5:30 P.M.
_________________________
Remarks by Raj Date, Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The town hall will include a panel of community leaders and an opportunity to share your story and experiences with the CFPB about consumer financial products and services.

This event is open to the public and requires an RSVP.

To RSVP, email your full name to cfpb.events @ cfpb.gov

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In this video clip, Amy Hanauer, executive director of Policy Matters Ohio, discusses with Richard Vedder of Ohio University the impact of making Ohio a so-called “right-to-work” state. Among other highlights, Amy cites data showing that states with anti-union laws in place are not doing better economically. This segment starts at minute 9:28 of this episode of The State of Ohio on ideastream.org.

The State of Ohio Episode #1146

For immediate release

Contact David Rothstein at 216.361.9801                                                      Download PDF (4 pages)

For thousands of low- and moderate-income Ohioans, free tax preparation assistance is increasingly available this tax season. Seven Ohio coalitions, with dozens of free tax sites, received grants from the Internal Revenue Service to participate in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. The VITA program provides free tax preparation for low-income and underserved families through trained and certified volunteers. Other free tax preparation efforts include The Ohio Benefit Bank™ and certain tax clinics that together prepare more than 100,000 tax returns in Ohio. The seven grantees received more than $396,000 to expand their free tax preparation services in the communities they serve.

Free tax preparation allows families making about $50,000 or less to receive and keep all of their refund while ensuring proper federal and state tax filing. Paid tax preparation can be expensive, particularly for families living at or below the poverty level. Many economic and social programs are administered through the tax system, making free tax preparation crucial for working families.

Much of the focus of free tax preparation includes helping families to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a refundable tax credit that helps families pay for basic needs. The EITC is the largest national poverty relief program for low- and middle-income families. Its popularity stems from its emphasis on work, its simplicity, and its ability to assist children in low- and moderate-income families. Working families and policymakers praise the EITC because it is refundable – if the credit exceeds the amount owed by the taxpayer, the taxpayer receives a refund for the difference. In 2010, the EITC provided more than 950,000 Ohio families with total refunds of $2.1 billion, an average of $2,100 per claiming family.[1]

Each tax coalition sets income eligibility for free tax preparation. For the VITA program, limits are generally $49,000; the Ohio Benefit Bank™ sets its limit at $60,000. Table 1 lists the seven grant recipients with contact information.

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[1] Internal Revenue Service, “EITC State Statistics at-a-Glance for Tax Year 2010.” http://www.eitc.irs.gov/central/eitcstats/ (updated 10/13/2011).

 

Ohio’s job market remains sluggish

- Data released today by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) from its survey of employers for October 2011 suggest that the state, like the nation, is seeing a slowing recovery. Since July, the state has lost 8,300 jobs after gains earlier in the year. The unemployment rate in October inched down 0.1 point to 9.0 percent from a month earlier. 

Table 1 and Figure 1 highlight changes in the Ohio job market from key points in time. These include the most recent monthly figures, the start of the 2001 and 2007 recessions, and 2005 approval of a major state tax overhaul, which promised speedier economic growth.

These figures include the latest seasonally adjusted data from the monthly survey of employers (Current Employer Survey) done by ODJFS in co-operation with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The survey showed that the number of jobs in the state fell by 600 in October from the month before. As month-to-month data is subject to revision, it is ill advised to rely on month-to-month comparisons. Today’s release revised earlier preliminary data released for September, for instance, reducing the job loss originally reported for that month.

Ohio had 5,421,400 non-farm jobs when the recession began in December 2007. Ohio experienced 28 months of job loss. Ohio’s employment trough occurred in December 2009, when the state had 418,200 fewer jobs than it did before the recession started. Recovery has been painfully slow – the state has added only 58,000 jobs since the recession officially ended in June 2009.

Job loss by sector

Manufacturing has regained some of its September losses, but is still down more than 126,000 jobs since June 2009. The sector did receive some much-needed good news this week. Chrysler announced plans to invest $500 million in the Toledo facility that makes the Jeep Liberty and Dodge Nitro. The investment is projected to create 1,100 jobs. Republic Steel announced an $85 million investment at its Lorain facility, with 450 new jobs projected. This investment is sorely needed, as manufacturing has been the state’s hardest-hit sector in the period since the 2001 recession.

 Most sectors have fewer jobs than they did in March 2001, the official start of the 2001 recession; the major exception is private education and health services, a category that grew by more than 26 percent. An analysis of more recent trends, however, shows that the public sector is the only major sector that has not made some improvement since October 2010.   

Ohio’s jobs deficit

Ohio’s jobs deficit, or the difference between the number of jobs Ohio has and the number it needs to regain its pre-recession employment rate, is 373,100. That number includes the 312,500 jobs Ohio lost plus the 60,600 jobs it needs to keep up with the estimated 1.1 percent growth in population that Ohio has experienced in the 46 months since the recession began. In order to return to pre-Great Recession levels of unemployment in three years, the state must add 10,000 jobs per month. Figure 2 shows the number of jobs lost since December 2007 and the number needed to keep pace with population growth.

Recent WARN notices in Ohio

Unfortunately, some of the job gains just announced for Toledo and Lorain are offset by expected losses reported in October’s mass layoff notices. The Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification (WARN) Act protects workers and communities by requiring employers with more than 100 employees to provide 60 days advance notice of plant closures or mass layoffs. Federal, state, and local government entities are not covered. WARN triggers rapid response services, which can include layoff aversion, training and dislocated worker assistance.

 As Table 2 shows, six WARN Act notices were filed with ODJFS in October 2011, impacting 1,024 workers, of whom 866 are unionized.

Conclusion

Ohio has not recovered from the recession of 2001, and the recession of 2007-09 only deepened Ohio’s ills. The austerity measures being taken at the federal and state levels and the related attacks on the public sector are slowing our recovery and adding to the unemployment rolls. Now is the time for investment, not cuts.

 Ohio needs to help our manufactures remain competitive. The good news announced this week by Republic Steel and Chrysler is evidence that we can rebuild the state’s manufacturing sector. One way to support our manufacturers is through smart workforce training policy. Funding for the Ohio Skills Bank could foster industry partnerships in this sector. Industry partnerships are employer, worker, state, and stakeholder consortiums that work together to identify common human resource challenges and opportunities. A statewide industry partnership program in Pennsylvania brought together 80 partnerships, representing more than 6,300 firms. More than 70,000 workers in Pennsylvania have been trained since the program started in 2005. Workers saw a 6.6 percent average increase in wages in their first year out of training. Ohio should set aside some of its anticipated casino revenue to expand the work of the Skills Bank and support industry partnerships.

 A statewide worksharing policy also would benefit both employers and workers. This would allow the partial payment of unemployment benefits to workers who have had their workweeks shortened as an alternative to being laid off. Employers could retain skilled employees, avoid expensive retraining and rehiring and be ready to produce more when demand improves. Employees could maintain much of their regular income, stay employed, and avoid the disruption of sporadic unemployment.

 Implementing these two policies could change the landscape for Ohio manufacturing, but both require a commitment on the part of policymakers, employers and other stakeholders to innovation and investment, rather than austerity.

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(Report updated November 23, 2011)

        JobWatch is an ongoing project of the Economic Policy Institute (http://www.epinet.org)

 and Policy Matters Ohio, (http://www.policymattersohio.org).

 Both are nonprofit policy research institutes.

The Economist  Nov 12th 2011 | COLUMBUS, OHIO | from the print edition

IN TOUGH economic times it might well seem reasonable to suggest that public-sector workers need to contribute a bit more, or to admit that their unions have extracted some unreasonably generous benefits. Even Democrats such as Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, and Andrew Cuomo, New York’s governor, have said public-sector workers need to tighten their belts. Yet in Ohio the public-sector reforms of the Republican governor, John Kasich, were roundly rejected in a ballot on November 8th.

Earlier this year Ohio’s legislature narrowly approved a bill that banned public-sector workers from striking and greatly restricted their collective-bargaining rights—for example by preventing them from bargaining over health-care benefits. The legislation sparked widespread, union-led, demonstrations that mirrored earlier protests against similar laws in Wisconsin and Indiana. However in Ohio, the state constitution makes it possible to force a public vote on legislation, and by July activists had collected nearly three times the number of signatures they needed to do so.

In the 2010 gubernatorial election, Mr Kasich defeated the Democratic incumbent by promising to address a large budget deficit and stem a tide of job losses. Ohio has shed around 600,000 jobs in a decade—something that only Michigan and California have managed to beat. The new governor interpreted his mandate as standard Republican fare of public-sector restraint and tax cuts.

Something, however, went badly awry, as 61% of voters ended up choosing to repeal Mr Kasich’s collective-bargaining legislation this week. His reforms were widely interpreted as an unfair attack on ordinary Americans. Although some states, such as Texas and Virginia, ban collective bargaining and others restrict it, in Ohio the reaction to this proposition has been far more hostile. The idea that the law went too far reached across party lines, with one conservative commentator saying it offered unions nothing more than collective begging.

The scale of Mr Kasich’s defeat probably came about because his opponents cleverly blended a national debate about inequality with local arguments over what is fair to workers—particularly to the popular firefighters and police. A powerful coalition of public- and private-sector unions united to campaign against the reforms, and to turn the referendum into a broader national argument. The unions made an effective job of selling the idea that Mr Kasich’s tax cuts for the wealthy, such as eliminating inheritance tax, have come at the expense of ordinary workers. Even people who profess not to care much for organised labour say they voted against the legislation.

Amy Hanauer, of Policy Matters Ohio, a left-leaning think-tank, thinks that fear about inequality played a large role. Voters were “not interested in hurting other working people in the name of lowering taxes,” she argues. There is also an issue of tone. Most people in Ohio like to see themselves as moderates, but straight after his election Mr Kasich took an especially punchy conservative line. He enthusiastically told lobbyists at one lunch that if they didn’t get on the bus that “we’ll run over you”. He added for good measure “and I’m not kidding.”

Hope for Mr Obama?

Faced with a sound thumping, Mr Kasich said only he would catch his breath and gather his thoughts. The unions, meanwhile, are not missing a beat. Their next target is the Republican governor of Wisconsin. They are seeking signatures for a vote to unseat Scott Walker and predict they will have enough for a ballot next April, which will be another test of the mood of the heartland.

Looking towards the 2012 election, some strategists think the Ohio result strengthens Barack Obama’s hand in this most critical of swing states. The front-running Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, supported the collective-bargaining legislation, something that Tim Ryan, a local Democratic congressman, smilingly describes as “very helpful”. As for Mr Kasich, while licking his wounds, he must find a way to boost approval ratings now stuck at around 33%. Otherwise, he is more likely to be a hindrance than a help to the Republican nominee next year.

Alumni Profiles from the Robert M. LaFollette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Amy Hanauer didn’t like that the economic expansion in the 1990s had left families in Ohio behind.

“After what many economists characterized as the longest, strongest economic expansion in recorded history, I saw enormous evidence that many Ohio families were not benefiting,” says Hanauer, who completed a master’s degree in public affairs and policy analysis at La Follette in 1997. “What’s more, their stories were not being fully told. My experience in Wisconsin — from the skills I gained at La Follette, to the policy history I read in class, to the direct policy I experienced working for the legislature — all made me feel like I needed to speak out.”

Above: Amy Hanauer, right, at a panel discussion with, from left, former Ohio governor Ted Strickland, Vice President Joe Biden and former U.S. secretary of commerce Gary Locke. Left: Hanauer is the founding executive director of Policy Matters Ohio.

Now executive director of Policy Matters Ohio, Hanauer and her husband, 1992 La Follette grad Mark Cassell, produced the first State of Working Ohio report for the Northeast Ohio Research Consortium. The 1999 quantitative assessment of wages and employment deepened understanding of how economic changes had affected Ohio’s workers. That report was the spark needed to establish Policy Matters Ohio, a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research institute based in Cleveland.

“The 1999 report found that working families weren’t sharing in the economic growth that had taken place over the previous two decades,” Hanauer says. “Unfortunately, that is still the case and has gotten worse — most of the gains in America and Ohio go to the very top of the income scale.”

Since Policy Matters Ohio started in January 2000, it has produced more than 250 reports, generated more than 3,000 media stories and is influencing the economic debate in Ohio. The organization does research and advocates for public policies that, as UW-Madison Professor Joel Rogers says, “‘close off the low road and help pave the high road,’” Hanauer notes.

“Policy Matters Ohio has had a hand in raising and indexing Ohio’s minimum wage, requiring utilities to invest in renewable energy, modernizing the unemployment compensation system to better reflect the needs of female and low-wage workers, improving regulation of payday lending, and promoting training that brings people out of poverty and into green jobs,” Hanauer says. “Each of these policies can help create shared prosperity and stronger communities.”

But Hanauer admits that many policies have gotten worse in Ohio. She thinks it’s important to advocate for equity and sustainability, even when policy makers don’t agree. “We are a voice for having adequate revenue to fund things Ohioans need. We raise concerns about privatization of schools, prisons, roads and other services. We pushed for policy that would price carbon emissions, which would have made our economy much more sustainable and less polluting. We don’t win all of these fights — not by a long shot — but I’m proud that we amplify the voice.”

In May 2011, Hanauer received a rating of True from PolitifactOhio for her statement that: “a record four out of every 10 school kids in Ohio now qualifies for subsidized lunch.” That same month, The Nation published an article Hanauer wrote about the state budget, Ohio’s collective bargaining fight, and the movement for good jobs and strong communities in Ohio.

The Nation magazine named Policy Matters Ohio the most valuable state or regional organization in the country in 2009. The Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations honored it as the most innovative Ohio nonprofit in 2010, plus Policy Matters received an award for excellence among northern Ohio nonprofits in 2011. Inside Business magazine named Hanauer a policy driver in 2004.

Hanauer graduated from Cornell University in 1989 and worked for a few years, ultimately doing policy analysis for Wisconsin state senator Gwendolynne Moore, who now represents Milwaukee in the U.S. House. Hanauer attended La Follette part time while working for Moore, then headed to Ohio with Cassell in 1998. They have two kids, Max and Katrina, age 13 and 10.

“My La Follette degree has been incredibly useful in understanding economic arguments, dealing with numbers and thinking about policy implications of decisions,” Hanauer says. “I did a lot of reading and writing before coming to and since leaving La Follette. I joke that I knew how to write in paragraphs before I enrolled, but not how to write in bullets — that’s something La Follette taught me. The school also exposed me to the policy literature on a whole range of issues.”

Hanauer sees those classroom policy issues play out in Ohio. “I’ve ended up thinking and writing about many issues we discussed at La Follette and how they relate to each other,” she says. “How do we create an economy that works for everyone? How does policy help enable people to join the middle class? What are the positive and negative externalities of certain behaviors and how can we better incorporate those into the economy? I didn’t talk about externalities before La Follette — and I still might not use that word in mixed company — but I think about the concept all the time.”

While she was working as a policy analyst for Moore and taking public affairs courses, Hanauer did not anticipate starting a research institute. “I’m better at running an organization than I would have thought,” she says. “It’s mostly about communicating clearly, admitting when I’m over my head, asking questions, hiring good people and giving people room to thrive. That all comes pretty easily to me.”

“From a pretty young age, I’ve known that I wanted a society with more opportunity, equity, inclusivity, environmental sustainability and strong public systems, and I’ve always thought that we should have good jobs and strong communities for everyone,” she says. “I also knew that writing would be part of how I tried to work on problems I cared about.”

The Columbus Foundation does! For just 24 hours, beginning today at 11 a.m. (that’s now!), the foundation will match your online donation to Policy Matters. Just pitch in a minimum of $20 and know that it will have twice the impact. It’s called The Big Give, a one-day challenge to support Ohio nonprofits.

The 24-hour window closes at 11 a.m. Friday, so follow these instructions to double your money and help us create an economy that works for everyone.

1) Visit The Big Give at www.columbusfoundation.org;

2) Click the “Give Now” button;

3) Select Policy Matters Ohio from the list of participating nonprofits;

4) Donate using your credit card or Columbus Foundation Donor Advised Fund.

5) Get back to work!

The Policy Matters Team