Total eclipse of the heart: News from Policy Matters
Posted September 03, 2017 in eNews
Turn around: Every now and then we get a little bit angry that the General Assembly fails to close unproductive tax loopholes. But on the bright side, after years of tax cuts for Ohio’s wealthiest, the 2018-2019 budget doesn’t significantly cut revenues for public services. There’s still a lot of work today and we give away far too much money through unnecessary tax breaks. Research Director Zach Schiller explains the good and the bad of tax policy in this report and in a Facebook Live interview with Communications Director Caitlin Johnson. Meanwhile, the Ohio Senate voted to override six of Governor Kasich’s vetoes – mostly having to do with Medicaid. We worry about ongoing attempts to undermine Ohio’s largest health insurer, but are encouraged that for now Medicaid expansion is preserved and talks about how to fix funding for transit agencies and counties will continue.
A little bit lonely: We also said good bye to an extra stellar group of summer interns: Cecilia Wallace, Lea Kayali, Matt Martinez, Nicole Marcus, Luke Henningsen, Liam Sullivan, Nick Golina, and Hannah Lebovits. But their stars still shine bright! Cleveland.com ran an op-ed by Lea about the importance of preserving federal funding for the Legal Services Corporation and this week we published Luke’s blog on threats to public parks.
We’ll never be wrong, together: Luckily, as we said goodbye to the last of our summer interns, a new face joined the Policy Matters team this week. Katie Fallon is a new researcher in our Columbus office. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton and a doctorate in sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Katie’s work focused on finding the best policies to create equity across race, class and geography. She’s especially interested in health care and transit. We were also joined by a new intern Taylor Swift. He’s getting his masters in applied politics at University of Akron where he serves as president of graduate student government. We’re so lucky to have them both!
We’ll be holding on forever: This marks the 17th year we’ve released the State of Working Ohio for Labor Day. Unfortunately, Executive Director Amy Hanauer’s analysis shows Ohio still lags the nations in job growth, wages and labor force participation. Additionally, economic disparities around race, gender and geography persist. But the good news is there are many practical policy solutions to address these problems. Raising the statewide minimum wage, making it easier to join a union, investing in public infrastructure would all go a long way. We’ll only be making it right.
Take it to the end of the line: If you’ve stuck with us this far, you probably know the theme of this e-news is the epic ballad sung by Bonnie Tyler and Meatloaf. If you’re not familiar, do yourself a favor and give it a listen. It’s pure ‘80s magic.