Gov. Ted Strickland is "appalled" - his word -- that Mary Taylor told the truth about Ohio's tax climate last week. Mr. Strickland's preference for rhetoric over numbers does not bode well for our state should he be granted a second term as watcher-in-chief.Is Dave Yost runningfor governor? Or is the governor running for auditor? I can't tell...
Auditor Taylor said an unremarkable thing - that when she was a private CPA, she counseled wealthy Ohio clients to consider establishing residency in Florida or other lower-tax jurisdictions. That's common advice, according to Barbara Benton, vice president of governmental affairs for the Ohio Society of CPAs.
Although he probably did not get that advice from Mary Taylor, former parking lot magnate and Ohio Senator Howard Metzenbaum moved to Florida for those reasons prior to this death, according to the Wall Street Journal.
This isn't about class warfare. It's about how money and talent is heading out of our state because it's economically smart to do so. As a friend once told me, "I never got a job from a poor man."
The world is as it is, not as we wish it to be. According to the Columbus Dispatch, Mr. Strickland found it "troubling" that a person seeking to lead Ohio would tell such a truth - as though smart people who have made money will somehow stay here if we all just agree to stop talking about that tax burden thing.
What I find troubling is that the CEO of my state has such an elastic notion of the truth. But I suppose the monsters can't get you as long as you stay under the sheets.
The world is as it is, not as we wish it to be. In order to change what we do not like, we must begin with a clear vision of where we are.
Mr. Strickland has a history of dodging unpleasant truths - when the state was perched at the budgetary abyss in the autumn of 2008, his suggested remedy was to hope for a good Christmas shopping season.
When that failed to materialize, his next fix was to seek huge sums of money from the federal government. The federal government did for him what our Constitution prevents him from doing - it borrowed the money.
Ohio's unemployment compensation fund ran out of money in January 2009. By January 2011, Ohio will owe the federal government $3 billion - and next year, Ohio has to start paying interest on that debt. (Hint: it will probably be more than $100 million a year. Where will Ohio find that kind of money?) Mr. Strickland's plan to deal with this is much like his Christmas Shopping Season plan - wait and see if things get better somehow.
That's not good enough. And we're not going to rebuild a competitive Ohio by pretending that the truth is something other than it is. That way lies deception.
At any rate, what Dave has to say here is certainly valid...I'd just like to hear it from Team Kasich.
