By Tom Blumer | for Ohio Watchdog
Since Gov. John Kasich took office in Jan. 2011, Ohio’slabor force has contracted — except in Metro Columbus.
This is not a result that anyone who attended a Clermont County Lincoln Day dinner, at which Kasich spoke several years ago, could have anticipated. Though it took place well before he declared his candidacy for the state’s highest office, Kasich conveyed an almost overwhelming sense of confidence that he knew exactly what to do to get the state’s economy back on track, if given the opportunity.
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More than anything else, that self-assuredness is what ultimately carried RepublicanKasich to a narrow 2010 victory over Democrat Ted Strickland, defeating an incumbent Buckeye State governor for the first time in 36 years.
Some 2 1/2 years into his administration, Kasich’s major accomplishment has been the elimination of a looming $8 billion financial hole without raising taxes.
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His video promoting the state’s next two-year budget beginning July 1 also touts how his administration “has shrunk the state bureaucracy by nearly 10 percent while improving services.” While that assertion seems shaky, a direct job-related claim Kasich makes certainly won’t ring true for most Ohioans, at least those with memories going back to the to the middle of the past decade: