Recession wipes out Appalachian gains

April 12, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Economic gains made by Ohio’s Appalachian counties were wiped out at the beginning of the U.S. recession, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Income for people in the region climbed steadily from 2000 to 2007, only to be pushed back down in a single year at a rate sharper than the statewide average, according to an analysis by The Columbus Dispatch.

Statewide, average adjusted gross income rose 16 percent from 2000 to 2007 but dropped 5 percent from 2007 to 2008. The decline that year was especially steep in Gallia County (12 percent) and Lawrence County (14 percent) — two of the southernmost counties in Appalachian Ohio.

The Dispatch analyzed federal tax-return data gathered by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, a research organization.

The income trends are troubling but don’t come as a surprise to Joy Padgett, a former state lawmaker who directed the Governor’s Office of Appalachia.

“We are the first one to feel the impact and the last one to feel any recovery,” she said.

The region has been hit by the loss of big manufacturers and cutbacks in government employment.