Folks in Columbus just don’t get it

COLUMBUS — It must sting when lawmakers from outside of central Ohio make the commute to the Statehouse for session days and committee hearings — particularly those driving from places like Youngstown or communities in Appalachia.

Can you imagine day after day of driving past expensive shopping malls, luxury automobiles, big fancy houses and rabid Ohio State University fans flaunting their high-dollar season football tickets?

And day after day of making law and policy decisions that, in real terms, will have no positive economic impact for the people wallowing in poverty back home?

That’s the issue that came to head last week, when Mahoning Valley lawmakers stood up for their constituents in an unsuccessful attempt to raise support for consideration of a Youngstown casino site.

It’s a sad commentary when communities are so desperate for jobs that they beg and plead for the pond scum of the economic development world.

It’s a sadder commentary when people with Youngstown connections have to listen as much-better-off Columbus-ites wax eloquent about their community’s needs.

Job-creation

“It was clear from the vote in November that one of the overriding concerns was the creation of jobs and that this was something to create jobs,” Rep. Ted Celeste, a Democrat from the Columbus area said during last week’s floor debate on a ballot issue to change the address of a planned casino. “Clearly what was needed ... was a location that could quickly be put to work where jobs could be created in an area that needed those jobs.”

He added, “This area desperately needs help. ... I think there’s a tremendous opportunity to get folks to work, to get folks to work faster, and we ask those of you from around the state to support those of us in Columbus who need to get this on the ballot.”

You want to see desperate needs? Look no further than the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies’ newest State of Poverty in Ohio Report. Youngstown had the highest rate among the state’s largest cities from 1979-2007 — a whopping 33.5 percent.

That compares to 30.5 percent in Cleveland, 29.2 percent in Dayton and 27.3 percent in Canton. Columbus’ rate was 20.1 percent.

Or consider some Census stats: The median household income in 2008 in Youngstown was $24,776. In Columbus, it was $43,600.

So what’s next? Voters statewide will decide in May whether Columbus gets to change the site of its coming casino. And residents there are going to get jobs.

And Youngstown is left with tin cup in hand, begging for the next potential handout.

“For the 23 years that I’ve been here, I’ve been waiting for people to pay attention to the struggles that we’ve been going through in the Mahoning Valley,” said Rep. Bob Hagan, a Democrat from Youngstown.

Or, as Rep. Ronald Gerberry, a Democrat from Austintown, said, “People in Columbus don’t get it. They just don’t get it.”

X Marc Kovac is The Vindicator’s Statehouse correspondent. E-mail him at mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at Ohio Capital Blog.