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Strickland: ‘We’re on the right track’
By DAVID SKOLNICK
SALEM
Despite a struggling economy, Gov. Ted Strickland said Ohio is “on our way to coming out of this recession.”
Strickland, a Democrat seeking re-election this year, visited Chester Hoist on Wednesday to highlight a company that will benefit from financial assistance from the state.
The company — which manufactures hoists for oil refineries and rigs, power plants and heavy equipment — will get a state tax credit of about $340,000 over an eight-year period for an expansion project that includes adding 90 new jobs and retaining 74 employees. A tax credit is a reduction in taxes owed.
The new hires will begin in about 6 months to a year.
It’s “public-private partnerships” such as this that are leading the state out of the recession, Strickland said. The governor has spent the past six months touring companies — this is the third Mahoning Valley company since June 21 he’s visited — that are benefiting from those partnerships.
“We are in desperate need of new jobs being created, and the small business community is the part of our economy that will create those jobs,” he said. “This is a difficult time. We all know that. A lot of people have gone through this recession and suffered deeply and are still suffering.”
Strickland said he and his administration are focused on creating “the conditions that will result in jobs being” added.
“I believe we’re on our way to coming out of this recession,” Strickland said. “We’re not where we need to be, but we’re on the right track. I think we’re headed in the right direction.”
The state’s unemployment rate in May (the most recent month reported) was 10.7 percent, down from 10.9 percent in April, but up from 10.3 percent in May 2009. The national unemployment rate for June was 9.5 percent.
“We’re living through the most serious national and international recession in several decades,” Strickland said. “Even during this period of time, we have tried to manage the state’s affairs using common sense” such as investing in education and job retraining.
In response, Rob Nichols, spokesman for John Kasich, Strickland’s Republican opponent, said: “Under Ted Strickland, Ohio has lost 376,300 jobs, one in seven Ohioans is on food stamps, and Ohio has been saddled with double-digit inflation for 14 consecutive months.
“By every measure, Strickland has failed to make our state economically competitive, and Ohio suffered worse under the recession than it should have and is recovering more slowly than other states.”
Also, the Republican Governors Association began airing television commercials, including in the Youngstown market, Wednesday criticizing Strickland for the state’s job loss.