State budget panel members should pay the Valley a visit

A special Ohio general assembly commission formed in July to develop budget-balancing strategies for the 2012-13 biennium is ready to start work.

While concern has been expressed over the fact that the six-member commission has not yet met, we would suggest that a much more important issue is where they meet.

Although the members are all legislators, it would be foolhardy of them to gather only in Columbus. They must take their show on the road to get a true sense of what Ohioans are experiencing during this economic recession.

Columbus and Franklin County do not provide an accurate picture of the state of Ohio’s economy.

The Mahoning Valley certainly does.

As a recent front-page story in The Vindicator revealed, “Job drain deepens in Valley.”

Here’s the key paragraph that should serve as the invitation to the legislative panel:

“The state said ... that the unemployment rate for the Mahoning Valley jumped to 14.2 percent in January. It had been 13.4 percent in December and 13.3 percent in January 2009.”

The story quoted Bert Cene, director of the Mahoning Columbiana Training Association as saying he was “shocked at the numbers.”

Thus, as the General Assembly and Gov. Ted Strickland turn their attention to the next biennium budget and the challenge of filling an $8 billion hole — that’s the amount of money secured from the state’s federal stimulus allocation and other sources to balance the current operating budget — thought must be given to regions like the Valley.

The reduction in the local-government fund allocations has had a negative impact on the operation of local governments.

It is instructive that on Wednesday, Mahoning County officials were in Cleveland to seek permission from a federal judge to close half the county jail and the entire misdemeanor facility because 101 employees of the sheriff’s department are being laid off.

The furloughs are the result of deep cuts in funding for the sheriff’s department.

Mahoning County government isn’t alone in having to deal with huge anticipated budget shortfalls.

The state also reduced funding for public libraries, for example, but spared primary and secondary education — in keeping with the governor’s pledge.

For the current biennium, after the Ohio Supreme Court rejected a slots-machine plan that would have generated $851 million, Strickland proposed the postponement of the final phase of the income-tax reduction that went into effect in 2005.

The Democratic-controlled House immediately embraced the plan, but the Republican-controlled Senate initially balked. Agreement was ultimately reached.

Bleak future

But the future is bleak, as a result of the federal stimulus money drying up and the recovery of the national economy occurring at a snail’s pace.

Some areas of the state of Ohio have been hit harder than others, which is what the members of the legislative commission need to see up close.

The three House members appointed by Speaker Armond Budish are: Vernon Sykes, chairman of the Finance Committee, Jay Goyal and Ron Amstutz. Sykes and Goyal are Democrats.

The three Senate members appointed by Senate President Bill Harris are Chris Widener and Dale Miller, both members of the Senate Finance Committee, and Shannon Jones. Widener and Jones are Republicans.

There is a complicating factor as the commission begins its work: This year’s statewide election. However, the people of Ohio expect the legislators to rise above partisan politics as they work to fill the hole in the next budget.