Kasich eyeing the prize

In the not-too-distant future, undeclared presidential candidate John Kasich will become declared presidential candidate John Kasich.

He’s been joking about it for a while now.

“I have a big announcement to make right now,” he told reporters before signing the biennial budget late last month. Then, after pausing for effect, he continued, “It stopped raining.”

(That was big news at the time, given the amount of rain that’s fallen around the state so far this summer.)

After his formal declaration on July 21, Kasich likely will take to the road, as he has done in recent months, to introduce himself to more voters in places like New Hampshire.

‘Ohio Story’

He’ll continue to share, as he has in recent years, what he sometimes calls the “Ohio Story” — an account of the state’s economic rebound since he took office in 2011.

It should be a familiar narrative to Ohioans at this point.

Kasich offered a quick summary version before signing the biennial budget. Here’s a quick rundown of the things you’re likely to see quoted in national publications as the governor makes his primary run toward the White House:

On the State’s Balanced Budgeting: “There are lot of people in the country that would love to be in the position that we’re in. ... Without a strong fiscal position, you’re going to make a lot of businesses nervous. And those that might want to take a risk on our great state would not do it if we didn’t achieve structural balance.”

On Ohio’s Rise: “It was not that long ago that we were $8 billion in the hole, the largest deficit in the history of our state. People thought there was no way we could get out of that unless we were to raise taxes and woe is us. The loss of 350,000 jobs ... The rating agencies were warning us that we were going to be downgraded. ... It was extremely difficult. And in a relatively short period of time ... we are $2 billion in the black and our credit has been strengthened, our outlook is strong and Ohio’s winning.”

On Ohio’s State of Mind: “We got our swagger back here in Ohio now. We now have confidence again. We believe in ourselves.”

On Tax Cuts: “We’re now driving Ohio now more and more from the bottom up with tax cuts. We led the country before we got to this budget with $3 billion worth of tax cuts. ... We’ve added another $1.9 billion. We have gotten the income tax under 5 percent. You know I’m never going to rest until it gets driven a lot lower.”

On Drug Addiction Issues: “We’ve not left anybody behind. If you are drug addicted, we’re going to help you. We have been able to treat the drug addicted in our prisons ... I think all of our hearts bleed, my heart specifically bleeds, for those young people who have been caught up in the web of drug addiction — people in every income bracket, every neighborhood, increasing numbers of young people dying from heroin overdoses. We mean to continue to go after this. ... It’s a commitment we all have to make sure that we can bring some healing to the people who have been caught up in this web, in this horror, in this nightmare, to give them a chance at a decent life, to get their life back.”

Marc Kovac is The Vindicator’s Statehouse correspondent. Email him at mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at OhioCapitalBlog.