Dubious spending priorities

Here’s a quick quiz that should put in perspective Ohio’s $2.6 billion biennial capital-improvements budget:

Which one of the three projects listed below is best suited to prepare Ohioans for the thousands of private-sector jobs that employers are desperate to fill?

1. A new School of Film, Television and Interactive Media at Cleveland State University? The capital budget has earmarked $7.5 million to help pay for the construction of a building on CSU’s downtown campus.

2. Collaboration between the Center of Science and Industry in Columbus and the American Museum of Natural History in New York so dinosaurs and other exhibits can be brought to the state capital. COSI stands to get $5 million from the biennial budget.

3. The Mahoning Valley Innovation and Commercialization Center either on or near the campus of Youngstown State University. The center, which will combine the business community with YSU, Eastern Gateway Community College, and area career and technical centers, is in line for $3 million from the capital-improvements budget. YSU had requested $10 million – of the $30 million price tag.

So, to the quiz: Which one of the three projects would address the concerns voiced by Ohio Gov. John Kasich over the inability of the state to fill the more than 100,000 jobs in the private sector?

The answer, of course, is No. 3.

And yet, the other two are receiving more in state dollars than the one that is designed to prepare Ohioans for the technology-based job market.

As Michael Hripko, Youngstown State’s associate vice president for research, told The Vindicator recently, the center would provide access to high-end manufacturing technology. It would house classes for both YSU and Eastern Gateway and the surrounding county career and technical centers.

The ultimate goal is to meet the needs of entrepreneurs.

RESPONSIBILITY?

Who should bear responsibility for this obvious lack of foresight?

Two weeks ago, this writer suggested that Gov. Kasich should have come through with all the millions of dollars sought by YSU because of the endorsement he received from his friend, President James P. Tressel.

Tressel had stood by Kasich’s side last month when the governor brought his campaign for the Republican nomination for president to the Mahoning Valley.

This writer contended that the state dollars being sought for the Mahoning Valley Innovation and Commercialization Center was a pittance compared with the overall budget and the funding for many of the other projects.

In response to the column, a Kasich spokesman contended that federal election laws prohibit a candidate from promising anything in return for contributions and that the administration had nothing to do with capital funding for Ohio’s public universities and colleges.

He noted that the governor had asked the leaders of the 37 institutions of higher learning to collaborate on funding requests.

The $2.6 billion budget sets aside $484 million for university construction projects, including money to support the statewide university system.

If the leaders of Ohio’s higher education system were responsible for the list, the question that demands to be answered is this: What was the underlying philosophy that guided the decision-making?

YSU will receive another $11 million for other projects, but that amount is about the same it secured in the current biennial.

According to the Columbus Dispatch, Ohio State University’s main campus is to receive $82 million, of which $26.4 million is for the renovation of Koffolt Laboratories and the neighboring Fontana Laboratories, and $26 million for the partial replacement of Postle Hall, which houses the College of Dentistry.

The capital-improvements budget also contains $160 million for what is commonly referred to as community projects. There is intense competition among state legislators for the money because constituents oftentimes link the size of the allocations to lawmakers’ power and influence.

The Mahoning Valley will receive about $10 million for community projects – not exactly a major victory for area legislators.

Indeed, the failure to secure $1.2 million that would have fully funded a deployment hub for military units at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna Township is puzzling, given the economic benefits that the Valley and the state derive from the military base.

Again, the question: If an important job retention and creation project isn’t a priority to the decision-makers in Columbus, what is?

Here are some answers:

The Scioto Peninsula Park and Parking Garage in Franklin County is getting $4.02 million.

Phase III of The Banks in Hamilton County is in for $10 million.

The Toledo Museum of Art Polishing the Gem Project – $1.5 million.

Wilmington Air Park in Clinton County – $3 million.

Lakefront Pedestrian Bridge in Cuyahoga County – $3 million.

Natural History Museum in Cuyahoga County – $3.3 million.

Cuyahoga River Irish Town Bend Stabilization – $2.5 million.

Flats East Development, Cuyahoga County – $2 million.

There are lots of other projects in Cuyahoga County that will receive $1 million each.

To be sure, Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties will get money for quality of life projects, but once again the Three Cs – Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati – made out like bandits.