Kasich outlines vision for 2017

Associated Press

Columbus

Gov. John Kasich said Thursday he is creating a position for a chief innovation officer to pursue and oversee developments in emerging technologies, as he seeks to guide the state through a challenging budget cycle.

The Republican governor announced the post in wide-ranging remarks to a gathering of Ohio business leaders. He was joined by House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger and Senate President Larry Obhof, who both signaled their interest in cooperating with the Kasich administration despite both chambers now having veto-proof Republican majorities.

Kasich repeated warnings about lagging revenues and an economic slowdown headed into the state budget season. He’s expected to introduce his budget, any session’s most significant fiscal and policy document, on Jan. 31.

“It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be tight,” he said.

Agencies have had to submit both a flat budget and a 10-percent reduced budget for the biennium, as Kasich works out how to balance his budget with a revenue shortfall approaching $621 million. He said he’s been delivering the message that some agencies may have to “give a little back” after several budgets had increases.

“We can’t look at government as like cutting, when actually what we’re doing is we’re reducing a significant increase,” he said.

Kasich said the innovation officer will head a new Ohio Institute of Technology, which will coordinate efforts by the state to use data mining to solve some of the state’s stickiest problems, to expand digital technologies in education and to advance the use of autonomous vehicles and other transportation innovations, among other things. A spokesman said the officer probably will work out of the governor’s office with a staff of an undetermined size.

The governor vowed to deliver a budget that’s structurally balanced and to leave the state in sound fiscal shape as he faces term limits in January 2019.