State auditor candidate wants to investigate impact of free trade deals

Staff report

WARREN

Zack Space, the Democratic nominee for state auditor, said if elected he would initiate a policy to investigate the impact free-trade deals have had on working Ohioans and Ohio communities.

Space, who will speak about the plan today at the United Steelworkers Local 1375 Hall in Warren, said: “Unfair trade deals have wreaked havoc upon Ohio workers for a generation now, resulting in hundreds of thousands of direct job losses and depriving our communities of essential tax revenues to fund public schools, infrastructure and essential services like police and fire.”

His proposal would include conducting a special audit to determine how much trade-related job displacement has affected local government revenues as well as an audit of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services as to how it spent federal Trade Adjustment Assistance funds from 1994 to 2018.

Space said if elected auditor he would bring the full investigatory power of the office to determine how much corporate globalization and free trade deals have impacted working Ohioans and their families.

“Quantifying it is important for policymakers to know,” he said. “It raises public awareness and helps form good public policy.”