Health & Fitness
Ohio, 7th in spending growth this past decade, is binging again
By Tom Blumer For Ohio Watchdog
Spending in Ohio is surging … again.
Direct spending in the Buckeye State grew, per capita, by 41.7 percent during the 10 fiscal years that ended in mid-2011, the Washington-based Tax Foundation, a non-partisan tax research group, showed.
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It marked the seventh-highest growth percentage in the nation.
Every one of Ohio’s neighboring states had lower spending growth. Only Pennsylvania’s 40.4 percent came close. The others: Indiana, 32.4 percent; Michigan, 21.5 percent; West Virginia, 14.2 percent; and Kentucky, 29.9 percent.
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Ohio’s previous-decade spending binge was a bipartisan affair, first pushed byRepublican Gov. Bob Taft and a GOP-dominated General Assembly. The strong economy before the turn of the century and the growth in state tax collections that accompanied it allowed Taft and lawmakers to become complacent, to believe they could put spending increases on virtual autopilot.
The state’s economy was hit harder than most by the 2001 recession, and its rate of recovery also trailed most states. Instead of tightening their belts, Taft and a politically overconfident General Assembly rammed through unpopular sales and gasoline tax increases in 2003.