Ohio is going to Hell in a Handbasket -- are you listening, Governor DeWine?

[Ohiogal]

As state lawmakers begin dissecting Gov. Mike DeWine’s inaugural budget proposal this month, Ohio desperately needs legislators to face stubborn facts.

For the last half-century, compared to the nation as a whole, Ohio has been in decline on nearly every measure of economic well-being and quality of life.

On average, Ohioans are less educated, poorer, fatter, more drug-addicted and more likely to smoke than their fellow Americans.

As of 2016, Ohio ranked 29th among the states in per capita personal income, nearly $5,000 below the national average.

It’s no coincidence that as Ohio has lagged the nation in job growth and prosperity it has lagged in educational opportunity — from sparse pre-K to costly college tuition.

Since 2006, state funding for the Department of Higher Education, in inflation-adjusted dollars, fell by $505 million. The net cost of a full year at one of Ohio’s public colleges, as a share of family income, is higher than in 44 other states.

That’s just one example of the many ways Ohio, in real-dollar terms, has disinvested in programs that shape the future well-being of its citizens.

https://www.the-daily-record.com/opinion/20190312/editorial-next-state-budget-must-address-ohios-declining-quality-of-life

[riversedge]

1. And the savior Trump stepped up to be their savior!! Hope folks have learned

a lesson but not counting on it. I did not realize that OHIO was on such a downhill spiral.

[hotrod0808]

2. I have said this for two decades

and nobody listened. Standard GOP reply is that there is job growth. When I ask where, the reply is always "medical." Great, but what about the opportunities for all of the auto workers, former family farm owners who lost out to factory farms, and those of us who have degrees that aren't in medical field? Ohio sucks, and as long as the GOP stranglehold continues, we will be worse than Kansas by 2030.

[liberal N proud]

3. That why I left