The socialist republic of Ohiostan

A behemoth lies in our midst, sucking in ever greater amounts of cash and growing at twice the rate of inflation.

What's more, we're feeding it with billions and billions of tax dollars. An unprecedented study released today shows that the combined cost of government across 16 northeastern Ohio counties -- teaching our children, running our cities and tending myriad other public services -- had reached at least $16 billion by 2002.

That amounted to $3,750 for every man, woman and child in the targeted region, which includes counties including Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Portage and Summit.

The $175,000 study, paid for by civic and business leaders to gauge government spending, used the latest available U.S. census data to look at 800 publicly funded entities in the region.

And while the numbers are dated and incomplete, they suggest our system of governance is bloated and drags down the region's economy, according to the people who commissioned the study. "The expensive, fragmented local government system we have costs money," says David Abbott, board chairman for the Fund for Our Economic Future, an economic development philanthropy. "Some of that could be redirected to make us more globally competitive -- to early childhood or college education, or directly to economic development efforts."

More....

And here's an article on the bloated cost of local government in NE Ohio... $3,750 for every man woman and child in the region.

And at NRO

In addition to the oppressive tax burden noted by Jonathan Adler below, Ohioans, already struggling with a mammoth jobs and brain drain, will be voting this fall on a ballot initiative called the Ohio Healthy Families Act. The Act will require most Ohio businesses to provide up to 7 paid sick days to their employees who are ill or who have an ill family member. The paid sick leave begins to accrue immediately upon hire.

Over the last 25 years, policies based on economic populism have been strangling businesses in Ohio. As noted recently in the WSJ by Ohio native Chester Finn, the best and brightest young people are fleeing Ohio in droves. Cleveland lost more residents last year than any major city in the country.

Whatever the merits of OHFA, it's likely to contribute to that trend. Before you can take sick leave, paid or otherwise, you have to have a job.

You know what we need? A tax increase. Well, instead of that, let's shoot for paid time off for everyone; that always works to bring in business. Maybe we can vote for free hybrid cars for everyone with a job in the state. Or how about free double verdi, lattes, with an arugula garnish to help the closing Starbucks?