WCOP.com...
Jobs Ohio program
includes “raids” of other states
By: Tom McKee
MASON, Ohio - A new and bold element of the Jobs Ohio program emerged
Monday as Ohio Gov. John Kasich stopped by a Warren County
manufacturing firm.
“We’re going to other states and we’re going to start stealing their
jobs,” the Governor told several hundred business leaders at the
Rhinstahl Corporation in Mason. “We’re going to raid everybody we can.”
Gov. Kasich visited the company to continue pushing his program to
create, retain and expand jobs and job opportunities in Ohio.
“In order for us to compete and win, we’ve got move like lightning,” he
said. “We’re going to compete and we’re going to win.”
According to the Governor, only California and Michigan have lost more
jobs than Ohio in the past 10 years. That’s why he’s pushing his jobs
program beyond the state’s borders.
“We’re looking for companies in other states where the climate is not
as good and we can offer things than are better than them,” Kasich
said. “Rome wasn’t built in a day, but we’re headed in the right
direction.”
One of the things Kasich mentioned to make his point was the two-year
budget plan approved Thursday by the Ohio House and sent to the Senate.
It eliminates an $8 billion deficit without raising taxes.
“I’m really proud to stand here with Ohio’s 69th Governor,” said State
Senator Shannon Jones, a Republican from Springboro, as she introduced
Kasich. “This Governor and his team has done more for Ohio in the last
four months than the last administration has done in four years.”
Kasich said many people thought he wouldn’t be able to accomplish his
budgetary goals and would sell out to political interests. Those who
felt that way may have underestimated him.
“Raising taxes? You’ve got to be kidding me,” he added. “That’s been
the cycle of doom and gloom in this state for a long time. Put off the
hard decisions, raise the taxes and cave in to the special interest
groups.”
The Governor predicted that if spending can be kept in check a tax cut
may be possible next year.
Performance-based pay for public employees -- especially teachers --
was another topic hit hard by the Governor. He’s consistently
maintained that Ohio is in bottom 10 in the country in money spent in
the classroom, but in the top 10 in overhead costs. He wants to change
that.
“If a teacher is doing a great job, I’d like to pay them $100,000,” he
said, adding that he’d like to see the same standard applied to all
public employees. “If you shield the work of a public employee from
assessment, you are welcoming mediocrity, not excellence and we need
excellence in education.”
Teachers are being asked for their input to develop assessment
standards. Kasich said if the resulting program is not fair, he won’t
do it, but he’s confident it will work. He added he understands teacher
hesitation about the effort.
“If I’m a teacher in the school and I don’t kiss up to parents, am I
going to get punished? I don’t kiss up to the principal. Am I going to
get punished for that?” he said.
Kasich singled out the nursing home industry for criticism in its
opposition to his two-year budget and the Home Care/Community Care
program.
Read the rest of the story at WCPO.com
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