Coalition seeks ideas to boost Ohio recovery
As much of the nation celebrated recent news that middle-class income finally has recovered from the Great Recession a decade ago, there was little cause for cheer in some parts of Ohio.
After past recessions, Ohio rebounded from hard times, but not the past two. Not only has the state not bounced back from the Great Recession of 2008-09, but it has yet to recover from the 2001 recession.
Consider these U.S. Census statistics:
■ Ohio’s median household income hit a peak and then declined by as much as $10,000 during the Great Recession, and it remains $6,000 less than what was recorded in the 2000 Census. That’s money out of household pocketbooks for car repairs, health care emergencies, food and education.
■ The state is still short 152,000 jobs from a peak in 2000. That’s more jobs than there are people living in Dayton, Ohio’s sixth-largest city. The jobs decline occurred at the same time that the nation’s largest generation, the millennials, came into adulthood.
■ Though the nation’s population grew by 16 percent since the 2000 Census, Ohio’s edged up by only 3 percent.
Old methods of revitalization haven’t reversed the decline. In the most recent year for which data are available — 2015 — Ohio communities allowed businesses to forgo nearly a billion dollars in property taxes to stimulate growth. And though the economic recovery might have been slower without such investment, it came with a cost. Those are taxes that businesses otherwise would have paid to support fire and police protection, schools and drug-addiction services.
That raises questions: Are there new or better ways to stop the decline and ensure economic success in Ohio communities? Should success be redefined? Who should act?
A coalition of more than 40 Ohio news organizations known as Your Voice Ohio, which previously explored important issues in the presidential campaign of 2016, and the opioid crisis in 201718, is now launching conversations across the state to ask Ohioans to define a vibrant community. What makes it tick, and how can each community move in that direction?
Several news outlets contributed to this report, with journalists setting aside competitive instincts to produce the data and interview Ohioans.
Tiajuan Lewis, 68 and recently retired from the Area Agency on Aging in the Canton area, said that young people with options are leaving.
“It seems to me that the (communities) that are shrinking, it’s because the parents get their kids a really good education, and then when they get educated, they just leave,” Lewis told the Canton Repository. “They give up on Ohio and just go somewhere else.”
We could change that, she said, offering a solution heard in previous Your Voice Ohio sessions on the addiction crisis: “I would say in anybody’s community, the one thing that needs to be done is that people need to accept each other for who they are,” Lewis said. “And love each other. We breathe the same air.”
Comparing historic household income data with new 2017 numbers released Thursday shows that one more year offered little relief.
Of the 39 Ohio counties for which data are available, 41 percent, or 16 of them, declined last year.
Among those were many of the state’s major urban counties: Cuyahoga (Cleveland), Stark (Canton), Montgomery, Butler and Clark counties (Dayton area), and Trumbull and Mahoning (Youngstown-Warren area).
The Your Voice Ohio project will explore jobs, population, home values, quality-of-life, tax abatement and issues that Ohioans suggest we pursue.
The coalition of news organizations will hold community meetings in which journalists will listen to area residents to gain a better understanding of how lives have changed and consider possible ways to ensure economic growth.
The meetings will begin Sept. 23 in Dayton and end Oct. 4 in Euclid.
There will be a central Ohio meeting in Columbus from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Boat House Restaurant, Downtown. To join in one of the conversations or to find or register for a meeting, go to the Your Voice Ohio website, https://yourvoiceohio.org.