Due to limited time, this diary will be short, with links, and will invite the reader to follow them to read some analysis on how Ohio Governor John Kasich sets the policies and priorities, which are on full display in his budget.
A little background is in order here. John Kasich and some of his advisors first looked at taking the Ohio statehouse in 2008, and the budget has been a work in progress between Mr. Kasich and his budget director Tim Keen since then. Since it has been disclosed that they worked on this budget for nearly three years, it begs some questions. For example, a headline in today's paper says "Budget would knock state pension funds off solvency track". It turns out that the Kasich budget looks to save state and local governments $1.1 billion in pension funding by shifting back to the workers 2 per cent of their salary in increased contributions from the employees. But they forgot to ask an actuary if the policy was actuarily sound. Turns out it isn't. The currently solvent state retirement funds (all five of them) meet the statutory requirement for 30 year solvency, but under the Kasich "plan" puts the funds 6.5 to potentially 15 years out of actuarial whack. The budget wants to put 5,000 state employees on the street looking for work, and "The Kasich administration has suggested that the pension funds cut employee benefits even more to return to the 30-year requirement."Source
And why do Republicans say they are to be trusted with holding the strings to the public purse? They can't even look at pension changes and bother to consult an actuary.