BuckeyeBlog

The Findlay Courier has a good editorial cautioning the governor to be careful how he spends the federal “stimulus” money:

It seems unlikely that Ohio will pull out of the recession in only two years, so at this point, relying on economic growth to boost state revenues is unrealistic. Thus it makes sense for the state to be extremely careful in how any one-time money is used. Rationally, one-time money should be used for one-time projects, and in our current circumstances, projects that create jobs should be top priority. It also seems justifiable to use some one-time money to extend benefits for the unemployed.

What it should not be used for is projects that involve heavy long-term fiscal commitments, such as welfare and health care expansion, or the governor’s education reform plan. House Democrats are already crafting plans to limit proposed funding increases to schools and phase in the governor’s reforms over 10 years instead of eight. That’s at least a start.

Both political parties say they oppose both tax hikes and cuts in services. But something has to be done to avert catastrophe in the future as well as now.

There is one problem with their analysis — the unemployment funds from the federal government come with a mandate that the state expand benefits in such a way that once federal money runs out, the state will either be forced to pay more into the unemployment insurance system than they do now or cut benefits. This is exactly the sort of funding the state should reject as it sets up long-term problems.

The general theme of the piece is right on, though. This federal money is a one-time deal (more than likely). If it is used to fund programs that, once the money runs out, will be difficult to scale back, then that is a bad thing. If our leaders are short-sighted and merely look at all the goodies they can buy with this “free” money without considering the long-term consequences, then they are poor leaders.

This federal money isn’t free; it comes with a heavy price tag. It’s just that the cost of this money will come due in the future. Here’s hoping that there’s some long-term thinking going on in the governor’s office and the General Assembly.

Tags: Governor Strickland, stimulus

This entry was posted on Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 4:32 pm and is filed under Accountable Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.