Someone looking for a place to move a company would not be enchanted by Ohio

EDITOR:

The recent article, “Libraries In A Bind?” made me think of the situation’s uncanny resemblance to an all too similar situation back in the mid-1930s. At that time, Ohio’s libraries lost what little funding they had as a result of an Ohio Supreme Court decision. Then-state Sen. Robert A. Taft found a solution that not only funded the libraries, but put them on the road to the national excellence they have enjoyed until this year. That was funding from the intangibles tax. Yes, Mr. Republican (who was never called Mr. Conservative) knew when not to be conservative. Maybe we should go back to that form of support. It may have been flawed, but it was much more reliable than direct state funding has proven to be.

Ohio is hoping to attract businesses and industries of the quality that would give Ohioans good paying jobs and restore the tax base. Well, if I were a person scouting for a place to locate a new facility, what would I see in Ohio?

Companies today encourage their employees to take college courses to improve their value to the company. I would see tuitions that are among the highest in the nation, and going higher because of funding cuts. Would I want to cover such expenses? We have some excellent state colleges. Cutting expenses the way many newspaper editors want them to would put them at serious risk of being put on probation by the North Central Association, and they are the ones that count, not the Ohio Board of Regents.

Companies valued employees who have children to educate. I would see a plethora of “pretty good” schools — schools that have mid-1950s style programs with a 21st century veneer. Not only that, I would see them constantly struggling for funds, and trying to convince unthinking voters to give them something steady to really work with. I personally know that one potential business left Trumbull County for another state in the mid-1980s because he saw in the Wednesday headlines news of the defeat of a large number of school levies. “My people have kids to educate” he said to me.

I would also see how low music and arts programs are valued — if they don’t relate to football.

I would see bickering two-bit political authorities, and no predictability as to whether the rules that apply in one unit would apply in another. This is more important than low taxes. (JEDDs are designed to alleviate that problem.)

And I would see how the state values their libraries, and, by extension any idea of maintaining any excellence in state educational institutions. Having seen all this, I would leave laughing at Ohio’s pretensions, and go elsewhere. A place where taxes are higher, but internal expenses are lower, and people place more value on education.

JEROME K. STEPHENS

Warren