I sent an earlier e-mail about some advice for Chad Kutting who is apparently about to graduate from Oberlin College and is distraught about the state of the local economy. I know exactly what he is talking about when he bemoans the lack of opportuities for educated young people in northeastern Ohio. This is a very grave problem and unless it is addressed soon and solved, this region will resemble many of those small towns populated by old people. It is not like this situation dropped on northeastern Ohio out of the blue within the past few years. This has been going on for at least 30 years ever since the mid 1970s when industry began moving out of the area. The heavy manufacturing industry began moving out of here primarily for two reasons: 1. Labor costs elsewhere were far less than in northeastern Ohio and 2. Factories in northeastern Ohio were obsolete. Let me give you a different perspective from my experience. In 1982, I was transferred to Spartanburg, South Carolina (which is about an hour southwest of Charlotte, NC). When I arrived there I met many educated people from northeast Ohio that worked for Timken and were transferred there to a new plant in Gaffney, SC (between Spartanburg and Charlotte on I-85). Here is the story that I heard: In 1979, Timken wanted to replace an aging plant in Canton with a new modern plant. They wanted to build it in Stark County where the company had been headquartered and a part of the community for more than 80 years. Other states also got wind of Timken's plans and courted the company for their new site. Meanwhile. Stark County, the city of Canton and other municipalities were fighting over where to build it. There was no cooperation from the state of Ohio to keep the plant in Stark County. The state of South Carolina offered planty of land with a tax abatement, offered to build a new interchange off I-85 and to fund a new technology program at the University of South Carolina - Spartanburg. Also the labor cost in South Carolina was 60% of the cost of labor in Northeastern Ohio and South Carolina is a "right to work" state where labor unions are weak. Timken asked their union for concessions to make the cost more competetive with the offer from South Carolina. The union said "no way" and the proposed concessions were defeated overwhelmingly. No assistance came from Ohio like what South Carolina was proposing. Therefore Timken decided to build the new plant outside Gaffney, South Carolina and transferred their management, technical and executive people to South Carolina. Hourly workers were also given the transfer package, but would be paid the locally prevailing wage in a non union plant (if the workers wanted a union, they could vote one in). Very few hourly workers accepted that offer and preferred to be unemployed in Ohio. That region of South Carolina and neighboring North Carolina used to be the center of textile manufacturing as large textile companies dominated the local economy. However in the mid to late 1970s, those textile companies closed their mills and moved overseas to take advantage of cheap labor. By 1982, all the textile plants that were a mainstay of the economy of upstate South Carolina were gone. However the states of North and South Carolina had a more business friendly government and people who wanted to do something about their economy. They found the answer in reforming their educational system and by cooperation between the state and local governments. Now the region of upstate South Carolina is booming. About ten years ago, BMW built a huge manufacturing plant between Greenville and Spartanburg, South Carolina right along I-85. I-85 between Charlotte and Atlanta is the manufacturing heart of the south now. The region's unemployment rate is among the lowest in the country with an actual job surplus. So what is the lesson for this region: first stop moaning, groaning and crying in your beer - those factory jobs paying $60,000 and $70,000 are gone for good, no company could stay in business very long paying those wages for factory work when labor costs are much less eleswhere. Second, the political leadership stepped up and took action. They built on the region's strengths (cheap abundant land and a much lower cost of labor) while doing something about the weaknesses (a poor educational system with a poorly educated population). They didn't sit around pointing fingers of blame when the textile mills closed, their leadership decided to be active. The leadership (?) of Ohio with the local political and business leadership is determined to grease the skids for Ohio and Northeastern Ohio to fall further behind. We have a cast of clowns in Columbus that would rather debate gay marriage than address education funding. They would rather give milliions in state money (over $350 million) to a well connected contributor (David Brennan's White Hat Management) for private for profit charter schools than use it to build the public schools. A college education is becoming increasingly unaffordable to working class students because Ohio is underfunding higher education. New enterprises (and lucrative jobs) aren't being created in Ohio because the state is not developing new high tech research zones (like North Carolina's Research Triangle Park). Until the people of Ohio decide to kick out the current cast of clowns in Columbus and replace them with new leadership with a vision for the future, Ohio will continue to lose jobs and educated young people to other regions of the country. Until the business and policical leadership in northeastern Ohio stop pointing fingers of blame at each other and work together to build on the region's advantages, northeast Ohio will continue to be a "rust belt". Until Ohio decides to overhaul its antiquated and byzantine tax structure that stifles the creation of new jobs, we will lose new jobs to otherb more progressive parts of the country. This year is a very important year for the people of Ohio. We have a chance in this election to either continue to turn back the clock in Ohio or move into the 21st century.
from Cool Cleveland reader Lee Kamps lee921ATatt.net (:divend:)