Monthly Archives: January 2012

OPERS Doubling Down on Defined Benefits

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Adam Schwiebert

As the saying goes, you’ve got to know when to hold’em and when to fold’em. Evidently, OPERS is going all in on its bet to supposedly save Ohio’s largest pension fund with minor tweaks alone to the defined-benefit system. It’s …

Posted in Pensions | 4 Comments

The Medicaid Monster and ObamaCare

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Greg R. Lawson

While it seeming not as controversial as things like public worker compensation reform and right to work, Medicaid is a hugely important issue. To put Medicaid’s cost into quick perspective, it now accounts for somewhere around 30 percent of the …

Posted in Health Care | Leave a comment

An Example of the Need for Pension Reform

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Greg R. Lawson

The Buckeye Institute’s recent Hanging by a Thread report highlights the woeful unfunded liabilities encountered by our five state pension funds, to the tune of $66 billion. This is a real problem and the problem is the system itself. There …

Posted in Pensions | 3 Comments

The Grand Shift- Ohio’s Economy Must Look Forward, Not Back

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Greg R. Lawson

It goes without saying that Ohio has suffered a great deal over the last two decades. During the “boom years” of the 1990s, it grew at a slower rate than the national average and it declined further than almost any …

Posted in Economy | 1 Comment

School District Starts Dealing With Real Issues

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Greg R. Lawson

We did not notice this interesting nugget of news regarding the Benton-Carroll-Salem school district until our attention was brought to it thanks to an e-mail question. However, this is very interesting. A school district actually opened up its collective bargaining …

Posted in Public Sector Reform | 1 Comment

Burden of Local Governments Exposed

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Greg R. Lawson

Ohio is finally having a serious conversation about what kind of local government they want to have. As new property tax levies fail and the state has cut back funding, long-time problems are finally being recognized rather than papered over. …

Posted in Local Government | 3 Comments