Columbus, OH – As the Ohio General Assembly prepares to consider the 2018 capital budget, The Buckeye Institute released its most recent report, Principled Spending: Using Ohio’s Capital Budget to Benefit Ohioans. The report outlines three principles policymakers should use in spending taxpayer dollars and recommends using the 2018 capital budget to strengthen Ohio’s physical and democratic infrastructure.

“As the 2018 capital budget process begins, it is important for policymakers to be guided by three spending principles: constrain the growth of state government, eliminate corporate and special interest welfare, and focus spending on the core functions of state government,” said Greg R. Lawson, research fellow at The Buckeye Institute and co-author of the report. “By following these principles, Ohio policymakers will ensure they are wisely spending taxpayer dollars and are putting the state on the road to growth and prosperity.”

In its report, Buckeye outlines three principles that should guide government spending:

• Constrain the Growth of State Government – Large governments inhibit economic growth and prosperity and Ohio should look for ways to decrease the size of government, rather than giving it more control.
• Eliminate Corporate and Special Interest Welfare – The government should not use taxpayer dollars to subsidize companies or special interests. Crony capitalism does not drive economic growth, nor is it a responsible use of taxpayer dollars.
• Focus Spending on the Core Functions of State Government – Non-essential spending needs to be curtailed. Government spending limits the ability of policymakers to embrace free-market reforms that will benefit the economic growth and prosperity of Ohio.

The report’s authors go on to recommend that policymakers focus state resources on physical infrastructure needs – roads, bridges, sewer lines, water pipes, water treatment facilities, schools, and other state government facilities – and on the state’s democratic infrastructure needs – voting machines, systems to maintain voter rolls, and systems we use to count and protect votes.

“While the specific ways in which we build and maintain Ohio’s infrastructure are subject to debate, what isn’t debatable is what taxpayer dollars should be spent on,” said Quinn Beeson, an economic policy analyst at The Buckeye Institute’s Economic Research Center and co-author of the report. “Ohio’s policymakers should use the capital budget on physical and democratic infrastructure rather than feel-good projects that could, and should, be funded through private means.”

Principled Spending: Using Ohio’s Capital Budget to Benefit Ohioans was co-authored by Greg R. Lawson, research fellow at The Buckeye Institute and Quinn Beeson, an economic policy analyst at The Buckeye Institute’s Economic Research Center.

# # #