Reality Check: Does Turnaround Ted Really Deserve a B in 2009?

Asked to grade his performance this year, the Democratic leader, heading into a crucial 2010 re-election campaign, coolly said, "certainly a solid B." Care to explain such a high mark, governor? "Well, it's because I'm too humble to say a solid A," Strickland said in an interview with The Plain Dealer Monday. (The Plain Dealer, 12/21/09)

Reality Check

What Others Said in 2009:

• Appalling: "No one should believe he's a good governor - because he's not. The lack of leadership this governor has shown throughout this crisis is nothing short of appalling." [Brent Larkin, The Plain Dealer: 06/28/09]
   
• Dysfunctional: "The Strickland administration has turned out to be one of the most dysfunctional in Ohio history." [Editorial, The Columbus Dispatch, 10/01/09]
   
• Reckless: "Gov. Ted Strickland is recklessly, obstinately and selfishly putting Ohio on a horrible course." [Editorial, Dayton Daily News, 07/12/09]
   
• Weak: "The budget crisis has exposed Strickland's weakness as a leader." [Joe Hallett, The Columbus Dispatch, 07/19/09]
   
• Cowardly: "The governor lately has confessed to 'some duplicity' in his thinking. And that is the problem. He talks a big game, and then cowers at the prospect of leading as a governor must." [Michael Douglas, Akron Beacon Journal, 05/10/09]
   
• Inadequate: "The ideas coming out of the governor's office have proven woefully inadequate to deal with the mess so far." [Editorial, Lorain Morning Journal, 07/24/09]

   

Turnaround Ted gets an F for Economic Development:

• Ohio lost more than 100,000 jobs in 2009 and reached more than 333,000 jobs lost since Strickland took office in 2007. [Ohio Department of Job & Family Services Unemployment Statistics, November 2009]
   
• 85 of Ohio's 88 counties reached their highest unemployment levels in at least 20 years. [The Plain Dealer, 09/27/09]
   
• Ohio ranked second in the nation in jobless claims. [Associated Press, 09/03/09]
   
• Ohio reached 11.2 percent unemployment, the highest level in more than a quarter century. [Associated Press, 08/21/09]
   
• Ohio ranked next to last in the nation for economic performance. [Dayton Business Journal, 08/19/09]
   
• Forbes magazine ranked Ohio 43rd in the nation for economic climate and 48th for economic growth. [Forbes.com, 9/23/09] The Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor region ranked third in the nation on the Forbes list of "worst big cities for jobs." [Forbes.com, 04/28/09]
   
• A major ratings agency dropped Ohio's credit rating to a "negative outlook." [Associated Press, 08/29/09]
   
• Ohio reached its highest home foreclosure rate in the 37-year history of the Mortgage Bankers Association rating survey. [The Plain Dealer, 05/28/09]
   
• Sixty percent of Ohio's college students said they plan to leave the state after graduation in search of better job opportunities. [Associated Press, 06/16/09]
   
• NCR, the Dayton region's second-largest employer, announced it would close its headquarters and move to Georgia. [Associated Press, 06/02/09]
   
• DHL, one of Southwest Ohio's largest employers, announced it would close its Wilmington hub and move to Kentucky. [Cincinnati Enquirer, 04/17/09]
   
• General Motors announced it would close three Ohio factories and cut 1,000 jobs. [The Columbus Dispatch, 06/02/09]
   
• Gov. Strickland waited nearly eight months to appoint a permanent economic development director. [The Columbus Dispatch, 09/16/09]
   
• Gov. Strickland's "Economic Growth Cabinet" met only three times since he created it more than a year ago. [The Columbus Dispatch, 10/04/09]

Turnaround Ted's gets an F for Budget Management:

• Dysfunctional: "Despite a promising start, the Strickland administration has turned out to be one of the most dysfunctional in Ohio history. The advice and counsel the governor is receiving has been abysmal, most obviously from his budget chief, Pari Sabety, who has handed him one embarrassment after another by overestimating state revenues and committing political gaffes, such as raiding a fund to prevent blindness." [Editorial, The Columbus Dispatch, 10/01/09]
   
• Inept:  "With breathtaking ineptitude, this governor has almost single-handedly created one of the worst budget crises in the state's 206-year history." [Brent Larkin, The Plain Dealer, 09/27/09]
   
• Unsustainable: "This budget plan isn't sustainable." [Editorial, Akron Beacon Journal, 02/04/09]
   
• Irresponsible: "'We reject the emphasis on sustainability.' With that statement last week to the Dayton Daily News, Gov. Ted Strickland earned all the criticism he's getting for a budget proposal, including his overhaul of education funding, that is unrealistic to the point of irresponsibility." [Editorial, The Columbus Dispatch, 05/01/09]
   
• Dangerous: "The governor also is relying on one-time money, from a couple of sources, to keep at bay the truly drastic cuts Ohio needs if the economy doesn't rebound soon. It's a dangerous bet, all the more so because Strickland proposes wiping out the state's rainy day fund, leaving deeper cuts and new taxes as the only alternatives to balance the state's budget in two years." [Editorial, Lima News, 02/03/09]
   
• Costly: "For every $10 in Gov. Ted Strickland's proposed state budget, almost $1 would be one-time money. That's a recipe for a whopping tax increase in two years - after Strickland is safely re-elected or a Republican replaces him." [Editorial, The Plain Dealer, 02/08/09]
   
• Dishonest: "To make his case for stimulus funds, Strickland fudged some numbers." [Joe Hallett, The Columbus Dispatch, 02/22/08] "More questions than answers arise when Gov. Ted Strickland's $54.7 billion, two-year budget comes under scrutiny, because atypical methods were used to calculate some of its numbers." [Editorial, Columbus Dispatch, 3/7/09]
   
• Unprecedented: "At no point in history, even when state leaders have raised taxes, has general-revenue-fund growth matched the roughly $7 billion in one-time money contained in this budget." [The Columbus Dispatch, 02/23/09]

Turnaround Ted gets an F on Taxes & Fees:

• Flip: "I think those who believe that higher taxes are the answer to Ohio's economic needs and economic recovery are flat out wrong," Gov. Strickland said. [Gongwer News Service, 9/22/09]
   
• Flop: With the stroke of a pen, Gov. Ted Strickland yesterday erased an income tax cut that has been showing up in Ohioans' paychecks all year. [Toledo Blade, 12/23/09]
   
• Taxes: [State] tax forms were delayed while lawmakers debated Gov. Ted Strickland's plan to increase the income-tax rates in current law by 4.2 percent -- eliminating a tax cut that took place this year -- to fill an $851 million budget shortfall. [The Columbus Dispatch, 12/28/09]
   
• Fees: Strickland's $54.7 billion package would also increase state fees by $236 million; of that, $106 million would be in costlier vehicle registration fees. Fee increases are regressive. They hit lower-income Ohioans harder than the wealthy. That's unfair. [Editorial, Cleveland Plain Dealer, 2/8/09]

Turnaround Ted gets an F on Ethics & Corruption:

• Strickland's public safety director, Henry Guzman, resigned after an investigation uncovered "thousands of illegal immigrants" registered their cars illegally in Ohio. [Associated Press, 09/14/09]
   
• Strickland's lottery director, Michael Dolan, resigned after scandals involving lying to state lawmakers and giving free lottery tickts to a state trooper who pulled him over for a traffic violation. [Associated Press, 03/31/09, 08/04/09]
   
• Strickland's interim economic development director, Mark Barbash, resigned after reports he owed more than $150,000 in back taxes, penalties and fines. [Columbus Dispatch, 05/15/09]
   
• Strickland's former director of faith-based initiatives, Robert McFadden, was arrested and convicted on charges of underage prostitution. [The Plain Dealer, 12/26/09]
   
• Strickland's public safety lobbyist resigned after a drunken altercation with police. [The Columbus Dispatch, 06/05/09]
   
• Strickland said he was "too busy" to denounce high-ranking Democrats targeted in a public corruption investigation in Cuyahoga County. [The Plain Dealer, 09/23/09]
   

Turnaround Ted gets an F for School Funding:

• Unconstitutional: Entering 2009, Strickland vowed to deliver on a 2006 campaign promise to unveil a school-funding formula that would be constitutional. It was not. ... It is still unconstitutional because it is grossly underfunded by billions of dollars, but that will not stop the governor from stating during the campaign next year that he delivered on his promise to fix the funding formula. [Dennis Willard, Akron Beacon Journal, 12/27/09]
   
• Clumsy: After outlining landmark school classroom and funding reforms in his State of the State speech, Strickland botched the details with the clumsiest roll-out of a state budget in memory. The numbers don't add up, and Strickland has undermined his pledge of transparency by dragging his feet on providing the data and details to back up his education plan. [Joe Hallett, The Columbus Dispatch, 03/29/09]
   
• Unpredictable: On paper, the funding is to be phased in over 10 years. Starting two years from now. But there's no mention of where the hundreds of millions of additional dollars will come from; there isn't even a complete price tag. Just maintaining the current funding level two years from now will be hard, because $800 million of the current allotment comes from one-time federal stimulus dollars. [Editorial, The Columbus Dispatch, 7/19/09]
   
• Unsustainable: Ohio's education spending next year is palatable only because of one-time federal money. What then? So far, Strickland is flunking out as the "education governor." [Mary Jane Skala, Sun News, 07/21/09]
   
• Underfunded: While Gov. Ted Strickland touts what he calls an unprecedented investment in Ohio schools, the people who actually have to deliver the education are scratching their heads. They're looking past the rhetoric and the mandates in search of the dollars, and they aren't finding them. [Editorial, Columbus Dispatch, 7/19/09]
   
• Unfair: As lawmakers and educators sift through the individual school district numbers attached to Gov. Ted Strickland's new school-funding plan, some are finding an unusual twist: The poorest school districts in Ohio lose money in the next two years while many of the richest see huge gains. [The Plain Dealer, 2/9/09]
   
• Illogical: Word that Gov. Ted Strickland's 'evidence-based' plan for Ohio's schools might not fit with the new school buildings that taxpayers have paid $6.5 billion to construct is one more sign that the plan isn't well-thought-out. [Editorial, The Columbus Dispatch, 03/21/09]
  
  
• Dishonest: The administration has been stonewalling legislators and the media about the numbers behind Strickland's ambitious school-funding formula. [Editorial, The Columbus Dispatch, 04/12/09]

The Bottom Line

"It's been a year of failed leadership, broken promises and incompetent management for the Strickland administration," said Ohio Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine. "The governor is no closer to turning around Ohio than he was when he made that empty promise back in 2006. Our long-term financial condition is dire, and our economy is dying as hundreds of thousands of jobs disappear and major employers close down or move to other states. The only Ohioan who deserves to lose a job next year is Ted Strickland, and I know a lot of people who have a New Year's resolution to make that happen."

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