×

Outsourcing Jobs

Here we go again! Washington politics have outsourced our manufacturing jobs. Now some current Ohio politicians and John Kasich, a candidate for the Ohio governor’s office, wants to outsource Ohio’s state worker jobs. During the last race for the Ohio’s governor’s office the idea of privatizing Ohio’s turnpike for the next 100 years was floated by the losing candidate. A turnpike the Ohio taxpayers built and paid for was going to be turned over to a private company for profit, costing the Ohio turnpike workers (AKA: Ohio taxpayers and citizens of Ohio) their jobs and all of us paying a toll to a private company instead of the State of Ohio, for use of our own road. All in the name of profits for a private company, profits made by paying lower wags, less road maintenance and higher tolls.

Certain Ohio politicians wanted the private company’s lease cash up front to spend, leaving the Ohio citizen on the hook for the bills for years and decades to come. Ohio’s voters saw through this. That was four years ago. They think we have forgotten. Now, this same type of Washington politics has resurfaced in Senate Bill 269, a revamped form of privatizing. This time its Ohio’s prisons, the Department of Development and many other state institutions.

Again the Ohio taxpayers will be left holding the bill so a private company can make a profit and Ohio’s workers will take the job losses, and Ohio’s institutions and our economy will take a plunge.

Check the facts for yourself, its all common sense. Ohio taxpayer money, your money, is used to pay a private company to run our state institutions, likely an out of state company or even a foreign company. The theory is that private company tries to run them at a lower cost by cutting jobs, cutting pay, and lowering benefits and services. When this was previously attempted, the amount saved was supposed to be up to 12 percent. The actual cost to the taxpayer in the previous attempt was actually higher, not lower, even after making every attempt to rig the system to work. Even if privatizing did work and the state initially saved the 12 percent, the actual cost to Ohio’s economy would end up being much higher. The actual result would be that Ohio’s tax revenue would be reduced not just once but multiple times over. We wouldn’t just have the initial tax revenue loss due to lower wages paid; we would also have the loss to the state’s economy when the private company takes profits. The would be removing this wealth out of Ohio, no longer circulating it from Ohioan to Ohioan, no longer recreating wealth in Ohio, and no longer generating sales tax revenue for our state’s budget. This is the effect privatizing would have on our state’s economy. This effect would be multiplied over and over, due to each time this money is earned, spent and changes hands it creates sales tax revenue for the state of Ohio.

The amount of wealth and tax revenue we maintain by keeping this money in Ohio far outweighs a fictional 12 percent saved only once. This is basic economics and common sense. Ohio can not afford to outsource anymore decent paying jobs and we surely can’t afford to lose anymore money out of our economy. Privatization creates lower wages for our Ohio working families, lower employment, loss of state and local tax revenue, loss of capital in our state’s economy and further burdens our unemployment and welfare programs. Then after all of that, Ohio is still on the hook for lawsuits and settlements with little to no control of actual operations and services.

The fact is, you can delegate authority, but you can not delegate responsibility. If the Ohio average citizen understands this, why do certain politicians keep trying to implement privatization? This raises a lot of questions that should be looked into. In Washington, it appears that it is normal everyday business to be bought off by special interest money. It would be a very low price for a private company to pad a politician’s pocket or campaign fund for the opportunity to siphon millions of Ohio’s citizen’s taxpayer dollars out of Ohio into a private company’s hands.

Charlie Daniels

St. Clairsville

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.73/week.

Subscribe Today