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Federal election results could mean new challenges under the dome
As the dust settles for election 2020, not much is going to change for the state of Ohio. It looks like Republicans are poised to pick up seats in the Ohio House and maybe even the Ohio Senate and of course the Governor’s office will stay in their hands with no election this year. Heck, […]
The state of the pandemic in Ohio and its neighboring states
As cold weather season sets in with a seeming inevitability of viral spread growing, the Midwest is bracing for its third wave of spread of COVID-19. The regional variation in this virus has been an interesting story over time, and at this particular moment, we have the opportunity to check in on states in our […]
Why aren’t Ohio’s city budgets collapsing under COVID-19?
In March of this year, the Brookings Institution had a blog post that pegged four Ohio cities — Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, and Cleveland — in the top five “cities with the most immediate fiscal impacts from COVID-19” in the entire country. Yet this gloom and doom about Ohio fiscal prospects did not materialize. Columbus cut […]
Decimated local governments can still create jobs
Ohio is experiencing the most unique unemployment event in its recorded history. In April, the state approached 18% unemployment, meaning that over one in six Ohio workers were looking for a job that month. Since then, however, jobs have returned. While the peak of the COVID recession’s unemployment in the state was 60% higher than […]
Ohio universities tiptoe back into the classroom
With school back in session, Ohio’s eyes are on the state’s 3,600 schools, but also its nearly 100 public and private universities. As universities have scrambled to put together new policies and procedures in place to somehow reconvene an institution that is, in essence, a nine-month string of consecutive mass gatherings, data transparency has become […]
Official unemployment rate doesn’t capture enormity of COVID-19 labor force fallout
We know COVID-19 has hurt workers, especially service industry workers, hard. A recent poll of Ohio economists conducted by my firm found 38 of 40 economists think the economic fallout of COVID-19 will fall disproportionately on low- and middle-income families, with economists citing the labor market structure as the major culprit of this inequitable outcome. […]
Nursing home residents have suffered most from Ohio’s COVID-19 tragedy
As Ohio contends with a historic epidemic, residents of the state’s nearly 1,000 nursing homes are taking the brunt of the damage. As of last week, 2,100 of Ohio’s 2,600 COVID-19 deaths since mid-April — about 4 in 5 deaths — were among nursing home residents. The extent to which COVID-19’s death burden has fallen […]
Mask mandates save lives but are a political thornbush
COVID-19 is bigger than ever in Ohio, with the number of new daily cases reaching its highest points of the pandemic in July. As the disease continues to spread throughout the state, Gov. Mike DeWine has struggled to balance public health needs with a growing sentiment against public health measures. Before last week’s statewide mask […]
State advisory system may finally bring COVID clarity
Last week, the Ohio Department of Health rolled out a public health advisory system aimed at providing residents of the state of Ohio with county-level information on the spread of COVID-19 in their communities. Advisory systems like this are a key tool for state governments. As the state of Ohio has eased restrictions on movement […]
Don’t forget about the children when closing schools
This fall, 1.7 million Ohio children will return to school for the first time in nearly half a year. Coronavirus brought about a second, unexpected summertime for Ohio’s K-12 students, surprising parents across the country with a new role as full-time educators and forcing teachers across the state to become remote educators. In the meantime, […]
Race is a big factor in Ohio police killings
According to CNN, police shot and killed about 1,000 people in the United States in 2018. Compare this to Germany, where police shot and killed 11 people, Sweden, where police shot and killed six people, the U.K., where police shot and killed three people, and New Zealand, where police shot and killed a whopping one […]
There is no script for reopening Ohio
Ohio is opening back up. While our state garnered national and international praise for its initial handling of the coronavirus crisis, we have experienced some notable bumps in the road on the way towards reopening ranging from crowded patios that skirt rules in place to questionable definitions of “mass gathering” that seem to make such […]