From the Ohio 2.0 newsletter I just sent:
Look at your yearly tax totals and you’ll see a huge chunk of your money goes to pay for local government and schools. But on what specifically is that money spent?
Answer – government employees salaries and benefits. In almost every school and municipality, this is the number one budget driver and fastest increasing cost. In many schools, staff salaries and benefits account for over 75% of the entire budget.
Look up your teachers and state government employees’ salaries with a new tool from Opportunity Ohio – upper right hand corner of this website: opportunityohio.org
Shockingly, the numbers focus on salaries and do not include the total benefits package which is tens of millions of more dollars for each school district and municipality.
The news talks about national debt and spending problems in DC, but the state and municipal spending problem is just as dangerous and just as real.
Bottom line: if Ohio and its municipalities do not fix their top driver of spending, staff salaries and benefits, Ohio truly is what Forbes Magazine called, a “Death Spiral State.”